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**Children's rights** or **the rights of children** are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as "any human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." Children's rights includes their right to association with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for physical protection, food, universal state-paid education, health care, and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child's civil rights, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child's race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, color, ethnicity, or other characteristics. Interpretations of children's rights range from allowing children the capacity for autonomous action to the enforcement of children being physically, mentally and emotionally free from abuse, though what constitutes "abuse" is a matter of debate. Other definitions include the rights to care and nurturing. There are no definitions of other terms used to describe young people such as "adolescents", "teenagers", or "youth" in international law, but the children's rights movement is considered distinct from the youth rights movement. The field of children's rights spans the fields of law, politics, religion, and morality. Justifications -------------- > [There] is a mass of human rights law, both treaty and 'soft law', both general and child-specific, which recognises the distinct status and particular requirements of children. [Children], owing to their particular vulnerability and their significance as the future generation, are entitled to special treatment generally, and, in situations of danger, to priority in the receipt of assistance and protection. > > — Jenny Kuper, International Law Concerning Child Civilians in Armed Conflict (1997, Clarendon Press) As minors by law, children do not have autonomy or the right to make decisions on their own for themselves in any known jurisdiction of the world. Instead their adult caregivers, including parents, social workers, teachers, youth workers, and others, are vested with that authority, depending on the circumstances. Some believe that this state of affairs gives children insufficient control over their own lives and causes them to be vulnerable. Louis Althusser has gone so far as to describe this legal machinery, as it applies to children, as "repressive state apparatuses". Structures such as government policy have been held by some commentators to mask the ways adults abuse and exploit children, resulting in child poverty, lack of educational opportunities, and child labour. On this view, children are to be regarded as a minority group towards whom society needs to reconsider the way it behaves. Researchers have identified children as needing to be recognized as participants in society whose rights and responsibilities need to be recognized at all ages. Historic definitions of children's rights ----------------------------------------- Sir William Blackstone (1765-9) recognized three parental duties to the child: maintenance, protection, and education. In modern language, the child has a right to receive these from the parent. The League of Nations adopted the *Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child* (1924), which enunciated the child's right to receive the requirements for normal development, the right of the hungry child to be fed, the right of the sick child to receive health care, the right of the backward child to be reclaimed, the right of orphans to shelter, and the right to protection from exploitation. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) in Article 25(2) recognized the need of motherhood and childhood to "special protection and assistance" and the right of all children to "social protection". The United Nations General Assembly adopted the *United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child* (1959), which enunciated ten principles for the protection of children's rights, including the universality of rights, the right to special protection, and the right to protection from discrimination, among other rights. Consensus on defining children's rights has become clearer in the last fifty years. A 1973 publication by Hillary Clinton (then an attorney) stated that children's rights were a "slogan in need of a definition". According to some researchers, the notion of children's rights is still not well defined, with at least one proposing that there is no singularly accepted definition or theory of the rights held by children. Children's rights law is defined as the point where the law intersects with a child's life. That includes juvenile delinquency, due process for children involved in the criminal justice system, appropriate representation, and effective rehabilitative services; care and protection for children in state care; ensuring education for all children regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, color, ethnicity, or other characteristics, and; health care and advocacy. Classification -------------- Children have two types of human rights under international human rights law. They have the same fundamental general human rights as adults, although some human rights, such as the *right to marry*, are dormant until they are of age, Secondly, they have special human rights that are necessary to protect them during their minority. General rights operative in childhood include the *right to security of the person*, *to freedom from inhuman, cruel, or degrading treatment*, and the *right to special protection during childhood*. Particular human rights of children include, among other rights, the *right to life*, the *right to a name*, the *right to express his views in matters concerning the child*, the *right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion*, the *right to health care*, the *right to protection from economic and sexual exploitation*, and the *right to education*. Children's rights are defined in numerous ways, including a wide spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Rights tend to be of two general types: those advocating for children as autonomous persons under the law and those placing a claim on society for protection from harms perpetrated on children because of their dependency. These have been labeled as the *right of empowerment* and as the *right to protection*. United Nations educational guides for children classify the rights outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the "3 Ps": Provision, Protection, and Participation. They may be elaborated as follows: * **Provision:** Children have the right to an adequate standard of living, health care, education and services, and to play and recreation. These include a balanced diet, a warm bed to sleep in, and access to schooling. * **Protection:** Children have the right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. This includes the right to safe places for children to play; constructive child rearing behavior, and acknowledgment of the evolving capacities of children. * **Participation:** Children have the right to participate in communities and have programs and services for themselves. This includes children's involvement in libraries and community programs, youth voice activities, and involving children as decision-makers. In a similar fashion, the Child Rights International Network (CRIN) categorizes rights into two groups: * Economic, social and cultural rights, related to the conditions necessary to meet basic human needs such as food, shelter, education, health care, and gainful employment. Included are rights to education, adequate housing, food, water, the highest attainable standard of health, the right to work and rights at work, as well as the cultural rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. * Environmental, cultural and developmental rights, which are sometimes called "third generation rights", and including the right to live in safe and healthy environments and that groups of people have the right to cultural, political, and economic development. Amnesty International openly advocates four particular children's rights, including the end to juvenile incarceration without parole, an end to the recruitment of military use of children, ending the death penalty for people under 21, and raising awareness of human rights in the classroom. Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy organization, includes child labour, juvenile justice, orphans and abandoned children, refugees, street children and corporal punishment. Scholarly study generally focuses children's rights by identifying individual rights. The following rights "allow children to grow up healthy and free":[*according to whom?*] * Freedom of speech * Freedom of thought * Freedom from fear * Freedom of choice and the right to make decisions * Ownership over one's body ### Physical rights A report by the Committee on Social Affairs, Health, and Sustainable Development of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe identified several areas the Committee was concerned about, including procedures such as "female genital mutilation, the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons, early childhood medical interventions in the case of intersex children and the submission to or coercion of children into piercings, tattoos or plastic surgery". The Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution in 2013 that calls on its 47 member-states to take numerous actions to promote the physical integrity of children. Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child enjoins parties to "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation". The Committee on the Rights of the Child interprets article 19 as prohibiting corporal punishment, commenting on the "obligation of all States Party to move quickly to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment." The United Nations Human Rights Committee has also interpreted Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibiting "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" to extend to children, including corporal punishment of children. Newell (1993) argued that "...pressure for protection of children's physical integrity should be an integral part of pressure for all children's rights." The Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (1997), citing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), asserts that "every child should have the opportunity to grow and develop free from preventable illness or injury." ### Other issues Other issues affecting children's rights include the military use of children, sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. ### Difference between children's rights and youth rights In the majority of jurisdictions, for instance, children are not allowed to vote, to marry, to buy alcohol, to have sex, or to engage in paid employment. Within the youth rights movement, it is believed that the key difference between *children's* rights and *youth* rights is that children's rights supporters generally advocate the establishment and enforcement of protection for children and youths, while youth rights (a far smaller movement) generally advocates the expansion of freedom for children and/or youths and of rights such as suffrage. ### Parental powers Parents are given sufficient powers to fulfill their duties to the child. Parents affect the lives of children in a unique way, and as such their role in children's rights has to be distinguished in a particular way. Particular issues in the child-parent relationship include child neglect, child abuse, freedom of choice, corporal punishment and child custody. There have been theories offered that provide parents with rights-based practices that resolve the tension between "commonsense parenting" and children's rights. The issue is particularly relevant in legal proceedings that affect the potential emancipation of minors, and in cases where children sue their parents. A child's rights to a relationship with both their parents is increasingly recognized as an important factor for determining the best interests of the child in divorce and child custody proceedings. Some governments have enacted laws creating a rebuttable presumption that shared parenting is in the best interests of children. #### Limitations of parental powers Parents do not have absolute power over their children. Parents are subject to criminal laws against abandonment, abuse, and neglect of children. International human rights law provides that manifestation of one's religion may be limited in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. Courts have placed other limits on parental powers and acts. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of *Prince v. Massachusetts*, ruled that a parent's religion does not permit a child to be placed at risk. The Lords of Appeal in Ordinary ruled, in the case of *Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority and another*, that parental rights diminish with the increasing age and competency of the child, but do not vanish completely until the child reaches majority. Parental rights are derived from the parent's duties to the child. In the absence of duty, no parental right exists. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled, in the case of *E (Mrs) v Eve*, that parents may not grant surrogate consent for non-therapeutic sterilization. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled, in the case of *B. (R.) v. Children's Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto*: > > While children undeniably benefit from the Charter, most notably in its protection of their rights to life and to the security of their person, they are unable to assert these rights, and our society accordingly presumes that parents will exercise their freedom of choice in a manner that does not offend the rights of their children. > > > Adler (2013) argues that parents are not empowered to grant surrogate consent for non-therapeutic circumcision of children. Movement -------- The 1796 publication of Thomas Spence's *Rights of Infants* is among the earliest English-language assertions of the rights of children. Throughout the 20th century, children's rights activists organized for homeless children's rights and public education. The 1927 publication of *The Child's Right to Respect* by Janusz Korczak strengthened the literature surrounding the field, and today dozens of international organizations are working around the world to promote children's rights. In the UK the formation of a community of educationalists, teachers, youth justice workers, politicians and cultural contributors called the New Ideals in Education Conferences (1914–37) stood for the value of 'liberating the child' and helped to define the 'good' primary school in England until the 80s. Their conferences inspired the UNESCO organisation, the New Education Fellowship. A.S. Neill's 1915 book *A Dominie's Log* (1915), a diary of a headteacher changing his school to one based on the liberation and happiness of the child, can be seen as a cultural product that celebrates the heroes of this movement. ### Opposition The opposition to children's rights long predates any current trend in society, with recorded statements against the rights of children dating to the 13th century and earlier. Opponents to children's rights believe that young people need to be protected from the adultcentric world, including the decisions and responsibilities of that world. In a dominantly adult society, childhood is idealized as a time of innocence, a time free of responsibility and conflict, and a time dominated by play. The majority of opposition stems from concerns related to national sovereignty, states' rights, the parent-child relationship. Financial constraints and the "undercurrent of traditional values in opposition to children's rights" are cited, as well. The concept of children's rights has received little attention in the United States. International human rights law ------------------------------ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is seen as a basis for all international legal standards for children's rights today. There are several conventions and laws that address children's rights around the world. A number of current and historical documents affect those rights, including the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, drafted by Eglantyne Jebb in 1923, endorsed by the League of Nations in 1924 and reaffirmed in 1934. A slightly expanded version was adopted by the United Nations in 1946, followed by a much expanded version adopted by the General Assembly in 1959. It later served as the basis for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. ### International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1966. The ICCPR is a multilateral international covenant that has been ratified or acceded to by nearly all nations on Earth. Nations which have become state-parties to the Covenant are required to honor and enforce the rights enunciated by the Covenant. The treaty came into effect on 23 March 1976. The rights codified by the ICCPR are universal, so they apply to everyone without exception and this includes children. Although children have all rights, some rights such as the right to marry and the right to vote come into effect only after the child reaches maturity. Some general rights applicable to children include: * the right to life * the right to security of person * the right to freedom from torture * the right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment * the right to be separated from adults when charged with a crime, the right to speedy adjudication, and the right to be accorded treatment appropriate to their age Article 24 codifies the right of the child to special protection due to his minority, the right to a name, and the right to a nationality. ### Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations' 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC, is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Its implementation is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. National governments that ratify it commit themselves to protecting and ensuring children's rights, and agree to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community. The CRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty with 196 ratifications; the United States is the only country not to have ratified it. The CRC is based on four core principles: the principle of non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and considering the views of the child in decisions that affect them, according to their age and maturity. The CRC, along with international criminal accountability mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court, the Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, is said to have significantly increased the profile of children's rights worldwide. ### Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action urges, at Section II para 47, all nations to undertake measures to the maximum extent of their available resources, with the support of international cooperation, to achieve the goals in the World Summit Plan of Action. And calls on States to integrate the Convention on the Rights of the Child into their national action plans. By means of these national action plans and through international efforts, particular priority should be placed on reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, reducing malnutrition and illiteracy rates and providing access to safe drinking water and basic education. Whenever so called for, national plans of action should be devised to combat devastating emergencies resulting from natural disasters and armed conflicts and the equally grave problem of children in extreme poverty. Further, para 48 urges all states, with the support of international cooperation, to address the acute problem of children under especially difficult circumstances. Exploitation and abuse of children should be actively combated, including by addressing their root causes. Effective measures are required against female infanticide, harmful child labour, sale of children and organs, child prostitution, child pornography, and other forms of sexual abuse. This influenced the adoptions of Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. ### Enforcement A variety of enforcement organizations and mechanisms exist to ensure children's rights. They include the Child Rights Caucus for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. It was set up to promote full implementation and compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to ensure that child rights were given priority during the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children and its Preparatory process. The United Nations Human Rights Council was created "with the hope that it could be more objective, credible and efficient in denouncing human rights violations worldwide than the highly politicized Commission on Human Rights." The NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a coalition of international non-governmental organizations originally formed in 1983 to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. National law ------------ Many countries around the world have children's rights ombudspeople or children's commissioners whose official, governmental duty is to represent the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens regarding children's rights. Children's ombudspeople can also work for a corporation, a newspaper, an NGO, or even for the general public. ### United States law The United States has signed but not ratified the CRC. As a result, children's rights have not been systematically implemented in the U.S. Children are generally afforded the basic rights embodied by the Constitution, as enshrined by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Equal Protection Clause of that amendment is to apply to children, born within a marriage or not, but excludes children not yet born. This was reinforced by the landmark US Supreme Court decision of *In re Gault* (1967). In this trial 15-year-old Gerald Gault of Arizona was taken into custody by local police after being accused of making an obscene telephone call. He was detained and committed to the Arizona State Industrial School until he reached the age of 21 for making an obscene phone call to an adult neighbor. In an 8–1 decision, the Court ruled that in hearings which could result in commitment to an institution, people under the age of 18 have the right to notice and counsel, to question witnesses, and to protection against self-incrimination. The Court found that the procedures used in Gault's hearing met none of these requirements. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case of *Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District* (1969) that students in school have Constitutional rights. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in the case of *Roper v. Simmons* that persons may not be executed for crimes committed when below the age of eighteen. It ruled that such executions are cruel and unusual punishment, so they are a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. There are other concerns in the United States regarding children's rights. The American Academy of Adoption Attorneys is concerned with children's rights to a safe, supportive and stable family structure. Their position on children's rights in adoption cases states that, "children have a constitutionally based liberty interest in the protection of their established families, rights which are at least equal to, and we believe outweigh, the rights of others who would claim a 'possessory' interest in these children." Other issues raised in American children's rights advocacy include children's rights to inheritance in same-sex marriages and particular rights for youth. ### German law A report filed by the President of the INGO Conference of the Council of Europe, Annelise Oeschger finds that children and their parents are subject to United Nations, European Union and UNICEF human rights violations. Of particular concern is the German (and Austrian) agency, Jugendamt (German: Youth office) that often unfairly allows for unchecked government control of the parent-child relationship, which have resulted in harm including torture, degrading, cruel treatment and has led to children's death. The problem is complicated by the nearly "unlimited power" of the Jugendamt officers, with no processes to review or resolve inappropriate or harmful treatment. By German law, Jugendamt (JA) officers are protected against prosecution. JA officers span of control is seen in cases that go to family court where experts testimony may be overturned by lesser educated or experienced JA officers; In more than 90% of the cases the JA officer's recommendation is accepted by family court. Officers have also disregarded family court decisions, such as when to return children to their parents, without repercussions. Germany has not recognized related child-welfare decisions made by the European Parliamentary Court that have sought to protect or resolve children and parental rights violations. See also -------- * Child Poverty Action Group * *Children Youth and Environments Journal* * Children's rights education * European Convention on Human Rights * FGM, Forced circumcision, and Ethics of circumcision * International Children's Peace Prize * National Action Plan for Children * Forced conversion of minority girls in Pakistan * Red Hand Day * Save the Children * Think of the children * UNICEF * Voting Rights of Children * World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child * Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children ### Global children's rights * Children's rights in Chile * Children's rights in Colombia * Children's rights in Japan * Children's rights in Mali * Declaration of the Rights of the Child * The Rights of the Child in Iran * Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom * Timeline of young people's rights in the United States * Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa ### Issues ### Children's rights organizations

Children's rights

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_rights

**Skylab** was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations included an orbital workshop, a solar observatory, Earth observation, and hundreds of experiments. Unable to be re-boosted by the Space Shuttle, which was not ready until 1981, Skylab's orbit eventually decayed, and it disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. Overview -------- As of 2023,[update] Skylab was the only space station operated exclusively by the United States. A permanent station was planned starting in 1988, but its funding was canceled and U.S. participation shifted to the International Space Station in 1993. Skylab had a mass of 199,750 pounds (90,610 kg) with a 31,000-pound (14,000 kg) Apollo command and service module (CSM) attached and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and several hundred life science and physical science experiments. It was launched uncrewed into low Earth orbit by a Saturn V rocket modified to be similar to the Saturn INT-21, with the S-IVB third stage not available for propulsion because the orbital workshop was built out of it. This was the final flight for the rocket more commonly known for carrying the crewed Apollo Moon landing missions. Three subsequent missions delivered three-astronaut crews in the Apollo CSM launched by the smaller Saturn IB rocket. ### Configuration Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount (a multi-spectral solar observatory), a multiple docking adapter with two docking ports, an airlock module with extravehicular activity (EVA) hatches, and the orbital workshop, the main habitable space inside Skylab. Electrical power came from solar arrays and fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator. Astronauts conducted numerous experiments aboard Skylab during its operational life. Component data| Component | Mass | Habitable volume | Length | Diameter | Image | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | lb | kg | ft3 | m3 | ft | m | ft | m | | Payload shroud | 25,600 | 11,600 | — | 56.0 | 17.1 | 21.6 | 6.6 | | | Apollo Telescope Mount | 24,500 | 11,100 | — | 14.7 | 4.5 | 11.3 | 3.4 | | | Multiple Docking Adapter | 12,000 | 5,400 | 1,140 | 32 | 17.3 | 5.3 | 10.5 | 3.2 | | | Airlock module | 49,000 | 22,000 | 613 | 17.4 | 17.6 | 5.4 | 10.5 | 3.2 | | | Saturn V instrument unit | 4,600 | 2,100 | — | 3.0 | 0.91 | 21.6 | 6.6 | | | Orbital Workshop | 78,000 | 35,000 | 9,550 | 270 | 48.1 | 14.7 | 21.6 | 6.6 | | | Total in orbit | 168,750 | 76,540 | 12,417 | 351.6 | 82.4 | 25.1 | 21.6 | 6.6 | | | Apollo CSM | 31,000 | 14,000 | 210 | 5.9 | 36.1 | 11.0 | 12.8 | 3.9 | | | Total with CSM | 199,750 | 90,610 | 12,627 | 357.6 | 118.5 | 36.1 | 21.6 | 6.6 | | ### Operations For the final two crewed missions to Skylab, NASA assembled a backup Apollo CSM/Saturn IB in case an in-orbit rescue mission was needed, but this vehicle was never flown. The station was damaged during launch when the micrometeoroid shield tore away from the workshop, taking one of the main solar panel arrays with it and jamming the other main array. This deprived Skylab of most of its electrical power and also removed protection from intense solar heating, threatening to make it unusable. The first crew deployed a replacement heat shade and freed the jammed solar panels to save Skylab. This was the first time that a repair of this magnitude was performed in space. The Apollo Telescope significantly advanced solar science, and observation of the Sun was unprecedented. Astronauts took thousands of photographs of Earth, and the Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP) viewed Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. The record for human time spent in orbit was extended beyond the 23 days set by the Soyuz 11 crew aboard Salyut 1 to 84 days by the Skylab 4 crew. Later plans to reuse Skylab were stymied by delays in the development of the Space Shuttle, and Skylab's decaying orbit could not be stopped. Skylab's atmospheric reentry began on July 11, 1979, amid worldwide media attention. Before re-entry, NASA ground controllers tried to adjust Skylab's orbit to minimize the risk of debris landing in populated areas, targeting the south Indian Ocean, which was partially successful. Debris showered Western Australia, and recovered pieces indicated that the station had disintegrated lower than expected. As the Skylab program drew to a close, NASA's focus had shifted to the development of the Space Shuttle. NASA space station and laboratory projects included Spacelab, Shuttle-*Mir*, and Space Station *Freedom*, which was merged into the International Space Station. Background ---------- Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and other early advocates of crewed space travel, expected until the 1960s that a space station would be an important early step in space exploration. Von Braun participated in the publishing of a series of influential articles in *Collier's* magazine from 1952 to 1954, titled "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!". He envisioned a large, circular station 250 feet (75 m) in diameter that would rotate to generate artificial gravity and require a fleet of 7,000-ton (6,400 metric tons) space shuttles for construction in orbit. The 80 men aboard the station would include astronomers operating a telescope, meteorologists to forecast the weather, and soldiers to conduct surveillance. Von Braun expected that future expeditions to the Moon and Mars would leave from the station. The development of the transistor, the solar cell, and telemetry, led in the 1950s and early 1960s to uncrewed satellites that could take photographs of weather patterns or enemy nuclear weapons and send them to Earth. A large station was no longer necessary for such purposes, and the United States Apollo program to send men to the Moon chose a mission mode that would not need in-orbit assembly. A smaller station that a single rocket could launch retained value, however, for scientific purposes. ### Early studies In 1959, von Braun, head of the Development Operations Division at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, submitted his final Project Horizon plans to the U.S. Army. The overall goal of Horizon was to place men on the Moon, a mission that would soon be taken over by the rapidly forming NASA. Although concentrating on the Moon missions, von Braun also detailed an orbiting laboratory built out of a Horizon upper stage, an idea used for Skylab. A number of NASA centers studied various space station designs in the early 1960s. Studies generally looked at platforms launched by the Saturn V, followed up by crews launched on Saturn IB using an Apollo command and service module, or a Gemini capsule on a Titan II-C, the latter being much less expensive in the case where cargo was not needed. Proposals ranged from an Apollo-based station with two to three men, or a small "canister" for four men with Gemini capsules resupplying it, to a large, rotating station with 24 men and an operating lifetime of about five years. A proposal to study the use of a Saturn S-IVB as a crewed space laboratory was documented in 1962 by the Douglas Aircraft Company. ### Air Force plans The Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA cooperated closely in many areas of space. In September 1963, NASA and the DoD agreed to cooperate in building a space station. The DoD wanted its own crewed facility, however, and in December 1963 it announced Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), a small space station primarily intended for photo reconnaissance using large telescopes directed by a two-person crew. The station was the same diameter as a Titan II upper stage, and would be launched with the crew riding atop in a modified Gemini capsule with a hatch cut into the heat shield on the bottom of the capsule. MOL competed for funding with a NASA station for the next five years and politicians and other officials often suggested that NASA participate in MOL or use the DoD design. The military project led to changes to the NASA plans so that they would resemble MOL less. Development ----------- ### Apollo Applications Program NASA management was concerned about losing the 400,000 workers involved in Apollo after landing on the Moon in 1969. A reason von Braun, head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center during the 1960s, advocated a smaller station after his large one was not built was that he wished to provide his employees with work beyond developing the Saturn rockets, which would be completed relatively early during Project Apollo. NASA set up the *Apollo Logistic Support System Office*, originally intended to study various ways to modify the Apollo hardware for scientific missions. The office initially proposed a number of projects for direct scientific study, including an extended-stay lunar mission which required two Saturn V launchers, a "lunar truck" based on the Lunar Module (LM), a large, crewed solar telescope using an LM as its crew quarters, and small space stations using a variety of LM or CSM-based hardware. Although it did not look at the space station specifically, over the next two years the office would become increasingly dedicated to this role. In August 1965, the office was renamed, becoming the *Apollo Applications Program* (AAP). As part of their general work, in August 1964 the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) presented studies on an expendable lab known as *Apollo X*, short for *Apollo Extension System*. *Apollo X* would have replaced the LM carried on the top of the S-IVB stage with a small space station slightly larger than the CSM's service area, containing supplies and experiments for missions between 15 and 45 days' duration. Using this study as a baseline, a number of different mission profiles were looked at over the next six months. ### Wet workshop In November 1964, von Braun proposed a more ambitious plan to build a much larger station built from the S-II second stage of a Saturn V. His design replaced the S-IVB third stage with an aeroshell, primarily as an adapter for the CSM on top. Inside the shell was a 10 feet (3.0 m) cylindrical equipment section. On reaching orbit, the S-II second stage would be vented to remove any remaining hydrogen fuel, then the equipment section would be slid into it via a large inspection hatch. This became known as a "wet workshop" concept, because of the conversion of an active fuel tank. The station filled the entire interior of the S-II stage's hydrogen tank, with the equipment section forming a "spine" and living quarters located between it and the walls of the booster. This would have resulted in a very large 33 by 45 feet (10 by 14 m) living area. Power was to be provided by solar cells lining the outside of the S-II stage. One problem with this proposal was that it required a dedicated Saturn V launch to fly the station. At the time the design was being proposed, it was not known how many of the then-contracted Saturn Vs would be required to achieve a successful Moon landing. However, several planned Earth-orbit test missions for the LM and CSM had been canceled, leaving a number of Saturn IBs free for use. Further work led to the idea of building a smaller "wet workshop" based on the S-IVB, launched as the second stage of a Saturn IB. A number of S-IVB-based stations were studied at MSC from mid-1965, which had much in common with the Skylab design that eventually flew. An airlock would be attached to the hydrogen tank, in the area designed to hold the LM, and a minimum amount of equipment would be installed in the tank itself in order to avoid taking up too much fuel volume. Floors of the station would be made from an open metal framework that allowed the fuel to flow through it. After launch, a follow-up mission launched by a Saturn IB would launch additional equipment, including solar panels, an equipment section and docking adapter, and various experiments. Douglas Aircraft Company, builder of the S-IVB stage, was asked to prepare proposals along these lines. The company had for several years been proposing stations based on the S-IV stage, before it was replaced by the S-IVB. On April 1, 1966, MSC sent out contracts to Douglas, Grumman, and McDonnell for the conversion of an S-IVB spent stage, under the name *Saturn S-IVB spent-stage experiment support module* (SSESM). In May 1966, astronauts voiced concerns over the purging of the stage's hydrogen tank in space. Nevertheless, in late July 1966, it was announced that the Orbital Workshop would be launched as a part of Apollo mission AS-209, originally one of the Earth-orbit CSM test launches, followed by two Saturn I/CSM crew launches, AAP-1 and AAP-2. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) remained AAP's chief competitor for funds, although the two programs cooperated on technology. NASA considered flying experiments on MOL or using its Titan IIIC booster instead of the much more expensive Saturn IB. The agency decided that the Air Force station was not large enough and that converting Apollo hardware for use with Titan would be too slow and too expensive. The DoD later canceled MOL in June 1969. ### Dry workshop Design work continued over the next two years, in an era of shrinking budgets. (NASA sought US$450 million for Apollo Applications in fiscal year 1967, for example, but received US$42 million.) In August 1967, the agency announced that the lunar mapping and base construction missions examined by the AAP were being canceled. Only the Earth-orbiting missions remained, namely the Orbital Workshop and Apollo Telescope Mount solar observatory. The success of Apollo 8 in December 1968, launched on the third flight of a Saturn V, made it likely that one would be available to launch a dry workshop. Later, several Moon missions were canceled as well, originally to be Apollo missions 18 through 20. The cancellation of these missions freed up three Saturn V boosters for the AAP program. Although this would have allowed them to develop von Braun's original S-II-based mission, by this time so much work had been done on the S-IV-based design that work continued on this baseline. With the extra power available, the wet workshop was no longer needed; the S-IC and S-II lower stages could launch a "dry workshop", with its interior already prepared, directly into orbit. ### Habitability A dry workshop simplified plans for the interior of the station. Industrial design firm Raymond Loewy/William Snaith recommended emphasizing habitability and comfort for the astronauts by providing a wardroom for meals and relaxation and a window to view Earth and space, although astronauts were dubious about the designers' focus on details such as color schemes. Habitability had not previously been an area of concern when building spacecraft due to their small size and brief mission durations, but the Skylab missions would last for months. NASA sent a scientist on Jacques Piccard's *Ben Franklin* submarine in the Gulf Stream in July and August 1969 to learn how six people would live in an enclosed space for four weeks. Astronauts were uninterested in watching movies on a proposed entertainment center or in playing games, but they did want books and individual music choices. Food was also important; early Apollo crews complained about its quality, and a NASA volunteer found it intolerable to live on the Apollo food for four days on Earth. Its taste and composition were unpleasant, in the form of cubes and squeeze tubes. Skylab food significantly improved on its predecessors by prioritizing palatability over scientific needs. Each astronaut had a private sleeping area the size of a small walk-in closet, with a curtain, sleeping bag, and locker. Designers also added a shower and a toilet for comfort and to obtain precise urine and feces samples for examination on Earth. The waste samples were so important that they would have been priorities in any rescue mission. Skylab did not have recycling systems such as the conversion of urine to drinking water; it also did not dispose of waste by dumping it into space. The S-IVB's 73,280 liters (16,120 imp gal; 19,360 U.S. gal) liquid oxygen tank below the Orbital Work Shop was used to store trash and wastewater, passed through an airlock. Operational history ------------------- ### Completion and launch On August 8, 1969, the McDonnell Douglas Corporation received a contract for the conversion of two existing S-IVB stages to the Orbital Workshop configuration. One of the S-IV test stages was shipped to McDonnell Douglas for the construction of a mock-up in January 1970. The Orbital Workshop was renamed "Skylab" in February 1970 as a result of a NASA contest. The actual stage that flew was the upper stage of the AS-212 rocket (the S-IVB stage, S-IVB 212). The mission computer used aboard Skylab was the IBM System/4Pi TC-1, a relative of the AP-101 Space Shuttle computers. The Saturn V with serial number SA-513, originally produced for the Apollo program – before the cancellation of Apollo 18, 19, and 20 – was repurposed and redesigned to launch Skylab. The Saturn V's third stage was removed and replaced with Skylab, but with the controlling Instrument Unit remaining in its standard position. Skylab was launched on May 14, 1973, by the modified Saturn V. The launch is sometimes referred to as Skylab 1. Severe damage was sustained during launch and deployment, including the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels. Debris from the lost micrometeoroid shield further complicated matters by becoming tangled in the remaining solar panel, preventing its full deployment and thus leaving the station with a huge power deficit. Immediately following Skylab's launch, Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center was deactivated, and construction proceeded to modify it for the Space Shuttle program, originally targeting a maiden launch in March 1979. The crewed missions to Skylab would occur using a Saturn IB rocket from Launch Pad 39B. Skylab 1 was the last uncrewed launch from LC-39A until February 19, 2017, when SpaceX CRS-10 was launched from there. ### Crewed missions Three crewed missions, designated Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4, were made to Skylab in the Apollo command and service modules. The first crewed mission, Skylab 2, launched on May 25, 1973, atop a Saturn IB and involved extensive repairs to the station. The crew deployed a parasol-like sunshade through a small instrument port from the inside of the station, bringing station temperatures down to acceptable levels and preventing overheating that would have melted the plastic insulation inside the station and released poisonous gases. This solution was designed by NASA's "Mr. Fix It" Jack Kinzler, who won the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts. The crew conducted further repairs via two spacewalks (extravehicular activity or EVA). The crew stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days. Two additional missions followed, with the launch dates of July 28, 1973, (Skylab 3) and November 16, 1973, (Skylab 4), and mission durations of 59 and 84 days, respectively. The last Skylab crew returned to Earth on February 8, 1974. In addition to the three crewed missions, there was a rescue mission on standby that had a crew of two, but could take five back down. * Skylab 2: launched May 25, 1973 * Skylab 3: launched July 28, 1973 * Skylab 4: launched November 16, 1973 * Skylab 5: cancelled * Skylab Rescue on standby Also of note was the three-man crew of Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test (SMEAT), who spent 56 days in 1972 at low-pressure on Earth to evaluate medical experiment equipment. This was a spaceflight analog test in full gravity, but Skylab hardware was tested and medical knowledge was gained. ### Orbital operations Days in space| Mission | | | --- | --- | | Skylab 2 | 28 | | Skylab 3 | 60 | | Skylab 4 | 84 | Originally intended to be visited by one 28–day and two 56–day missions for a total of 140 days, Skylab was ultimately occupied for 171 days and 13 hours during its three crewed expeditions, orbiting the Earth 2,476 times. Each of these extended the human record of 23 days for amount of time spent in space set by the Soviet Soyuz 11 crew aboard the space station Salyut 1 on June 30, 1971. Skylab 2 lasted 28 days, Skylab 3 – 56 days, and Skylab 4 – 84 days. Astronauts performed ten spacewalks, totaling 42 hours and 16 minutes. Skylab logged about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, 127,000 frames of film of the Sun and 46,000 of Earth. Solar experiments included photographs of eight solar flares and produced valuable results that scientists stated would have been impossible to obtain with uncrewed spacecraft. The existence of the Sun's coronal holes was confirmed because of these efforts. Many of the experiments conducted investigated the astronauts' adaptation to extended periods of microgravity. A typical day began at 6 a.m. Central Time Zone. Although the toilet was small and noisy, both veteran astronauts – who had endured earlier missions' rudimentary waste-collection systems – and rookies complimented it. The first crew enjoyed taking a shower once a week, but found drying themselves in weightlessness and vacuuming excess water difficult; later crews usually cleaned themselves daily with wet washcloths instead of using the shower. Astronauts also found that bending over in weightlessness to put on socks or tie shoelaces strained their abdominal muscles. Breakfast began at 7 a.m. Astronauts usually stood to eat, as sitting in microgravity also strained their abdominal muscles. They reported that their food – although greatly improved from Apollo – was bland and repetitive, and weightlessness caused utensils, food containers, and bits of food to float away; also, gas in their drinking water contributed to flatulence. After breakfast and preparation for lunch, experiments, tests and repairs of spacecraft systems and, if possible, 90 minutes of physical exercise followed; the station had a bicycle and other equipment, and astronauts could jog around the water tank. After dinner, which was scheduled for 6 p.m., crews performed household chores and prepared for the next day's experiments. Following lengthy daily instructions (some of which were up to 15 meters long) sent via teleprinter, the crews were often busy enough to postpone sleep. The station offered what a later study called "a highly satisfactory living and working environment for crews", with enough room for personal privacy. Although it had a dart set, playing cards, and other recreational equipment in addition to books and music players, the window with its view of Earth became the most popular way to relax in orbit. Experiments ----------- Prior to departure about 80 experiments were named, although they are also described as "almost 300 separate investigations". Experiments were divided into six broad categories: * Life science – human physiology, biomedical research; circadian rhythms (mice, gnats) * Solar physics and astronomy – sun observations (eight telescopes and separate instrumentation); Comet Kohoutek (Skylab 4); stellar observations; space physics * Earth resources – mineral resources; geology; hurricanes; land and vegetation patterns * Material science – welding, brazing, metal melting; crystal growth; water / fluid dynamics * Student research – 19 different student proposals. Several experiments were commended by the crew, including a dexterity experiment and a test of web-spinning by spiders in low gravity. * Other – human adaptability, ability to work, dexterity; habitat design/operations. Because the solar scientific airlock – one of two research airlocks – was unexpectedly occupied by the "parasol" that replaced the missing meteorite shield, a few experiments were instead installed outside with the telescopes during spacewalks or shifted to the Earth-facing scientific airlock. Skylab 2 spent less time than planned on most experiments due to station repairs. On the other hand, Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 far exceeded the initial experiment plans, once the crews adjusted to the environment and established comfortable working relationships with ground control. The figure (below) lists an overview of most major experiments. Skylab 4 carried out several more experiments, such as to observe Comet Kohoutek. ### Nobel Prize Riccardo Giacconi shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his study of X-ray astronomy, including the study of emissions from the Sun onboard Skylab, contributing to the birth of X-ray astronomy. Film vaults and window radiation shield --------------------------------------- Skylab had certain features to protect vulnerable technology from radiation. The window was vulnerable to darkening, and this darkening could affect experiment S190. As a result, a light shield that could be open or shut was designed and installed on Skylab. To protect a wide variety of films, used for a variety of experiments and for astronaut photography, there were five film vaults. There were four smaller film vaults in the Multiple Docking Adapter, mainly because the structure could not carry enough weight for a single larger film vault. The orbital workshop could handle a single larger safe, which is also more efficient for shielding. The large vault in the orbital workshop had an empty mass of 2398 lb (1088 kg). The four smaller vaults had combined mass of 1,545 lb. The primary construction material of all five safes was aluminum. When Skylab re-entered there was one 180 lb chunk of aluminum found that was thought to be a door to one of the film vaults. The big film vault was one of the heaviest single pieces of Skylab to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. A later example of a radiation vault is the Juno Radiation Vault for the Juno Jupiter orbiter, launched in 2011, which was designed to protect much of the uncrewed spacecraft's electronics, using 1 cm thick walls of titanium. The Skylab film vault was used for storing film from various sources including the Apollo Telescope Mount solar instruments. Six ATM experiments used film to record data, and over the course of the missions over 150,000 successful exposures were recorded. The film canister had to be manually retrieved on crewed spacewalks to the instruments during the missions. The film canisters were returned to Earth aboard the Apollo capsules when each mission ended, and were among the heaviest items that had to be returned at the end of each mission. The heaviest canisters weighed 40 kg and could hold up to 16,000 frames of film. Gyroscopes ---------- There were two types of gyroscopes on Skylab. Control-moment gyroscopes (CMG) could physically move the station, and rate gyroscopes measured the rate of rotation to find its orientation. The CMG helped provide the fine pointing needed by the Apollo Telescope Mount, and to resist various forces that can change the station's orientation. Some of the forces acting on Skylab that the pointing system needed to resist: * Gravity gradient * Aerodynamic disturbance * Internal movements of crew. > The Skylab-A attitude and pointing control system has been developed to meet the high accuracy requirements established by the desired experiment conditions. Conditions must be maintained by the control system under the influence of external and internal disturbance torques, such as gravity gradient and aerodynamic disturbances and onboard astronaut motion. > > — *Skylab Attitude and Pointing Control System* (NASA Technical Note D-6068) Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* Skylab was the first large spacecraft to use big gyroscopes, capable of controlling its attitude. The control could also be used to help point the instruments. The gyroscopes took about ten hours to get spun up if they were turned off. There was also a thruster system to control Skylab's attitude. There were 9 rate-gyroscope sensors, 3 for each axis. These were sensors that fed their output to the Skylab digital computer. Two of three were active and their input was averaged, while the third was a backup. From NASA SP-400 *Skylab, Our First Space Station*, "each Skylab control-moment gyroscope consisted of a motor-driven rotor, electronics assembly, and power inverter assembly. The 21-inch diameter rotor weighed 155 pounds (70 kg) and rotated at approximately 8950 revolutions per minute". There were three control moment gyroscopes on Skylab, but only two were required to maintain pointing. The control and sensor gyroscopes were part of a system that help detect and control the orientation of the station in space. Other sensors that helped with this were a Sun tracker and a star tracker. The sensors fed data to the main computer, which could then use the control gyroscopes and or the thruster system to keep Skylab pointed as desired. Shower ------ Skylab had a zero-gravity shower system in the work and experiment section of the Orbital Workshop designed and built at the Manned Spaceflight Center. It had a cylindrical curtain that went from floor to ceiling and a vacuum system to suck away water. The floor of the shower had foot restraints. To bathe, the user coupled a pressurized bottle of warmed water to the shower's plumbing, then stepped inside and secured the curtain. A push-button shower nozzle was connected by a stiff hose to the top of the shower. The system was designed for about 6 pints (2.8 liters) of water per shower, the water being drawn from the personal hygiene water tank. The use of both the liquid soap and water was carefully planned out, with enough soap and warm water for one shower per week per person. The first astronaut to use the space shower was Paul J. Weitz on Skylab 2, the first crewed mission. He said, "It took a fair amount longer to use than you might expect, but you come out smelling good". A Skylab shower took about two and a half hours, including the time to set up the shower and dissipate used water. The procedure for operating the shower was as follows: 1. Fill up the pressurized water bottle with hot water and attach it to the ceiling 2. Connect the hose and pull up the shower curtain 3. Spray down with water 4. Apply liquid soap and spray more water to rinse 5. Vacuum up all the fluids and stow items. One of the big concerns with bathing in space was control of droplets of water so that they did not cause an electrical short by floating into the wrong area. The vacuum water system was thus integral to the shower. The vacuum fed to a centrifugal separator, filter, and collection bag to allow the system to vacuum up the fluids. Waste water was injected into a disposal bag which was in turn put in the waste tank. The material for the shower enclosure was fire-proof beta cloth wrapped around hoops of 43 inches (1,100 mm) diameter; the top hoop was connected to the ceiling. The shower could be collapsed to the floor when not in use. Skylab also supplied astronauts with rayon terrycloth towels which had a color-coded stitching for each crew-member. There were 420 towels on board Skylab initially. A simulated Skylab shower was also used during the 56-day SMEAT simulation; the crew used the shower after exercise and found it a positive experience. Cameras and film ---------------- There was a variety of hand-held and fixed experiments that used various types of film. In addition to the instruments in the ATM solar observatory, 35 and 70 mm film cameras were carried on board. An analog TV camera was carried that recorded video electronically. These electronic signals could be recorded to magnetic tape or be transmitted to Earth by radio signal. It was determined that film would fog up to due to radiation over the course of the mission. To prevent this, film was stored in vaults. Personal (hand-held) camera equipment: * Television camera + Westinghouse color + 25–150 mm zoom * 16 mm film camera (Maurer), called the 16 mm Data Acquisition Camera. The DAC was capable of very low frame rates, such as for engineering data films, and it had independent shutter speeds. It could be powered from a battery or from Skylab itself. It used interchangeable lenses, and various lens and also film types were used during the missions. + There were different options for frame rates: 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 frames per second + Lenses available: 5, 10, 18, 25, 75, and 100 mm + Films used: - Ektachrome film - SO-368 film - SO-168 film Film for the DAC was contained in DAC film magazines, which contained up to 140 feet (42.7 m) of film. At 24 frames per second this was enough for 4 minutes of filming, with progressively longer film times with lower frame rates such as 16 minutes at 6 frames per second. The film had to be loaded or unloaded from the DAC in a photographic dark room. * 35 mm film cameras (Nikon) + There were 5 Nikon 35 mm film cameras on board, with 55 mm and 300 mm lenses. + They were specially modified Nikon F cameras + The cameras were capable of interchangeable lenses. + 35mm films included: - Ektachrome - SO-368 - SO-168 - 2485 type film - 2443 type film * 70 mm film camera (Hasselblad) + This had an electric data camera system with Reseau plate + Films included - 70 mm Ektachrome - SO-368 film + Lenses: 70 mm lens, 100 mm lens. Experiment S190B was the Actron Earth Terrain Camera. The S190A was the *Multispectral Photographic Camera*: * This consisted of six Itek 70 mm boresighted cameras * Lenses were f/2.8 with a 21.2° field of view. There was also a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, and a pair of Leitz Trinovid 10 × 40 binoculars modified for use in space to aid in Earth observations. The SX-70 was used to take pictures of the Extreme Ultraviolet monitor by Dr. Garriot, as the monitor provided a live video feed of the solar corona in ultraviolet light as observed by Skylab solar observatory instruments located in the Apollo Telescope Mount. Computers --------- Skylab was controlled in part by a digital computer system, and one of its main jobs was to control the pointing of the station; pointing was especially important for its solar power collection and observatory functions. The computer consisted of two actual computers, a primary and a secondary. The system ran several thousand words of code, which was also backed up on the Memory Load Unit (MLU). The two computers were linked to each other and various input and output items by the workshop computer interface. Operations could be switched from the primary to the backup, which were the same design, either automatically if errors were detected, by the Skylab crew, or from the ground. The Skylab computer was a space-hardened and customized version of the TC-1 computer, a version of the IBM System/4 Pi, itself based on the System 360 computer. The TC-1 had a 16,000-word memory based on ferrite memory cores, while the MLU was a read-only tape drive that contained a backup of the main computer programs. The tape drive would take 11 seconds to upload the backup of the software program to a main computer. The TC-1 used 16-bit words and the central processor came from the 4Pi computer. There was a 16k and an 8k version of the software program. The computer had a mass of 100 pounds (45.4 kg), and consumed about ten percent of the station's electrical power. * Apollo Telescope Mount Digital Computer * Attitude and Pointing Control System (APCS) * Memory Load Unit (MLU). After launch the computer is what the controllers on the ground communicated with to control the station's orientation. When the sun-shield was torn off the ground staff had to balance solar heating with electrical production. On March 6, 1978, the computer system was re-activated by NASA to control the re-entry. The system had a user interface that consisted of a display, ten buttons, and a three-position switch. Because the numbers were in octal (base-8), it only had numbers zero to seven (8 keys), and the other two keys were enter and clear. The display could show minutes and seconds which would count down to orbital benchmarks, or it could display keystrokes when using the interface. The interface could be used to change the software program. The user interface was called the Digital Address System (DAS) and could send commands to the computer's command system. The command system could also get commands from the ground. For personal computing needs Skylab crews were equipped with models of the then new hand-held electronic scientific calculator, which was used in place of slide-rules used on prior space missions as the primary personal computer. The model used was the Hewlett Packard HP 35. Some slide rules continued in use aboard Skylab, and a circular slide rule was at the workstation. Plans for re-use after the last mission --------------------------------------- > Calculations made during the mission, based on current values for solar activity and expected atmospheric density, gave the workshop just over nine years in orbit. Slowly at first – dropping 30 kilometers by 1980 – and then faster – another 100 kilometers by the end of 1982 – Skylab would come down, and some time around March 1983 it would burn up in the dense atmosphere. > > After nearly 172 days, Skylab considerably exceeded its planned 140 day habitation. The station had held up relatively well, but its onboard supplies were low and its systems were beginning to degrade. One of the three CMGs failed 8 days into Skylab 4, and by the end of the mission another was showing signs of impending failure. Without two operational CMGs it would be impossible to control Skylab's attitude, and it was not possible to repair or replace them on-orbit. Virtually all of the prepackaged food launched with the station had been consumed, Skylab 4's mission extension from 56 to 84 days required the crew take an extra 28 days worth of food with them, but there was still enough water to support three men for 60 days, and enough oxygen/nitrogen to support the same for 140 days. A fourth crewed mission using an Apollo CSM was considered, which would have used the launch vehicle kept on standby for the Skylab Rescue mission. This would have been a 20-day mission to boost Skylab to a higher altitude and do more scientific experiments. Another plan was to use a Teleoperator Retrieval System (TRS) launched aboard the Space Shuttle (then under development), to robotically re-boost the orbit. When Skylab 5 was cancelled, it was expected Skylab would stay in orbit until the 1980s, which was enough time to overlap with the beginning of Shuttle launches. Other options for launching TRS included the Titan III and Atlas-Agena. No option received the level of effort and funding needed for execution before Skylab's sooner-than-expected re-entry. The Skylab 4 crew left a bag filled with supplies to welcome visitors, and left the hatch unlocked. Skylab's internal systems were evaluated and tested from the ground, and effort was put into plans for re-using it, as late as 1978. NASA discouraged any discussion of additional visits due to the station's age, but in 1977 and 1978, when the agency still believed the Space Shuttle would be ready by 1979, it completed two studies on reusing the station. By September 1978, the agency believed Skylab was safe for crews, with all major systems intact and operational. It still had 180 man-days of water and 420-man-days of oxygen, and astronauts could refill both; the station could hold up to about 600 to 700 man-days of drinkable water and 420 man-days of food. Before Skylab 4 left they did one more boost, running the Skylab thrusters for 3 minutes which added 11 km in height to its orbit. Skylab was left in a 433 by 455 km orbit on departure. At this time, the NASA-accepted estimate for its re-entry was nine years. The studies cited several benefits from reusing Skylab, which one called a resource worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" with "unique habitability provisions for long duration space flight". Because no more operational Saturn V rockets were available after the Apollo program, four to five shuttle flights and extensive space architecture would have been needed to build another station as large as Skylab's 12,400 cubic feet (350 m3) volume. Its ample size – much greater than that of the shuttle alone, or even the shuttle plus Spacelab – was enough, with some modifications, for up to seven astronauts of both sexes, and experiments needing a long duration in space; even a movie projector for recreation was possible. Proponents of Skylab's reuse also said repairing and upgrading Skylab would provide information on the results of long-duration exposure to space for future stations. The most serious issue for reactivation was attitude control, as one of the station's gyroscopes had failed and the attitude control system needed refueling; these issues would need EVA to fix or replace. The station had not been designed for extensive resupply. However, although it was originally planned that Skylab crews would only perform limited maintenance, they successfully made major repairs during EVA, such as the Skylab 2 crew's deployment of the solar panel and the Skylab 4 crew's repair of the primary coolant loop. The Skylab 2 crew fixed one item during EVA by, reportedly, "hit[ting] it with [a] hammer". Some studies also said, beyond the opportunity for space construction and maintenance experience, reactivating the station would free up shuttle flights for other uses, and reduce the need to modify the shuttle for long-duration missions. Even if the station were not crewed again, went one argument, it might serve as an experimental platform. ### Shuttle mission plans The reactivation would likely have occurred in four phases: 1. An early Space Shuttle flight would have boosted Skylab to a higher orbit, adding five years of operational life. The shuttle might have pushed or towed the station, but attaching a space tug – the Teleoperator Retrieval System (TRS) – to the station would have been more likely, based on astronauts' training for the task. Martin Marietta won the contract for US$26 million to design the apparatus. TRS would contain about three tons of propellant. The remote-controlled booster had TV cameras and was designed for duties such as space construction and servicing and retrieving satellites the shuttle could not reach. After rescuing Skylab, the TRS would have remained in orbit for future use. Alternatively, it could have been used to de-orbit Skylab for a safe, controlled re-entry and destruction. 2. In two shuttle flights, Skylab would have been refurbished. In January 1982, the first mission would have attached a docking adapter and conducted repairs. In August 1983, a second crew would have replaced several system components. 3. In March 1984, shuttle crews would have attached a solar-powered Power Expansion Package, refurbished scientific equipment, and conducted 30- to 90-day missions using the Apollo Telescope Mount and the Earth resources experiments. 4. Over five years, Skylab would have been expanded to accommodate six to eight astronauts, with a new large docking/interface module, additional logistics modules, Spacelab modules and pallets, and an orbital vehicle space dock using the shuttle's external tank. The first three phases would have required about US$60 million in 1980s dollars, not including launch costs. Other options for launching TRS were Titan III or Atlas-Agena. After departure --------------- After a boost of 6.8 miles (10.9 km) by Skylab 4's Apollo CSM before its departure in 1974, Skylab was left in a parking orbit of 269 miles (433 km) by 283 miles (455 km) that was expected to last until at least the early 1980s, based on estimates of the 11-year sunspot cycle that began in 1976. In 1962, NASA first considered the potential risks of a space station reentry, but decided not to incorporate a retrorocket system in Skylab due to cost and acceptable risk. The spent 49-ton Saturn V S-II stage which had launched Skylab in 1973 remained in orbit for almost two years, and made a controlled reentry on January 11, 1975. The re-entry was mistimed however and deorbited slightly earlier in the orbit than planned. ### Solar activity British mathematician Desmond King-Hele of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) predicted in 1973 that Skylab would de-orbit and crash to Earth in 1979, sooner than NASA's forecast, because of increased solar activity. Greater-than-expected solar activity heated the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere and increased drag on Skylab. By late 1977, NORAD also forecast a reentry in mid-1979; a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist criticized NASA for using an inaccurate model for the second most-intense sunspot cycle in a century, and for ignoring NOAA predictions published in 1976. The reentry of the USSR's nuclear powered Cosmos 954 in January 1978, and the resulting radioactive debris fall in northern Canada, drew more attention to Skylab's orbit. Although Skylab did not contain radioactive materials, the State Department warned NASA about the potential diplomatic repercussions of station debris. Battelle Memorial Institute forecast that up to 25 tons of metal debris could land in 500 pieces over an area 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long and 1,000 miles (1,600 km) wide. The lead-lined film vault, for example, might land intact at 400 feet per second. Ground controllers re-established contact with Skylab in March 1978 and recharged its batteries. Although NASA worked on plans to reboost Skylab with the Space Shuttle through 1978 and the TRS was almost complete, the agency gave up in December 1978 when it became clear that the shuttle would not be ready in time; its first flight, STS-1, did not occur until April 1981. Also rejected were proposals to launch the TRS using one or two uncrewed rockets or to attempt to destroy the station with missiles. ### Re-entry and debris Skylab's demise in 1979 was an international media event, with T-shirts and hats with bullseyes and "Skylab Repellent" with a money-back guarantee, wagering on the time and place of re-entry, and nightly news reports. The *San Francisco Examiner* offered a US$10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab delivered to its offices; the competing *San Francisco Chronicle* offered US$200,000 if a subscriber suffered personal or property damage. A Nebraska neighborhood painted a target so that the station would have "something to aim for", a resident said. A report commissioned by NASA calculated that the odds were 1 in 152 of debris hitting any human, and odds of 1 in 7 of debris hitting a city of 100,000 people or more. Special teams were readied to head to any country hit by debris. The event caused so much panic in the Philippines that President Ferdinand Marcos appeared on national television to reassure the public. A week before re-entry, NASA forecast that it would occur between July 10 and 14, with the 12th the most likely date, and the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) predicted the 14th. In the hours before the event, ground controllers adjusted Skylab's orientation to minimize the risk of re-entry on a populated area. They aimed the station at a spot 810 miles (1,300 km) south-southeast of Cape Town, South Africa, and re-entry began at approximately 16:37 UTC, July 11, 1979. The station did not burn up as fast as NASA expected. Debris landed about 300 miles (480 km) east of Perth, Western Australia due to a four-percent calculation error, and was found between Esperance, Western Australia and Rawlinna, from 31° to 34° S and 122° to 126° E, about 130–150 km (81–93 miles) radius around Balladonia, Western Australia. Residents and an airline pilot saw dozens of colorful flares as large pieces broke up in the atmosphere; the debris landed in an almost unpopulated area, but the sightings still caused NASA to fear human injury or property damage. The Shire of Esperance light-heartedly fined NASA A$400 for littering. (The fine was written off three months later, but was eventually paid on behalf of NASA in April 2009, after Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners.) Stan Thornton found 24 pieces of Skylab at his home in Esperance, and a Philadelphia businessman flew him, his parents, and his girlfriend to San Francisco where he collected the *Examiner* prize and another US$1,000 from the businessman. Analysis of the debris showed that the station had disintegrated 10 miles (16 km) above the Earth, much lower than expected. After the demise of Skylab, NASA focused on the reusable Spacelab module, an orbital workshop that could be deployed with the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth. The next American major space station project was Space Station Freedom, which was merged into the International Space Station in 1993 and launched starting in 1998. Shuttle-Mir was another project and led to the US funding Spektr, Priroda, and the Mir Docking Module in the 1990s. Launchers, rescue, and cancelled missions ----------------------------------------- ### Launchers Launch vehicles: * SA-513 (Skylab) * SA-206 (Skylab 2) * SA-207 (Skylab 3) * SA-208 (Skylab 4) * SA-209 (Skylab Rescue, not launched) ### Skylab Revisit In 1971, before Skylab launched, NASA studied the potential of adding another mission to the three already planned. Called Skylab Revisit, two options were examined. First was an open ended mission that would launch within 30 days after Skylab 4, aiming to last 56 days. The second would visit the station a year after the last crew had left to determine the health and habitability of the station after two years in space. Neither option was rated highly. The first option's chance of mission success was considered uncertain at best, and the second's even worse given the expected dearth of food, water, and oxygen supplies and the degraded condition of Skylab's system after two years in orbit. ### Skylab Rescue There was a Skylab Rescue mission assembled for the second crewed mission to Skylab, but it was not needed. Another rescue mission was assembled for the last Skylab and was also on standby for ASTP. That launch stack might have been used for Skylab 5 (which would have been the fourth crewed Skylab mission), but this was cancelled and the SA-209 Saturn IB rocket was put on display at NASA Kennedy Space Center. ### Skylab 5 Skylab 5 would have been a short 20-day mission to conduct more scientific experiments and use the Apollo's Service Propulsion System engine to boost Skylab into a higher orbit. Vance Brand (commander), William B. Lenoir (science pilot), and Don Lind (pilot) would have been the crew for this mission, with Brand and Lind being the prime crew for the Skylab Rescue flights. Brand and Lind also trained for a mission that would have aimed Skylab for a controlled deorbit. The mission would have launched in April 1974 and supported later use by the Space Shuttle by boosting the station to higher orbit. ### Skylab B In addition to the flown Skylab space station, a second flight-quality backup Skylab space station had been built during the program. NASA considered using it for a second station in May 1973 or later, to be called Skylab B (S-IVB 515), but decided against it. Launching another Skylab with another Saturn V rocket would have been very costly, and it was decided to spend this money on the development of the Space Shuttle instead. The backup is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Engineering mock-ups -------------------- A full-size training mock-up once used for astronaut training is located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center visitor's center in Houston, Texas. Another full-size training mock-up is at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Originally displayed indoors, it was subsequently stored outdoors for several years to make room for other exhibits. To mark the 40th anniversary of the Skylab program, the Orbital Workshop portion of the trainer was restored and moved into the Davidson Center in 2013. NASA transferred Skylab B (the backup Skylab) to the National Air and Space Museum in 1975. On display in the museum's Space Hall since 1976, the orbital workshop has been slightly modified to permit viewers to walk through the living quarters. Mission designations -------------------- The numerical identification of the crewed Skylab missions was the cause of some confusion. Originally, the uncrewed launch of Skylab and the three crewed missions to the station were numbered *SL-1* through *SL-4*. During the preparations for the crewed missions, some documentation was created with a different scheme – *SLM-1* through *SLM-3* – for those missions only. William Pogue credits Pete Conrad with asking the Skylab program director which scheme should be used for the mission patches, and the astronauts were told to use 1–2–3, not 2–3–4. By the time NASA administrators tried to reverse this decision, it was too late, as all the in-flight clothing had already been manufactured and shipped with the 1–2–3 mission patches. | Mission | Emblem | Commander | Science Pilot | Pilot | Launch date | Landing date | Duration (days) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Skylab 1 *SL-1* | | *uncrewed launch of space station* | 1973-05-14 17:30:00 UTC | 1979-07-11 16:37:00 UTC | 2248.96 | | Skylab 2 *SL-2* (*SLM-1*) | | Pete Conrad | Joseph Kerwin | Paul Weitz | 1973-05-25 13:00:00 UTC | 1973-06-22 13:49:48 UTC | 28.03 | | Skylab 3 *SL-3* (*SLM-2*) | | Alan Bean | Owen Garriott | Jack Lousma | 1973-07-28 11:10:50 UTC | 1973-09-25 22:19:51 UTC | 59.46 | | Skylab 4 *SL-4* (*SLM-3*) | | Gerald Carr | Edward Gibson | William Pogue | 1973-11-16 14:01:23 UTC | 1974-02-08 15:16:53 UTC | 84.04 | | Skylab 5 | – | Vance Brand | William B. Lenoir | Don Lind | (April 1974, cancelled) | | 20 (notional) | | Skylab Rescue | – | Vance Brand | N/A | Don Lind | (On Standby) | | | L. B. James of NASA Marshall predicted in 1970 that an astronomer, medical doctor, and third scientist might compose each Skylab crew. NASA Astronaut Group 4 and NASA Astronaut Group 6 were scientists recruited as astronauts. They and the scientific community hoped to have two on each Skylab mission, but Deke Slayton, director of flight crew operations, insisted that two trained pilots fly on each. Although the scientists were qualified jet pilots, NASA headquarters made the final decision of one scientist in each Skylab crew on 6 July 1971, after the deaths of three cosmonauts on Soyuz 11. Kerwin was the first Skylab scientist-astronaut. NASA chose a medical doctor to better understand the effect of spaceflight on the human body on a long-duration mission. Astronauts trained for minor medical procedures at a Houston hospital emergency department. ### SMEAT The *Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test* or SMEAT was a 56-day (8-week) Earth analog Skylab test. The test had a low-pressure high oxygen-percentage atmosphere but it operated under full gravity, as SMEAT was not in orbit. The test had a three-astronaut crew with Commander Robert Crippen, Pilot Karol J. Bobko, and Science Pilot William E. Thornton; there was a focus on medical studies and Thornton was an M.D. The crew lived and worked in the pressure chamber, converted to be like Skylab, from July 26 to September 20, 1972. | Mission | Emblem | Commander | Pilot | Science Pilot | Start date | End date | Duration | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test (SMEAT) | | Bob Crippen | Karol Bobko | William Thornton | July 26, 1972 | September 20, 1972 | 56 days | Program cost ------------ From 1966 to 1974, the Skylab program cost a total of US$2.2 billion, (equivalent to $16 billion in 2022). As its three three-person crews spent 510 total man-days in space, each man-day cost approximately US$20 million, compared to US$7.5 million for the International Space Station. ### Summary Depictions in film ------------------ The documentary *Searching for Skylab* was released online in March 2019. It was written and directed by Dwight Steven-Boniecki and was partly crowdfunded. The alternate history Apple TV+ original series *For All Mankind* depicts the use of the space station in the first episode of the second season, surviving to the 1980s and coexisting with the Space Shuttle program in the alternate timeline. In the 2011 film *Skylab*, a family gathers in France and waits for the station to fall out of orbit. It was directed by Julie Delpy. The 2021 Indian film *Skylab* depicts fictitious incidents in a Telangana village preceding the disintegration of the space station. Gallery ------- * The waste disposal equipment in the backup Skylab at the National Air and Space Museum.The waste disposal equipment in the backup Skylab at the National Air and Space Museum. * A mannequin in the backup Skylab at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.A mannequin in the backup Skylab at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. * Skylab commemorative stamp, issue of 1974. The commemorative stamp reflects initial repairs to the station, including the parasol sunshade.Skylab commemorative stamp, issue of 1974. The commemorative stamp reflects initial repairs to the station, including the parasol sunshade. * Illustration of Skylab configuration with docked command and service moduleIllustration of Skylab configuration with docked command and service module * Vanguard (T-AGM-19) seen as a NASA Skylab tracking ship. Note the tracking radar and telemetry antennas.*Vanguard* (T-AGM-19) seen as a NASA Skylab tracking ship. Note the tracking radar and telemetry antennas. * Robbins medallions issued for Skylab missions.Robbins medallions issued for Skylab missions. * Space Center Houston Skylab 1-G Trainer mannequin.Space Center Houston Skylab 1-G Trainer mannequin. * A mannequin alongside the Skylab 1-G Trainer telescope at Manned Space Center, Houston.A mannequin alongside the Skylab 1-G Trainer telescope at Manned Space Center, Houston. * A mannequin in the Skylab 1-G Trainer at Manned Space Center, Houston.A mannequin in the Skylab 1-G Trainer at Manned Space Center, Houston. * The main module S-IVB is a section of the Saturn V rocket.The main module S-IVB is a section of the Saturn V rocket. See also -------- * Timeline of longest spaceflights * Skylab II (proposed space station) * "Spacelab", a 1978 song by Kraftwerk * Solar panels on spacecraft References ---------- ### Works cited * Belew, Leland. F., ed. (1977). *Skylab, Our First Space Station*. NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office. OCLC 2644423. SP-400. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Benson, Charles Dunlap & Compton, William David (1983). *Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab*. NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office. OCLC 8114293. SP-4208. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Heppenheimer, T. A. (1999). *The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA's Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle*. NASA History Office. OCLC 40305626. SP-4221. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Martin Marietta & Bendix (September 1978). *Skylab Reuse Study*. NASA. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Edelson, Edward (January 1979). "Saving Skylab: The Untold Story". *Popular Science* – via Google Books. Further reading --------------- * Newkirk, Roland W.; Ertel, Ivan D.; Brooks, Courtney G. (1977). *Skylab: A Chronology*. NASA. SP-4011. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * SP-402 A New Sun: The Solar Results from Skylab Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Skylab Mission Evaluation – NASA report (PDF format) Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* * Skylab Reactivation Mission Report 1980 – NASA report (PDF format) Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* ### NASA * NASA History Series Publications (many of which are on-line) + *SP-4011 Skylab, a Chronology* (1977) 1 + *SP-401 Skylab, Classroom in Space* (1977) + *SP-399 Skylab EREP Investigations Summary* (1978) + *SP-402 A New Sun: Solar Results from Skylab* (1979) + *SP-404 Skylab's Skylab's Astronomy and Space Sciences* (1979) * Skylab: Four Rooms Earth View on YouTube NASA Educational Film * Airlock Module under construction (1971) (Medium) * Airlock and Docking Module together (1972) (Medium) * Skylab Crew Quarters Illustration Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine * Apollo (in foreground) and Skylab space food Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (M487) ### Third party * Skylab Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections * Leland F. Belew Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections Files of Leland Belew, Skylab's project manager. * eoPortal: Skylab * Historic Spacecraft: Skylab * Skylab reboost module * Skylab Reentry (Chapter 9 of SP-4208) * Skylab cutaway drawing from *Encyclopædia Britannica* Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine * Cutaway line drawing of Skylab * Skylab "Christmas tree"

Skylab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab

A **levee** (/ˈlɛvi/), **dike** (American English), **dyke** (Commonwealth English), **embankment**, **floodbank**, or **stop bank** is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines. The purpose of a levee is to keep the course of rivers from changing and to protect against flooding of the area adjoining the river or coast. Levees can be naturally occurring ridge structures that form next to the bank of a river, or be an artificially constructed fill or wall that regulates water levels. However levees can be bad for the environment. Ancient civilizations in the Indus Valley, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China all built levees. Today, levees can be found around the world, and failures of levees due to erosion or other causes can be major disasters , such as the catastrophic 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans that occurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Etymology --------- Speakers of American English use the word *levee*, from the French word *levée* (from the feminine past participle of the French verb *lever*, 'to raise'). It originated in New Orleans a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The name derives from the trait of the levee's ridges being raised higher than both the channel and the surrounding floodplains. The modern word *dike* or *dyke* most likely derives from the Dutch word *dijk*, with the construction of dikes well attested as early as the 11th century. The 126-kilometer-long (78 mi) Westfriese Omringdijk, completed by 1250, was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler Tacitus mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land and to protect their retreat (70 CE). The word *dijk* originally indicated both the trench and the bank. It closely parallels the English verb *to dig*. In Anglo-Saxon, the word *dic* already existed and was pronounced as *dick* in northern England and as *ditch* in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name may be given to either the excavation or to the bank. Thus Offa's Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench – though it once had raised banks as well. In the English Midlands and East Anglia, and in the United States, a dike is what a ditch is in the south of England, a property-boundary marker or drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a running dike as in *Rippingale Running Dike*, which leads water from the catchwater drain, Car Dyke, to the South Forty Foot Drain in Lincolnshire (TF1427). The Weir Dike is a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen, Lincolnshire. In the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, a dyke may be a drainage ditch or a narrow artificial channel off a river or broad for access or mooring, some longer dykes being named, e.g. Candle Dyke. In parts of Britain, particularly Scotland and Northern England, a dyke may be a field wall, generally made with dry stone. Uses ---- The main purpose of artificial levees is to prevent flooding of the adjoining countryside and to slow natural course changes in a waterway to provide reliable shipping lanes for maritime commerce over time; they also confine the flow of the river, resulting in higher and faster water flow. Levees can be mainly found along the sea, where dunes are not strong enough, along rivers for protection against high-floods, along lakes or along polders. Furthermore, levees have been built for the purpose of empoldering, or as a boundary for an inundation area. The latter can be a controlled inundation by the military or a measure to prevent inundation of a larger area surrounded by levees. Levees have also been built as field boundaries and as military defences. More on this type of levee can be found in the article on dry-stone walls. Levees can be permanent earthworks or emergency constructions (often of sandbags) built hastily in a flood emergency. Some of the earliest levees were constructed by the Indus Valley civilization (in Pakistan and North India from circa 2600 BC) on which the agrarian life of the Harappan peoples depended. Levees were also constructed over 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, where a system of levees was built along the left bank of the River Nile for more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), stretching from modern Aswan to the Nile Delta on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Mesopotamian civilizations and ancient China also built large levee systems. Because a levee is only as strong as its weakest point, the height and standards of construction have to be consistent along its length. Some authorities have argued that this requires a strong governing authority to guide the work, and may have been a catalyst for the development of systems of governance in early civilizations. However, others point to evidence of large-scale water-control earthen works such as canals and/or levees dating from before King Scorpion in Predynastic Egypt, during which governance was far less centralized. Another example of a historical levee that protected the growing city-state of Mēxihco-Tenōchtitlan and the neighboring city of Tlatelōlco, was constructed during the early 1400s, under the supervision of the tlahtoani of the altepetl Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl. Its function was to separate the brackish waters of Lake Texcoco (ideal for the agricultural technique *Chināmitls*) from the fresh potable water supplied to the settlements. However, after the Europeans destroyed Tenochtitlan, the levee was also destroyed and flooding became a major problem, which resulted in the majority of The Lake being drained in the 17th century. Levees are usually built by piling earth on a cleared, level surface. Broad at the base, they taper to a level top, where temporary embankments or sandbags can be placed. Because flood discharge intensity increases in levees on both river banks, and because silt deposits raise the level of riverbeds, planning and auxiliary measures are vital. Sections are often set back from the river to form a wider channel, and flood valley basins are divided by multiple levees to prevent a single breach from flooding a large area. A levee made from stones laid in horizontal rows with a bed of thin turf between each of them is known as a *spetchel*. Artificial levees require substantial engineering. Their surface must be protected from erosion, so they are planted with vegetation such as Bermuda grass in order to bind the earth together. On the land side of high levees, a low terrace of earth known as a *banquette* is usually added as another anti-erosion measure. On the river side, erosion from strong waves or currents presents an even greater threat to the integrity of the levee. The effects of erosion are countered by planting suitable vegetation or installing stones, boulders, weighted matting, or concrete revetments. Separate ditches or drainage tiles are constructed to ensure that the foundation does not become waterlogged. ### River flood prevention Prominent levee systems have been built along the Mississippi River and Sacramento River in the United States, and the Po, Rhine, Meuse River, Rhône, Loire, Vistula, the delta formed by the Rhine, Maas/Meuse and Scheldt in the Netherlands and the Danube in Europe. During the Chinese Warring States period, the Dujiangyan irrigation system was built by the Qin as a water conservation and flood control project. The system's infrastructure is located on the Minjiang (Chinese: 岷江; pinyin: *Mínjiāng*), which is the longest tributary of the Chang Jiang, in Sichuan, China. The Mississippi levee system represents one of the largest such systems found anywhere in the world. It comprises over 5,600 km (3,500 mi) of levees extending some 1,000 km (620 mi) along the Mississippi, stretching from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Mississippi delta. They were begun by French settlers in Louisiana in the 18th century to protect the city of New Orleans. The first Louisiana levees were about 90 cm (3 ft) high and covered a distance of about 80 km (50 mi) along the riverside. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the Mississippi River Commission, extended the levee system beginning in 1882 to cover the riverbanks from Cairo, Illinois to the mouth of the Mississippi delta in Louisiana. By the mid-1980s, they had reached their present extent and averaged 7.3 m (24 ft) in height; some Mississippi levees are as high as 15 m (50 ft). The Mississippi levees also include some of the longest continuous individual levees in the world. One such levee extends southwards from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, for a distance of some 610 km (380 mi). The scope and scale of the Mississippi levees has often been compared to the Great Wall of China. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recommends and supports cellular confinement technology (geocells) as a best management practice. Particular attention is given to the matter of surface erosion, overtopping prevention and protection of levee crest and downstream slope. Reinforcement with geocells provides tensile force to the soil to better resist instability. Artificial levees can lead to an elevation of the natural river bed over time; whether this happens or not and how fast, depends on different factors, one of them being the amount and type of the bed load of a river. Alluvial rivers with intense accumulations of sediment tend to this behavior. Examples of rivers where artificial levees led to an elevation of the river bed, even up to a point where the river bed is higher than the adjacent ground surface behind the levees, are found for the Yellow River in China and the Mississippi in the United States. ### Coastal flood prevention Levees are very common on the marshlands bordering the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. The Acadians who settled the area can be credited with the original construction of many of the levees in the area, created for the purpose of farming the fertile tidal marshlands. These levees are referred to as dykes. They are constructed with hinged sluice gates that open on the falling tide to drain freshwater from the agricultural marshlands and close on the rising tide to prevent seawater from entering behind the dyke. These sluice gates are called "aboiteaux". In the Lower Mainland around the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, there are levees (known locally as dikes, and also referred to as "the sea wall") to protect low-lying land in the Fraser River delta, particularly the city of Richmond on Lulu Island. There are also dikes to protect other locations which have flooded in the past, such as the Pitt Polder, land adjacent to the Pitt River, and other tributary rivers. Coastal flood prevention levees are also common along the inland coastline behind the Wadden Sea, an area devastated by many historic floods. Thus the peoples and governments have erected increasingly large and complex flood protection levee systems to stop the sea even during storm floods. The biggest of these are the huge levees in the Netherlands, which have gone beyond just defending against floods, as they have aggressively taken back land that is below mean sea level. ### Spur dykes or groynes These typically man-made hydraulic structures are situated to protect against erosion. They are typically placed in alluvial rivers perpendicular, or at an angle, to the bank of the channel or the revetment, and are used widely along coastlines. There are two common types of spur dyke, permeable and impermeable, depending on the materials used to construct them. ### Natural examples Natural levees commonly form around lowland rivers and creeks without human intervention. They are elongated ridges of mud and/or silt that form on the river floodplains immediately adjacent to the cut banks. Like artificial levees, they act to reduce the likelihood of floodplain inundation. Deposition of levees is a natural consequence of the flooding of meandering rivers which carry high proportions of suspended sediment in the form of fine sands, silts, and muds. Because the carrying capacity of a river depends in part on its depth, the sediment in the water which is over the flooded banks of the channel is no longer capable of keeping the same amount of fine sediments in suspension as the main thalweg. The extra fine sediments thus settle out quickly on the parts of the floodplain nearest to the channel. Over a significant number of floods, this will eventually result in the building up of ridges in these positions and reducing the likelihood of further floods and episodes of levee building. If aggradation continues to occur in the main channel, this will make levee overtopping more likely again, and the levees can continue to build up. In some cases this can result in the channel bed eventually rising above the surrounding floodplains, penned in only by the levees around it; an example is the Yellow River in China near the sea, where oceangoing ships appear to sail high above the plain on the elevated river. Levees are common in any river with a high suspended sediment fraction and thus are intimately associated with meandering channels, which also are more likely to occur where a river carries large fractions of suspended sediment. For similar reasons, they are also common in tidal creeks, where tides bring in large amounts of coastal silts and muds. High spring tides will cause flooding, and result in the building up of levees. Failures and breaches --------------------- Both natural and man-made levees can fail in a number of ways. Factors that cause levee failure include overtopping, erosion, structural failures, and levee saturation. The most frequent (and dangerous) is a levee breach. Here, a part of the levee actually breaks or is eroded away, leaving a large opening for water to flood land otherwise protected by the levee. A breach can be a sudden or gradual failure, caused either by surface erosion or by subsurface weakness in the levee. A breach can leave a fan-shaped deposit of sediment radiating away from the breach, described as a crevasse splay. In natural levees, once a breach has occurred, the gap in the levee will remain until it is again filled in by levee building processes. This increases the chances of future breaches occurring in the same location. Breaches can be the location of meander cutoffs if the river flow direction is permanently diverted through the gap. Sometimes levees are said to fail when water overtops the crest of the levee. This will cause flooding on the floodplains, but because it does not damage the levee, it has fewer consequences for future flooding. Among various failure mechanisms that cause levee breaches, soil erosion is found to be one of the most important factors. Predicting soil erosion and scour generation when overtopping happens is important in order to design stable levee and floodwalls. There have been numerous studies to investigate the erodibility of soils. Briaud et al. (2008) used Erosion Function Apparatus (EFA) test to measure the erodibility of the soils and afterwards by using Chen 3D software, numerical simulations were performed on the levee to find out the velocity vectors in the overtopping water and the generated scour when the overtopping water impinges the levee. By analyzing the results from EFA test, an erosion chart to categorize erodibility of the soils was developed. Hughes and Nadal in 2009 studied the effect of combination of wave overtopping and storm surge overflow on the erosion and scour generation in levees. The study included hydraulic parameters and flow characteristics such as flow thickness, wave intervals, surge level above levee crown in analyzing scour development. According to the laboratory tests, empirical correlations related to average overtopping discharge were derived to analyze the resistance of levee against erosion. These equations could only fit to the situation, similar to the experimental tests, while they can give a reasonable estimation if applied to other conditions. Osouli et al. (2014) and Karimpour et al. (2015) conducted lab scale physical modeling of levees to evaluate score characterization of different levees due to floodwall overtopping. Another approach applied to prevent levee failures is electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). This non-destructive geophysical method can detect in advance critical saturation areas in embankments. ERT can thus be used in monitoring of seepage phenomena in earth structures and act as an early warning system, e.g. in critical parts of levees or embankments. See also -------- * Bridge scour – Removal of sediment from around bridge abutments or piers by the movement of water * Bunding – Retaining wall around pollution source * Coupure – Structural feature * Dam – Barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface or underground streams * Earth structure – Building or other structure made largely from soil * Embankment (earthworks) – Wall or bank to carry a road or rail over low ground or water's edge * Flood control – Methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters * Flood control in the Netherlands – Manmade control of flooding in the Netherlands * Lava channel * Nullah – Steep, narrow valley * Seawall – Form of coastal defence * Sleeper dike – Dike that backs up a front-line dike * Subsidence – Downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface * Trench – Excavated channel in ground

Levee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee

**Ethiopia**, officially the **Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia**, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and northeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 square miles). As of 2022[update], it is home to around 113.5 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world, the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria, and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates. Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family. In 980 BCE, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a variety of kingdoms, largely tribal confederations, existed in the land of Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty, claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as *Zemene Mesafint* in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended *Zemene Mesafint* at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia. From 1878 onwards, Emperor Menelik II launched a series of conquests known as Menelik's Expansions, which resulted in the formation of Ethiopia's current border. Externally, during the late 19th century, Ethiopia defended itself against foreign invasions, including from Egypt and Italy; as a result, Ethiopia and Liberia preserved their sovereignty during the Scramble for Africa. In 1935, Ethiopia was occupied by Fascist Italy and annexed with Italian-possessed Eritrea and Somaliland, later forming Italian East Africa. In 1941, during World War II, it was occupied by the British Army, and its full sovereignty was restored in 1944 after a period of military administration. The Derg, a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, and ruled the country for nearly 17 years amidst the Ethiopian Civil War. Following the dissolution of the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism. Since then, Ethiopia has suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by democratic backsliding. From 2018, regional and ethnically based factions carried out armed attacks in multiple ongoing wars throughout Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country, with significant minorities of the adherents of Islam and a small percentage to traditional faiths. This sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77, and the Organisation of African Unity. Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and many of the global non-governmental organizations focused on Africa. Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries but is sometimes considered an emerging power, having the fastest economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries because of foreign direct investment in expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries. However, in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index, the country is regarded as poor with high rates of poverty, poor respect for human rights, and a literacy rate of only 49%. Agriculture is the largest economic sector in Ethiopia, accounting for 36% of the country's gross domestic product as of 2020. Etymology --------- The Greek name Αἰθιοπία (from Αἰθίοψ, *Aithiops*, "an Ethiopian") is a compound word, later explained as derived from the Greek words αἴθω and ὤψ (*aithō* "I burn" + *ōps* "face"). According to the Liddell-Scott Jones Greek-English Lexicon, the designation properly translates as *burnt-face* in noun form and *red-brown* in adjectival form. The historian Herodotus used the appellation to denote those parts of Africa south of the Sahara that were then known within the Ecumene (habitable world). Since the Greeks understood the term as "dark-faced", they divided the Ethiopians into two, those in Africa and those to the east from eastern Turkey to India. This Greek name was borrowed into Amharic as ኢትዮጵያ, *ʾĪtyōṗṗyā*. More likely Αἰθιοπία was derived from a native word *ዕጣን* (ʿəṭan, incense), of which Ethiopia was an important source. In Greco-Roman epigraphs, *Aethiopia* was a specific toponym for ancient Nubia. At least as early as c. 850, the name *Aethiopia* also occurs in many translations of the Old Testament in allusion to Nubia. The ancient Hebrew texts identify Nubia instead as Kush. However, in the New Testament, the Greek term Aithiops does occur, referring to a servant of the Kandake, the queen of Kush. Following the Hellenic and biblical traditions, the Monumentum Adulitanum, a 3rd-century inscription belonging to the Aksumite Empire, indicates that Aksum's ruler governed an area which was flanked to the west by the territory of Ethiopia and Sasu. The Aksumite King Ezana eventually conquered Nubia the following century, and the Aksumites thereafter appropriated the designation "Ethiopians" for their own kingdom. In the Ge'ez version of the Ezana inscription, Aἰθίοπες is equated with the unvocalized *Ḥbšt* and *Ḥbśt* (Ḥabashat), and denotes for the first time the highland inhabitants of Aksum. This new demonym was subsequently rendered as *ḥbs* ('Aḥbāsh) in Sabaic and as *Ḥabasha* in Arabic. In the 15th-century Ge'ez *Book of Axum*, the name is ascribed to a legendary individual called *Ityopp'is*. He was an extra-biblical son of Cush, son of Ham, said to have founded the city of Axum. In English, and generally outside of Ethiopia, the country was historically known as Abyssinia. This toponym was derived from the Latinized form of the ancient *Habash*. History ------- ### Prehistory Several important finds have propelled Ethiopia and the surrounding region to the forefront of palaeontology. The oldest hominid discovered to date in Ethiopia is the 4.2 million-year-old *Ardipithecus ramidus* (Ardi) found by Tim D. White in 1994. The most well-known hominid discovery is *Australopithecus afarensis* (Lucy). Known locally as *Dinkinesh*, the specimen was found in the Awash Valley of Afar Region in 1974 by Donald Johanson, and is one of the most complete and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossils ever uncovered. Lucy's taxonomic name refers to the region where the discovery was made. This hominid is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. Ethiopia is also considered one of the earliest sites of the emergence of anatomically modern humans, *Homo sapiens*. The oldest of these local fossil finds, the Omo remains, were excavated in the southwestern Omo Kibish area and have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, around 200,000 years ago. Additionally, skeletons of *Homo sapiens idaltu* were found at a site in the Middle Awash valley. Dated to approximately 160,000 years ago, they may represent an extinct subspecies of *Homo sapiens*, or the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans. Archaic *Homo sapiens* fossils excavated at the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco have since been dated to an earlier period, about 300,000 years ago, while Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) from southern Ethiopia is the oldest anatomically modern Homo sapiens skeleton currently known (196 ± 5 ka). According to some linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic era from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. The majority of scholars today propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in northeast Africa because of the higher diversity of lineages in that region, a telltale sign of linguistic origin. In 2019, archaeologists discovered a 30,000-year-old Middle Stone Age rock shelter at the Fincha Habera site in Bale Mountains at an elevation of 3,469 metres (11,381 feet) above sea level. At this high altitude humans are susceptible both to hypoxia and to extreme weather. According to a study published in the journal *Science*, this dwelling is proof of the earliest permanent human occupation at high altitude yet discovered. Thousands of animal bones, hundreds of stone tools, and ancient fireplaces were discovered, revealing a diet that featured giant mole rats. Evidence of some of the earliest known stone-tipped projectile weapons (a characteristic tool of *Homo sapiens*), the stone tips of javelins or throwing spears, were discovered in 2013 at the Ethiopian site of Gademotta, which date to around 279,000 years ago. In 2019, additional Middle Stone Age projectile weapons were found at Aduma, dated 100,000–80,000 years ago, in the form of points considered likely to belong to darts delivered by spear throwers. ### Antiquity King Solomon and the Queen Sheba are central figures in Ethiopian traditional history, as the central figures of forming the Solomonic dynasty and the Imperial line of Ethiopia (left) Ancient ruins in Adulis pertaining to Ethiopian and modern-day Eritrean civilization near the Red Sea thousands of years agoIn 980 BCE, Dʿmt was established in present-day Eritrea and the Tigray Region of Ethiopia and is widely believed to be the successor state to Punt. This polity's capital was located at Yeha in what is now northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be a native Ethiopian one, although in earlier times many suggested it was Sabaean-influenced because of the latter's hegemony of the Red Sea. Other scholars regard Dʿmt as the result of a union of Afroasiatic-speaking cultures of the Cushitic and Semitic branches; namely, local Agaw peoples and Sabaeans from Southern Arabia. However, Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is thought to have developed independently from the Sabaean language. As early as 2000 BCE, other Semitic speakers were living in Ethiopia and Eritrea where Ge'ez developed. Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century. It may have been a trading or military colony in alliance with the Ethiopian civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Axumite state. After the fall of Dʿmt during the 4th century BCE, the Ethiopian plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms. In the 1st century CE, the Kingdom of Aksum emerged in what is now Tigray Region and Eritrea. According to the medieval *Book of Axum*, the kingdom's first capital, Mazaber, was built by Itiyopis, son of Cush. Aksum would later at times extend its rule into Yemen on the other side of the Red Sea. The Persian prophet Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his era, during the 3rd century. It is also believed that there was a connection between Egyptian and Ethiopian churches. There is diminutive evidence that the Aksumites were associated with the Queen of Sheba, via their royal inscription. Around 316 CE, Frumentius and his brother Edesius from Tyre accompanied their uncle on a voyage to Ethiopia. When the vessel stopped at a Red Sea port, the natives killed all the travellers except the two brothers, who were taken to the court as slaves. They were given positions of trust by the monarch, and they converted members of the royal court to Christianity. Frumentius became the first bishop of Aksum. A coin dated to 324 shows that Ethiopia was the second country to officially adopt Christianity (after Armenia did so in 301), although the religion may have been at first confined to court circles; it was the first major power to do so. The Aksumites were accustomed to the Greco-Roman sphere of influence, but embarked on significant cultural ties and trade connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire via the Silk Road, primarily exporting ivory, tortoise shell, gold and emeralds, and importing silk and spices. ### Middle Ages The kingdom adopted the name "Ethiopia" during the reign of Ezana in the 4th century. After the conquest of Kingdom of Kush in 330, the Aksumite territory reached its peak between the 5th and 6th centuries. This period was interrupted by several incursions into the South Arabian protectorate, including Jewish Dhu Nuwas of the Himyarite Kingdom and the Aksumite–Persian wars. In 575, the Aksumites besieged and retook Sana'a following the assassination of its governor Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan. The port city of Adulis was plundered by Arab Muslims in the 8th century; along with irrevocable land degradation, claimed climate change and sporadic rainfall precipitation from 730 to 760, the kingdom likely said to decline its power and important trade route, and Red Sea was left to the Rashidun Caliphate in 646. Aksum came to an end in 960 when Queen Gudit defeated the last king of Aksum. Gudit's reign, which lasted for 40 years, aimed to abolish Christianity (a religion first accepted by King Ezana of the Axumite dynasty) by burning down churches and crucifying people who remained faithful to the Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which at the time was considered as the religion of the state. Gudit tried to force many people to change their religion and destroyed much historical heritage of the Axumite dynasty, earning her the epithet of Yodit Gudit (in Amharic: ዮዲት ጉዲት a play on words approximating to Judith the Evil One). Gudit's devastation caused the remnant of the Aksumite population to shift into the southern region and establish the Zagwe dynasty, changing its capital to Lalibela. The dynasty was ruled by ethnic Agaw from circa 912, although most native sources indicate 1137 when its founder Mara Takla Haymanot overthrew the last Aksumite king Dil Na'od and married his daughter. The Zagwe dynasty was known for the revival of Christianity, and by the 13th century Christianity reached the Shewan region. Zagwe's rule ended when an Amhara noble man Yekuno Amlak revolted against King Yetbarak and established the Ethiopian Empire (known by exonym "Abyssinia"). He inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty that supposedly traced to the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba, a claim that Menelik I was their firstborn inaugurated the dynasty and the first Emperor of Ethiopia in the 10th century BCE. According to the medieval Ethiopian chronicle *Kebra Nagast*, which was translated to Ge'ez in 1321, his name was *Bäynä Ləḥkəm* (from Arabic: ابن الحكيم, *Ibn Al-Hakim*, "Son of the Wise"). In the early 15th century, Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since the Aksumite era. A letter from Henry IV of England to the Ethiopian emperor survives. In 1428, Yeshaq I sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent his own emissaries that failed to complete the return trip home to Aragon. The first continuous relations Europeans began in 1508 with Portugal under Dawit II. #### Abyssinian–Adal War (1529–1543) The Ethiopian Empire embarked on territorial expansion starting with Amda Seyon I, who conquered the first Muslim state in the region, Ifat Sultanate, in the 14th century after seizing the Kingdom of Damot around 1317, and expansion efforts were sustained by Emperor Zara Yaqob who conquered Massawa and Dahlak Archipelago around 1465. Ifat's successor, the Adal Sultanate, emerged in 1415 with its capital at Zelia, situated in the present-day Somalia. The Adals, supported by Ottoman Turks, initially tried to encroach the Ethiopian Empire under Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi in 1529, launching the Ethiopian–Adal War. After several campaigns, Al-Ghazi overwhelmed the Ethiopian troops at the Battle of Amba Sel in 1531. Cristóvão da Gama played a prominent role in the war, helping the Ethiopian Empire with 400 musketeers at Massawa. His vital efforts eventually led to his death at Battle of Wofla in 1542. In 1543, the Abyssinian troops led by Emperor Gelawdewos decisively defeated the Adal forces at the Battle of Wayna Daga; the Imam was fatally wounded, where tradition states that Ahmad was wounded by a Portuguese musketeer who had charged alone into the Muslim lines and died. The wounded Imam was then chased and beheaded by an Ethiopian cavalry commander, named *Azmach* Calite. Upon learning of his death, the Adal troops immediately withdrew the area. Gelawdewos was beheaded at the Battle of Fatagar in 1559. In response, Abyssinian Ras Hamalmal sacked the Adal capital of Harar and killed the Sultan Barakat ibn Umar Din. These series of conflicts paved the way for 16th-century Oromo migrations to the northern highlands. #### Oromo migrations (16th century) By the 16th century, an influx of migration by ethnic Oromo into northern parts of the region fragmented the empire's power, referred to as the "Great Oromo Expansions." Embarking from present-day Guji and Borena Zone, the Oromos were largely motivated by several folkloric conceptions—beginning with *Moggaasaa* and *Liqimssa*—many of whom related to their raids. Early expansion was marked by rapid raids, as the raiders captured most cattle and booty and then returned to their homeland. This technique persisted until *gada* of Meslé. According to Abba Bahrey, the earliest expansion occurred under Emperor Dawit II (*luba* Melbah), when they encroached to Bale before invading Adal Sultanate. Emperor Sarsa Dengel unsuccessfully attempted to suppress the invasion in the south after they had taken Wej in 1572. #### Jesuit influence (1555–1632) Ethiopia saw major diplomatic contact with Portugal from the 17th century, mainly related to religion. Beginning in 1555, the Portuguese Jesuits attempted to develop Roman Catholicism as the state religion. After several failures, they sent several missionaries in 1603, including the most influential Spanish Jesuit Pedro Paez. Paez's enthusiastic relation had huge favorable effects on the political sphere. The Jesuits, including Manoel de Almeida, Manoel Barradas, and Jerónimo Lobo, wrote a half dozen histories regarding the first interaction with Ethiopians. Their book, however, was unknown until the 20th century when it was fully published. Under Emperor Susenyos I, Roman Catholicism became the state religion of the Ethiopian Empire in 1622. This unprecedented decision immediately caused an uprising by the Orthodox populace. ### Gondarine period (1632–1769) In 1632, Emperor Fasilides successfully halted Roman Catholic state administration and restored Orthodox Tewahedo as the state religion. Fasilides' reign sparked solidification of imperial power and moved the capital to Gondar in 1636, commencing a period of transition known as "Gondarine period". He expelled Jesuits by reclaiming possessed lands and relegating them to Fremona. During his reign, he built one of the most iconic royal fortress, Fasil Ghebbi, forty-four churches were built and Ethiopian art was revived. He also credited with constructing seven stone bridges over Blue Nile River. Rebellion of the Agaw population in Lasta endured the reformation. Fasilides conducted punitive expeditions to Lasta and successfully suppress it, which was described by the Scottish traveler James Bruce, "almost the whole army perished amidst the mountains; great part from famine, but a greater still from cold, a very remarkable circumstance in these latitudes." Fasilides tried to establish firm relations with Yemeni Imam Al-Mutawakkil Isma'il between 1642 and 1647 to discuss a trade route through Ottoman-held Massawa, which was unsuccessful. Gondar's power and reputation decayed following the death of Iyasu I in 1706 because most emperors preferred to enjoy luxurious life rather than spending in politics. After Iyasu II death in 1755, Empress Mentewab brought her brother, Ras Wolde Leul, to Gondar and made him Ras Bitwaded, resulted in regnal conflict between Mentewab's *Quaregnoch* and Wollo group led by Wubit. In 1767, Ras Mikael Sehul, a regent in Tigray Province, seized Gondar and murdered the child Iyoas I in 1769, who was emperor at the time, and installed 70-year-old Yohannes II, marking the beginning of the decentralized Zemene Mesafint era. ### Zemene Mesafint (1769–1889) Between 1769 and 1855, Ethiopia experienced a period of isolation referred to as the Zemene Mesafint or "Age of Princes". The emperors became figureheads, controlled by regional lords and noblemen like *Ras* Mikael Sehul, Ras Wolde Selassie of Tigray, and by the Yejju Oromo dynasty of the Wara Sheh, such as Ras Gugsa of Yejju. Prior to the Zemene Mesafint, Emperor Iyoas I had introduced the Oromo language (*Afaan Oromo*) at court, instead of Amharic. Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded with an alliance between the two nations, but it was not until 1855 that the Amhara kingdoms of northern Ethiopia (Gondar, Gojjam, and Shewa) were briefly united after the power of the emperor was restored beginning with the reign of Tewodros II. Tewodros II began a process of consolidation, centralisation, and state-building that would be continued by succeeding emperors. This process reduced the power of regional rulers, restructured the empire's administration, and created a professional army. These changes created the basis for establishing the effective sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ethiopian state. Conversely, Tewodros suffered several rebellions inside his empire. Northern Oromo militias, Tigrayan rebellions, and the constant incursion of the Ottoman Empire and Egyptian forces near the Red Sea brought the weakening and the final downfall of Tewodros II. He killed himself in 1868 during his last fight with the British expedition to Abyssinia at the Battle of Magdala. After Tewodros' death, Tekle Giyorgis II was proclaimed emperor but was defeated in the Battles of Zulawu (21 June 1871) and Adwa (11 July 1871). The victorious Mercha Kassai was subsequently declared Yohannes IV on 21 January 1872. In 1875 and 1876, Ottoman/Egyptian forces, accompanied by many European and American 'advisors', twice invaded Abyssinia but were initially defeated: once at the Battle of Gundit losing 800 men, and then in the second invasion, they were decisively defeated at the Battle of Gura on 7 March 1875, where the invading forces lost at least 3,000 men by death or capture. At the council of Boru Meda in 1878, Yohannes came out with a decree that Ethiopian Muslims must accept Christianity or be banned. Those that refused were executed on the spot. Tens of thousands were killed and more left their land and belongings to flee to Harar, Bale, Arsi, Jimma, and even to Sudan. From 1885 to 1889, Ethiopia joined the Mahdist War allied to Britain, Turkey, and Egypt against the Sudanese Mahdist State. In 1887, Menelik II, king of Shewa, invaded the Emirate of Harar after his victory at the Battle of Chelenqo. On 10 March 1889, Yohannes IV was killed by the Sudanese Khalifah Abdullah's army whilst leading his army in the Battle of Gallabat. ### From Menelik II to Adwa (1889–1913) Ethiopia in roughly its current form began under the reign of Menelik II, who was Emperor from 1889 until his death in 1913. From his base in the central province of Shewa, Menelik set out to annex territories to the south, east, and west — areas inhabited by the Oromo, Sidama, Gurage, Welayta, and other peoples. He achieved this with the help of *Ras* Gobana Dacche's Shewan Oromo militia, which occupied lands that had not been held since Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi's war, as well as other areas that had never been under Ethiopian rule. During the conquest of the Oromo, the Ethiopian Army carried out atrocities against the Oromo population including mass mutilation, mass killings, and large-scale slavery. Some estimates of the number of people killed as a result of the conquest are in the millions. Large-scale atrocities were also committed against the Dizi people and the people of the Kingdom of Kaffa. Menelik's campaign against Oromos outside his army was largely in retaliation for centuries of Oromo expansionism and the *Zemene Mesafint*, a period during which a succession of Oromo feudal rulers dominated the highlanders. Chief among these was the Yejju dynasty, which included Aligaz of Yejju and his brother Ali I of Yejju. The latter founded the town of Debre Tabor, in the Amhara Region, which became the dynasty's capital. Menelik II was the son of Haile Melekot, Negus of Shewa, and Ejegayehu Lema Adeyamo, a palace servant. He was born at Angolala in an Oromo area and lived his first twelve years with Shewan Oromos, with whom he thus had much in common. During Menelik's reign, road construction, electricity, and education advanced, and a central taxation system was developed. The city of Finfinne was rebuilt and renamed *Addis Ababa*; in 1889–1891 it became the new capital of the Ethiopian Empire. For his leadership, despite opposition from more traditional elements of society, Menelik II was heralded as a national hero. He had signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy in May 1889, by which Italy would recognize Ethiopia's sovereignty so long as Italy could control an area north of Ethiopia (now part of modern Eritrea). In return, Italy was to provide Menelik with weapons and support him as emperor. The Italians used the time between the signing of the treaty and its ratification by the Italian government to expand their territorial claims. This First Italo–Ethiopian War culminated in the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896, in which Italy's colonial forces were defeated by the Ethiopians. In 1896, the Treaty of Addis Ababa was signed, replacing the Treaty of Wuchale with conditions more favorable to Ethiopia. About a third of the population died in the Great Ethiopian Famine (1888 to 1892). ### Haile Selassie I era (1916–1974) The early 20th century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie *(Ras Tafari)*. Haile Selassie I was born to parents with ethnic links to three Afroasiatic-speaking populations of Ethiopia: the Oromo and Amhara, the country's two largest ethnic groups, as well as the Gurage. He came to power after Lij Iyasu was deposed, and undertook a nationwide modernization campaign from 1916 when he was made a *Ras* and Regent (*Inderase*) for the Empress Regnant Zewditu, and became the *de facto* ruler of the Ethiopian Empire. Following Zewditu's death, on 2 November 1930, he succeeded her as emperor. In 1931, Haile Selassie endowed Ethiopia with its first-ever Constitution in emulation of Imperial Japan's 1890 Constitution, through which the Central Europe a model of unitary and homogenous ethnolinguistic nation-state was adopted for the Ethiopian Empire. #### Fascist Italy occupation (1936–1941) The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, beginning when it was invaded by Fascist Italy in early October 1935, and by subsequent Italian rule of the country (1936–1941) after Italian victory in the war. During this time, Haile Selassie exiled and appealed to the League of Nations in 1935, delivering an address that made him a worldwide figure, and the 1935 *Time* Man of the Year. As the majority of the Ethiopian population lived in rural towns, Italy faced continued resistance and ambushes in urban centers throughout its rule over Ethiopia. Haile Selassie fled into exile in Fairfield House, Bath, England. Mussolini was able to proclaim Italian Ethiopia and the assumption of the imperial title by the Italian King Vittorio Emanuele III. In 1937, the Italian massacre of Yekatit 12 took place, in which between 1,400 and 30,000 civilians were killed and many others imprisoned. This massacre was a reprisal for the attempted assassination of Rodolfo Graziani, the viceroy of Italian East Africa. The Italians employed the use of asphyxiating chemical weapons in their Ethiopian invasion. The Italians regularly dropped bombs throughout Ethiopia that carried mustard gas and debilitated the Ethiopian forces. On the whole, the Italians dropped about 300 tons of mustard gas as well as thousands of other artillery. This use of chemical weapons amounted to egregious war crimes. The Italians made investments in Ethiopian infrastructure development during their rule over Ethiopia. They created the so-called "imperial road" between Addis Ababa and Massaua. More than 900 km of railways were reconstructed, dams and hydroelectric plants were built, and many public and private companies were established. The Italian government abolished slavery, a practice that existed in the country for centuries. Following the entry of Italy into World War II, British Empire forces, together with the *Arbegnoch* (literally, "patriots", referring to armed resistance soldiers) liberated Ethiopia in the course of the East African Campaign in 1941. An Italian guerrilla warfare campaign continued until 1943. The country was placed under British military administration. This was followed by British recognition of Ethiopia's full sovereignty, without any special British privileges, when the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement was signed in December 1944, although some regions remained under British control for more years. Under the peace treaty of 1947, Italy recognized the sovereignty and independence of Ethiopia. On 26 August 1942, Haile Selassie issued a proclamation that removed legal basis for slavery. Ethiopia had between two and four million slaves in the early 20th century, out of a total population of about eleven million. #### Post-World War II (1941–1974) In 1952, Haile Selassie orchestrated a federation with Eritrea. He dissolved this in 1962 and annexed Eritrea, resulting in the Eritrean War of Independence. Haile Selassie was nearly deposed in the 1960 coup d'état in a conspiracy by the chiefly progressive opposition group led by brothers Germame and Mengistu Neway whilst Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil. On the evening of Tuesday, 13 December, a group deceived the Ministers of the Imperial Crown and important personages to enter the National Palace, taking them hostage. Fighting began on the next day primarily between the Loyalist imperial army (Kebur Zebegna) and rebels led by General Tsege and Colonel Warqenah. At its start, Germame and his fellow combatants killed 15 of the hostages held in Genetta Leul Palace. Central of these were officials such as then Prime Minister *Ras* Abebe Aregai, Makonnen Habte-Wolde and Major General Mulugeta. Heavily subdued by the imperial army, General Tsege was killed in fighting, Colonel Warqenah committed suicide, and the brothers Mengistu and Germame Neway was near Mojo on 24 December, who would soon executed by hanging at church square in Addis Ababa but Germame evaded by committing suicide. The coup considered one of serious threat to Haile Selassie until 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. In 1963, Haile Selassie played a leading role in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Opinion within Ethiopia turned against Haile Selassie owing to the worldwide 1973 oil crisis causing a sharp increase in gasoline prices starting on 13 February 1974. The high gasoline prices motivated taxi drivers and teachers to go on strike on 18 February 1974, and students and workers in Addis Ababa began demonstrating against the government on 20 February 1974. There were resulting food shortages, uncertainty regarding the succession, border wars, and discontent in the middle class created through modernization. The feudal oligarchical cabinet of Aklilu Habte-Wold was toppled, and a new government was formed with Endelkachew Makonnen serving as Prime Minister. ### The Derg era (1974–1991) Haile Selassie's rule ended on 12 September 1974, when he was deposed by the Derg, a non-ideological committee made up of military and police officers led by Aman Andom. After the execution of 60 former government and military officials including Aman in November 1974, the new Provisional Military Administrative Council now led by General Tafari Benti abolished the monarchy in March 1975 and established Ethiopia as a Marxist-Leninist state with itself as the vanguard party in a provisional government. The abolition of feudalism, increased literacy, nationalization, and sweeping land reform including the resettlement and villagization from the Ethiopian Highlands became priorities. After internal conflicts that resulted in the execution of chairman Tafari Benti and several of his supporters in February 1977, and the execution of vice-chairman Atnafu Abate in November 1977, Mengistu Halie Mariam gained undisputed leadership of the Derg. The Derg suffered several coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a huge refugee problem. In 1977, Somalia, which had previously been receiving assistance and arms from the USSR, invaded Ethiopia in the Ogaden War, capturing part of the Ogaden region. Ethiopia recovered it after it began receiving massive military aid from the Soviet bloc countries of the USSR, Cuba, South Yemen, East Germany, and North Korea. This included around 15,000 Cuban combat troops. In 1976–78, up to 500,000 were killed as a result of the Red Terror, a violent political repression campaign by the Derg against various opposition groups most notably the Marxist–Leninist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP). The Red Terror was carried out in response to what the Derg termed the 'White Terror', a chain of violent events, assassinations, and killings carried out by what it called "petty bourgeois reactionaries" who desired a reversal of the 1974 revolution. In 1987, the Derg dissolved itself and established the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) upon the adoption of the 1987 Constitution of Ethiopia modeled on the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union with modified provisions. The 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia affected around eight million people, resulting in one million dead. Insurrections against authoritarian rule sprang up, particularly in the northern regions of Eritrea and Tigray. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically based opposition movements in 1989, to form the coalition known as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Concurrently, under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union began to retreat from building world communism towards *glasnost* and *perestroika* policies, marking a dramatic reduction in aid to Ethiopia from Socialist Bloc countries. This resulted in more economic hardship and the collapse of the military in the face of determined onslaughts by guerrilla forces in the north. The collapse of Marxism–Leninism in general, and in Eastern Europe during the revolutions of 1989, coincided with the Soviet Union stopping aid to Ethiopia altogether in 1990. To garner international support Mengistu embraced a mixed economy and an end to one party rule but it was too late to save his regime. EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa in May 1991, and the Soviet Union did not intervene to save the government side. Mengistu fled the country and was granted asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides. In 2006, after a trial that lasted 12 years, Ethiopia's Federal High Court in Addis Ababa found Mengistu guilty of genocide *in absentia*. Numerous other top leaders of his government were also found guilty of war crimes. Mengistu and others who had fled the country were tried and sentenced *in absentia*. Numerous former officials received the death sentence and tens of others spent the next 20 years in jail, before being pardoned from life sentences. ### Federal Democratic Republic (1991–present) In July 1991, the EPRDF convened a National Conference to establish the Transitional Government of Ethiopia composed of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution. In June 1992, the Oromo Liberation Front withdrew from the government; in March 1993, members of the Southern Ethiopia Peoples' Democratic Coalition also left the government. In April 1993, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia after a national referendum. In 1994, a new constitution was written that established a parliamentary republic with a bicameral legislature and a judicial system. The first multiparty election took place in May 1995, which was won by the EPRDF. The president of the transitional government, EPRDF leader Meles Zenawi, became the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and Negasso Gidada was elected its president. In post-Derg Ethiopia's Constitution (promulgated in 1995), the EPRDF not only took over the Derg's Soviet-inspired promise of cultural and administrative autonomy for the country's over 80 ethnic groups but also borrowed the right to independence (secession) from the Soviet Constitution. In this manner, an ethnoterritorial federal model of statehood was adopted for Ethiopia (as originally developed in the Central European empire of Austria-Hungary and in the interwar Soviet Union). In May 1998, a border dispute with Eritrea led to the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, which lasted until June 2000 and cost both countries an estimated $1 million a day. This had a negative effect on Ethiopia's economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition. Ethiopia's 3rd multiparty election on 15 May 2005 was highly disputed, with many opposition groups claiming fraud. Though the Carter Center approved the pre-election conditions, it expressed its dissatisfaction with post-election events. European Union election observers cited state support for the EPRDF campaign, as well as irregularities in ballot counting and results publishing. The opposition parties gained more than 200 parliamentary seats, compared with just 12 in the 2000 elections. While most of the opposition representatives joined the parliament, some leaders of the CUD party who refused to take up their parliamentary seats were accused of inciting the post-election violence and were imprisoned. Amnesty International considered them "prisoners of conscience" and they were subsequently released. A coalition of opposition parties and some individuals were established in 2009 to oust the government of the EPRDF in legislative elections of 2010. Meles' party, which has been in power since 1991, published its 65-page manifesto in Addis Ababa on 10 October 2009. The opposition won most votes in Addis Ababa, but the EPRDF halted the counting of votes for several days. After it ensued, it claimed the election, amidst charges of fraud and intimidation. In mid-2011, two consecutively missed rainy seasons precipitated the worst drought in East Africa seen in 60 years. Full recovery from the drought's effects did not occur until 2012, with long-term strategies by the national government in conjunction with development agencies believed to offer the most sustainable results. Meles died on 20 August 2012 in Brussels, where he was being treated for an unspecified illness. Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was appointed as a new prime minister until the 2015 elections, and remained so afterwards with his party in control of every parliamentary seat. Protests broke out across the country on 5 August 2016 and hundreds of protesters were subsequently shot and killed by police. The protesters demanded an end to human rights abuses, the release of political prisoners, a fairer redistribution of the wealth generated by over a decade of economic growth, and a return of Wolqayt District to the Amhara Region. The events were the most violent crackdown against protesters in Sub-Saharan Africa since the Ethiopian government killed at least 75 people during protests in the Oromia Region in November and December 2015. Following these protests, Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on 6 October 2016. The state of emergency was lifted in August 2017. On 16 February 2018, the government of Ethiopia declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency following the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Hailemariam is the first ruler in modern Ethiopian history to step down; previous leaders have died in office or been overthrown. He said that he wanted to clear the way for reforms. ### Abiy Ahmed and the Prosperity Party (2018–present) The new Prime Minister was Abiy Ahmed, who made an historic visit to Eritrea in 2018, ending the state of conflict between the two countries. For his efforts in ending the 20-year-long war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel prize for peace in 2019. After taking office in April 2018, 46-year-old Abiy released political prisoners, promised fair elections for 2019 and announced sweeping economic reforms. As of 6 June 2019,[update] all the previously censored websites were made accessible again, over 13,000 political prisoners were released and hundreds of administrative staff were fired as part of the reforms. Ethnic violence rose with the political unrest. There were Oromo–Somali clashes between the Oromo, who make up the largest ethnic group in the country, and the ethnic Somalis, leading to up to 400,000 have been displaced in 2017. Gedeo–Oromo clashes between the Oromo and the Gedeo people in the south of the country led to Ethiopia having the largest number of people to flee their homes in the world in 2018, with 1.4 million newly displaced people. Starting in 2019, in the Metekel conflict, fighting in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in Ethiopia has reportedly involved militias from the Gumuz people against Amharas and Agaws. In March 2020, the leader of an Amhara militia called Fano, Solomon Atanaw, stated that they would not disarm until Metekel Zone and the Tigray Region districts of Welkait and Raya were returned to the control of Amhara Region. In September 2018, 23 people were killed in acts of ethnic violence against minorities in the Special Zone of Oromia near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. 35 people were later killed in Addis Ababa and in the surrounding Oromia Special Zone during protests against what many regarded as a lack of a response from the government to the violence. Some were killed by police. On 22 June 2019, factions of the security forces of the region attempted a coup d'état against the regional government, during which the President of the Amhara Region, Ambachew Mekonnen, was assassinated. A bodyguard siding with the nationalist factions assassinated General Se'are Mekonnen – the Chief of the General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force – as well as his aide, Major General Gizae Aberra. The Prime Minister's Office accused Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige, head of the Amhara region security forces, of leading the plot, and Tsige was shot dead by police near Bahir Dar on 24 June. The Fano militia is an Amhara youth group in Ethiopia, perceived as either a protest group or an armed militia. An alliance between Fano and Qeerroo, its Oromo counterpart, played a crucial role in the bringing about the political and administrative changes associated with the premiership of Abiy Ahmed. During the Tigray War, Fano supported federal and regional security forces against rebels aligned with the Tigray People's Liberation Front or TPLF. Fano units are accused of participating in ethnic massacres, including that of 58 Qemant people in Metemma during 10–11 January 2019, and of armed actions in Humera in November 2020. Protests broke out across Ethiopia following the assassination of Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa on 29 June 2020, leading to the deaths of at least 239 people. The federal government, under the Prosperity Party, requested that the National Election Board of Ethiopia cancel elections for 2020 due to health and safety concerns about COVID-19. No official date was set for the next election at that time, but the government promised that once a vaccine was developed for COVID-19 that elections would move forward. The Tigrayan ruling party, TPLF, opposed canceling the elections and, when their request to the federal government to hold elections was rejected, the TPLF proceeded to hold elections anyway on 9 September 2020. They worked with regional opposition parties and included international observers in the election process. It was estimated that 2.7 million people participated in the election. Relations between the federal government and the Tigray regional government deteriorated after the election, and on 4 November 2020, Abiy began a military offensive in the Tigray Region in response to attacks on army units stationed there, causing thousands of refugees to flee to neighbouring Sudan and triggering the Tigray War. More than 600 civilians were killed in a massacre in the town of Mai Kadra on 9 November 2020. In April 2021, Eritrea confirmed its troops are fighting in Ethiopia. As of March 2022, as many as 500,000 people had died as a result of violence and famine in the Tigray War, with other reported estimates reaching numbers as high as 700,000–800,000 by the end of 2022. After a number of peace and mediation proposals in the intervening years, Ethiopia and the Tigrayan rebel forces agreed to a cessation of hostilities on 2 November 2022; as Eritrea was not a party to the agreement, however, their status remained unclear. Government and politics ----------------------- Ethiopia is a federal parliamentary republic, wherein the Prime Minister is the head of government, and the President is the head of state but with largely ceremonial powers. Executive power is exercised by the government and federal legislative power vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The House of Federation is the upper chamber of the bicameral legislature with 108 seats, and the lower chamber is the House of Peoples' Representatives (HoPR) with 547 seats. The House of Federation is chosen by the regional councils whereas MPs of the HoPR are elected directly, in turn, they elect the president for a six-year term and the prime minister for a 5-year term. The Ethiopian judiciary consists of dual system with two court structures: the federal and state courts. The FDRE Constitution vested federal judicial authority to the Federal Supreme Court which can overturn and review decisions of subordinate federal courts; itself has regular division assigned for fundamental errors of law. In addition, the Supreme Court can perform circuit hearings in established five states at any states of federal levels or "area designated for its jurisdiction" if deemed "necessary for the efficient rendering of justice". The Federal Supreme Proclamation granted three subject matter principles: laws, parties and place to federal court jurisdiction, first "cases arising under the Constitution, federal laws and international treaties", second over "parties specified by federal laws". On the basis of Article 78 of the 1994 Ethiopian Constitution, the judiciary is completely independent of the executive and the legislature. To ensure this, the vice-president and President of the Supreme Court appointed by Parliament on the nomination of Prime Minister. Once elected, the executive power has no authority to remove from office. Other judges are nominated by the Federal Judicial Administration Council (FJAC) on the basis of transparent criteria and the Prime Minister's recommendation for appointment in the HoPR. In all cases, judges cannot be removed from their duty unless they retired, violated disciplinary rules, gross incompatibility, or inefficiency to unfit due to ill health. Contrary, the majority vote of HoPR have the right to sanction removal in federal judiciary level or state council in cases of state judges. In 2015, the realities of this provision were questioned in a report prepared by Freedom House. According to the Democracy Index published by the United Kingdom-based Economist Intelligence Unit in late 2010, Ethiopia was an "authoritarian regime", ranking as the 118th-most democratic out of 167 countries. Ethiopia had dropped 13 places on the list since 2008, and the 2010 report attributed the drop to the government's crackdown on opposition activities, media, and civil society before the 2010 parliamentary election, which the report argued had made Ethiopia a *de facto* one-party state. ### Governance Prime Minister Abiy AhmedPresident Sahle-Work Zewde In post-1995 regime, Ethiopia's politics has been liberalized which promotes all-encompassing reforms to the country. Today, its economy is based on mixed, market-oriented principles. The first election of 547-member constituent assembly was held in June 1994. This assembly adopted the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in December 1994. The elections for Ethiopia's first popularly chosen national parliament and regional legislatures were held in May and June 1995. Most opposition parties chose to boycott these elections. There was a landslide victory for the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). International and non-governmental observers concluded that opposition parties would have been able to participate had they chosen to do so. The first government of Ethiopia under the new constitution was installed in August 1995 with Negasso Gidada as president. The EPRDF-led government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi promoted a policy of ethnic federalism, devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically based authorities. Ethiopia today has eleven semi-autonomous administrative regions that have the power to raise and spend their own revenues. Under past governments, some fundamental freedoms, including freedom of the press, were circumscribed. Citizens had little access to media other than the state-owned networks, and most private newspapers struggled to remain open and suffered periodic harassment from the government. Starting from the 2005 elections, at least 18 journalists who had written articles critical of the government, were arrested on genocide and treason charges. The government used press laws governing libel to intimidate journalists who were critical of its policies. Meles' government was elected in 2000 in the first-ever multiparty elections; however, the results were heavily criticized by international observers and denounced by the opposition as fraudulent. The EPRDF also won the 2005 election returning Meles to power. Although the opposition vote increased in the election, both the opposition and observers from the European Union and elsewhere stated that the vote did not meet international standards for fair and free elections. Ethiopian police are said to have massacred 193 protesters, mostly in the capital Addis Ababa, in the violence following the May 2005 elections in the Ethiopian police massacre. The government initiated a crackdown in the provinces as well; in Oromia Region, the authorities used concerns over insurgency and terrorism to use torture, imprisonment, and other repressive methods to silence critics following the election, particularly people sympathetic to the registered opposition party Oromo National Congress (ONC). The government has been engaged in a conflict with rebels in the Ogaden region since 2007. The biggest opposition party in 2005 was the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). After various internal divisions, most of the CUD party leaders have established the new Unity for Democracy and Justice party led by Judge Birtukan Mideksa. A member of the country's Oromo ethnic group, Birtukan Mideksa is the first woman to lead a political party in Ethiopia. In 2008, the top five opposition parties were the Unity for Democracy and Justice led by Judge Birtukan Mideksa, United Ethiopian Democratic Forces led by Beyene Petros, Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement led by Bulcha Demeksa, Oromo People's Congress led by Merera Gudina, and United Ethiopian Democratic Party – Medhin Party led by Lidetu Ayalew. After the 2015 elections, Ethiopia lost its single remaining opposition MP; by 2015 there were no opposition MPs in the Ethiopian parliament. ### Foreign relations Starting from the Land of Punt, Ethiopia has been a trading nation that mainly exported goods such as gold, ivory, exotic animals, and incense. Many historians concluded that modern diplomatic relationship of Ethiopia began under Emperor Tewodros II, whose reign was sought to establish Ethiopian border and later unsuccessfully diminished in British expedition of 1868. Since then, the country was seen redundant by world powers until the opening of Suez Canal due to an influence of Mahdist War. Today, Ethiopia maintains strong relations with China, Israel, Mexico, Turkey and India as well as neighboring countries. The relationship with Sudan and Egypt is somewhat in dispute situation owing to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project, which was escalated in 2020. Despite six upstream countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania) signed Nile Basin Initiative in 2010, Egypt and Sudan rejected water sharing treaty citing the reduction of amount of water to the Nile Basin challenges their historic connection of water rights. In 2020, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned that "No force can stop Ethiopia from building a dam. If there is need to go to war, we could get millions readied." Ethiopia is a strategic partner of Global War on Terrorism and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). US. Former President Barack Obama was the first incumbent to visit Ethiopia in July 2015, while delivering speech in the Africa Union, he highlighted combatting the Islamic terrorism. Ethiopia has concentrated emigrant to countries in Europe mainly in Italy, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Australia. Ethiopia has Jewish emigrant in Israel about 155,300 as of 2019. They are collectively known as Beta Israel. Ethiopia is founding member of the Group of 24 (G-24), the Non-Aligned Movement and the G77. In 1963, the Organization of African Unity later renamed itself the African Union was founded in Addis Ababa serving the political center of the Union. In addition, it is also a member of the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and many of the global NGOs focused on Africa. Ethiopia is one of African countries and founding member of League of Nations now United Nations since at least end of colonial era in 1923. The UN tasks in Ethiopia is primarily of humanitarian issues and development. For example, UN Country Team (UNCT) in Ethiopia has representative of 28 UN funds and programmes and specialized agencies. Some of its agencies mandate regional ligature with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union. The UN focuses all-encompassing affairs in Ethiopia, providing two goals: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and National Development priority. This includes fighting against poverty, sustainable economic growth, climate change policy, educational and healthcare provision, increasing job employment and environmental protection. ### Military The Ethiopian army's origins and military traditions date back to the earliest history of Ethiopia. Due to Ethiopia's location between the Middle East and Africa, it has long been in the middle of Eastern and Western politics and has been subject to foreign invasions. In 1579, the Ottoman Empire's attempt to expand from a coastal base at Massawa during the Ottoman conquest of Habesh was defeated. The Army of the Ethiopian Empire was also able to defeat the Egyptians in 1876 at Gura, led by Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV. The Battle of Adwa is the best-known victory of Ethiopian forces over foreign invaders. It maintained Ethiopia's existence as an independent state. Fought on 1 March 1896 against the Kingdom of Italy near the town of Adwa, it was the decisive battle of the First Italo–Ethiopian War. Modernization of the Ethiopian army took place under the regency of Tafari Mekonnen, who later reigned as Emperor Haile Selassie I. He created an Imperial Bodyguard, the *Kebur Zabagna*, in 1917 from the earlier *Mahal Safari* who had traditionally attended the Ethiopian Emperor. Its elite was trained at the French military academy at Saint-Cyr. The Ethiopian Army under Kagnew Battalion unit involved in the Korean War from 1950, fought as part of United Nations Command. Some publications stated that Ethiopian troops remained for 15 years, though other stated they left until 1975, as part of the UN Command. The battalion sized 6,037 troops at the time of the war. The Ethiopian National Defense Force is the military force of Ethiopia. The ENDF consists of two separate branches: the Ethiopian Ground Forces and the Ethiopian Air Force. Since 1996, landlocked Ethiopia has had no navy but in 2018 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on state TV: "We built one of the strongest ground and air forces in Africa ... we should build our naval force capacity in the future." ### Law enforcement The constitution guarantees law enforcement duty to the Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP). The EFP is responsible for safeguarding and public welfare in federal level. Founded in 1995, the federal police surveyed by Federal Police Commissioner since October 2000; the Federal Police Commissioner then reports task to the Ministry of Peace, however it was overrode after political reforms in 2018, and directed to the parliament. In previous years, the federal police reports the Ministry's tasks directly. In addition, the federal police have ability to disclose regional police commissions, in order for assistance. Independently, the local militias uphold security. Nowadays, bribery is a basic concern, especially observed by traffic police. Police brutality appeared as severe in recent years. On 26 August 2019, a video of handcuffed man beaten by two police officers as an elderly woman intervened the scene in Addis Ababa went viral. Recent police misconduct is said to be a failure of Federal Police Commissioner to abide Article 52 of the constitution, which states investigation of unlawful use of force, and dismissal of those misconducted officer. The African Union's Luanda and Robben Island Guidelines or the United Nations' Declaration on Justice for Victims of Abuse of Power and their Basic Principles on the Use of Force & Firearms are once obligated to the Ethiopian government disciplinary committee to combat police brutality in both individual and systemic level. ### Human rights Human rights violations often accompany endured ethnic and communal violence in the country. In a 2016 demonstration, 100 peaceful protestors were killed by direct government gunfire in the Oromia and Amhara regions. The UN has called for UN observers on the ground in Ethiopia to investigate this incident, however the EPRDF-dominated Ethiopian government has refused this call. The protestors are protesting land grabs and lack of basic human rights such as the freedom to elect their representatives. The TPLF-dominated EPRDF won 100% in an election marked by fraud which has resulted in Ethiopian civilians protesting on scale unseen in prior post-election protests. Merera Gudina, leader of the Oromo People's Congress, said the East African country was at a "crossroads". He added in the interview with Reuters: "People are demanding their rights", he said. "People are fed up with what the regime has been doing for a quarter of a century. They're protesting against land grabs, reparations, stolen elections, the rising cost of living, many things. "If the government continue to repress while the people are demanding their rights in the millions that (civil war) is one of the likely scenarios." According to surveys in 2003 by the National Committee on Traditional Practices in Ethiopia, marriage by abduction accounts for 69% of the nation's marriages, with around 80% in the largest region, Oromia, and as high as 92% in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. Journalists and activists have been threatened or arrested for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia. Among the Omotic Karo-speaking and Hamer peoples in southern Ethiopia, adults and children with physical abnormalities are considered to be mingi, "ritually impure". The latter are believed to exert an evil influence upon others; disabled infants have traditionally been murdered without a proper burial. The Karo officially banned the practice in July 2012. In 2013, the Oakland Institute released a report accusing the Ethiopian government of forcing the relocation of "hundreds of thousands of indigenous people from their lands" in the Gambela Region. According to several reports by the organization, those who refused were the subject of a variety of intimidation techniques including physical and sexual abuse, which sometimes led to deaths. A similar 2012 report by Human Rights Watch also describes the Ethiopian government's 2010–2011 villagization program in Gambela, with plans to carry out similar resettlements in other regions. The Ethiopian government has denied the accusations of land grabbing and instead pointed to the positive trajectory of the country's economy as evidence of the development program's benefits. A nationwide series of violent protests, concentrated in the Oromia Region, broke out starting on 23 October 2019, sparked by activist and media owner Jawar Mohammed's allegation that security forces had attempted to detain him. According to official reports, 86 people were killed. On 29 May 2020, Amnesty International released a report accusing the security forces of Ethiopia of mass detentions and extrajudicial killings. The report stated that in 2019, at least 25 people, suspected of supporting the Oromo Liberation Army, were killed by the forces in parts the Oromia Region. Besides, between January and September 2019, at least 10,000 people were detained under suspicion, where most were "subjected to brutal beatings". #### LGBT rights Homosexual acts are illegal in Ethiopia. According to Criminal Code Article 629, same-sex activity is punished up to 15 years to life in prison. Ethiopia has been a socially conservative country. The majority of people are hostile towards LGBT people and persecution is commonplace on the grounds of religious and societal norms. Homosexuality came to light in the country since the failed 2008 appeal to the Council of Ministers, and the LGBT scene began to thrive slightly in major metropolitan locations, such as Addis Ababa. Some notable hotels like Sheraton Addis and Hilton Hotel became hotbeds of accusations for alleged lobbying. The Ethiopian Orthodox church plays a frontal role in opposition; some of its members formed anti-gay organizations. For example, Dereje Negash, one prominent activist, founded "Zim Anlem" in 2014, which is a traditionalism and anti-gender movement. According to the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project, 97 percent of Ethiopians believe homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept. This was the second-highest rate of non-acceptance in the 45 countries surveyed. ### Administrative divisions Before 1996, Ethiopia was divided into thirteen provinces, many derived from historical regions. The nation now has a tiered governmental system consisting of a federal government overseeing regional states, zones, districts (*woreda*), and *kebeles* ("neighbourhoods"). Ethiopia is divided into eleven ethnically based and politically autonomous regional states (*kililoch*, singular *kilil* ) and two chartered cities (*astedader akababiwoch*, singular *astedader akababi* ), the latter being Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. The *kililoch* are subdivided into sixty-eight zones, and then further into 550 *woredas* and several special *woredas*. The constitution assigns extensive power to regional states, which can establish their own government and democracy as long as it is in line with the federal government's constitution. Each region has at its apex a regional council where members are directly elected to represent the districts and the council has legislative and executive power to direct internal affairs of the regions. Furthermore, Article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution gives every regional state the right to secede from Ethiopia. There is debate, however, as to how much of the power guaranteed in the constitution is actually given to the states. The councils implement their mandate through an executive committee and regional sectoral bureaus. Such an elaborate structure of council, executive and sectoral public institutions is replicated at the next level (*woreda*). Geography --------- At 1,104,300 square kilometres (426,372.61 sq mi), Ethiopia is the world's 28th-largest country, comparable in size to Bolivia. It lies between the 3rd parallel north and the 15th parallel north and longitudes 33rd meridian east and 48th meridian east. The major portion of Ethiopia lies in the Horn of Africa, which is the easternmost part of the African landmass. The territories that have frontiers with Ethiopia are Eritrea to the north and then, moving in a clockwise direction, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Sudan. Within Ethiopia is a vast highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semi-desert. There is a great diversity of terrain with wide variations in climate, soils, natural vegetation and settlement patterns. Ethiopia is an ecologically diverse country, ranging from the deserts along the eastern border to the tropical forests in the south to extensive Afromontane in the northern and southwestern parts. Lake Tana in the north is the source of the Blue Nile. It also has many endemic species, notably the gelada, the walia ibex and the Ethiopian wolf ("Simien fox"). The wide range of altitude has given the country a variety of ecologically distinct areas, and this has helped to encourage the evolution of endemic species in ecological isolation. The nation is a land of geographical contrasts, ranging from the vast fertile west, with its forests and numerous rivers, to the world's hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are the largest continuous mountain ranges in Africa, and the Sof Omar Caves contains the largest cave on the continent. Ethiopia also has the second-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. ### Climate The predominant climate type is tropical monsoon, with wide topographic-induced variation. The Ethiopian Highlands cover most of the country and have a climate which is generally considerably cooler than other regions at similar proximity to the Equator. Most of the country's major cities are located at elevations of around 2,000–2,500 m (6,562–8,202 ft) above sea level, including historic capitals such as Gondar and Axum. The modern capital, Addis Ababa, is situated on the foothills of Mount Entoto at an elevation of around 2,400 metres (7,900 ft). It experiences a mild climate year round. With temperatures fairly uniform year round, the seasons in Addis Ababa are largely defined by rainfall: a dry season from October to February, a light rainy season from March to May, and a heavy rainy season from June to September. The average annual rainfall is approximately 1,200 millimetres (47 in). At some heigh altitude mountains over 14,000 feet or 4,000 meters as the Bale Mountains and Simien Mountains snow can be seen every winter in Ethiopia (left) Ethiopia has one of the hottest areas in the world, the Afar region holds hot temperatures throughout the year There are on average seven hours of sunshine per day. The dry season is the sunniest time of the year, though even at the height of the rainy season in July and August there are still usually several hours per day of bright sunshine. The average annual temperature in Addis Ababa is 16 °C (60.8 °F), with daily maximum temperatures averaging 20–25 °C (68.0–77.0 °F) throughout the year, and overnight lows averaging 5–10 °C (41.0–50.0 °F). Most major cities and tourist sites in Ethiopia lie at a similar elevation to Addis Ababa and have a comparable climate. In less elevated regions, particularly the lower lying Ethiopian xeric grasslands and shrublands in the east of Ethiopia, the climate can be significantly hotter and drier. Dallol, in the Danakil Depression in this eastern zone, has the world's highest average annual temperature of 34 °C (93.2 °F). Ethiopia is vulnerable to many of the effects of climate change. These include increases in temperature and changes in precipitation. Climate change in these forms threatens food security and the economy, which is agriculture based. Many Ethiopians have been forced to leave their homes and travel as far as the Gulf, Southern Africa and Europe. Since April 2019, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has promoted Beautifying Sheger, a development project that aims to reduce the negative effects of climate change – among other things – in the capital city Addis Ababa. In the following May, the government held "Dine for Sheger", a fundraising event in order to cover some of the $1 billion needed through the public. $25 million was raised through the expensive event, both through the cost of attending and donations. Two Chinese railway companies under the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Ethiopia had supplied funds to develop 12 of the total 56 kilometres. ### Biodiversity Ethiopia has 31 endemic species of mammals. The African wild dog prehistorically had widespread distribution in the territory. However, with last sightings at Finicha'a, this canid is thought to be potentially locally extinct. The Ethiopian wolf is perhaps the most researched of all the endangered species within Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a global centre of avian diversity. To date more than 856 bird species have been recorded in Ethiopia, twenty of which are endemic to the country. Sixteen species are endangered or critically endangered. Many of these birds feed on butterflies, like the *Bicyclus anynana*.[*full citation needed*] Historically, throughout the African continent, wildlife populations have been rapidly declining due to logging, civil wars, pollution, poaching, and other human factors. A 17-year-long civil war, along with severe drought, negatively affected Ethiopia's environmental conditions, leading to even greater habitat degradation. Habitat destruction is a factor that leads to endangerment. When changes to a habitat occur rapidly, animals do not have time to adjust. Human impact threatens many species, with greater threats expected as a result of climate change induced by greenhouse gases. With carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 of 6,494,000 tonnes, Ethiopia contributes just 0.02% to the annual human-caused release of greenhouse gases. Ethiopia has many species listed as critically endangered and vulnerable to global extinction. The threatened species in Ethiopia can be broken down into three categories (based on IUCN ratings): critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Ethiopia is one of the eight fundamental and independent centres of origin for cultivated plants in the world. However, deforestation is a major concern for Ethiopia as studies suggest loss of forest contributes to soil erosion, loss of nutrients in the soil, loss of animal habitats, and reduction in biodiversity. At the beginning of the 20th century, around 420,000 km2 (or 35%) of Ethiopia's land was covered by trees, but recent research indicates that forest cover is now approximately 11.9% of the area. The country had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.16/10, ranking it 50th globally out of 172 countries. Ethiopia loses an estimated 1,410 km2 of natural forests each year due to firewood collection, conversion to farmland, overgrazing, and use of forest wood for building material. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost approximately 21,000 km2 of forests. Current government programs to control deforestation consist of education, promoting reforestation programs, and providing raw materials which are alternatives to timber. In rural areas the government also provides non-timber fuel sources and access to non-forested land to promote agriculture without destroying forest habitat. Organizations such as SOS and Farm Africa are working with the federal government and local governments to create a system of forest management. Working with a grant of approximately 2.3 million Euros, the Ethiopian government recently began training people on reducing erosion and using proper irrigation techniques that do not contribute to deforestation. This project is assisting more than 80 communities. Economy ------- Ethiopia registered the fastest economic growth under Meles Zenawi's administration. According to the IMF, Ethiopia was one of the fastest growing economies in the world, registering over 10% economic growth from 2004 through 2009. It was the fastest-growing non-oil-dependent African economy in the years 2007 and 2008. In 2015, the World Bank highlighted that Ethiopia had witnessed rapid economic growth with real domestic product (GDP) growth averaging 10.9% between 2004 and 2014. In 2008 and 2011, Ethiopia's growth performance and considerable development gains were challenged by high inflation and a difficult balance of payments situation. Inflation surged to 40% in August 2011 because of loose monetary policy, large civil service wage increase in early 2011, and high food prices. For 2011–12, end-year inflation was projected to be about 22%, and single digit inflation is projected in 2012–13 with the implementation of tight monetary and fiscal policies. In spite of fast growth in recent years, GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world, and the economy faces a number of serious structural problems. However, with a focused investment in public infrastructure and industrial parks, Ethiopia's economy is addressing its structural problems to become a hub for light manufacturing in Africa. In 2019 a law was passed allowing expatriate Ethiopians to invest in Ethiopia's financial service industry. The Ethiopian constitution specifies that rights to own land belong only to "the state and the people", but citizens may lease land for up to 99 years, but are unable to mortgage or sell. Renting out land for a maximum of twenty years is allowed and this is expected to ensure that land goes to the most productive user. Land distribution and administration is considered an area where corruption is institutionalized, and facilitation payments as well as bribes are often demanded when dealing with land-related issues. As there is no land ownership, infrastructural projects are most often simply done without asking the land users, which then end up being displaced and without a home or land. A lot of anger and distrust sometimes results in public protests. In addition, agricultural productivity remains low, and frequent droughts still beset the country, also leading to internal displacement. ### Energy and hydropower Ethiopia has 14 major rivers flowing from its highlands, including the Nile. It has the largest water reserves in Africa. As of 2012[update], hydroelectric plants represented around 88.2% of the total installed electricity generating capacity. The remaining electrical power was generated from fossil fuels (8.3%) and renewable sources (3.6%). The electrification rate for the total population in 2016 was 42%, with 85% coverage in urban areas and 26% coverage in rural areas. As of 2016[update], total electricity production was 11.15 TW⋅h and consumption was 9.062 TW⋅h. There were 0.166 TW⋅h of electricity exported, 0 kW⋅h imported, and 2.784 GW of installed generating capacity. Ethiopia delivers roughly 81% of water volume to the Nile through the river basins of the Blue Nile, Sobat River and Atbara. In 1959, Egypt and Sudan signed a bilateral treaty, the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement, which gave both countries exclusive maritime rights over the Nile waters. Ever since, Egypt has discouraged almost all projects in Ethiopia that sought to use the local Nile tributaries. This had the effect of discouraging external financing of hydropower and irrigation projects in western Ethiopia, thereby impeding water resource-based economic development projects. However, Ethiopia is in the process of constructing a large 6,450 MW hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile river. When completed, this Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is slated to be the largest hydroelectric power station in Africa. The Gibe III hydroelectric project is so far the largest in the country with an installed capacity of 1,870 MW. For the year 2017–18 (2010 E.C) this hydroelectric dam generated 4,900 GW⋅h. The Gibe III hydroelectric project is so far the largest in the country with an installed capacity of 1,870 MW. For the year 2017–18 (2010 E.C) this hydroelectric dam generated 4,900 GW⋅h. ### Agriculture Agriculture constitutes around 85% of the labour force. However, the service sector represents the largest portion of the GDP. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products. Production is overwhelmingly by small-scale farmers and enterprises, and a large part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural cash-crop sector. Principal crops include coffee, legumes, oilseeds, cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, and vegetables. Ethiopia is also a Vavilov centre of diversity for domesticated crops, including enset, coffee and teff. Exports are almost entirely agricultural commodities (with the exception of Gold exports), and coffee is the largest foreign exchange earner. Ethiopia is Africa's second biggest maize producer. According to UN estimations the per capita GDP of Ethiopia has reached $357 as of 2011[update]. Ethiopians have dominantly practiced a mixed agricultural activity. Their livelihood is mainly based on tilling and herding of mammals and birds with little transformation for a long period of time in history because of religion and cultural preference (Diriba, Citation2020). However, agriculture is still the backbone of the country which represents about 33.88% of its GDP (Plecher, Citation2020). The agricultural sector of Ethiopia has shown remarkable resilience over many centuries though it is now increasingly failing. The country is known for the regular food shortage that occurred due to droughts, sudden outbreaks of natural disasters, pests, lack of rainfall, and shortage of technological advancement in the past centuries. ### Exports Ethiopia is often considered as the birthplace of coffee since cultivation began in the 9th century. Exports from Ethiopia in the 2009–2010 financial year totalled US$1.4 billion. Ethiopia produces more coffee than any other nation on the continent. "Coffee provides a livelihood for close to 15 million Ethiopians, 16% of the population. Farmers in the eastern part of the country, where a warming climate is already impacting production, have struggled in recent years, and many are currently reporting largely failed harvests as a result of a prolonged drought". Ethiopia also has the 5th largest inventory of cattle. Other main export commodities are khat, gold, leather products, and oilseeds. Recent development of the floriculture sector means Ethiopia is poised to become one of the top flower and plant exporters in the world. Cross-border trade by pastoralists is often informal and beyond state control and regulation. In East Africa, over 95% of cross-border trade is through unofficial channels. The unofficial trade of live cattle, camels, sheep, and goats from Ethiopia sold to Somalia, Djibouti, and Kenya generates an estimated total value of between 250 and US$300 million annually (100 times more than the official figure). This trade helps lower food prices, increase food security, relieve border tensions, and promote regional integration. However, the unregulated and undocumented nature of this trade runs risks, such as allowing disease to spread more easily across national borders. Furthermore, the government of Ethiopia is purportedly unhappy with lost tax revenue and foreign exchange revenues. Recent initiatives have sought to document and regulate this trade. With the private sector growing slowly, designer leather products like bags are becoming a big export business, with Taytu becoming the first luxury designer label in the country. Additional small-scale export products include cereals, pulses, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, and hides. With the construction of various new dams and growing hydroelectric power projects around the country, Ethiopia also plans to export electric power to its neighbours. Most regard Ethiopia's large water resources and potential as its "white oil" and its coffee resources as "black gold". Ethiopia also has large mineral resources and oil potential in some of the less inhabited regions. Political instability in those regions, however, has inhibited development. Ethiopian geologists were implicated in a major gold swindle in 2008. Four chemists and geologists from the Ethiopian Geological Survey were arrested in connection with a fake gold scandal, following complaints from buyers in South Africa. Gold bars from the National Bank of Ethiopia were found by police to be gilded metal, costing the state around US$17 million, according to the Science and Development Network website. In 2011, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project was commenced. When completed, it will provide surplus energy in Ethiopia which will be available for export to neighbouring countries. ### Transport Ethiopia has 926 km of electrified 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge railways, 656 km for the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway between Addis Ababa and the Port of Djibouti (via Awash) and 270 km for the Awash–Hara Gebeya Railway between Addis Ababa and the twin cities of Dessie/Kombolcha (also via Awash). Both railways are either in trial service or still under construction as of August 2017[update]. Once commissioned and fully operational in 2018–2019, both railways will allow passenger transport with a designated speed of 120 km/hour and freight transport with a speed of ~80 km/hour. Expected travel time from Addis Ababa to Djibouti City for passengers would be less than twelve hours and travel time from Addis Ababa to Dessie/Kombolcha would be around six hours. Beyond the first 270 km of the Awash–Hara Gebeya Railway, a second construction phase over 120 km foresees the extension of this railway from Dessie/Kombolcha to Hara Gebeya/Woldiya. It is not clear, when this section will be built and opened. A third, northern 216 km long railway is also under construction between Mek'ele and Woldiya, but it is also not clear when this railway will be commissioned and opened. All railways are part of a future railway network of more than 5,000 km of railways, the National Railway Network of Ethiopia. As the first part of a ten-year Road Sector Development Program, between 1997 and 2002 the Ethiopian government began a sustained effort to improve its infrastructure of roads. As a result, as of 2015[update] Ethiopia has a total (Federal and Regional) of 100,000 km of roads, both paved and gravel. Ethiopia had 58 airports as of 2012[update], and 61 as of 2016[update]. Among these, the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa and the Aba Tenna Dejazmach Yilma International Airport in Dire Dawa accommodate international flights. Ethiopian Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance, is the country's flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia. From its hub at the Bole International Airport, the airline serves a network of 102 international passenger, 20 domestic passenger, and 44 cargo destinations. It is also one of the fastest-growing carriers in the industry and continent. ### Tourism Tourism is the most popular economic sector in Ethiopia, accounting 5.5% of GDP growth in 2006. In 2015, the European Council named Ethiopia "World's Best Tourism Destination". In 2020 alone, Ethiopia registered 518,000 tourists, ranked 126th in the world. There are nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia: * Ruins of Aksum * Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela * Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region * Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town * Konso Cultural Landscape * Lower Valley of the Awash * Lower Valley of the Omo * Tiya * Simien Mountains National Park Demographics ------------ Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world. Its total population has grown from 38.1 million in 1983 to 109.5 million in 2018. The population was only about nine million in the 19th century. The 2007 Population and Housing Census results show that the population of Ethiopia grew at an average annual rate of 2.6% between 1994 and 2007, down from 2.8% during the period 1983–1994. Currently, the population growth rate is among the top ten countries in the world. The population is forecast to grow to over 210 million by 2060, which would be an increase from 2011 estimates by a factor of about 2.5 and to 293 million by 2100. According to UN estimations, life expectancy had improved substantially in recent years with male life expectancy reported to be 56 years and for women 60 years. | Ethnic groups in Ethiopia | | --- | | Ethnic group | | Population | | Oromo |   | 25.4 (34.4%) | | Amhara |   | 19.9 (27.0%) | | Somali |   | 4.59 (6.2%) | | Tigrayans |   | 4.49 (6.1%) | | Sidama |   | 2.95 (4.0%) | | Gurage |   | 1.86 (2.5%) | | Welayta |   | 1.68 (2.3%) | | Afar |   | 1.28 (1.7%) | | Hadiya |   | 1.27 (1.7%) | | Gamo |   | 1.10 (1.5%) | | Others |   | 9.30 (12.6%) | | Population in millions according to 2007 Census | Ethiopia's population is highly diverse, containing over 80 different ethnic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromo, Amhara, Somali and Tigrayans. According to the Ethiopian national census of 2007, the Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, at 34.4% of the nation's population. The Amhara represent 27.0% of the country's inhabitants, while Somalis and Tigrayans represent 6.2% and 6.1% of the population respectively. Other prominent ethnic groups are as follows: Sidama 4.0%, Gurage 2.5%, Welayta 2.3%, Afar 1.7%, Hadiya 1.7%, Gamo 1.5% and Others 12.6%. Afroasiatic-speaking communities make up the majority of the population. Among these, Semitic speakers often collectively refer to themselves as the Habesha people. The Arabic form of this term (*al-Ḥabasha*) is the etymological basis of "Abyssinia", the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European languages. Additionally, Nilo-Saharan-speaking ethnic minorities inhabit the southern regions of the country, particularly in areas of the Gambela Region which borders South Sudan. The largest ethnic groups among these include the Nuer and Anuak. In addition, Ethiopia had over 75,000 Italian settlers during the Italian occupation of the country. After independence, many Italians remained for decades after receiving full pardons from Emperor Selassie, as he saw the opportunity to continue modernization efforts. However, due to the Ethiopian Civil War in 1974, nearly 22,000 Italo-Ethiopians left the country. In the 2000s, some Italian companies returned to operate in Ethiopia, and many Italian technicians and managers arrived with their families, residing mainly in the metropolitan area of the capital. The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, being an amalgam of the main homelands of numerous ethnicities, contains over 56 indigenous ethnic groups. In 2009, Ethiopia hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 135,200. The majority of this population came from Somalia (approximately 64,300 persons), Eritrea (41,700) and Sudan (25,900). The Ethiopian government required nearly all refugees to live in refugee camps. ### Languages Languages of Ethiopia as of 2007[update] Census   Oromo (33.8%)  Amharic (29.3%)  Somali (6.2%)  Tigrinya (5.9%)  Sidamo (4.0%)  Wolaytta (2.2%)  Gurage (2.0%)  Afar (1.7%)  Hadiyya (1.7%)  Gamo (1.5%)  others (11.6%) According to *Ethnologue*, there are 90 individual languages spoken in Ethiopia. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches. The former includes Oromo language, spoken by the Oromo, and Somali, spoken by the Somalis; the latter includes Amharic, spoken by the Amhara, and Tigrinya, spoken by the Tigrayans. Together, these four groups make up about three-quarters of Ethiopia's population. Other Afroasiatic languages with a significant number of speakers include the Cushitic Sidamo, Afar, Hadiyya and Agaw languages, as well as the Semitic Gurage languages, Harari, Silt'e, and Argobba languages. Arabic, which also belongs to the Afroasiatic family, is likewise spoken in some areas. Additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by Omotic ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Among these idioms are Aari, Bench, Dime, Dizin, Gamo-Gofa-Dawro, Maale, Hamer, and Wolaytta. Languages from the Nilo-Saharan family are also spoken by ethnic minorities concentrated in the southwestern parts of the country. These languages include Nuer, Anuak, Nyangatom, Majang, Suri, Me'en, and Mursi. English is the most widely spoken foreign language, the medium of instruction in secondary schools and all tertiary education; federal laws are also published in British English in the Federal Negarit Gazeta including the 1995 constitution. Amharic was the language of primary school instruction, but has been replaced in many areas by regional languages such as Oromo, Somali or Tigrinya. While all languages enjoy equal state recognition in the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia and Oromo is the most populous language by native speakers, Amharic is the most populous by number of total speakers. The various regions of Ethiopia and chartered cities are free to determine their own working languages. Amharic is recognised as the official working language of Amhara Region, Benishangul-Gumuz, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, Gambela Region, Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. Oromo language serves as the official working language and the primary language of education in the Oromia, Harar and Dire Dawa and of the Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region. Somali is the official working language of Somali Region and Dire Dawa, while Afar, Harari, and Tigrinya are recognized as official working languages in their respective regions. Recently the Ethiopian Government announced that Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya are adopted as official federal working languages of Ethiopia. Italian is still spoken by some parts of the population, mostly among the older generation, and is taught in some schools (most notably the Istituto Statale Italiano Omnicomprensivo di Addis Abeba). Amharic and Tigrinya have both borrowed some words from the Italian language. #### Script Ethiopia's principal orthography is the Ge'ez script. Employed as an abugida for several of the country's languages, it first came into usage in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE as an abjad to transcribe the Semitic Ge'ez language. Ge'ez now serves as the liturgical language of both the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. During the 1980s, the Ethiopic character set was computerized. It is today part of the Unicode standard as Ethiopic, Ethiopic Extended, Ethiopic Supplement and Ethiopic Extended-A. Other writing systems have also been used over the years by different Ethiopian communities. The latter include Bakri Sapalo's script for Oromo. ### Religion Religion in Ethiopia (2016 estimate)   Ethiopian Orthodoxy (43.8%)  P'ent'ay (22.8%)  Other Christian (0.7%)  Islam (31.3%)  Traditional faiths (0.6%)  Other (0.8%) Ethiopia has close historical ties with all three of the world's major Abrahamic religions. In the 4th century, the Ethiopian empire was one of the first in the world to officially adopt Christianity as the state religion. As a result of the resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, in 451 the Miaphysites, which included the vast majority of Christians in Egypt and Ethiopia, were accused of monophysitism and designated as heretics under the common name of Coptic Christianity (see Oriental Orthodoxy). While no longer distinguished as a state religion, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church remains the majority Christian denomination. There is also a substantial Muslim demographic, representing around a third of the population. Ethiopia was the destination of the First Hijrah, a major emigration in Islamic history. A town in the Tigray Region, Negash is the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa. ``` According to the 2007 National Census, Christians make up 62.8% of the country's population (43.5% Ethiopian Orthodox, 19.3% other denominations), Muslims 33.9%, practitioners of traditional faiths 2.6%, and other religions 0.6%. The ratio of the Christian to Muslim population has largely remained stable when compared to previous censuses conducted decades ago. Sunnis form the majority of Muslims with non-denominational Muslims being the second largest group of Muslims, and the Shia and Ahmadiyyas are a minority. Sunnis are largely Shafi'is or Salafis, and there are also many Sufi Muslims there. The large Muslim population in the northern Afar region has resulted in a Muslim separatist movement called the "Islamic State of Afaria" seeking a sharia-compliant constitution. ``` Some critics asserted that the Haile Selassie regime had been fabricating the census to present Ethiopia as a Christian country to the outside world, stating that Islam made up 50% of the total population in 1991, based on the 1984 census commissioned by the Derg regime. Several Muslim observers and bloggers claim that Muslims are in the majority and disagree with the above census numbers, without providing factual data supporting their claims. The Kingdom of Axum was one of the first polities to officially embrace Christianity, when Frumentius of Tyre, called Fremnatos or Abba Selama ("Father of Peace") in Ethiopia, converted Emperor Ezana during the 4th century. According to the New Testament, Christianity had entered Ethiopia even earlier, when an official in the Ethiopian royal treasury was baptized by Philip the Evangelist. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is part of Oriental Orthodoxy. It is by far the largest Christian denomination, although a number of P'ent'ay (Protestant) churches have recently gained ground. Since 1930, a relatively small Ethiopian Catholic Church has existed in full communion with Rome, with adherents making up less than 1% of the total population. Islam in Ethiopia dates back to the founding of the religion in 622 when a group of Muslims were counselled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca. The disciples subsequently migrated to Abyssinia via modern-day Eritrea, which was at the time ruled by Ashama ibn-Abjar, a pious Christian emperor. Also, the largest single ethnic group of non-Arab Sahabah was that of the Ethiopians. According to the 2007 Population and Housing Census, around 1,957,944 people in Ethiopia are adherents of traditional religions. An additional 471,861 residents practice other creeds. While followers of all religions can be found in each region, they tend to be concentrated in certain parts of the country. Christians predominantly live in the northern Amhara and Tigray regions, and are largely members of the non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Those belonging to P'ent'ay predominate in the regions of Oromia and the SNNP (Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region). Muslims in Ethiopia predominantly adhere to Sunni Islam and generally inhabit eastern and northeastern areas; particularly the Somali, Afar, Dire Dawa and Harari regions. Practitioners of traditional religions mainly reside in the nation's far southwestern and western rural borderlands, in the SNNP, Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambela regions. Until the 1980s, a substantial population of Beta Israel / ቤተ እስራኤል / ביתא ישראל (Ethiopian Jews) resided in Ethiopia. About 4,000 Jews, who claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel are estimated to still live in Ethiopia, along with many more members of two related ethno-religious groups, the Falash Mura and the Beta Abraham. The Falash Mura are Beta Israel who, while identifying as Jews, adopted elements of Christianity due to missionary efforts, and now practice a syncretic form of Ethiopian Judaism mixed with Christianity; they number about 150,000 people. The Beta Abraham are regarded as a medieval offshoot of the Beta Israel, having incorporated elements of traditional African religion, and number about 8,000. While both still identify as Beta Israel, they exist outside the main community. The official Beta Israel community leaders tentatively accept the Falash Mura, and have requested they be allowed to migrate to Israel. The Beta Abraham have historically been shunned by most other communities, having had a reputation of being "sorcerers". In certain Ethiopian towns and villages such as Wolleka, near the Ethiopian city of Gondar, the concentration of Ethiopian-Jews is still significant but the US now has a significantly greater numbers of Ethiopian-Jews than that of Ethiopia. Human rights groups have regularly accused the government of arresting activists, journalists and bloggers to stamp out dissent among some religious communities. Lengthy prison terms were handed to 17 Muslim activists on 3 August 2015 ranging from seven to 22 years. They were charged with trying to create an Islamic state in the majority Christian country. All the defendants denied the charges and claimed that they were merely protesting in defence of their rights. ### Urbanization Population growth, migration, and urbanization are all straining both governments' and ecosystems' capacity to provide people with basic services. Urbanization has steadily been increasing in Ethiopia, with two periods of significantly rapid growth. First, in 1936–1941 during the Italian occupation under Mussolini's fascist government, and then from 1967 to 1975 when the populations of urban areas tripled. In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia, building infrastructure to connect major cities, and a dam providing power and water. This along with the influx of Italians and labourers was the major cause of rapid growth during this period. The second period of growth was from 1967 to 1975 when rural populations migrated to towns seeking work and better living conditions. This pattern slowed due to the 1975 Land Reform program instituted by the government, which provided incentives for people to stay in rural areas. As people moved from rural areas to the cities, there were fewer people to grow food for the population. The Land Reform Act was meant to increase agriculture since food production was not keeping up with population growth over the period of 1970–1983. This program encouraged the formation of peasant associations, large villages based on agriculture. The legislation did lead to an increase in food production, although there is debate over the cause; it may be related to weather conditions more than the reform. Urban populations have continued to grow with an 8.1% increase from 1975 to 2000. |   Largest cities or towns in EthiopiaCSA (Urban population projection values of 2016) | | --- | | | Rank | Name | Region | Pop. | Rank | Name | Region | Pop. | | | Addis AbabaAddis AbabaGondarGondar | 1 | Addis Ababa | Addis Ababa | 3,352,000 | 11 | Shashamane | Oromia | 154,587 | Mek'eleMek'eleAdamaAdama | | 2 | Gondar | Amhara | 341,991 | 12 | Bishoftu | Oromia | 153,847 | | 3 | Mek'ele | Tigray | 340,858 | 13 | Sodo | SNNPR | 253,322 | | 4 | Adama | Oromia | 338,940 | 14 | Arba Minch | SNNPR | 151,013 | | 5 | Hawassa | SNNPR | 318,618 | 15 | Hosaena | SNNPR | 141,352 | | 6 | Bahir Dar | Amhara | 297,794 | 16 | Harar | Harari | 133,000 | | 7 | Dire Dawa | Dire Dawa | 285,000 | 17 | Dila | SNNPR | 119,276 | | 8 | Dessie | Amhara | 198,428 | 18 | Nekemte | Oromia | 115,741 | | 9 | Jimma | Oromia | 186,148 | 19 | Debre Birhan | Amhara | 107,827 | | 10 | Jijiga | Somali | 164,321 | 20 | Asella | Oromia | 103,522 | #### Rural and urban life Migration to urban areas is usually motivated by the hope of better lives. In peasant associations daily life is a struggle to survive. About 16% of the population in Ethiopia lives on less than one dollar per day (2008). Only 65% of rural households in Ethiopia consume the World Health Organization's (WHO's) minimum standard of food per day (2,200 kilocalories), with 42% of children under 5 years old being underweight. Most poor families (75%) share their sleeping quarters with livestock, and 40% of children sleep on the floor, where nighttime temperatures average 5 degrees Celsius in the cold season. The average family size is six or seven, living in a 30 square metre mud and thatch hut, with less than two hectares of land to cultivate. The peasant associations face a cycle of poverty. Since the landholdings are so small, farmers cannot allow the land to lie fallow, which reduces soil fertility. This land degradation reduces the production of fodder for livestock, which causes low milk yields. Since the community burns livestock manure as fuel, rather than plowing the nutrients back into the land, the crop production is reduced. The low productivity of agriculture leads to inadequate incomes for farmers, hunger, malnutrition and disease. These unhealthy farmers have difficulty working the land and the productivity drops further. Although conditions are drastically better in cities, all of Ethiopia suffers from poverty and poor sanitation. However, poverty in Ethiopia fell from 44% to 29.6% during 2000–2011, according to the World Bank. In the capital city of Addis Ababa, 55% of the population used to live in slums. Now, however, a construction boom in both the private and the public sector has led to a dramatic improvement in living standards in major cities, particularly in Addis Ababa. Notably, government-built condominium housing complexes have sprung up throughout the city, benefiting close to 600,000 individuals. Sanitation is the most pressing need in the city, with most of the population lacking access to waste treatment facilities. This contributes to the spread of illness through unhealthy water. Despite the living conditions in the cities, the people of Addis Ababa are much better off than people living in the peasant associations owing to their educational opportunities. Unlike rural children, 69% of urban children are enrolled in primary school, and 35% of those are eligible to attend secondary school.[*clarification needed*] Addis Ababa has its own university as well as many other secondary schools. The literacy rate is 82%. Many NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are working to solve this problem; however, most are far apart, uncoordinated, and working in isolation. The Sub-Saharan Africa NGO Consortium is attempting to coordinate efforts. ### Health The World Health Organization's 2006 World Health Report gives a figure of 1,936 physicians (for 2003), which comes to about 2.6 per 100,000. A brain drain associated with globalization is said to affect the country, with many educated professionals leaving Ethiopia for better economic opportunities in the West. Ethiopia's main health problems are said to be communicable (contagious) diseases worsened by poor sanitation and malnutrition. Over 44 million people (nearly half the population) do not have access to clean water. These problems are exacerbated by the shortage of trained doctors and nurses and health facilities. The state of public health is considerably better in the cities. Birth rates, infant mortality rates, and death rates are lower in cities than in rural areas due to better access to education, medicines, and hospitals. Life expectancy is better in cities compared to rural areas, but there have been significant improvements witnessed throughout the country in recent years, the average Ethiopian living to be 62.2 years old, according to a UNDP report. Despite sanitation being a problem, use of improved water sources is also on the rise; 81% in cities compared to 11% in rural areas. As in other parts of Africa, there has been a steady migration of people towards the cities in hopes of better living conditions. In early 2005,[update] the WHO reported that Ethiopia had 119 hospitals (12 in Addis Ababa) and 412 health centres. Infant mortality rates are relatively high, as 41 infants die per 1,000 live births. Ethiopia succeeded in reducing its under-five mortality rate by two-thirds (one of the Millennium Development Goals) between 1990 and 2012. Although this is a dramatic decrease, birth-related complications such as obstetric fistula affect many of the nation's women. HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia stood at 1.1% in 2014, a dramatic decrease from 4.5% 15 years ago. The most affected are poor communities and women, due to lack of health education, empowerment, awareness and lack of social well-being. The government of Ethiopia and many international organizations like World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations, are launching campaigns and are working aggressively to improve Ethiopia's health conditions and promote health awareness on AIDS and other communicable diseases. Ethiopia has a relatively high infant and maternal mortality rate. Although, Ethiopia did not meet the MDG target of reducing maternal mortality rate by two-thirds in 2015, there are improvements nonetheless. For instance, the contraception prevalence rate increased from 8.1% in 2000 to 41.8% in 2014, and Antenatal care service coverage increase from 29% to an astounding 98.1% in the same period. Currently, the maternal mortality rate stands at 420 per 100,000 live births. Only a minority of Ethiopians are born in hospitals, while most are born in rural households. Those who are expected to give birth at home have elderly women serve as midwives who assist with the delivery. The "WHO estimates that a majority of maternal fatalities and disabilities could be prevented if deliveries were to take place at well-equipped health centres, with adequately trained staff". The low availability of health-care professionals with modern medical training, together with lack of funds for medical services, leads to the preponderance of less-reliable traditional healers that use home-based therapies to heal common ailments. One common cultural practice, irrespective of religion or economic status, is female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), a procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice was made illegal in Ethiopia in 2004. FGM is a pre-marital custom mainly endemic to Northeast Africa and parts of the Near East that has its ultimate origins in Ancient Egypt. Encouraged by women in the community, it is primarily intended to deter promiscuity and to offer protection from assault. Ethiopia has a high prevalence of FGM, but prevalence is lower among young girls. Ethiopia's 2005 Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) noted that the national prevalence rate is 74% among women ages 15–49. The practice is almost universal in the regions of Dire Dawa, Somali, and Afar. In the Oromo and Harari regions, more than 80% of girls and women undergo the procedure. FGC is least prevalent in the regions of Tigray and Gambela, where 29% and 27% of girls and women, respectively, are affected. According to a 2010 study performed by the Population Reference Bureau, Ethiopia has a prevalence rate of 81% among women ages 35 to 39 and 62% among women ages 15–19. A 2014 UNICEF report found that only 24% of girls under 14 had undergone FGM. Male circumcision is also practised in the country, and about 76% of Ethiopia's male population is reportedly circumcised. The Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia is signatory to various international conventions and treaties that protect the rights of women and children. Its constitution provides for the fundamental rights and freedoms for women. There is an attempt being made to raise the social and economic status of women through eliminating all legal and customary practices, which hinder women's equal participation in society and undermine their social status. The National Mental Health Strategy, published in 2012, introduced the development of policy designed to improve mental health care in Ethiopia. This strategy mandated that mental health be integrated into the primary health care system. However, the success of the National Mental Health Strategy has been limited. For example, the burden of depression is estimated to have increased 34.2% from 2007 to 2017. Furthermore, the prevalence of stigmatizing attitudes, inadequate leadership and co-ordination of efforts, as well as a lack of mental health awareness in the general population, all remain as obstacles to successful mental health care. ### Education Educational system of Ethiopia was dominated by the Orthodox Tewahedo Church since the Axumite Christian era in 330 CE. An ancient form of Ethiopian Christian education was conducted by clergymen, with highly emphasized its dogma. Graduation of students leads to earning priesthood and intellectual elite known as debtera. Modern education was introduced in 1908 when Emperor Menelik II opened the first school in Addis Ababa, Menelik II School. In addition, Emperor Haile Selassie I also contributed to open the first university, Addis Ababa University, founded in 1950 after it was renamed "Haile Selassie I University" until 1975. More recently, the government is improving numerous regional universities and facilities. The current system follows school expansion schemes which are very similar to the system in the rural areas during the 1980s, with an addition of deeper regionalization, providing rural education in students' own languages starting at the elementary level, and with more budgetary financing allocated to the education sector. Public education is free at primary levels and usually offers between age 7 and 12. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is six years of primary school, then four years of lower secondary school followed by two years of higher secondary school. The Ethiopian education is governed by Ministry of Education and its cycle consists 4+4+2+2 system; elementary education consists of eight years, divided into two cycles of four years, and four years of secondary education, divided into two stages of two years. National exams are conducted by the National Education Assessment and Examination Agency (NEAEA). Since 2018, there are two national exams: the Ethiopian General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (EGSECE), also known as Grade 10 national exam and Grade 12 national exam. Today, there are 30 public universities. Prior to 1991, Ethiopia did not have tertiary institution, but now there are 61 accredited private HEIs. The overall number of tertiary students in both public and private institutions exploded by more than 2,000 percent, from 34,000 in 1991 to 757,000 in 2014, per UIS data. Access to education in Ethiopia has improved significantly. Approximately three million people were in primary school in 1994–95 but by 2008–09, primary enrolment had risen to 15.5 million – an increase of over 500%. In 2013–14, Ethiopia had witnessed a significant boost in gross enrolment across all regions. The national GER was 104.8% for boys, 97.8% for girls and 101.3% across both sexes. The literacy rate has increased in recent years: according to the 1994 census, the literacy rate in Ethiopia was 23.4%. In 2007 it was estimated to be 39% (male 49.1% and female 28.9%). A report by UNDP in 2011 showed that the literacy rate in Ethiopia was 46.7%. The same report also indicated that the female literacy rate had increased from 27 to 39 per cent from 2004 to 2011, and the male literacy rate had increased from 49 to 59 per cent over the same period for persons 10 years and older. By 2015, the literacy rate had further increased, to 49.1% (57.2% male and 41.1% female). Culture ------- Ethiopia's rich and diverse culture heavily influenced by the local population, an interaction of Semitic, Cushitic and less populous Nilo-Saharan speaking people, which evolved from first millennium BCE. Semitic Tigrayans and Amharas, who dominated the politics in the past, distinguished from other population by hierarchical structure and agrarian life derived partly from South Arabia as a result of back migration, while the southern Cushitic (Oromo and Somali) are strong adherents to egalitarianism and pastoral life. Others including Kaffa, Sidamo, and Afar tradition derived from the latter people. The most common recognized culture observed in coffee ceremony. Unlike most countries, coffee is served in presence of social gathering, in family, friend or neighborhood level. There are three rounds of coffee drinking: the first one called "awol" (Tigrinya: ኣዎል), the second "tona" (ቶና) and the third "baraka" (ባርካ). The tradition of coffee legend goes back to Kaldi, a goat herder from Keffa Zone who noticed his goat was caught up with hysteria after they eat shrub that stimulate them to dance uncontrollably with rampant. After holding berries, he was advised exhibit to priests in nearby monastery. One monk called the generosity of Kaldi "the Devil work" and tossed to the fire, generating aromatic odor. The legend told that Kaldi lived in 850 CE, commonly associated with belief of starting coffee cultivation in Ethiopia in the 9th century. ### Arts Arts of Ethiopia were largely influenced by Christian iconography throughout much of its history. This consisted of illuminated manuscripts, painting, crosses, icons and other metalwork such as crowns. Most historical arts were commissioned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the state religion for a millennium. The earlier Aksumite period arts were stone carvings as evidenced in their stelae, though there is no surviving Christian art from this era. As Christianity was introduced, its iconography was partly influenced by Byzantine art. Most remaining arts beyond the early modern period were ruined as a result of invasion of the Adal Sultanate in the Ethiopian Highlands, but were revived by Catholic emissaries. The Western intervention in Ethiopian art began in the 20th century, with also maintaining traditional Ethiopian character. ### Architecture Fasil Ghebbi castle is the most visited site in all of Gondar bulit in the 17th century by Emperor FasilidesThe Axumite Stele was built over a thousand years ago in the 4th century, how they were built and erected up is still a mystery: and it remains an iconic Obelisk of ancient Ethiopian architectureThe "Bete Medhane Alem" or "House of our Saviour" is one of the 12 churches in Lalibela built under Emperor Lalibela I Perhaps the most impressive architecture in antiquity was founded during Dʿmt period. Ashlar masonry was an archetype of South Arabian architecture with most architectural structure similarity. The Aksumite continued to flourish its architecture around the 4th century CE. Aksumite stelae commonly used single block and rocks. The Tomb of the False Door built for Aksumite emperors used monolithic style. The Lalibela civilization was largely of Aksumite influence, but the layer of stones or wood is quite different for some dwelling. In Gondarine period, the architecture of Ethiopia was infused by Baroque, Arab, Turkish and Gujarati Indian styles independently taught by Portuguese emissaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. Example includes the imperial fortress Fasil Ghebbi, which is influenced by either of these styles. The medieval architecture also forborne the later 19th- and 20th-century era of designations. ### Philosophy Ethiopian philosophy has been superlatively prolific since ancient times in Africa, though offset of Greek and Patristic philosophy. The best known philosophical revival was in the early modern period figures such as Zera Yacob (1599–1692) and his student Walda Heywat, who wrote *Hatata* (*Inquiry*) in 1667 as an argument for the existence of God. ### Literature The Ethiopian literature traced back to the Aksumite period in the 4th century, most of them are merely religious motifs. In royal inscription, they employed both Ge'ez and Greek language, but the latter was dismissed in 350. Unlike most Sub-Saharan African countries, Ethiopia has ancient distinct language, the Ge'ez, which dominated political and educational aspects. In spite of the current political instability in the country instigates endangering cultural heritage of these works, some improvements are made for preservation in recent years. The Ethiopian literary works mostly consisted of handwritten codex (branna, or ብራና in Amharic). It is prepared by gathering parchment leaves and sewing to stick together. The codex size is considerably varies depending on volumes and preparation. For example, pocket size codex lengthens 45 cm, which is heavier in weight. Historians speculated that archaic codex is existed in Ethiopia. Today manuscripts resembling primitive codex are still evident for existence where parchment leaves are convenient for writing. Another notable writing book is protective (or magic) scroll, serving as written amulet. Some of these were intended for magical purpose, for example *ketab* is used for magical defence. Scrolls typically produced by *debtera*, non-ordained clergy expertise on exorcism and healings. About 30 cm scroll is portable whereas 2 cm is often unrolled and hanged to the wall of house. Scrolls emulating original medium of Ethiopia literature is highly disputed, where there is overwhelming evidence that Ge'ez language books were written in codex. In lesser, Ethiopia used accordion books (called *sensul*) which was dated to late 15th or 16th century, made up of folded parchment paper, with or without cover. Those book usually contain pictorial representation of life and death of religious figures, or significant texts have also juxtaposed. #### Poetry Ethiopia is highly popularized in poetry. Most poets recount past events, social unrests, poverty and famine. *Qene* is the most used element of Ethiopian poetry – regarded as a form of Amharic poetry, though the term generally refers to any poems. True qene requires advanced ingenious mindset. By providing two metaphorical words, i.e. one with obvious clues and the other is too convoluted conundrum, one must answer parallel meanings. Thus, this is called *sem ena work* (gold and wax). The most notable poets are Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin, Kebede Michael and Mengistu Lemma. ### Calendar Ethiopia has several local calendars. The most widely known is the Ethiopian calendar, also known as the Ge'ez calendar, and written with the ancient Ge'ez script, one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. It is based on the older Alexandrian or Coptic calendar, which in turn derives from the Egyptian calendar. Like the Coptic calendar, the Ethiopian calendar has twelve months of exactly 30 days each plus five or six epagomenal days, which form a thirteenth month. The Ethiopian months begin on the same days as those of the Coptic calendar, but their names are in Ge'ez Like the Julian calendar, the sixth epagomenal day—which in essence is a leap day—is added every four years without exception on 29 August of the Julian calendar, six months before the Julian leap day. Thus, the first day of the Ethiopian year, 1 Mäskäräm, for years between 1901 and 2099 (inclusive), is usually 11 September (Gregorian), but falls on 12 September in years before the Gregorian leap year. It is approximately seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar because of an alternate calculation in determining the date of the Annunciation of Jesus. Another calendrical system was developed around 300 BCE by the Oromo people. A lunar-stellar calendar, this Oromo calendar relies on astronomical observations of the moon in conjunction with seven particular stars or constellations. Oromo months (stars/lunar phases) are *Bittottessa* (Iangulum), *Camsa* (Pleiades), *Bufa* (Aldebarran), *Waxabajjii* (Belletrix), *Obora Gudda* (Central Orion-Saiph), *Obora Dikka* (Sirius), *Birra* (full moon), *Cikawa* (gibbous moon), *Sadasaa* (quarter moon), *Abrasa* (large crescent), *Ammaji* (medium crescent), and *Gurrandala* (small crescent). ### Cuisine Coffee which was found in Ethiopia is the country's most drank beverage (left) Injera with a mix of wot's or a bayinatu is one of the country's famous foods (center) kitfo meat diced whether cooked or raw is usually presented with injera, and other foods, it its one of the country's most iconic foods (right) The best-known Ethiopian cuisine consists of various types of thick meat stews, known as *wat* in Ethiopian culture, and vegetable side dishes served on top of injera, a large sourdough flatbread made of teff flour. This is not eaten with utensils, but instead the injera is used to scoop up the entrées and side dishes. Almost universally in Ethiopia, it is common to eat from the same dish in the middle of the table with a group of people. It is also a common custom to feed others within a group or own hands—a tradition referred to as "gursha". Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no pork or shellfish of any kind, as both are forbidden in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths. Chechebsa, Marqa, Chukko, Michirra and Dhanga are the most popular dishes from the Oromo. Kitfo, which originated among the Gurage, is one of the country's most popular delicacies. In addition, *Doro Wot* (ዶሮ ወጥ in Amharic) and Tsebehi Derho (ጽብሒ ድርሆ in Tigrinya), are other popular dishes, originating from northwestern Ethiopia. Tihlo (ጥሕሎ)—which is a type of dumpling—is prepared from roasted barley flour and originated in the Tigray Region. Tihlo is now very popular in Amhara and spreading further south. ### Holidays Most holidays are belonged to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, and secondly of Islam. Secular holidays espouse national or historical chronicles. Secular holidays are follows with date of celebration: * Adwa Victory Day (2 March) * International Workers' Day (1 May) * Ethiopian Patriots' Victory Day (5 May) * Downfall of the Derg (28 May) * Enkutatash (11 September or 12 September (leap year)) * Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day (8 December) Ethiopian Orthodox holidays are: * Ethiopian Christmas (7 January) * Timkat (19 January) * Good Friday * Easter * Meskel (27 September or 28 September (leap year)) Islamic holidays are: * Ramadan * Mawlid * Eid al-Fitr * Eid al-Adha ### Media Actress Mekdes Tsegaye (left), Tilahun Gessesse (center) and Teddy Afro (right) are three influential Ethiopians in the music and movie industries in EthiopiaThe Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), formerly known as ETV, is the state media. Radio broadcasting was commenced earlier in 1935 before the television service began in 1962 with assistance of British firm Thomson and Emperor Haile Selassie. Since 2015, EBC has upgraded its studios with modernized transmission. Kana TV is the most popular TV channel in Ethiopia. It is mainly known for dubbing foreign content into Amharic. Over several decades, the state television has served as the major mass media until in the late 2000s, when EBS TV launched as the first private television channel. Moreover, numerous private channels were commenced in 2016, culminating in the growth of privately owned media companies in the country. As an example, Fana TV has been the largest TV network since its launch in 2017. The most widely circulated newspapers in Ethiopia are Addis Fortune, Capital Ethiopia, Ethiopian Reporter, Addis Zemen (*Amharic*) and Ethiopian Herald. The sole internet service provider is the national telecommunications firm Ethio telecom. A large portion of users in the country access the internet through mobile devices. As of July 2016[update], there are around 4.29 million people who have internet access at their home as compared to a quarter of a million users a decade before that. The Ethiopian government has at times intentionally shut down internet service in the country or restricted access to certain social media sites during periods of political unrest. In August 2016, following protest and demonstration in the Oromia Region, all access to the internet was shut down for a period of two days. In June 2017, the government shut down access to the internet for mobile users during a period that coincided with the administration of university entrance examination. Although the reason for the restriction was not confirmed by the government, the move was similar to a measure taken during the same period in 2016, after a leak of test questions. ### Science and technology Pathobiologist Aklilu Lemma. In 1964, he discovered an alternative treatment for schistosomiasis, known as snail fever.Paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged in 2013. He was best known for discovering fossilized hominin called *Selam* or "Lucy's baby" in December 2000. Science and technology in Ethiopia emerging as progressive due to lack of organized institutions. Manufacturing and service providers often place themselves in competitive programming in order to advance innovative and technological solutions through in-house arenas. The Ethiopian Space Science and Technology is responsible for conducting multifaceted tasks regarding space and technology. In addition, Ethiopia also launched 70 kg ET-RSS1 multi-spectral remote sensing satellite in December 2019. The President Sahle-Work Zewde told prior in October 2019 that "the satellite will provide all the necessary data on changes in climate and weather-related phenomena that would be used for the country's key targets in agriculture, forestry as well as natural resources protection initiatives." By January 2020, satellite manufacturing, assembling, integrating and testing began. This would also incremented facility built by French company funded by European Investment Bank (EIB). The main observatory Entoto Observatory and Space Science Research Center (EORC) allocated space programmes. The Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute is a part of Scientific Research & Development Services Industry, responsible for environmental and climate conservation. Numerous profound scientists have contributed degree of honours and reputations. Some are Kitaw Ejigu, Mulugeta Bekele, Aklilu Lemma, Gebisa Ejeta and Melaku Worede. Ethiopia is known for use of traditional medicine since millennia. The first epidemic occurred in Ethiopia was in 849, causing the Aksumite Emperor Abba Yohannes evicted from place due to "God's punishment for misdeeds". The first traditional medicine was claimed to be derived from this catastrophe, but the exact source is debated. Though differ from ethnic groups, traditional medicine often implements herbs, spiritual healing, bone-setting and minor surgical procedures in treating disease. Others fields include conventional mathematics used to measure astrology, calendar and unit of measurement. Ethiopia was ranked 126th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021. ### Music The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the country's 80 ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. Ethiopian music uses a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. As with many other aspects of Ethiopian culture and tradition, tastes in music and lyrics are strongly linked with those in neighbouring Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan. Traditional singing in Ethiopia presents diverse styles of polyphony, (heterophony, drone, imitation, and counterpoint). Traditionally, lyricism in Ethiopian song writing is strongly associated with views of patriotism or national pride, romance, friendship, and a unique type of memoire known as *tizita*. Saint Yared, a 6th-century Aksumite composer, is widely regarded as the forerunner of traditional music of Eritrea and Ethiopia, creating liturgical music of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. He also composed *Zema*, subdivided into three chants: Ge'ez, Ezel and Araray. Yared life thought to have been "failure and success" where his was poor performance in education. Yared then fired from the school and went to his uncle birthplace Murade Qal. There his saw caterpillar endeavours to reach a tree's peak. He epitomized to his real life and returned to the school with good spirit, later became prominent to political sphere. During the remaining of his lifetime, he was a friend of Aksumite Emperor Gebre Meskel and the exiled Nine Saints. Modern music traced back to the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, where 40 Armenian orphans called Arba Lijoch arrived from Jerusalem to Addis Ababa. By 1924, the band was almost established as orchestral; but after World War II, several similar bands emerged such as Imperial Bodyguard Band, Army Band, and Police Band. In the 1960s and 1970s, traditional infused modern Ethiopian music was revived in what is known as the "Golden Age". Several notable musical artists emerged thereafter, for example, Tilahun Gessesse, Alemayehu Eshete, Bizunesh Bekele, Muluken Melesse and Mahmoud Ahmed. It also employed tradition style called *tizita*. During the Derg regime, these artists were prohibited to perform in the country and often forced into exile in North America and Europe, mixing with jazz and funk influences. For example, Roha Band, Walias Band, and Ethio Stars. By this time, Neway Debebe was critical of the Derg government. Modern music became developed shortly in the 1990s and 2000s. In this period, the most popular artists were Aster Aweke, Gigi and Teddy Afro. Ethiopian music further modernized in the next decade, employing electronic type and more popular. DJ Rophnan was renowned for pioneering EDM after releasing his debut album *Reflection* in 2018. ### Cinema The first cinema was introduced in 1898, three years after the first world film was projected. Cinematic artifacts ascribed by Italian minister Federico Ciccodicola [it] which then offered to Emperor Menelik II. The early 20th century appearance with spectacle was around 1909 and embraced by documentary or biographical films. *Au de Menilek* was the first film directed by Charles Martel. The first 16mm black-and-white film dedicated to coronation of Emperor Zewditu, then coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie was filmed. The 1990s saw international booming of Ethiopian films. The most influential people in this era were Haile Gerima, Salem Mekuria, Yemane Demissie, and Teshome Gabriel. Films began modernized in the 2000s and implemented Amharic language. The most internationally grossed films are *Selanchi*, *Difret*, *Lamb*, *Prince of Love* and *Lambadina*. The modern era saw several reoccurring actors including Selam Tesfaye, Fryat Yemane, Hanan Tarik, Mahder Assefa, Amleset Muchie and Ruth Negga. One of the most prestigious film award is Gumma Film Awards held in Addis Ababa. The award, which was started in 2014, broadcast on live television in some stations. Festivals including Addis International Film Festival and the Ethiopian International Film Festival showcase amateur and professional filmmakers works; the latter being voted by judges. They were established in 2007 and 2005 respectively. ### Sport The main sports in Ethiopia are track and field (particularly long distance running) and football. Ethiopian athletes have won many Olympic gold medals in track and field, most of them in long distance running. Abebe Bikila became the first athlete from a Sub-Saharan country to win an Olympic gold medal when he won the Marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games in a world record time of 2:15:16. Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, and Tirunesh Dibaba are all world-renowned long distance runners, each with multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medals. Letesenbet Gidey holds the world records in both the women's 5,000 metre and 10,000 metre run. Other notable Ethiopian runners are Mamo Wolde, Miruts Yifter, Derartu Tulu, Meseret Defar, Birhane Adere, Tiki Gelana, Genzebe Dibaba, Tariku Bekele, Gelete Burka, and Yomif Kejelcha. As of 2012[update] and going into 2013, the current national Ethiopian national football team (nicknamed the Walayia Antelopes) made history by qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and reached the last 10 African football teams in the last stage of qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Noted players include captain Adane Girma and top scorer Saladin Said. Ethiopia has Sub-Saharan Africa's longest basketball tradition as it established a national basketball team in 1949. See also -------- * Index of Ethiopia-related articles * Outline of Ethiopia * Music and politics in Ethiopia References ---------- ### General sources * Abir, Mordechai (1968). *Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769–1855)*. London, England: Longmans. * Beshah, Girma; Aregay, Merid Wolde (1964). *The Question of the Union of the Churches in Luso-Ethiopian Relations (1500–1632)*. Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar and Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos. * Connel, Dan; Killion, Tom (2011). *Historical Dictionary of Eritrea*. The Scarecrow. ISBN 978-081085952-4. * Lyons, Terrence (1996). "Closing the Transition: the May 1995 Elections in Ethiopia". *The Journal of Modern African Studies*. **34** (1): 121–42. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00055233. S2CID 155079488. * Munro-Hay, Stuart (1991). *Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity* (PDF). Edinburgh: University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0106-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2012. * Pankhurst, Richard (1997). *The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century*. The Red Sea Press. ISBN 9780932415196. * Valdes Vivo, Raul (1977). *Ethiopia's Revolution*. New York, NY: International Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7178-0556-3. Further reading --------------- * Campbell, Gwyn; Miers, Suzanne; Miller, Joseph (2007). *Women and Slavery: Africa, the Indian Ocean world, and the medieval north Atlantic*. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1723-2. * Cana, Frank Richardson; Gleichen, Albert Edward Wilfred (1911). "Abyssinia". *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). pp. 82–95. * Deguefé, Taffara (2006). *Minutes of an Ethiopian Century*, Shama Books, Addis Ababa, ISBN 99944-0-003-7. * Hugues Fontaine, *Un Train en Afrique. African Train*, Centre Français des Études Éthiopiennes / Shama Books. Édition bilingue français / anglais. Traduction : Yves-Marie Stranger. Postface : Jean-Christophe Belliard. Avec des photographies de Matthieu Germain Lambert et Pierre Javelot. Addis Abeba, 2012, ISBN 978-99944-867-1-7. English and French. UN TRAIN EN AFRIQUE * Henze, Paul B. (2004). *Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia*. Shama Books. ISBN 978-1-931253-28-4. * Keller, Edmond (1991). *Revolutionary Ethiopia From Empire to People's Republic*. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253206466. * Marcus, Harold G. (1975). *The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia, 1844–1913*. Oxford: Clarendon. Reprint, Trenton, NJ: Red Sea, 1995. ISBN 1-56902-009-4. * Marcus, Harold G. (2002). *A History of Ethiopia* (updated ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22479-7. * Mauri, Arnaldo (2010). *Monetary developments and decolonization in Ethiopia*, Acta Universitatis Danubius Œconomica, VI, n. 1/2010, pp. 5–16. Monetary Developments and Decolonization in Ethiopia and WP Monetary developments and decolonization in Ethiopia * Mockler, Anthony (1984). *Haile Selassie's War*. New York: Random House. Reprint, New York: Olive Branch, 2003. ISBN 0-902669-53-2. * Murphy, Dervla (1968). *In Ethiopia with a Mule*. London: Century, 1984, cop. 1968. *N.B*.: An account of the author's travels in Ethiopia. 280 p., ill. with a b&w map. ISBN 0-7126-3044-9 * Rubenson, Sven (2003). *The Survival of Ethiopian Independence* (4th ed.). Hollywood, CA: Tsehai. ISBN 978-0-9723172-7-6. * Selassie I., Haile (1999). *My Life and Ethiopia's Progress: The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Selassie I*. Translated by Edward Ullendorff. Chicago: Frontline. ISBN 978-0-948390-40-1. * Siegbert Uhlig, et al. (eds.) (2003). *Encyclopaedia aethiopica*, Vol. 1: A–C. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. * Siegbert Uhlig, et al. (eds.) (2005). *Encyclopaedia aethiopica*, Vol. 2: D–Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. * Siegbert Uhlig, et al. (eds.) (2007). *Encyclopaedia aethiopica*, Vol. 3: He–N. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. * Siegbert Uhlig & Alessandro Bausi, et al. (eds.) (2010). *Encyclopaedia aethiopica*, Vol. 4: O–X. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. * Alessandro Bausi & S. Uhlig, et al. (eds.) (2014). *Encyclopaedia aethiopica*, Vol. 5: Y–Z and addenda, corrigenda, overview tables, maps and general index. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. * Zewde, Bahru (2001). *A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991* (2nd ed.). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1440-8. * Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain*.* *Country Studies*. Federal Research Division. * Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from World Factbook. CIA. Scholia has a *topic* profile for ***Ethiopia***. 9°00′N 38°42′E / 9°N 38.7°E / 9; 38.7

Ethiopia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia

**Malic acid** is an organic compound with the molecular formula C4H6O5. It is a dicarboxylic acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the sour taste of fruits, and is used as a food additive. Malic acid has two stereoisomeric forms (L- and D-enantiomers), though only the L-isomer exists naturally. The synthetic material produced commercially in Europe and the USA is a racemic mixture, whereas the naturally occurring material found in apples and many other fruits and plants is levorotatory. The salts and esters of malic acid are known as **malates**. The malate anion is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle. Etymology --------- The word 'malic' is derived from Latin 'mālum', meaning 'apple'. The related Latin word *mālus*, meaning 'apple tree', is used as the name of the genus *Malus*, which includes all apples and crabapples; and the origin of other taxonomic classifications such as Maloideae, Malinae, and Maleae. Biochemistry ------------ L-Malic acid is the naturally occurring form, whereas a mixture of L- and D-malic acid is produced synthetically. It is nearly odorless (sometimes a faint, acrid odor). This compound has a tart, acidic and non-pungent taste. * L-Malic acidL-Malic acid * D-Malic acidD-Malic acid Malate plays an important role in biochemistry. In the C4 carbon fixation process, malate is a source of CO2 in the Calvin cycle. In the citric acid cycle, (*S*)-malate is an intermediate, formed by the addition of an -OH group on the *si* face of fumarate. It can also be formed from pyruvate via anaplerotic reactions. Malate is also synthesized by the carboxylation of phosphoenolpyruvate in the guard cells of plant leaves. Malate, as a double anion, often accompanies potassium cations during the uptake of solutes into the guard cells in order to maintain electrical balance in the cell. The accumulation of these solutes within the guard cell decreases the solute potential, allowing water to enter the cell and promote aperture of the stomata. In food ------- Malic acid was first isolated from apple juice by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1785. Antoine Lavoisier in 1787 proposed the name *acide malique*, which is derived from the Latin word for apple, *mālum*—as is its genus name *Malus*. In German it is named *Äpfelsäure* (or *Apfelsäure*) after plural or singular of a sour thing from the apple fruit, but the salt(s) are called *Malat(e)*. Malic acid is the main acid in many fruits, including apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, mirabelles, peaches, pears, plums, and quince and is present in lower concentrations in other fruits, such as citrus. It contributes to the sourness of unripe apples. Sour apples contain high proportions of the acid. It is present in grapes and in most wines with concentrations sometimes as high as 5 g/L. It confers a tart taste to wine; the amount decreases with increasing fruit ripeness. The taste of malic acid is very clear and pure in rhubarb, a plant for which it is the primary flavor. It is also the compound responsible for the tart flavor of sumac spice. It is also a component of some artificial vinegar flavors, such as "salt and vinegar" flavored potato chips. In citrus, fruits produced in organic farming contain higher levels of malic acid than fruits produced in conventional agriculture. The process of malolactic fermentation converts malic acid to much milder lactic acid. Malic acid occurs naturally in all fruits and many vegetables, and is generated in fruit metabolism. Malic acid, when added to food products, is denoted by E number E296. It is sometimes used with or in place of the less sour citric acid in sour sweets. These sweets are sometimes labeled with a warning stating that excessive consumption can cause irritation of the mouth. It is approved for use as a food additive in the EU, US and Australia and New Zealand (where it is listed by its INS number 296). Malic acid contains 10 kJ (2.39 kilocalories) of energy per gram. Production and main reactions ----------------------------- Racemic malic acid is produced industrially by the double hydration of maleic anhydride. In 2000, American production capacity was 5,000 tons per year. The enantiomers may be separated by chiral resolution of the racemic mixture. *S*-Malic acid is obtained by fermentation of fumaric acid. Self-condensation of malic acid in the presence of fuming sulfuric acid gives the pyrone coumalic acid: Coumalic Acid Synthesis Note that this scheme is incorrect. 4 H2O and 2 CO (carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide) are liberated during the condensation. Malic acid was important in the discovery of the Walden inversion and the Walden cycle, in which (−)-malic acid first is converted into (+)-chlorosuccinic acid by action of phosphorus pentachloride. Wet silver oxide then converts the chlorine compound to (+)-malic acid, which then reacts with PCl5 to the (−)-chlorosuccinic acid. The cycle is completed when silver oxide takes this compound back to (−)-malic acid. Uses ---- Malic acid, HOOCCH(OH).CH2COOH, also known as hydroxysuccinic acid, is used in medicine to do a good favour for patients. L-malic acid is used to resolve α-phenylethylamine, a versatile resolving agent in its own right. Plant defense ------------- Soil supplementation with molasses increases microbial synthesis of MA. This is thought to occur naturally as part of soil microbe suppression of disease, so soil amendment with molasses can be used as a crop treatment in horticulture. Interactive pathway map ----------------------- *Click on genes, proteins and metabolites below to link to respective articles.* [[File: GlycolysisGluconeogenesis_WP534 [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] [[]] GlycolysisGluconeogenesis_WP534 |alt=Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis edit]] Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis edit 1. ↑ The interactive pathway map can be edited at WikiPathways: "GlycolysisGluconeogenesis\_WP534". See also -------- * Acids in wine * Citrate malate shuttle * Crassulacean acid metabolism * Malate-aspartate shuttle * Maleic acid, resulting from malic acid dehydration

Malic acid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malic_acid

**Napalm** is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually petrol or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid. Napalm B is the more modern version of napalm (utilizing polystyrene derivatives) and, although distinctly different in its chemical composition, is often referred to simply as "napalm". A team led by chemist Louis Fieser originally developed napalm for the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University. Of immediate first interest was its viability as an incendiary device to be used in fire bombing campaigns during World War II; its potential to be coherently projected into a solid stream that would carry for distance (instead of the bloomy fireball of pure gasoline) resulted in widespread adoption in infantry flamethrowers as well. Napalm burns at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1,200 °C (1,470 to 2,190 °F). It burns longer than gasoline, is more easily dispersed, and adheres to its targets. These traits make it effective and controversial. It has been widely deployed from the air and from the ground, the largest use being via airdropped bombs in World War II in the incendiary attacks on Japanese cities in 1945. It was used also for close air support roles in the First Indochina War, the Algerian War, the Korean War and the Second Indochina War. Napalm has also fueled most of the flamethrowers (tank-, ship-, and infantry-based) used since World War II, giving them much greater range, and was a common weapon of urban combat by both the Axis and the Allies in World War II. Forms ----- Napalm was used in flamethrowers, bombs, and tanks in World War II. It is believed to have been formulated to burn at a specific rate and to adhere to surfaces to increase its stopping power. During combustion, napalm rapidly deoxygenates the available air and generates large amounts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Alternative compositions exist for different types of uses, e.g., triethylaluminium, a pyrophoric compound that aids ignition. Development ----------- Use of fire in warfare has a long history. Greek fire, which also is described as "sticky fire" (πῦρ κολλητικόν, *pýr kolletikón*), is believed to have had a petroleum base. The development of napalm was precipitated by the use of jellied gasoline mixtures by the Allied forces during World War II. The use of aluminium salts of organic acids (Ionov's salt) for the preparation of incendiary viscous mixtures was already done by the Soviets in 1939, with high acceptance by the Red Army. Latex, used in these early forms of incendiary devices, became scarce, since natural rubber was almost impossible to obtain after the Japanese army captured the rubber plantations in Malaya, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. This shortage of natural rubber prompted chemists at US companies such as DuPont and Standard Oil of New Jersey, and researchers at Harvard University, to develop factory-made alternatives—artificial rubber for all uses, including vehicle tires, tank tracks, gaskets, hoses, medical supplies and rain clothing. A team of chemists led by Louis Fieser at Harvard University was the first to develop synthetic napalm during 1942. "The production of napalm was first entrusted to Nuodex Products, and by the middle of April 1942 they had developed a brown, dry powder that was not sticky by itself, but when mixed with gasoline turned into an extremely sticky and flammable substance." One of Fieser's colleagues suggested adding phosphorus to the mix which increased the "ability to penetrate deeply [...] into the musculature, where it would continue to burn day after day." On 4 July 1942, the first test occurred on the football field near the Harvard Business School. Tests under operational conditions were carried out at Jefferson Proving Ground on condemned farm buildings and subsequently at Dugway Proving Ground on buildings designed and constructed to represent those to be found in German and Japanese towns. This new mixture of chemicals was widely used by the United States in the Second World War for incendiary bombs and in flamethrowers, after its first deployment in Papua New Guinea on 15 December 1943. From 1965 to 1969, the Dow Chemical Company manufactured napalm B for the American armed forces. After news reports of napalm B's deadly and disfiguring effects were published, Dow Chemical experienced boycotts of its products, and its recruiters for new chemists, chemical engineers, etc., graduating from college were subject to campus boycotts and protests. The management of the company decided that its "first obligation was the government". Meanwhile, napalm B became a symbol for the Vietnam War. Military use ------------ Napalm was first employed in incendiary bombs and went on to be used as fuel for flamethrowers. The first recorded strategic use of napalm incendiary bombs occurred in an attack by the US Army Air Force (USAAF) on Berlin on 6 March 1944, using American AN-M76 incendiary bombs with PT-1 (Pyrogel) filler. The first known tactical use by the USAAF was by the 368th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force Northeast of Compiègne, France 27 May 1944 and the British De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk.VIs of No. 140 Wing RAF, Second Tactical Airforce on 14 July 1944, which also employed the AN-M76 incendiary in a reprisal attack on the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division "*Götz von Berlichingen*" in Bonneuil-Matours. Soldiers of this Waffen SS unit had captured and then killed a British SAS prisoner-of-war, Lieutenant Tomos Stephens, taking part in Operation Bulbasket, and seven local French resistance fighters. Although it was not known at the time of the airstrike, 31 other POWs from the same SAS unit, and an American airman who had joined up with the SAS unit, had also been executed. Further use of napalm by Allied forces occurred in the Pacific theater of operations, where, in 1944 and 1945, napalm was used as a tactical weapon against Japanese bunkers, pillboxes, tunnels, and other fortifications, especially on Saipan, Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa, where deeply dug-in Japanese troops refused to surrender. Napalm bombs were dropped by aviators of the US Navy, the USAAF, the US Marine Corps, and the Royal Air Force in support of ground troops. The M69 incendiary was specifically designed to destroy Japanese civilian houses. Those bombs were widely used against civilians, including the Bombing of Tokyo. Over 40,000 tons of AN-M69s were dropped on Japanese cities during the war. When the USAAFs on the Marianas Islands ran out of conventional thermite incendiary bombs for their B-29 Superfortresses to drop on large Japanese cities, its top commanders, such as General Curtis LeMay, used napalm bombs to continue with fire raids. In the European Theater of Operations, napalm was used by American forces in the siege of La Rochelle in April 1945 against German soldiers (and inadvertently French civilians) in Royan—about two weeks before the end of the war. In its first known post-WWII use, US-supplied napalm was used in the Greek Civil War by the Greek National Army as part of Operation Coronis against the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE)—the military branch of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Napalm was widely used by the US during the Korean War. The ground forces in North Korea holding defensive positions were often outnumbered by Chinese and North Koreans, but US Air Force and Navy aviators had control of the air over nearly all of the Korean Peninsula. Hence, the American and other UN aviators used napalm B for close air support of the ground troops along the border between North Korea and South Korea and also for attacks in North Korea. Napalm was used most notably during the battle "Outpost Harry" in South Korea during the night of 10–11 June 1953. Eighth Army chemical officer Donald Bode reported that on an "average good day" UN pilots used 260,000 liters (70,000 US gal; 58,000 imp gal) of napalm, with approximately 230,000 liters (60,000 US gal; 50,000 imp gal) of this thrown by US forces. The *New York Herald Tribune* hailed "Napalm, the No. 1 Weapon in Korea". British Prime Minister Winston Churchill privately criticized the use of napalm in Korea, writing that it was "very cruel", as US/UN forces, he wrote, were "splashing it all over the civilian population", "tortur[ing] great masses of people". He conveyed these sentiments to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley, who "never published the statement". Publicly, Churchill allowed Bradley "to issue a statement that confirmed U.K. support for U.S. napalm attacks". At the same time, the French Air Force regularly used napalm for close air support of ground operations in the First Indochina War (1946–1954). At first, the canisters were simply pushed out the side doors of Ju-52 planes that had been captured in Germany, later mostly B-26 bombers were used. Napalm became an intrinsic element of US military action during the Vietnam War as forces made increasing use of it for its tactical and psychological effects. Reportedly about 352,000 tonnes (388,000 short tons; 346,000 long tons) of US napalm bombs were dropped in the region between 1963 and 1973, compared to 29,354 tonnes (32,357 short tons; 28,890 long tons) used over three years in the Korean War, and 15,000 tonnes (16,500 short tons; 14,700 long tons) dropped on Japan in 1945. The US Air Force and US Navy used napalm with great effect against all kinds of targets, such as troops, tanks, buildings, jungles, and even railroad tunnels. The effect was not always purely physical as napalm had psychological effects on the enemy as well. A variant of napalm was produced in Rhodesia for a type of ordnance known as *Frantan* between 1968 and 1978 and was deployed extensively by the Rhodesian Air Force during the Bush War. In May 1978, Herbert Ushewokunze, minister of health for the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), produced photographic evidence of civilian victims of Rhodesian napalm strikes, which he circulated during a tour of the US. The government of Mozambique and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) also issued claims at around the same time that napalm strikes against guerrilla targets had become a common feature in Rhodesian military operations both at home and abroad. The South African Air Force frequently deployed napalm from Atlas Impala strike aircraft during raids on guerrilla bases in Angola during the South African Border War. Other instances of napalm's use include: France during the Algerian War (1954–1962); the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974); Turkey (1964) dropped napalm bombs in the Republic of Cyprus; the Six-Day War by Israel (1967); in Nigeria (1969); in India and Pakistan (1965 and 1971); Egypt (1973); by Turkey (1974) the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus; by Morocco during the Western Sahara War (1975–1991); by Argentina (1982); by Iran (1980–88); by Iraq (1980–88, 1991); by Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1987 against Tamils (LTTE) in Sri Lanka; by Angola during the Angolan Civil War; and Yugoslavia (1991–1996). In 2018, Turkey was accused of using napalm in its war against Kurdish militias over Afrin. Antipersonnel effects --------------------- When used as a part of an incendiary weapon, napalm can cause severe burns (ranging from superficial to subdermal), asphyxiation, unconsciousness, and death. In this implementation, napalm fires can create an atmosphere of greater than 20% carbon monoxide and firestorms with self-perpetuating winds of up to 110 kilometers per hour (70 mph). Napalm is effective against dug-in enemy personnel. The burning incendiary composition flows into foxholes, tunnels, and bunkers, and drainage and irrigation ditches and other improvised troop shelters. Even people in undamaged shelters can be killed by hyperthermia, radiant heat, dehydration, asphyxiation, smoke exposure, or carbon monoxide poisoning. Crews of armored fighting vehicles are also vulnerable, due to the intense heat conducted through the armor. Even in the case of a near miss, the heat can be enough to disable a vehicle. One firebomb released from a low-flying plane can damage an area of 2,100 square meters (2,500 sq yd). International law ----------------- International law does not specifically prohibit the use of napalm or other incendiaries against military targets, but use against civilian populations was banned by the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1980. Protocol III of the CCW restricts the use of all incendiary weapons, but a number of countries have not acceded to all of the protocols of the CCW. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), countries are considered a party to the convention, which entered into force as international law in December 1983, as long as they ratify at least two of the five protocols. Approximately 25 years after the General Assembly adopted it, it was reported that the US signed it on 21 January 2009, President Barack Obama's first full day in office. Its ratification is subject to a reservation that says that the treaty can be ignored if it would save civilian lives. The UN has also acknowledged that the US had ratified the CCW in March 1995, 13 years after the country became a signatory to it. See also -------- * Flame fougasse * German Village (Dugway proving ground) * Greek fire, an ancient flamethrowing weapon that may have resembled napalm * Japanese Village (Dugway Proving Ground) * M-69 Incendiary cluster bomb * Mark 77 bomb * Molotov cocktail * Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a Vietnamese child injured by a napalm attack * Triethylaluminium * White phosphorus munitions * FTF, Heavy No. 1 - British Flamethrower Fuel * Thickener, M4 - Thickener successor to napalm * Geletrol - Australian fuel thickener * OP-2 - Soviet fuel thickener Further reading --------------- * Neer, Robert M. (2013). *Napalm: An American Biography*. Belknap Press ISBN 978-0-674-07301-2

Napalm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

**Odin** (/ˈoʊdɪn/; from Old Norse: *Óðinn*) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet, and depicts him as the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was also known in Old English as ****Wōden****, in Old Saxon as *Uuôden*, in Old Dutch as *Wuodan*, in Old Frisian as *Wêda*, and in Old High German as *Wuotan*, all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym \**Wōðanaz*, meaning 'lord of frenzy', or 'leader of the possessed'. Odin appears as a prominent god throughout the recorded history of Northern Europe, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania (from c. 2 BCE) through movement of peoples during the Migration Period (4th to 6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries CE). In the modern period, the rural folklore of Germanic Europe continued to acknowledge Odin. References to him appear in place names throughout regions historically inhabited by the ancient Germanic peoples, and the day of the week Wednesday bears his name in many Germanic languages, including in English. In Old English texts, Odin holds a particular place as a euhemerized ancestral figure among royalty, and he is frequently referred to as a founding figure among various other Germanic peoples, such as the Langobards, while some Old Norse sources depict him as an enthroned ruler of the gods. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, although narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland, primarily around the 13th century. These texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. Old Norse texts portray Odin as the son of Bestla and Borr along with two brothers, Vili and Vé, and he fathered many sons, most famously the gods Thor (with Jörð) and Baldr (with Frigg). He is known by hundreds of names. Odin is frequently portrayed as one-eyed and long-bearded, wielding a spear named Gungnir or appearing in disguise wearing a cloak and a broad hat. He is often accompanied by his animal familiars—the wolves Geri and Freki and the ravens Huginn and Muninn, who bring him information from all over Midgard—and he rides the flying, eight-legged steed Sleipnir across the sky and into the underworld. In these texts he frequently seeks greater knowledge, most famously by obtaining the Mead of Poetry, and makes wagers with his wife Frigg over his endeavors. He takes part both in the creation of the world by slaying the primordial being Ymir and in giving life to the first two humans Ask and Embla. He also provides mankind knowledge of runic writing and poetry, showing aspects of a culture hero. He has a particular association with the Yule holiday. Odin is also associated with the divine battlefield maidens, the valkyries, and he oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the *einherjar*, sending the other half to the goddess Freyja's Fólkvangr. Odin consults the disembodied, herb-embalmed head of the wise Mímir, who foretells the doom of Ragnarök and urges Odin to lead the *einherjar* into battle before being consumed by the monstrous wolf Fenrir. In later folklore, Odin sometimes appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession of the dead through the winter sky. He is associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. The figure of Odin is a frequent subject of interest in Germanic studies, and scholars have advanced numerous theories regarding his development. Some of these focus on Odin's particular relation to other figures; for example, Freyja's husband Óðr appears to be something of an etymological doublet of the god, while Odin's wife Frigg is in many ways similar to Freyja, and Odin has a particular relation to Loki. Other approaches focus on Odin's place in the historical record, exploring whether Odin derives from Proto-Indo-European mythology or developed later in Germanic society. In the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other cultural expressions. He is venerated with other Germanic gods in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry; some branches focus particularly on him. Name ---- ### Etymological origin The Old Norse theonym *Óðinn* (runic ᚢᚦᛁᚾ on the Ribe skull fragment) is a cognate of other medieval Germanic names, including Old English *Wōden*, Old Saxon *Wōdan*, Old Dutch *Wuodan*, and Old High German *Wuotan* (Old Bavarian *Wûtan*). They all derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic masculine theonym *\*Wōðanaz* (or *\*Wōdunaz*). Translated as 'lord of frenzy', or as 'leader of the possessed', *\*Wōðanaz* stems from the Proto-Germanic adjective *\*wōðaz* ('possessed, inspired, delirious, raging') attached to the suffix *\*-naz* ('master of'). Internal and comparative evidence all point to the ideas of a divine possession or inspiration, and an ecstatic divination. In his *Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum* (1075–1080 AD), Adam of Bremen explicitly associates *Wotan* with the Latin term *furor*, which can be translated as 'rage', 'fury', 'madness', or 'frenzy' (*Wotan id est furor* : "Odin, that is, *furor*"). As of 2011, an attestation of Proto-Norse *Woðinz*, on the Strängnäs stone, has been accepted as probably authentic, but the name may be used as a related adjective instead meaning "with a gift for (divine) possession" (ON: *øðinn*). Other Germanic cognates derived from *\*wōðaz* include Gothic *woþs* ('possessed'), Old Norse *óðr* ('mad, frantic, furious'), Old English *wōd* ('insane, frenzied') and Dutch *woed* ('frantic, wild, crazy'), along with the substantivized forms Old Norse *óðr* ('mind, wit, sense; song, poetry'), Old English *wōþ* ('sound, noise; voice, song'), Old High German *wuot* ('thrill, violent agitation') and Middle Dutch *woet* ('rage, frenzy'), from the same root as the original adjective. The Proto-Germanic terms *\*wōðīn* ('madness, fury') and *\*wōðjanan* ('to rage') can also be reconstructed. Early epigraphic attestations of the adjective include *un-wōdz* ('calm one', i.e. 'not-furious'; 200 CE) and *wōdu-rīde* ('furious rider'; 400 CE). Philologist Jan de Vries has argued that the Old Norse deities Óðinn and Óðr were probably originally connected (as in the doublet Ullr–Ullinn), with *Óðr* (\**wōðaz*) being the elder form and the ultimate source of the name *Óðinn* (*\*wōða-naz*). He further suggested that the god of rage Óðr–Óðinn stood in opposition to the god of glorious majesty Ullr–Ullinn in a similar manner to the Vedic contrast between Varuna and Mitra. The adjective *\*wōðaz* ultimately stems from a Pre-Germanic form *\*uoh₂-tós*, which is related to the Proto-Celtic terms *\*wātis*, meaning 'seer, sooth-sayer' (cf. Gaulish *wāteis*, Old Irish *fáith* 'prophet') and \**wātus*, meaning 'prophesy, poetic inspiration' (cf. Old Irish *fáth* 'prophetic wisdom, maxims', Old Welsh *guaut* 'prophetic verse, panegyric'). According to some scholars, the Latin term *vātēs* ('prophet, seer') is probably a Celtic loanword from the Gaulish language, making *\*uoh₂-tós ~ \*ueh₂-tus* ('god-inspired') a shared religious term common to Germanic and Celtic rather than an inherited word of earlier Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin. In the case a borrowing scenario is excluded, a PIE etymon *\*(H)ueh₂-tis* ('prophet, seer') can also be posited as the common ancestor of the attested Germanic, Celtic and Latin forms. ### Other names More than 170 names are recorded for Odin; the names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with him. This multitude makes Odin the god with the most known names among the Germanic peoples. Professor Steve Martin has pointed out that the name Odinsberg (Ounesberry, Ounsberry, Othenburgh) in Cleveland Yorkshire, now corrupted to Roseberry (Topping), may derive from the time of the Anglian settlements, with nearby Newton under Roseberry and Great Ayton having Anglo Saxon suffixes. The very dramatic rocky peak was an obvious place for divine association, and may have replaced Bronze Age/Iron Age beliefs of divinity there, given that a hoard of bronze votive axes and other objects was buried by the summit. It could be a rare example, then, of Nordic-Germanic theology displacing earlier Celtic mythology in an imposing place of tribal prominence. In his opera cycle *Der Ring des Nibelungen*, Richard Wagner refers to the god as *Wotan*, a spelling of his own invention which combines the Old High German *Wuotan* with the Low German *Wodan*. ### Origin of *Wednesday* The modern English weekday name *Wednesday* derives from Old English *Wōdnesdæg*, meaning 'day of Wōden'. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German and Middle Dutch *Wōdensdach* (modern Dutch *woensdag*), Old Frisian *Wērnisdei* (≈ *Wērendei*) and Old Norse *Óðinsdagr* (cf. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish *onsdag*). All of these terms derive from Late Proto-Germanic \**Wodanesdag* ('Day of Wōðanaz'), a calque of Latin *Mercurii dies* ('Day of Mercury'; cf. modern Italian *mercoledì*, French *mercredi*, Spanish *miércoles*). Attestations ------------ ### Roman era to Migration Period The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works Odin is frequently referred to—via a process known as *interpretatio romana* (where characteristics perceived to be similar by Romans result in identification of a non-Roman god as a Roman deity)—as the Roman god Mercury. The first clear example of this occurs in the Roman historian Tacitus's late 1st-century work *Germania*, where, writing about the religion of the Suebi (a confederation of Germanic peoples), he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the Suebi also venerate "Isis". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as "Mercury", Thor as "Hercules", and Týr as "Mars". The "Isis" of the Suebi has been debated and may represent "Freyja". Anthony Birley noted that Odin's apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury's classical role of being messenger of the gods, but appears to be due to Mercury's role of psychopomp. Other contemporary evidence may also have led to the equation of Odin with Mercury; Odin, like Mercury, may have at this time already been pictured with a staff and hat, may have been considered a trader god, and the two may have been seen as parallel in their roles as wandering deities. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have been very different. Also, Tacitus's "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship" is an exact quote from Julius Caesar's *Commentarii de Bello Gallico* (1st century BCE) in which Caesar is referring to the Gauls and not the Germanic peoples. Regarding the Germanic peoples, Caesar states: "[T]hey consider the gods only the ones that they can see, the Sun, Fire and the Moon", which scholars reject as clearly mistaken, regardless of what may have led to the statement. There is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and the existence of a cult of Odin among them is debated. Richard North and Herwig Wolfram have both argued that the Goths did not worship Odin, Wolfram contending that the use of Greek names of the week in Gothic provides evidence of that. One possible reading of the Gothic Ring of Pietroassa is that the inscription "gutaniowi hailag" means "sacred to Wodan-Jove", but this is highly disputed. The earliest clear reference to Odin by name is found on a C-bracteate discovered in Denmark in 2020. Dated to as early as the 400s, the bracteate features a Proto-Norse Elder Futhark inscription reading "He is Odin’s man" (*iz Wōd[a]nas weraz*). Although the English kingdoms were converted to Christianity by the 7th century, Odin is frequently listed as a founding figure among the Old English royalty. Odin is also either directly or indirectly mentioned a few times in the surviving Old English poetic corpus, including the *Nine Herbs Charm* and likely also the *Old English rune poem*. Odin may also be referenced in the riddle *Solomon and Saturn*. In the *Nine Herbs Charm*, Odin is said to have slain a *wyrm* (serpent, European dragon) by way of nine "glory twigs". Preserved from an 11th-century manuscript, the poem is, according to Bill Griffiths, "one of the most enigmatic of Old English texts". The section that mentions Odin is as follows: | | | | --- | --- | | + wyrm com snican, toslat he nan, ða genam woden VIIII wuldortanas, sloh ða þa næddran þæt heo on VIIII tofleah Þær gaændade æppel and attor þæt heo næfre ne wolde on hus bugan. | A serpent came crawling (but) it destroyed no one when Woden took nine twigs of glory, (and) then struck the adder so that it flew into nine (pieces). There archived apple and poison that it never would re-enter the house. | | | —Bill Griffiths translation | The emendation of *nan* to 'man' has been proposed. The next stanza comments on the creation of the herbs chervil and fennel while hanging in heaven by the 'wise lord' (*witig drihten*) and before sending them down among mankind. Regarding this, Griffith comments that "In a Christian context 'hanging in heaven' would refer to the crucifixion; but (remembering that Woden was mentioned a few lines previously) there is also a parallel, perhaps a better one, with Odin, as his crucifixion was associated with learning." The Old English gnomic poem *Maxims I* also mentions Odin by name in the (alliterative) phrase *Woden worhte weos*, ('Woden made idols'), in which he is contrasted with and denounced against the Christian God. The Old English rune poem recounts the Old English runic alphabet, the futhorc. The stanza for the rune *ós* reads as follows: | | | | --- | --- | | ōs byþ ordfruma ǣlcre sprǣce wīsdōmes wraþu and wītena frōfur and eorla gehwām ēadnys and tō hiht | god is the origin of all language wisdom's foundation and wise man's comfort and to every hero blessing and hope | | | —Stephen Pollington | The first word of this stanza, *ōs* (Latin 'mouth') is a homophone for Old English *os*, a particularly heathen word for 'god'. Due to this and the content of the stanzas, several scholars have posited that this poem is censored, having originally referred to Odin. Kathleen Herbert comments that "*Os* was cognate with *As* in Norse, where it meant one of the Æsir, the chief family of gods. In Old English, it could be used as an element in first names: Osric, Oswald, Osmund, etc. but it was not used as a word to refer to the God of Christians. Woden was equated with Mercury, the god of eloquence (among other things). The tales about the Norse god Odin tell how he gave one of his eyes in return for wisdom; he also won the mead of poetic inspiration. Luckily for Christian rune-masters, the Latin word *os* could be substituted without ruining the sense, to keep the outward form of the rune name without obviously referring to Woden." In the prose narrative of *Solomon and Saturn*, "Mercurius the Giant" (*Mercurius se gygand*) is referred to as an inventor of letters. This may also be a reference to Odin, who is in Norse mythology the founder of the runic alphabets, and the gloss a continuation of the practice of equating Odin with Mercury found as early as Tacitus. One of the *Solomon and Saturn* poems is additionally in the style of later Old Norse material featuring Odin, such as the Old Norse poem *Vafþrúðnismál*, featuring Odin and the jötunn Vafþrúðnir engaging in a deadly game of wits. The 7th-century *Origo Gentis Langobardorum*, and Paul the Deacon's 8th-century *Historia Langobardorum* derived from it, recount a founding myth of the Langobards (Lombards), a Germanic people who ruled a region of the Italian Peninsula. According to this legend, a "small people" known as the *Winnili* were ruled by a woman named Gambara who had two sons, Ybor and Aio. The Vandals, ruled by Ambri and Assi, came to the Winnili with their army and demanded that they pay them tribute or prepare for war. Ybor, Aio, and their mother Gambara rejected their demands for tribute. Ambri and Assi then asked the god Godan for victory over the Winnili, to which Godan responded (in the longer version in the *Origo*): "Whom I shall first see when at sunrise, to them will I give the victory." Meanwhile, Ybor and Aio called upon Frea, Godan's wife. Frea counselled them that "at sunrise the Winnil[i] should come, and that their women, with their hair let down around the face in the likeness of a beard should also come with their husbands". At sunrise, Frea turned Godan's bed around to face east and woke him. Godan saw the Winnili and their whiskered women and asked, "who are those Long-beards?" Frea responded to Godan, "As you have given them a name, give them also the victory". Godan did so, "so that they should defend themselves according to his counsel and obtain the victory". Thenceforth the Winnili were known as the *Langobards* ('long-beards'). Writing in the mid-7th century, Jonas of Bobbio wrote that earlier that century the Irish missionary Columbanus disrupted an offering of beer to Odin (*vodano*) "(whom others called Mercury)" in Swabia. A few centuries later, 9th-century document from what is now Mainz, Germany, known as the *Old Saxon Baptismal Vow* records the names of three Old Saxon gods, *UUôden* ('Woden'), *Saxnôte*, and *Thunaer* ('Thor'), whom pagan converts were to renounce as demons. A 10th-century manuscript found in Merseburg, Germany, features a heathen invocation known as the Second Merseburg Incantation, which calls upon Odin and other gods and goddesses from the continental Germanic pantheon to assist in healing a horse: | | | | --- | --- | | Phol ende uuodan uuoran zi holza. du uuart demo balderes uolon sin uuoz birenkit. thu biguol en sinthgunt, sunna era suister, thu biguol en friia, uolla era suister thu biguol en uuodan, so he uuola conda: sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki: ben zi bena, bluot si bluoda, lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin! | Phol and Woden travelled to the forest. Then was for Baldur's foal its foot wrenched. Then encharmed it Sindgund (and) Sunna her sister, then encharmed it Frija (and) Volla her sister, then encharmed it Woden, as he the best could, As the bone-wrench, so for the blood wrench, (and) so the limb-wrench bone to bone, blood to blood, limb to limb, so be glued. | | | —Bill Griffiths translation | ### Viking Age to post-Viking Age In the 11th century, chronicler Adam of Bremen recorded in a scholion of his *Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum* that a statue of Thor, whom Adam describes as "mightiest", sat enthroned in the Temple at Uppsala (located in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) flanked by Wodan (Odin) and "Fricco". Regarding Odin, Adam defines him as "frenzy" (*Wodan, id est furor*) and says that he "rules war and gives people strength against the enemy" and that the people of the temple depict him as wearing armour, "as our people depict Mars". According to Adam, the people of Uppsala had appointed priests (gothi) to each of the gods, who were to offer up sacrifices (blót), and in times of war sacrifices were made to images of Odin. In the 12th century, centuries after Norway was "officially" Christianised, Odin was still being invoked by the population, as evidenced by a stick bearing a runic message found among the Bryggen inscriptions in Bergen, Norway. On the stick, both Thor and Odin are called upon for help; Thor is asked to "receive" the reader, and Odin to "own" them. #### *Poetic Edda* Odin is mentioned or appears in most poems of the *Poetic Edda*, compiled in the 13th century from traditional source material reaching back to the pagan period. The poem *Völuspá* features Odin in a dialogue with an undead völva, who gives him wisdom from ages past and foretells the onset of Ragnarök, the destruction and rebirth of the world. Among the information the völva recounts is the story of the first human beings (Ask and Embla), found and given life by a trio of gods; Odin, Hœnir, and Lóðurr: In stanza 17 of the *Poetic Edda* poem *Völuspá*, the *völva* reciting the poem states that Hœnir, Lóðurr and Odin once found Ask and Embla on land. The *völva* says that the two were capable of very little, lacking in *ørlög* and says that they were given three gifts by the three gods: > > > > | | | | | > | --- | --- | --- | --- | > | *Ǫnd þau né átto, óð þau né hǫfðo,* > *lá né læti né lito góða.* > *Ǫnd gaf Óðinn, óð gaf Hœnir,* > *lá gaf Lóðurr ok lito góða.* > Old Norse: | Spirit they possessed not, sense they had not, > blood nor motive powers, nor goodly colour. > Spirit gave Odin, sense gave Hœnir, > blood gave Lodur, and goodly colour. > Benjamin Thorpe translation: | Soul they had not, sense they had not, > Heat nor motion, nor goodly hue; > Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hönir, > Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue. > Henry Adams Bellows translation: | | > > > The meaning of these gifts has been a matter of scholarly disagreement and translations therefore vary. Later in the poem, the völva recounts the events of the Æsir–Vanir War, the war between Vanir and the Æsir, two groups of gods. During this, the first war of the world, Odin flung his spear into the opposing forces of the Vanir. The völva tells Odin that she knows where he has hidden his eye; in the spring Mímisbrunnr, and from it "Mímir drinks mead every morning". After Odin gives her necklaces, she continues to recount more information, including a list of valkyries, referred to as *nǫnnor Herians* 'the ladies of War Lord'; in other words, the ladies of Odin. In foretelling the events of Ragnarök, the völva predicts the death of Odin; Odin will fight the monstrous wolf Fenrir during the great battle at Ragnarök. Odin will be consumed by the wolf, yet Odin's son Víðarr will avenge him by stabbing the wolf in the heart. After the world is burned and renewed, the surviving and returning gods will meet and recall Odin's deeds and "ancient runes". The poem *Hávamál* (Old Norse 'Sayings of the High One') consists entirely of wisdom verse attributed to Odin. This advice ranges from the practical ("A man shouldn't hold onto the cup but drink in moderation, it's necessary to speak or be silent; no man will blame you for impoliteness if you go early to bed"), to the mythological (such as Odin's recounting of his retrieval of Óðrœrir, the vessel containing the mead of poetry), and to the mystical (the final section of the poem consists of Odin's recollection of eighteen charms). Among the various scenes that Odin recounts is his self-sacrifice: | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | I know that I hung on a wind-rocked tree, nine whole nights, with a spear wounded, and to Odin offered, myself to myself; on that tree, of which no one knows from what root it springs. Bread no one gave me, nor a horn of drink, downward I peered, to runes applied myself, wailing learnt them, then fell down thence. Benjamin Thorpe translation: | I ween that I hung on the windy tree, Hung there for nine nights full nine; With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was, To Othin, myself to myself, On the tree that none may know What root beneath it runs. None made me happy with a loaf or horn, And there below I looked; I took up the runes, shrieking I took them, And forthwith back I fell. Henry Adams Bellows translation: | I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there. Carolyne Larrington translation: | | While the name of the tree is not provided in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as the cosmic tree Yggdrasil, and if the tree is Yggdrasil, then the name *Yggdrasil* (Old Norse 'Ygg's steed') directly relates to this story. Odin is associated with hanging and gallows; John Lindow comments that "the hanged 'ride' the gallows". In the prose introduction to the poem *Sigrdrífumál*, the hero Sigurd rides up to Hindarfell and heads south towards "the land of the Franks". On the mountain Sigurd sees a great light, "as if fire were burning, which blazed up to the sky". Sigurd approaches it, and there he sees a *skjaldborg* (a tactical formation of shield wall) with a banner flying overhead. Sigurd enters the *skjaldborg*, and sees a warrior lying there—asleep and fully armed. Sigurd removes the helmet of the warrior, and sees the face of a woman. The woman's corslet is so tight that it seems to have grown into the woman's body. Sigurd uses his sword Gram to cut the corslet, starting from the neck of the corslet downwards, he continues cutting down her sleeves, and takes the corslet off her. The woman wakes, sits up, looks at Sigurd, and the two converse in two stanzas of verse. In the second stanza, the woman explains that Odin placed a sleeping spell on her which she could not break, and due to that spell she has been asleep a long time. Sigurd asks for her name, and the woman gives Sigurd a horn of mead to help him retain her words in his memory. The woman recites a heathen prayer in two stanzas. A prose narrative explains that the woman is named Sigrdrífa and that she is a valkyrie. A narrative relates that Sigrdrífa explains to Sigurd that there were two kings fighting one another. Odin had promised one of these—Hjalmgunnar—victory in battle, yet she had "brought down" Hjalmgunnar in battle. Odin pricked her with a sleeping-thorn in consequence, told her that she would never again "fight victoriously in battle", and condemned her to marriage. In response, Sigrdrífa told Odin she had sworn a great oath that she would never wed a man who knew fear. Sigurd asks Sigrdrífa to share with him her wisdom of all worlds. The poem continues in verse, where Sigrdrífa provides Sigurd with knowledge in inscribing runes, mystic wisdom, and prophecy. #### *Prose Edda* Odin is mentioned throughout the books of the *Prose Edda*, composed in the 13th century and drawing from earlier traditional material. The god is introduced at length in chapter nine of the *Prose Edda* book *Gylfaginning*, which explains that he is described as ruling over Asgard, the domain of the gods, on his throne, that he is the 'father of all', and that from him all the gods, all of humankind (by way of Ask and Embla), and everything else he has made or produced. According to *Gylfaginning*, in Asgard: There the gods and their descendants lived and there took place as a result many developments both on earth and aloft. In the city there is a seat called Hlidskialf, and when Odin sat in that throne he saw over all worlds and every man's activity and understood everything he saw. His wife was called Frigg Fiorgvin's daughter, and from them is descended the family line that we call the Æsir race, who have resided in Old Asgard and the realms that belong to it, and that whole line of descent is of divine origin. And this is why he can be called All-father, that he is father of all gods and of men and of everything that has been brought into being by him and his power. The earth was his daughter and his wife. Out of her he begot the first of his ons, that is Asa-Thor. In the *Prose Edda* book *Gylfaginning* (chapter 38), the enthroned figure of High (Harr), tells Gangleri (king Gylfi in disguise) that two ravens named Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders. The ravens tell Odin everything they see and hear. Odin sends Huginn and Muninn out at dawn, and the birds fly all over the world before returning at dinner-time. As a result, Odin is kept informed of many events. High adds that it is from this association that Odin is referred to as "raven-god". The above-mentioned stanza from *Grímnismál* is then quoted. In the same chapter, the enthroned figure of High explains that Odin gives all of the food on his table to his wolves Geri and Freki and that Odin requires no food, for wine is to him both meat and drink. #### *Heimskringla* and sagas Odin is mentioned several times in the sagas that make up *Heimskringla*. In the *Ynglinga saga*, the first section of *Heimskringla*, an euhemerised account of the origin of the gods is provided. Odin is introduced in chapter two, where he is said to have lived in "the land or home of the Æsir" (Old Norse: *Ásaland eða Ásaheimr*), the capital of which being Ásgarðr. Ásgarðr was ruled by Odin, a great chieftain, and was "a great place for sacrifices". It was the custom there that twelve temple priests were ranked highest; they administered sacrifices and held judgements over men. "Called *diar* or chiefs", the people were obliged to serve under them and respect them. Odin was a very successful warrior and travelled widely, conquering many lands. Odin was so successful that he never lost a battle. As a result, according to the saga, men came to believe that "it was granted to him" to win all battles. Before Odin sent his men to war or to perform tasks for him, he would place his hands upon their heads and give them a *bjannak* ('blessing', ultimately from Latin *benedictio*) and the men would believe that they would also prevail. The men placed all of their faith in Odin, and wherever they called his name they would receive assistance from doing so. Odin was often gone for great spans of time. Chapter 3 says that Odin had two brothers, Vé and Vili. While Odin was gone, his brothers governed his realm. Once Odin was gone for so long that the Æsir believed that he would not return, his brothers began to divvy up Odin's inheritance, "but his wife Frigg they shared between them. However, afterwards, [Odin] returned and took possession of his wife again". Chapter 4 describes the Æsir–Vanir War. According to the chapter, Odin "made war on the Vanir". The Vanir defended their land and the battle turned to a stalemate, both sides having devastated each other's lands. As part of a peace agreement, the two sides exchanged hostages. One of the exchanges went awry and resulted in the Vanir decapitating one of the hostages sent to them by the Æsir, Mímir. The Vanir sent Mímir's head to the Æsir, whereupon Odin "took it and embalmed it with herbs so that it would not rot, and spoke charms [Old Norse *galdr*] over it", which imbued the head with the ability to answer Odin and "tell him many occult things". In *Völsunga saga*, the great king Rerir and his wife (unnamed) are unable to conceive a child; "that lack displeased them both, and they fervently implored the gods that they might have a child. It is said that Frigg heard their prayers and told Odin what they asked", and the two gods subsequently sent a Valkyrie to present Rerir an apple that falls onto his lap while he sits on a burial mound and Rerir's wife subsequently becomes pregnant with the namesake of the Völsung family line. In the 13th century legendary saga *Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks*, the poem *Heiðreks gátur* contains a riddle that mentions Sleipnir and Odin: > > 36. Gestumblindi said: > > > Who are the twain > that on ten feet run? > three eyes they have, > but only one tail. > All right guess now > this riddle, Heithrek! > Heithrek said: > > > Good is thy riddle, Gestumblindi, > and guessed it is: > that is Odin riding on Sleipnir. > ### Modern folklore Local folklore and folk practice recognised Odin as late as the 19th century in Scandinavia. In a work published in the mid-19th century, Benjamin Thorpe records that on Gotland, "many traditions and stories of Odin the Old still live in the mouths of the people". Thorpe notes that, in Blekinge in Sweden, "it was formerly the custom to leave a sheaf on the field for Odin's horses", and cites other examples, such as in Kråktorpsgård, Småland, where a barrow was purported to have been opened in the 18th century, purportedly containing the body of Odin. After Christianization, the mound was known as *Helvetesbackke* (Swedish "Hell's Mound"). Local legend dictates that after it was opened, "there burst forth a wondrous fire, like a flash of lightning", and that a coffin full of flint and a lamp were excavated. Thorpe additionally relates that legend has it that a priest who dwelt around Troienborg had once sowed some rye, and that when the rye sprang up, so came Odin riding from the hills each evening. Odin was so massive that he towered over the farm-yard buildings, spear in hand. Halting before the entry way, he kept all from entering or leaving all night, which occurred every night until the rye was cut. Thorpe relates that "a story is also current of a golden ship, which is said to be sunk in Runemad, near the Nyckelberg, in which, according to tradition, Odin fetched the slain from the battle of Bråvalla to Valhall", and that Kettilsås, according to legend, derives its name from "one Ketill Runske, who stole Odin's runic staves" (*runekaflar*) and then bound Odin's dogs, bull, and a mermaid who came to help Odin. Thorpe notes that numerous other traditions existed in Sweden at the time of his writing. Thorpe records (1851) that in Sweden, "when a noise, like that of carriages and horses, is heard by night, the people say: 'Odin is passing by'". Odin and the gods Loki and Hœnir help a farmer and a boy escape the wrath of a bet-winning jötunn in *Loka Táttur* or *Lokka Táttur*, a Faroese ballad dating to the Late Middle Ages. Archaeological record --------------------- References to or depictions of Odin appear on numerous objects. Migration Period (5th and 6th century CE) gold bracteates (types A, B, and C) feature a depiction of a human figure above a horse, holding a spear and flanked by one or two birds. The presence of the birds has led to the iconographic identification of the human figure as the god Odin, flanked by Huginn and Muninn. Like the *Prose Edda* description of the ravens, a bird is sometimes depicted at the ear of the human, or at the ear of the horse. Bracteates have been found in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and, in smaller numbers, England and areas south of Denmark. Austrian Germanist Rudolf Simek states that these bracteates may depict Odin and his ravens healing a horse and may indicate that the birds were originally not simply his battlefield companions but also "Odin's helpers in his veterinary function." Vendel Period helmet plates (from the 6th or 7th century) found in a grave in Sweden depict a helmeted figure holding a spear and a shield while riding a horse, flanked by two birds. The plate has been interpreted as Odin accompanied by two birds; his ravens. Two of the 8th century picture stones from the island of Gotland, Sweden depict eight-legged horses, which are thought by most scholars to depict Sleipnir: the Tjängvide image stone and the Ardre VIII image stone. Both stones feature a rider sitting atop an eight-legged horse, which some scholars view as Odin. Above the rider on the Tjängvide image stone is a horizontal figure holding a spear, which may be a valkyrie, and a female figure greets the rider with a cup. The scene has been interpreted as a rider arriving at the world of the dead. The mid-7th century Eggja stone bearing the Odinic name *haras* (Old Norse 'army god') may be interpreted as depicting Sleipnir. A pair of identical Germanic Iron Age bird-shaped brooches from Bejsebakke in northern Denmark may be depictions of Huginn and Muninn. The back of each bird features a mask-motif, and the feet of the birds are shaped like the heads of animals. The feathers of the birds are also composed of animal-heads. Together, the animal-heads on the feathers form a mask on the back of the bird. The birds have powerful beaks and fan-shaped tails, indicating that they are ravens. The brooches were intended to be worn on each shoulder, after Germanic Iron Age fashion. Archaeologist Peter Vang Petersen comments that while the symbolism of the brooches is open to debate, the shape of the beaks and tail feathers confirms the brooch depictions are ravens. Petersen notes that "raven-shaped ornaments worn as a pair, after the fashion of the day, one on each shoulder, makes one's thoughts turn towards Odin's ravens and the cult of Odin in the Germanic Iron Age." Petersen says that Odin is associated with disguise, and that the masks on the ravens may be portraits of Odin. The Oseberg tapestry fragments, discovered within the Viking Age Oseberg ship burial in Norway, features a scene containing two black birds hovering over a horse, possibly originally leading a wagon (as a part of a procession of horse-led wagons on the tapestry). In her examination of the tapestry, scholar Anne Stine Ingstad interprets these birds as Huginn and Muninn flying over a covered cart containing an image of Odin, drawing comparison to the images of Nerthus attested by Tacitus in 1 CE. Excavations in Ribe, Denmark have recovered a Viking Age lead metal-caster's mould and 11 identical casting-moulds. These objects depict a moustached man wearing a helmet that features two head-ornaments. Archaeologist Stig Jensen proposes these head-ornaments should be interpreted as Huginn and Muninn, and the wearer as Odin. He notes that "similar depictions occur everywhere the Vikings went—from eastern England to Russia and naturally also in the rest of Scandinavia." A portion of Thorwald's Cross (a partly surviving runestone erected at Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man) depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, and a large bird on his shoulder. Andy Orchard comments that this bird may be either Huginn or Muninn. Rundata dates the cross to 940, while Pluskowski dates it to the 11th century. This depiction has been interpreted as Odin, with a raven or eagle at his shoulder, being consumed by the monstrous wolf Fenrir during the events of Ragnarök. The 11th century Ledberg stone in Sweden, similarly to Thorwald's Cross, features a figure with his foot at the mouth of a four-legged beast, and this may also be a depiction of Odin being devoured by Fenrir at Ragnarök. Below the beast and the man is a depiction of a legless, helmeted man, with his arms in a prostrate position. The Younger Futhark inscription on the stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as "mysterious," and "an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world." In November 2009, the Roskilde Museum announced the discovery and subsequent display of a niello-inlaid silver figurine found in Lejre, which they dubbed *Odin from Lejre*. The silver object depicts a person sitting on a throne. The throne features the heads of animals and is flanked by two birds. The Roskilde Museum identifies the figure as Odin sitting on his throne Hliðskjálf, flanked by the ravens Huginn and Muninn. Various interpretations have been offered for a symbol that appears on various archaeological finds known modernly as the valknut. Due to the context of its placement on some objects, some scholars have interpreted this symbol as referring to Odin. For example, Hilda Ellis Davidson theorises a connection between the valknut, the god Odin and "mental binds": > For instance, beside the figure of Odin on his horse shown on several memorial stones there is a kind of knot depicted, called the *valknut*, related to the triskele. This is thought to symbolize the power of the god to bind and unbind, mentioned in the poems and elsewhere. Odin had the power to lay bonds upon the mind, so that men became helpless in battle, and he could also loosen the tensions of fear and strain by his gifts of battle-madness, intoxication, and inspiration. > > Davidson says that similar symbols are found beside figures of wolves and ravens on "certain cremation urns" from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in East Anglia. According to Davidson, Odin's connection to cremation is known, and it does not seem unreasonable to connect with Odin in Anglo-Saxon England. Davidson proposes further connections between Odin's role as bringer of ecstasy by way of the etymology of the god's name. Origin and theories ------------------- Beginning with Henry Petersen's doctoral dissertation in 1876, which proposed that Thor was the indigenous god of Scandinavian farmers and Odin a later god proper to chieftains and poets, many scholars of Norse mythology in the past viewed Odin as having been imported from elsewhere. The idea was developed by Bernhard Salin on the basis of motifs in the petroglyphs and bracteates, and with reference to the Prologue of the *Prose Edda*, which presents the Æsir as having migrated into Scandinavia. Salin proposed that both Odin and the runes were introduced from Southeastern Europe in the Iron Age. Other scholars placed his introduction at different times; Axel Olrik, during the Migration Age as a result of Gaulish influence. More radically, both the archaeologist and comparative mythologist Marija Gimbutas and the Germanicist Karl Helm argued that the Æsir as a group, which includes both Thor and Odin, were late introductions into Northern Europe and that the indigenous religion of the region had been Vanic. In the 16th century and by the entire Vasa dynasty, Odin (Swedish: *Oden*) was officially considered the first king of Sweden by that country's government and historians. This was influenced by an embellished list of rulers invented by Johannes Magnus. Under the trifunctional hypothesis of Georges Dumézil, Odin is assigned one of the core functions in the Indo-European pantheon as a representative of the first function (sovereignty) corresponding to the Hindu Varuṇa (fury and magic) as opposed to Týr, who corresponds to the Hindu Mitrá (law and justice); while the Vanir represent the third function (fertility). Another approach to Odin has been in terms of his function and attributes. Many early scholars interpreted him as a wind-god or especially as a death-god. He has also been interpreted in the light of his association with ecstatic practices, and Jan de Vries compared him to the Hindu god Rudra and the Greek Hermes. Modern influence ---------------- The god Odin has been a source of inspiration for artists working in fine art, literature, and music. Fine art depictions of Odin in the modern period include the pen and ink drawing *Odin byggande Sigtuna* (1812) and the sketch *King Gylfe receives Oden on his arrival to Sweden* (1816) by Pehr Hörberg; the drinking horn relief *Odens möte med Gylfe* (1818), the marble statue *Odin* (1830) and the colossal bust *Odin* by Bengt Erland Fogelberg, the statues *Odin* (1812/1822) and *Odin* (1824/1825) by Hermann Ernst Freund, the sgraffito over the entrance of Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth (1874) by R. Krausse, the painting *Odin* (around 1880) by Edward Burne-Jones, the drawing *Thor und Magni* (1883) by K. Ehrenberg, the marble statue *Wodan* (around 1887) by H. Natter, the oil painting *Odin und Brunhilde* (1890) by Konrad Dielitz, the graphic drawing *Odin als Kriegsgott* (1896) by Hans Thoma, the painting *Odin and Fenris* (around 1900) by Dorothy Hardy, the oil painting *Wotan und Brünhilde* (1914) by Koloman Moser, the painting *The Road to Walhall* by S. Nilsson, the wooden Oslo City Hall relief *Odin og Mime* (1938) and the coloured wooden relief in the courtyard of the Oslo City Hall *Odin på Sleipnir* (1945–1950) by Dagfin Werenskiold, and the bronze relief on the doors of the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities, *Odin* (1950) by Bror Marklund. Works of modern literature featuring Odin include the poem *Der Wein* (1745) by Friedrich von Hagedorn, *Hymne de Wodan* (1769) by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, *Om Odin* (1771) by Peter Frederik Suhm, the tragedy *Odin eller Asarnes invandring* by K. G. Leopold, the epic poem *Odin eller Danrigets Stiftelse* (1803) by Jens Baggesen, the poem *Maskeradenball* (1803) and *Optrin af Norners og Asers Kamp: Odin komme til Norden* (1809) by N. F. S. Grundtvig, poems in *Nordens Guder* (1819) by Adam Oehlenschläger, the four-part novel *Sviavigamal* (1833) by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, "The Hero as Divinity" from *On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History* (1841) by Thomas Carlyle, the poem *Prelude* (1850) by William Wordsworth, the poem *Odins Meeresritt* by Aloys Schreiber [de] set to music by Karl Loewe (1851), the canzone *Germanenzug* (1864) by Robert Hamerling, the poem *Zum 25. August 1870* (1870) by Richard Wagner, the ballad *Rolf Krake* (1910) by F. Schanz, the novel *Juvikingerne* (1918–1923) by Olav Duun, the comedy *Der entfesselte Wotan* (1923) by Ernst Toller, the novel *Wotan* by Karl Hans Strobl, *Herrn Wodes Ausfahrt* (1937) by Hans-Friedrich Blunck, the poem *An das Ich* (1938) by H. Burte, and the novel *Sage vom Reich* (1941–1942) by Hans-Friedrich Blunck. Music inspired by or featuring the god includes the ballets *Odins Schwert* (1818) and *Orfa* (1852) by J. H. Stunz and the opera cycle *Der Ring des Nibelungen* (1848–1874) by Richard Wagner. Odin was adapted as a character by Marvel Comics, first appearing in the *Journey into Mystery* series in 1962. Sir Anthony Hopkins portrayed the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films *Thor* (2011), *Thor: The Dark World* (2013), and *Thor: Ragnarok* (2017). Odin is featured in a number of video games. In the 2002 Ensemble Studios game *Age of Mythology*, Odin is one of three major gods Norse players can worship. Odin is also mentioned through Santa Monica Studio's 2018 game *God of War* and appears in its 2022 sequel *God of War Ragnarök*. He is a major influence in the 2020 Ubisoft game *Assassin's Creed Valhalla* in the form of an Isu (a godlike, humanoid species within the *Assassin's Creed* universe) of the same name. The primary protagonist, Eivor, who the player controls throughout the game is revealed to be a sage, or human reincarnation, of Odin. Odin is also one of the playable gods in the third-person multiplayer online battle arena game *Smite*. Sources ------- * Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1936). *The Poetic Edda*. Princeton University Press. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. * Birley, Anthony R. (Trans.) (1999). *Agricola and Germany*. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 978-0-19-283300-6 * Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (1990). *The Saga of the Volsungs*. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-27299-6. * Brooks, James. 2023. "Oldest reference to Norse god Odin found in Danish treasure" Archived 8 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine. ABC News. March 8, 2023. Accessed March 8, 2023. * Chadwick, H. M. (1899). *The Cult of Othin: An Essay in the Ancient Religion of the North*. Clay & Sons. OCLC 8989833 * Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandur Vigfússon. Rev. Craigie, William A. (1975) *An Icelandic–English Dictionary*. 2nd ed., repr. Oxford Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198631033 * Cross, James E. and Thomas D. Hill (1982). *The Prose Solomon and Saturn and Adrian and Ritheus*. University of Toronto Press. * Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1990), *Gods and Myths of Northern Europe*, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-013627-4 * de Vries, Jan (1962). *Altnordisches Etymologisches Worterbuch* (1977 ed.). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-05436-3. * de Vries, Jan (1970a), *Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, volume 1. 2nd ed. repr. as 3rd ed* (in German), Walter de Gruyter, OCLC 466619179 * de Vries, Jan (1970b), *Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, volume 2. 2nd ed. repr. as 3rd ed* (in German), Walter de Gruyter, OCLC 466619179 * Dronke, Ursula (Trans.) (1997). *The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811181-9 * Dunn, Marilyn (2013). *Belief and Religion in Barbarian Europe, c. 350–700*. Bloomsbury. * Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). *Edda*. Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87616-3 * Foulke, William Dudley (Trans.) Ed. Edward Peters. (2003 [1974]). *History of the Lombards*. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812210798 * Gimbutas, Marija; Robbins Dexter, Miriam (1999), *The Living Goddesses*, University of California, ISBN 978-0520213937 * Griffiths, Bill (2006 [2003]). *Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic*. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 1-898281-33-5 * Herbert, Kathleen (2007 [1994]). *Looking for the Lost Gods of England*. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 1-898281-04-1 * Hirschfeld, Max (1889). *Untersuchungen zur Lokasenna*, Acta Germanica 1.1, Berlin: Mayer & Müller. (in German) * Koch, John T. (2020). *Celto-Germanic, Later Prehistory and Post-Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West* (PDF). Aberystwyth Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. ISBN 978-1907029325. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2021. * Hollander, Lee Milton (1936). *Old Norse Poems: The Most Important Nonskaldic Verse Not Included in the Poetic Edda*. Columbia University Press * Hollander, Lee Milton (Trans.) (1964). *Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway*. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73061-6. * Kroonen, Guus (2013). *Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic*. Brill. ISBN 978-9004183407. * Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). *The Poetic Edda Archived 25 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine*. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 0-19-283946-2 * Lindow, John (2001). *Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-983969-8. * MacLeod, Mindy & Mees, Bernard (2006). *Runic Amulets and Magic Objects Archived 19 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine*. Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-205-4 * Munro, Dana Carleton (Trans.) (1895). *Life of St. Columban*. The Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania. * North, Richard (1997). *Heathen Gods in Old English Literature*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521551830 * Orchard, Andy (1997). *Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend*. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5. * Orel, Vladimir E. (2003). *A Handbook of Germanic Etymology*. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12875-0. * Polomé, Edgar Charles (1970), "The Indo-European Component in Germanic Religion", in Puhvel, Jaan (ed.), *Myth and Law Among the Indo-Europeans: Studies in Indo-European Comparative Mythology*, University of California, ISBN 978-0520015876 * Pollington, Stephen (2008). *Rudiments of Runelore*. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 978-1898281498 * Price, Neil (2019). *The Viking Way, Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia* (2 ed.). Oxbow Books, Oxford and Philadelphia. ISBN 978-1842172605. * Schach, Paul (1985). "Some Thoughts on *Völuspá*" as collected in Glendinning, R. J. Bessason, Heraldur (Editors). *Edda: a Collection of Essays.* University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 0-88755-616-7 * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. *Dictionary of Northern Mythology*. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1 * Steuer, Heiko (2021). *Germanen aus Sicht der Archäologie: Neue Thesen zu einem alten Thema*. de Gruyter. * Thorpe, Benjamin (1851). *Northern Mythology, Compromising the Principal Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands: Compiled from Original and Other Sources*. 3 vols. Volume 2 *Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions*. Lumley. OCLC 314195407 * Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866). *Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned Archived 5 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine.* Part I. London: Trübner & Co. * Turville-Petre, Gabriel (1964), *Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia*, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, OCLC 645398380 * West, Martin L. (2007). *Indo-European Poetry and Myth*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9. * Williamson, Craig (2011). *A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs*. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812211290

Odin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin

**Macon** (/ˈmeɪkən/ *MAY-kən*), officially **Macon–Bibb County**, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia, United States. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Atlanta and near the state's geographic center — hence its nickname "The Heart of Georgia." Macon's population was 157,346 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had 234,802 people in 2020. It also is the largest city in the Macon–Warner Robins Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which had approximately 420,693 residents in 2017 and abuts the Atlanta metropolitan area to the northwest. Voters approved the consolidation of the City of Macon and Bibb County governments in a 2012 referendum. Macon became the state's fourth-largest city after Augusta when the merger occurred January 1, 2014. Macon is served by three interstate highways: I-16 (connecting to Savannah and coastal Georgia), I-75 (connecting to Atlanta to the north and Valdosta to the south), and I-475 (a city bypass highway). The area has two airports: Middle Georgia Regional Airport and Herbert Smart Downtown Airport. The city has several institutions of higher education and numerous museums and tourism sites. History ------- Macon was founded on the site of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, where the Creek Indians lived in the 18th century. Their predecessors, the Mississippian culture, built a powerful agriculture-based chiefdom (950–1100 AD). The Mississippian culture constructed earthwork mounds for ceremonial, religious, and burial purposes. Indigenous peoples inhabited the areas along the Southeast's rivers for 13,000 years before Europeans arrived. Macon was developed at the site of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, built in 1809 at President Thomas Jefferson's direction after he forced the Creek to cede their lands east of the Ocmulgee River (Archeological excavations in the 21st century found evidence of two separate fortifications.) The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins, who served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeast territory south of the Ohio River for more than 20 years, had lived among the Creek, and was married to a Creek woman. Located at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, the fort established a trading post with Native peoples at river's most inland point navigable from the Low Country. Fort Hawkins guarded the Lower Creek Pathway, an extensive and well-traveled American Indian network that the U.S. government later improved as the Federal Road, linking Washington, D.C., to the ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana. Used for trading with the Creek, the fort also was used by state militia and federal troops. It was a major military distribution point during the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813. After the wars, it was a trading post and garrisoned troops until 1821. Decommissioned around 1828, it later burned to the ground. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was built in 1938 and stands on an east Macon hill. Fort Hawkins Grammar School occupied part of the site. In the 21st century, archeological excavations have revealed more of the fort, increasing its historical significance, and led to further reconstruction planning for this major historical site. With the arrival of more settlers, Fort Hawkins was renamed "Newtown." After Bibb County's organization in 1822, the city was chartered as the county seat in 1823 and officially named Macon, in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a statesman from North Carolina, where many early Georgia residents hailed. City planners envisioned "a city within a park" and created a city of spacious streets and landscapes. Over 250 acres (1.0 km2) were dedicated for Central City Park, and ordinances required residents to plant shade trees in their front yards. Because of the beneficial local Black Belt geology and the use of enslaved Black laborers, cotton became the mainstay of Macon's early economy. The city's location on the Ocmulgee River aided initial economic expansion, providing shipping access to new markets. Cotton steamboats, stagecoaches, and the 1843 arrival of the railroad increased marketing opportunities and contributed to Macon's economic prosperity. Macon's growth had other benefits. In 1836, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church chose Macon as the location for Wesleyan College, the first U.S. college to grant women college degrees. Nonetheless, Macon came in last in the 1855 referendum voting to be Georgia's capital city with 3,802 votes. During the American Civil War, Macon served as the official arsenal of the Confederacy manufacturing percussion caps, friction primers, and pressed bullets. Camp Oglethorpe was established as a prison for captured Union officers and enlisted men. Later, it held only officers, at one time numbering 2,300. The camp was evacuated in 1864. Macon City Hall served as the temporary state capitol in 1864 and was converted to a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. The Union General William Tecumseh Sherman spared Macon on his march to the sea. His troops sacked the nearby state capital of Milledgeville, and Maconites prepared for an attack. Sherman, however, passed by without entering Macon. The *Macon Telegraph* reported the city had furnished 23 companies of men for the Confederacy, but casualties were high. By war end, Maconite survivors fit for duty could only fill five companies. The city was taken by Union forces during Wilson's Raid on April 20, 1865. Because of its central location, Macon developed as a state transportation hub. In 1895, the New York Times dubbed Macon "The Central City" because of is emergence as a railroad transportation and textile factory hub. Terminal Station was built in 1916. In the twentieth century, Macon grew into a prospering town in Middle Georgia. Downtown Macon in the early 1900s, looking northeast near the intersections of Cotton Avenue, First Street and Poplar Street Macon has been impacted by natural catastrophes. In 1994 Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Florida and flooded several Georgia cities. Macon, which received 24 inches (61 cm) of rain, suffered major flooding. On May 11, 2008, an EF2 tornado hit Macon. Touching down in nearby Lizella, the tornado moved northeast to the southern shore of Lake Tobesofkee, continued into Macon, and lifted near Dry Branch in Twiggs County. The storm's total path length was 18 miles (29 km), and its path width was 100 yards (91 m). The tornado produced sporadic areas of major damage, with widespread straight-line wind damage along its southern track. The most significant damage was along Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue in Macon, where two businesses were destroyed and several others were heavily damaged. The tornado also impacted Middle Georgia State College, where almost half of the campus's trees were snapped or uprooted and several buildings were damaged, with the gymnasium suffering the worst. The tornado's intensity varied from EF0 to EF2, with the EF2 damage and winds up to 130 miles per hour (210 km/h) occurring near the intersection of Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue. ### Consolidation On July 31, 2012, voters in Macon (57.8 percent approval) and Bibb County (56.7 percent approval) passed a referendum to merge the governments of the city of Macon and most of unincorporated Bibb County. The vote came after the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 1171, authorizing the referendum earlier in the year; Four previous consolidation attempts (in 1933, 1960, 1972, and 1976) failed. As a result of the referendum, (i) the Macon and Bibb County governments were replaced with a mayor and a nine-member county commission elected by districts and (ii) a portion of Macon extending into nearby Jones County was disincorporated. Robert Reichert was elected the first mayor of Macon-Bibb in the September 2013 election, which required a runoff with C. Jack Ellis in October. ### Timeline Timeline of Macon, Georgia * 1806 - U.S. Fort Hawkins built at the present-day site of Creek Indian Ocmulgee Old Fields (future site of Macon). * 1821 - Fort Hawkins settlement renamed "Newtown." * 1822 - Bibb County created. * 1823 - Town of Macon incorporated; named after North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon. * 1826 + *Macon Telegraph* newspaper begins publication. + First Presbyterian Church founded. * 1829 - Newtown becomes part of Macon. * 1833 - Steamboat in operation. * 1834 - City of Macon incorporated. * 1835 - Robert Augustus Beall elected mayor. * 1836 - Monroe Railroad Bank built. * 1838 - Monroe Railroad (Forsyth-Macon) begins operating. * 1839 - Georgia Female College opens. * 1840 + Rose Hill Cemetery established. + Population: 3,927. * 1843 - The Central of Georgia Railway connects Savannah and Macon. * 1846 - The Macon and Western Railroad connects Macon and Atlanta; the Small House (residence) built (approximate date). * 1848 - Telegraph begins operating. * 1851 - Georgia State Fair relocates to Macon. * 1860 + Belgian Fair and Cotton Planters' Exposition held. + Population: 8,247. * 1862 - "Arsenal of the Confederate Government moved to Macon" during the American Civil War. * 1864 + July 30: Macon besieged by Union forces. + "City Hall made temporary State Capitol of Georgia." * 1865 - April 20: Macon occupied by Union forces. * 1866 - October 29: Equal Rights and Educational Association of Georgia meeting held in Macon. * 1871 + Mercer University relocates to Macon from Penfield. + Bibb Manufacturing Company in business. * 1874 - Public Library (social library) established. * 1876 - Mount de Sales Academy active. * 1880 + Telephone begins operating. + Population: 12,749. * 1884 + *Macon Daily News* begins publication. + Academy of Music built. * 1887 + April 6: Riverside Cemetery chartered + August 6: Woolfolk family murdered near Macon. * 1900 - Price Library (public library) opens. * 1906 - Ocmulgee River levee construction begins. * 1910 - Population: 40,665. * 1917 - Cox Capitol Theatre in business. * 1918 + National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Columbus branch organized (approximate date). + Macon Art Association formed. + Outbreak of Spanish flu. * 1919 + Washington Memorial Library (public library) established. + Paul Jones was lynched on November 2, 1919, after being accused of attacking a fifty-year-old white woman. He was burned alive. * 1921 - Douglass Theatre and Rialto Theatre in business. * 1922 + WMAZ radio begins broadcasting. + Sherah Israel Synagogue built. * 1925 - Macon City Auditorium built. * 1929 - Luther Williams Field (stadium) opens. * 1929 - Walker Business College, an African American business and vocational school opens a second campus in Macon * 1933 - Citizens & Southern National Bank building constructed. * 1936 + Ocmulgee National Monument established. + Farmer's Market built. * 1938 - Bibb Theatre in business. * 1948 - WIBB radio begins broadcasting. * 1949 - Middle Georgia Regional Library headquartered in Macon. * 1950 - Population: 70,252. * 1952 - *Georgia Journal* newspaper begins publication. * 1953 - WMAZ-TV begins broadcasting. * 1955 - "Singer James Brown records his first single 'Please Please Please' at the studio of WIBB" radio in Macon. * 1960 - "Stratford Academy founded" * 1964 - Middle Georgia Historical Society formed. * 1965 - Macon Junior College established. * 1966 - U.S. Supreme Court decides *Evans v. Newton* desegregation-related lawsuit. * 1967 + December 18: Funeral of musician Otis Redding. + Ronnie Thompson becomes mayor. * 1970 - Population: 122,423. * 1978 - Middle Georgia Archives organized. * 1983 + Cherry Blossom Festival begins. + Richard Ray becomes U.S. representative for Georgia's 3rd congressional district. * 1993 - Sanford Bishop becomes U.S. representative for Georgia's 2nd congressional district. * 1994 + July: Flood. + Georgia Sports Hall of Fame relocates to Macon. * 1999 - C. Jack Ellis becomes mayor. * 2000 - Population: 97,255. * 2001 - City website online (approximate date).[*chronology citation needed*] * 2003 - Historic Macon Foundation formed. * 2007 - Robert Reichert becomes mayor. * 2010 - Population: 91,351. * 2012 - Governments of Macon city and Bibb County consolidated. * 2015 - Middle Georgia State University active. Geography --------- The Ocmulgee River is a major river that runs through the city. Macon is one of Georgia's three major Fall Line Cities, along with Augusta and Columbus. The Fall Line is where the hilly lands of the Piedmont plateau meet the flat terrain of the coastal plain. As such, Macon has a varied landscape of rolling hills on the north side and flat plains on the south. The fall line, where the altitude drops noticeably, causes rivers and creeks in the area to flow rapidly toward the ocean. In the past, Macon and other Fall Line cities had many textile mills powered by the rivers. Macon is located at 32°50′05″N 83°39′06″W / 32.834839°N 83.651672°W / 32.834839; -83.651672 (32.834839, −83.651672). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 56.3 square miles (146 km2), of which 55.8 square miles (145 km2) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2) (0.82%) is water. Macon is approximately 330 feet (100 m) above sea level. ### Climate Macon has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification *Cfa*). The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from 46.3 °F (7.9 °C) in January to 81.8 °F (27.7 °C) in July. On average, there are 4.8 days with 100 °F (38 °C)+ highs, 83 days with 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs, and 43 days with a low at or below freezing; the average window for freezing temperatures is November 7 thru March 22, allowing a growing season of 228 days. The city has an average annual precipitation of 45.7 inches (1,160 mm). The wettest day on record was July 5, 1994, with 10.25 inches (260 mm) of rain, and the wettest month on record was July 1994, with 18.16 inches (461 mm) of rain. On the other hand, since 1892, when precipitation records for the city began, there have been two months, October 1961 and October 1963, which did not even record a trace of precipitation in the city, and two other months, October 1939 and May 2007, which only recorded a trace. Snow is occasional, with about half of the winters receiving trace amounts or no snowfall, averaging 0.7 inches (1.8 cm); the snowiest winter was 1972−73 with 16.5 in (42 cm). | Climate data for Macon, Georgia (Middle Georgia Regional Airport), 1991−2020 normals, extremes 1892−present | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °F (°C) | 84(29) | 85(29) | 92(33) | 96(36) | 100(38) | 108(42) | 108(42) | 105(41) | 105(41) | 103(39) | 88(31) | 83(28) | 108(42) | | Mean maximum °F (°C) | 73.9(23.3) | 76.8(24.9) | 83.9(28.8) | 88.0(31.1) | 93.6(34.2) | 97.5(36.4) | 99.1(37.3) | 98.7(37.1) | 95.1(35.1) | 88.9(31.6) | 81.8(27.7) | 75.9(24.4) | 100.3(37.9) | | Average high °F (°C) | 59.3(15.2) | 63.4(17.4) | 70.6(21.4) | 77.9(25.5) | 85.8(29.9) | 90.9(32.7) | 93.5(34.2) | 92.2(33.4) | 87.6(30.9) | 78.9(26.1) | 69.1(20.6) | 61.3(16.3) | 77.5(25.3) | | Daily mean °F (°C) | 47.6(8.7) | 51.2(10.7) | 57.7(14.3) | 64.5(18.1) | 72.9(22.7) | 79.5(26.4) | 82.5(28.1) | 81.4(27.4) | 76.2(24.6) | 66.0(18.9) | 55.8(13.2) | 49.5(9.7) | 65.4(18.6) | | Average low °F (°C) | 35.9(2.2) | 39.1(3.9) | 44.9(7.2) | 51.0(10.6) | 60.0(15.6) | 68.1(20.1) | 71.5(21.9) | 70.7(21.5) | 64.8(18.2) | 53.2(11.8) | 42.5(5.8) | 37.8(3.2) | 53.3(11.8) | | Mean minimum °F (°C) | 19.0(−7.2) | 22.4(−5.3) | 27.2(−2.7) | 34.8(1.6) | 45.0(7.2) | 58.3(14.6) | 64.8(18.2) | 62.1(16.7) | 51.1(10.6) | 35.6(2.0) | 26.5(−3.1) | 22.8(−5.1) | 17.0(−8.3) | | Record low °F (°C) | −6(−21) | 8(−13) | 14(−10) | 28(−2) | 40(4) | 46(8) | 54(12) | 55(13) | 35(2) | 26(−3) | 10(−12) | 5(−15) | −6(−21) | | Average precipitation inches (mm) | 4.32(110) | 4.17(106) | 4.31(109) | 3.62(92) | 2.65(67) | 4.44(113) | 4.79(122) | 4.38(111) | 3.66(93) | 2.63(67) | 3.37(86) | 4.57(116) | 46.91(1,192) | | Average snowfall inches (cm) | 0.4(1.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.2(0.51) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.1(0.25) | 0.7(1.8) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 10.2 | 9.2 | 9.4 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 11.2 | 11.3 | 10.2 | 7.1 | 6.3 | 7.7 | 9.4 | 107.7 | | Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | | Average relative humidity (%) | 70.2 | 67.2 | 66.6 | 64.8 | 68.5 | 70.7 | 74.2 | 76.1 | 76.4 | 71.2 | 71.1 | 70.9 | 70.7 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 179.5 | 192.2 | 250.8 | 283.2 | 315.3 | 300.0 | 293.9 | 288.0 | 247.4 | 253.7 | 200.2 | 182.2 | 2,986.4 | | Percent possible sunshine | 56 | 62 | 67 | 73 | 73 | 70 | 67 | 70 | 67 | 72 | 64 | 59 | 67 | | Source: NOAA (snow 1981–2010, relative humidity and sun 1961−1990) | ### Surrounding cities and towns Downtown Macon at night in 2008 Demographics ------------ Historical population| Census | Pop. | Note | %± | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1840 | 3,297 | | — | | 1850 | 5,720 | | 73.5% | | 1860 | 8,247 | | 44.2% | | 1870 | 10,810 | | 31.1% | | 1880 | 12,749 | | 17.9% | | 1890 | 22,746 | | 78.4% | | 1900 | 23,272 | | 2.3% | | 1910 | 40,665 | | 74.7% | | 1920 | 52,995 | | 30.3% | | 1930 | 53,829 | | 1.6% | | 1940 | 57,865 | | 7.5% | | 1950 | 70,252 | | 21.4% | | 1960 | 69,764 | | −0.7% | | 1970 | 122,423 | | 75.5% | | 1980 | 116,896 | | −4.5% | | 1990 | 106,612 | | −8.8% | | 2000 | 97,255 | | −8.8% | | 2010 | 91,351 | | −6.1% | | 2020 | 157,346 | | 72.2% | | Sources: | Macon is the largest principal city in the Macon-Warner Robins-Fort Valley CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Macon metropolitan area (Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs counties) and the Warner Robins metropolitan area (Houston, Peach, and Pulaski counties) with a combined population of 411,898 in the 2010 census. ### 2020 census **Macon-Bibb County, Georgia – Racial and Ethnic Composition** (*NH = Non-Hispanic*) *Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.*| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2010 | Pop 2020 | % 2010 | % 2020 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | White alone (NH) | 25,296 | 56,787 | 27.69% | 36.09% | | Black or African American alone (NH) | 61,768 | 85,234 | 67.62% | 54.17% | | Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) | 146 | 281 | 0.16% | 0.18% | | Asian alone (NH) | 683 | 3,209 | 0.75% | 2.04% | | Pacific Islander alone (NH) | 28 | 42 | 0.03% | 0.03% | | Some Other Race alone (NH) | 97 | 602 | 0.11% | 0.38% | | Mixed Race/Multi-Racial (NH) | 1,069 | 4,454 | 1.17% | 2.83% | | Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2,264 | 6,737 | 2.48% | 4.28% | | **Total** | **91,351** | **157,346** | **100.00%** | **100.00%** | As of the official 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Macon was 91,351. In the last official census, in 2000, there were 97,255 people, 38,444 households, and 24,219 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,742.8 inhabitants per square mile (672.9/km2). There were 44,341 housing units at an average density of 794.6 per square mile (306.8/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 67.94% African American, 28.56% White, 0.02% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.48% of the population. There were 38,444 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.0% were married couples living together, 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were non-families. 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.08. In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.9% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 79.7 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 72.8 males. Economy ------- ### Personal income The 2010 Census listed Macon's median household income as $28,366, below the state average of $49,347. The median family income was $37,268. Full-time working males had a median income of $34,163, higher than the $28,082 for females. The city's per capita income was $17,010. About 24.1% of families and 30.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.6% of those under age 18 and 18.4% of those over 65. ### Retail Malls include The Shoppes at River Crossing, Macon Mall, and Eisenhower Crossing. Traditional[*clarification needed*] shopping centers are in the downtown area and Ingleside Village. ### Military Macon is the headquarters of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Georgia Army National Guard. The largest single-site industrial complex in Georgia, Robins Air Force Base, is 10 miles south of Macon on Highway 247, just east of Warner Robins. Arts and culture ---------------- ### Musical heritage Macon has been home for numerous musicians and composers, including Emmett Miller, The Allman Brothers Band, Randy Crawford, Mark Heard, Lucille Hegamin, Ben Johnston, Otis Redding, Little Richard, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry of R.E.M., as well as more recent artists like violinist Robert McDuffie and country artist Jason Aldean.[*clarification needed*] Capricorn Records, run by Macon natives Phil Walden and briefly Alan Walden, made the city a Southern rock music production center in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Macon Symphony Orchestra, a youth symphony, and the Middle Georgia Concert Band perform at the Grand Opera House in downtown Macon. The Georgia Music Hall of Fame was located in Macon from 1996 to 2011. ### Festivals * International Cherry Blossom Festival - a 10-day celebration held every mid-March in Macon * The Mulberry Street Festival - an arts and crafts festival held downtown the last weekend of March * The Juneteenth Freedom Festival - An annual June performing arts and educational celebration of the end of American slavery in 1865, celebrating black freedom and heritage both ancient and contemporary * Pan African Festival - An annual celebration of the African diaspora and culture, held in April * Ocmulgee Indian Celebration - A celebration of the original residents of the land where Macon now sits, this festival is held in September [*clarification needed Since what year?*] at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. Representatives from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and other nations come to share stories, exhibit Native art, and perform traditional songs and dance. * Skydog is a music festival celebrating the birthday, life, and music of Skydog (Duane Allman) held in November. * The Georgia Music Hall of Fame hosts Georgia Music Week in September. * Macon's annual Bragg Jam festival features an Art and Kids' Festival along the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and a nighttime Pub Crawl. * Macon Film Festival - an annual celebration of independent films, held the third weekend in July ### Points of interest #### Historical sites * Terminal Station, a railroad station built in 1916, is located on 5th St. at the end of Cherry St. Its architect was Alfred Fellheimer, prominent for his 1903 design of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. * Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park is located near downtown Macon. It preserves some of Georgia's largest ancient earthwork mounds built by the Mississippian culture a millennium ago, c. 950–1150. It was sacred to the historic Muscogee (Creek Nation) as well. Archeological artifacts reveal 13,000 years of human habitation at the site. The park features a spiral mound, funeral mound, temple mounds, burial mounds, and a reconstructed earth lodge. It is the first Traditional Cultural Property designated by the National Park Service east of the Mississippi River. * Fort Benjamin Hawkins, a major military outpost (1806-1821), was a command headquarters for the U.S. Army and Georgia militia on the boundary between U.S.-held and Native land, as well as a trading post or factory for the Creek Nation. It was a supply depot during U.S. campaigns of the War of 1812 and the Creek and Seminole Wars. * Cannonball House, a historic home on the National Register of Historic Places. * Luther Williams Field * Old City Cemetery, one of Macon's oldest cemeteries * Rose Hill Cemetery, a cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places * Sidney Lanier Cottage, the poet's historic home. * Temple Beth Israel, a domed Neoclassical built in 1902 to house Macon's Jewish congregation, founded in 1859. * Wesleyan College, the first chartered women's college in the world #### Museums * The Allman Brothers Band Museum - the "Big House" used by the Allman Brothers Band in the early 1970s, now a museum of Allman Brothers history and artifacts * The Georgia Children's Museum - interactive education, located in the downtown Museum District * Georgia Sports Hall of Fame * The Little Richard House and Museum - a museum of Little Richard's history and artifacts * Museum of Arts and Sciences and Planetarium * Tubman Museum of African American Art, History, and Culture - the largest African American museum in the Southeast #### Community * City Hall, Georgia's capital for part of the Civil War * Douglass Theatre, named for its founder Charles Henry Douglass. An entrepreneur from a prominent black family, he was an established theatre developer well versed in the vaudeville and entertainment business. The theatre has undergone modern renovations and hosts numerous theatrical events. * The Grand Opera House, where the Macon Symphony Orchestra performs * Hay House - also known as the "Johnston-Felton-Hay House," it has been referred to as the "Palace of the South" * City Auditorium, the world's largest true copper dome * Macon Coliseum * Macon Little Theatre, established in 1934, is the area's oldest community theatre, producing seven plays/musicals per season * Waddell Barnes Botanical Gardens * Theatre Macon, in the old Ritz Theatre; they perform around nine shows a year Sports ------ Macon is home to the Mercer Bears, with NCAA Division I teams in soccer (men's and women's), football, baseball, basketball (men's and women's), tennis, and lacrosse. Central Georgia Technical College competes in men's and women's basketball. Wesleyan College, a women's school, has basketball, soccer, cross country, tennis, softball, and volleyball teams. | Club | Sport | League | Venue | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Macon Bacon | Baseball | Coastal Plain League | Luther Williams Field | | Macon Mayhem | Ice hockey | Southern Professional Hockey League | Macon Coliseum | ### Former teams | Club | Sport | League | Venue | Active | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Macon State College Blue Storm | Various | NCCAA | Various | 2009–2013 | | Macon Central City/Hornets | Baseball | Southern League | Central City Park | 1892–1894 | | Macon Highlanders/Brigands/Peaches/Tigers | Baseball | South Atlantic League | Central City Park and Luther Williams Field | 1904–1917, 1923–1930 | | Macon Peaches/Dodgers/Redbirds/Pirates | Baseball | Southeastern League (1932), South Atlantic League (1936–42, 1946–60, 1962–63, 1980–87), Southern Association (1961), Southern League (1964, 1966–67) | Luther Williams Field | 1932, 1936–1942, 1946–1960, 1961–1964, 1966–1967, 1980–1982 | | Macon Braves | Baseball | South Atlantic League | Luther Williams Field | 1991–2002 | | Macon Peaches | Baseball | Southeastern League | Luther Williams Field | 2003 | | Macon Music | Baseball | South Coast League | Luther Williams Field | 2007 | | Macon Pinetoppers | Baseball | Peach State League | Luther Williams Field | 2010 | | Macon Blaze | Basketball | World Basketball Association | Macon Coliseum | 2005 | | Macon Whoopees | Ice hockey | Southern Hockey League | Macon Coliseum | 1974 | | Macon Whoopee | Ice hockey | Central Hockey League (1996-2001), ECHL (2001-02) | Macon Coliseum | 1996–2002 | | Macon Trax | Ice hockey | Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–03), World Hockey Association 2 (2003-04), Southern Professional Hockey League (2004–05) | Macon Coliseum | 2002–2005 | | Macon Knights | Arena football | af2 | Macon Coliseum | 2001–2006 | | Macon Steel | Indoor football | American Indoor Football | Macon Coliseum | 2012 | | Georgia Doom | Indoor football | American Arena League | Macon Coliseum | 2018–2019 | | Middle Georgia United | Soccer | UPSL | Cavalier Fields | 2021-2021 | Parks and recreation -------------------- The city maintains several parks and community centers. * Ocmulgee Heritage Trail - a green way of parks, plazas, and landmarks along the Ocmulgee River in downtown Macon * Bloomfield Park * East Macon Park * Frank Johnson Recreation Center * Freedom Park * L.H. Williams Community School Center * Memorial Park * North Macon Park * Rosa Jackson * Senior Center * John Drew Smith Tennis Center * Tattnall Square Tennis Center * Gateway Park Otis Redding * Central City Park * Central City Skatepark Government ---------- Prior to 2013, the city government consisted of a mayor and city council. Robert Reichert was elected the first mayor of the consolidated Macon-Bibb County in October 2013. There are also 9 County Commissioners elected from districts within the county. On March 15, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former County Manager, Dale M. Walker, with fraud. Education --------- ### Public schools Bibb County Public School District operates district public schools. Public high schools include: * Central High School * Howard High School * Northeast Health Science Magnet High School * Rutland High School * Southwest Magnet High School and Law Academy * Westside High School Georgia Academy for the Blind, operated by the state of Georgia, is a statewide school for blind students. Also operated by Bibb County Public Schools: * Elam Alexander Academy * Northwoods Academy ### Private high schools * Covenant Academy * First Presbyterian Day School * Mount de Sales Academy * Stratford Academy * Tattnall Square Academy * Windsor Academy ### State public charter schools * The Academy for Classical Education * Cirrus Academy Charter School ### Colleges and universities Approximately 30,000 college students live in the greater Macon area. * Central Georgia Technical College * Mercer University * Middle Georgia State University * Miller-Motte Technical College - satellite campus * Wesleyan College Media ----- Macon has a substantial number of local television and radio stations. It is also served by two local papers. ### Newspapers and magazines * *The 11th Hour* * Gateway Macon (web portal), The Local's Guide for Things To Do in Macon * *Macon Business Journal, a journal chronicling the business community in the Middle Georgia region* * *Macon Community News*, a monthly positive news print newspaper * *The Mercer Cluster* * *The Telegraph*, a daily newspaper published in Macon References in popular culture ----------------------------- ### *The Simpsons* In "Bart on the Road", the Season 7 episode of *The Simpsons*, character Nelson Muntz suggests the boys take a road trip to Macon. Later he reminds the group that none of their trouble would have happened had they chosen Macon over Knoxville, Tennessee. ### *Gone with the Wind* In Margaret Mitchell's novel *Gone with the Wind*, Aunt Pittypat's coachman, Uncle Peter, protected her when she fled to Macon during Sherman's assault on Atlanta. ### Baconsfield Park U.S. Senator Augustus Bacon, of Georgia, in his 1911 will, devised land in Macon in trust, to be used as a public park for the exclusive benefit of white people. The park, known as Baconsfield, was operated in that manner for many years. In *Evans v. Newton*, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the park could not continue to be operated on a racially discriminatory basis. The Supreme Court of Georgia thereupon declared "that the sole purpose for which the trust was created has become impossible of accomplishment" and remanded the case to the trial court, which held cy-près doctrine to be inapplicable, since the park's segregated character was an essential and inseparable part of Bacon's plan. The trial court ruled that the trust failed and that the property reverted to Bacon's heirs. The Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed. The 50-acre (20 ha) park was lost and commercially developed. ### Telltale's *The Walking Dead* The city of Macon is visited in two different *The Walking Dead* spinoff games by Telltale Games: *The Walking Dead: Season One* and *The Walking Dead: 400 Days*. In *Season One*, the city is portrayed as a small rural town and is visited by the main characters as they temporarily set up camp in the city. The city is the hometown of the game's main protagonist and the playable character throughout the game, Lee Everett. He and the other survivors barricade themselves inside his family's pharmacy as they are besieged by zombies. After one of the survivors dies, the group heads to a motel on the outskirts of Macon where they set up camp for two more episodes, before eventually deciding to leave the city for Savannah. In *400 Days*, the city is briefly shown in the episode "Vince's Story" as a flashback to when the episode's main character, Vince, fatally shoots an unseen and unnamed resident of the city before fleeing into the night before the apocalypse began. This murder would ultimately lead to Vince's arrest and the events that occurred at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Infrastructure -------------- ### Hospitals * The Medical Center, Navicent Health (a part of Atrium Health) * Atrium Health Navicent Beverly Knight Olson Children's Hospital (formerly The Children's Hospital Of Central Georgia) * Piedmont Health Macon (formerly Coliseum Medical Centers) + Piedmont Macon Medical Center + Piedmont Macon North Hospital * The American Red Cross of Central Georgia * Central Georgia Rehabilitation Hospital ### Transportation #### Airports * Macon Downtown Airport is located near downtown. It has a large number of corporate and private aviation aircraft. * Middle Georgia Regional Airport provides public air service to Macon as well as cargo flights. The airport is situated 9 mi (14 km) south of downtown. #### Highways Interstates: * Interstate 16 * Interstate 75 * Interstate 475 * Interstate 14 **(proposed)** U.S. Routes: * U.S. Route 23 * U.S. Route 41 * U.S. Route 80 * U.S. Route 129 State Routes: * State Route 11 * State Route 19 * State Route 22 * State Route 49 * State Route 74 * State Route 87 * State Route 87 Connector * State Route 247 * State Route 401 (unsigned designation for I-75) * State Route 404 (unsigned designation for I-16) * State Route 408 (unsigned designation for I-475) * State Route 540 (Fall Line Freeway) #### Mass transit The Macon Transit Authority (MTA) is Macon's public-transit system, operating the Public Transit City Bus System throughout Macon-Bibb County. As of 2022, the MTA has a total of 10 city bus routes, operating out of the Terminal Station hub. #### Intercity bus and rail Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service. In 2019, they moved from a stand-alone bus station to the Terminal Station to be in the same hub as the local mass transit busses. Macon grew as a center of rail transport after the 1846 opening of the Macon and Western Railroad. Two of the most note-worthy train companies operating through the city were the Central of Georgia Railway and the Southern Railway. The city continued to be served by passenger trains at Terminal Station until 1971. The Frisco Railroad's *Kansas City–Florida Special* served the city until 1964. The Southern's *Royal Palm* ran from Cincinnati, through Macon, to Miami, Florida until 1966. (A truncated route served to Valdosta, Georgia until 1970.) The Central of Georgia's *Nancy Hanks* ran through Macon, from Atlanta to Savannah until 1971. Since at least 2006 Macon has been included in the proposed Georgia Rail Passenger Program to restore inter-city rail service but as of 2020, Georgia lacks any inter-city passenger rail service other than the federally funded inter-state Amtrak services. In 2022, Amtrak announced a new fifteen year plan to expand its services, which Macon was included in. #### Pedestrians and cycling * Heritage Trail * Ocmulgee Heritage Trail Notable people -------------- Sister cities ------------- Macon has six sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI): * France Mâcon, France * Ghana Elmina, Ghana * Japan Kurobe, Toyama, Japan * Russia Ulyanovsk, Russia * Taiwan Kaohsiung, Taiwan * South Korea Gwacheon, South Korea See also -------- * Central Georgia * Downtown Macon, Georgia * Macon, Georgia metropolitan area * List of mayors of Macon, Georgia * List of U.S. cities with large Black populations * USS *Macon*, 3 ships (including 1 airship) Bibliography ------------ **Published in 19th century** * John P. Campbell, ed. (1854). "Georgia: Bibb County". *Southern Business Directory*. Charleston, SC: Press of Walker & James. * Adiel Sherwood (1860), "Bibb County: Macon", *Gazetteer of Georgia* (4th ed.), Macon: S. Boykin * John C. Butler (1879). *Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia*. J. W. Burke & Company. * George E. Waring, Jr.; U.S. Department of the Interior, Census Office (1887), "Georgia: Macon", *Report on the Social Statistics of Cities: Southern and the Western States*, Washington DC: Government Printing Office, pp. 169–172 * "Macon", *Rand, McNally & Co.'s Handy Guide to the Southeastern States*, Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1899 – via Internet Archive **Published in 20th century** * Allen D. Candler; Clement A. Evans, eds. (1906). "Macon". *Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons Arranged in Cyclopedic Form*. Vol. 2. Atlanta: State Historical Association. pp. 511+. hdl:2027/mdp.39015027784332. * Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Macon". *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 267. * Federal Writers' Project (1940), "Macon", *Georgia: a Guide to Its Towns and Countryside*, American Guide Series, Athens: University of Georgia Press, p. 102+ icon of an open green padlock * Ida Young, Julius Gholson, and Clara Nell Hargrove. History of Macon, Georgia (Macon, Ga.: Lyon, Marshall & Brooks, 1950). * John A. Eisterhold. "Commercial, Financial, and Industrial Macon, Georgia, During the 1840s", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Winter 1969, Vol. 53 Issue 4, pp 424–441 * James H. Stone. "Economic Conditions in Macon, Georgia in the 1830s", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Summer 1970, Vol. 54 Issue 2, pp 209–225 * Bowling C. Yates. "Macon, Georgia, Inland Trading Center 1826–1836", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Fall 1971, Vol. 55 Issue 3, pp 365–377 * McInvale, Morton Ray "Macon, Georgia: The War Years, 1861–1865" (Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 1973) * Roger K. Hux. "The Ku Klux Klan in Macon 1919–1925", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Summer 1978, Vol. 62 Issue 2, pp 155–168 * Nancy Anderson, Macon: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning, 1979). * Donnie D. Bellamy. "Macon, Georgia, 1823–1860: A Study in Urban Slavery", *Phylon* 45 (December 1984): 300–304, 308–309 * Kristina Simms. Macon, Georgia's Central City: An Illustrated History (Chatsworth, Calif.: Windsor, 1989). * Titus Brown. "Origins of African American Education in Macon, Georgia 1865–1866", *Journal of South Georgia History,* Oct 1996, Vol. 11, pp 43–59 * Macon: An Architectural Historical Guide (Macon, Ga.: Middle Georgia Historical Society, 1996). * Macon's Black Heritage: The Untold Story (Macon, Ga.: Tubman African American Museum, 1997). * Matthew W. Norman. "James H. Burton and the Confederate States Armory at Macon", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Winter 1997, Vol. 81 Issue 4, pp 974–987 * Titus Brown. "A New England Missionary and African-American Education in Macon: Raymond G. Von Tobel at the Ballard Normal School, 1908–1935", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Summer 1998, Vol. 82 Issue 2, pp 283–304 * Robert S. Davis. *Cotton, Fire, & Dreams: The Robert Findlay Iron Works and Heavy Industry in Macon, Georgia, 1839–1912* (Macon, Ga., 1998) * Richard W. Iobst (2009) [1999]. *Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City*. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-88146-172-5. * Jeanne Herring (2000). *Macon, Georgia*. Black America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia. **Published in 21st century** * Tracy Maurer (2001). *Macon Celebrates the Millennium*. Montgomery, Ala.: Community Communications. ISBN 1581920342. * Andrew Michael Manis (2004). *Macon Black and White: An Unutterable Separation in the American Century*. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-958-6. * Paul T. Hellmann (2006). "Georgia: Macon". *Historical Gazetteer of the United States*. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1-135-94859-3. * Robert Scott Davis. "A Cotton Kingdom Retooled for War: The Macon Arsenal and the Confederate Ordnance Establishment", *The Georgia Historical Quarterly,* Fall 2007, Vol. 91 Issue 3, pp 266–291 * Candace Dyer, Street Singers, Soul Shakers, Rebels with a Cause: Music from Macon (Macon, Ga.: Indigo Publishing Group, 2008). * Mara L. Keire. *For Business and Pleasure: Red-Light Districts and the Regulation of Vice in the United States, 1890–1933* (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010); 248 pages; History and popular culture of districts in Macon, Ga., and other cities * *Macon*. Images of America. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. 2013. ISBN 9781467111157.

Macon, Georgia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macon,_Georgia

**Oxfordshire** is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, governed by Oxfordshire County Council and the non-metropolitan districts of City of Oxford, Cherwell, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire. The county is landlocked and bordered by Northamptonshire to the north-east, Warwickshire to the north-west, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, Wiltshire to the south-west, and Gloucestershire to the west. The area of Oxfordshire south of the River Thames was part of the historic county of Berkshire, including the county's highest point, the 261-metre (856 ft) White Horse Hill. The largest settlement in the county is Oxford, its only city, with an estimated population of 151,584. History ------- Oxfordshire was recorded as a county in the early years of the 10th century and lies between the River Thames to the south, the Cotswolds to the west, the Chilterns to the east and the Midlands to the north, with spurs running south to Henley-on-Thames and north to Banbury. Although it had some significance as an area of valuable agricultural land in the centre of the country, it was largely ignored by the Romans and did not grow in importance until the formation of a settlement at Oxford in the 8th century. Alfred the Great was born across the Thames in Wantage, Vale of White Horse. The University of Oxford was founded in 1096, although its collegiate structure did not develop until later on. The university in the county town of Oxford (whose name came from Anglo-Saxon *Oxenaford* = "ford for oxen") grew in importance during the Middle Ages and early modern period. The area was part of the Cotswolds wool trade from the 13th century, generating much wealth, particularly in the western portions of the county in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Morris Motors was founded in Oxford in 1912, bringing heavy industry to an otherwise agricultural county. The importance of agriculture as an employer declined rapidly in the 20th century; currently[*when?*] under one percent of the county's population are involved due to high mechanisation. Nevertheless, Oxfordshire remains a very agricultural county by land use, with a lower population than neighbouring Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which are both smaller. During most of its history, the county was partitioned as fourteen divisions called hundreds, namely Bampton, Banbury, Binfield, Bloxham, Bullingdon, Chadlington, Dorchester, Ewelme, Langtree, Lewknor, Pyrton, Ploughley, Thame and Wootton. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the main army unit in the area, was based at Cowley Barracks on Bullingdon Green, Cowley. The Vale of White Horse district and parts of the South Oxfordshire administrative district south of the River Thames were historically part of Berkshire, but, in 1974, Abingdon, Didcot, Faringdon, Wallingford and Wantage were added to the administrative county of Oxfordshire under the Local Government Act 1972. Conversely, the Caversham area of Reading, now administratively in Berkshire, was historically part of Oxfordshire, as was the parish of Stokenchurch, now administratively in Buckinghamshire. The areas of Oxford city south of the Thames, such as Grandpont, were transferred much earlier, in 1889. Geography --------- Oxfordshire includes parts of three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the north-west lie the Cotswolds; to the south and south-east are the open chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs and the wooded hills of the Chilterns. The north of the county contains the ironstone of the Cherwell uplands. Long-distance walks within the county include the Ridgeway National Trail, Macmillan Way, Oxfordshire Way and the D’Arcy Dalton Way. ### Extreme points * Northernmost point: 52°10′6.58″N 1°19′54.92″W / 52.1684944°N 1.3319222°W / 52.1684944; -1.3319222, near Claydon Hay Farm, Claydon * Southernmost point: 51°27′34.74″N 0°56′48.3″W / 51.4596500°N 0.946750°W / 51.4596500; -0.946750, near Thames and Kennet Marina, Playhatch * Westernmost point: 51°46′59.73″N 1°43′9.68″W / 51.7832583°N 1.7193556°W / 51.7832583; -1.7193556, near Downs Farm, Westwell * Easternmost point: 51°30′14.22″N 0°52′13.99″W / 51.5039500°N 0.8705528°W / 51.5039500; -0.8705528, River Thames, near Lower Shiplake ### Rivers and canals From the mid-point western edge to the southeast corner of Oxfordshire, via the city in the middle, runs the Thames with its flat floodplains. This river forms the historic limit with Berkshire, remaining so on some lowest reaches. The Thames Path National Trail follows the river from upper estuary to a source. Many smaller rivers in the county feed into the Thames, such as the Thame, Windrush, Evenlode and Cherwell. Some of these have trails running along their valleys. The Oxford Canal links to the Midlands and follows the Cherwell from Banbury via Kidlington into the city of Oxford, where these join the navigable Thames. About 15% of the historically named Wilts & Berks Canal, in sporadic sections, has been restored to navigability, including the county-relevant[*clarification needed*] 140 metres near Abingdon-on-Thames where it could, if restored, meet the Thames. ### Green belt Oxfordshire contains a green belt area that fully envelops the city of Oxford and extends for some miles to protect surrounding towns and villages from inappropriate development and urban growth. Its border in the east extends to the Buckinghamshire county boundary, while part of its southern border is shared with the North Wessex Downs AONB. It was first drawn up in the 1950s, and all of the county's districts contain some portion of the belt. Economy ------- GDP| 1995 | 7607 | | 1996 | | 1997 | | 1998 | | 1999 | | 2000 | 10594 | | 2001 | | 2002 | | 2003 | 12942 | This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Oxfordshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling. | Year | Regional gross value added | Agriculture | Industry | Services | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1995 | **7,607** | 120 | 2,084 | 5,404 | | 2000 | **10,594** | 80 | 2,661 | 7,853 | | 2003 | **12,942** | 93 | 2,665 | 10,184 | Politics -------- The Oxfordshire County Council, since 2013 under no overall control, is responsible for the most strategic local government functions, including schools, county roads and social services. The county is divided into five local government districts: Oxford, Cherwell, Vale of White Horse (after the Uffington White Horse), West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire, which deal with such matters as town and country planning, waste collection and housing. In the 2016 European Union referendum, Oxfordshire was the only English county as a whole to vote to remain in the European Union by a significant margin, at 57.06% (70.27% in the City of Oxford), despite Cherwell (barely) voting to leave at 50.31%. Education --------- Oxfordshire has a completely comprehensive education system with 23 independent schools and 35 state secondary schools. Only eight schools do not have a sixth form; these are mostly in South Oxfordshire and Cherwell districts. Oxfordshire has a large number of leading independent schools, including public schools such as Radley College. The county has two universities: the ancient University of Oxford and the modern Oxford Brookes University, which are both located in Oxford. In addition, Wroxton College, located in Banbury, is affiliated with Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey. Buildings --------- The "dreaming spires" of the University of Oxford are among the reasons for which Oxford is the sixth most visited city in the United Kingdom by international visitors. Among many notable University buildings are the Sheldonian Theatre, built 1664–68 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren, and the Radcliffe Camera, built 1737–49 to the design of James Gibbs. Blenheim Palace, close to Woodstock, was designed and partly built by the architect John Vanbrugh for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, after he had won the battle of Blenheim. The gardens, which can be visited, were designed by the landscape gardener "Capability" Brown, who planted the trees in the battle formation of the victorious army. Sir Winston Churchill was born in the palace in 1874. It is open to the public. Chastleton House, on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire borders, is a great country mansion built on property bought from Robert Catesby, who was one of the men involved in the Gunpowder Plot with Guy Fawkes. Stonor Park, another country mansion, has belonged to the recusant Stonor family for centuries. Mapledurham House is an Elizabethan stately home in the south-east of the county, close to Reading. The Abbey in Sutton Courtenay is a medieval courtyard house. It has been recognised by the Historic Building Council for England (now Historic England) as a building of outstanding historic and architectural interest. It is considered to be a ‘textbook’ example of the English medieval manor house and is a Grade I-listed building. Settlements ----------- | Rank | Town | Population | Year | Definition | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Oxford | 150,200 | 2011 | Oxford non-metropolitan district | | | 2 | Banbury | 46,853 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 3 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 33,130 | 2011 | Civil parish | In Berkshire until 1974. | | 4 | Bicester | 32,642 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 5 | Witney | 27,522 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 6 | Didcot | 25,140 | 2011 | Civil parish | 200 dwellings in the south-east of the town lie in neighbouring East Hagbourne parish. In Berkshire until 1974. | | 7 | Carterton | 15,769 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 8 | Kidlington | 13,723 | 2011 | Civil parish | Does not include Gosford. | | 9 | Henley-on-Thames | 11,619 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 10 | Wallingford | 11,600 | 2011 | Civil parish | In Berkshire until 1974. | | 11 | Thame | 11,561 | 2011 | Civil parish | Includes hamlet of Moreton. | | 12 | Wantage | 11,327 | 2011 | Civil parish | In Berkshire until 1974. | | 13 | Grove | 7,178 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 14 | Faringdon | 7,121 | 2011 | Great Faringdon civil parish | In Berkshire until 1974. | | 15 | Chipping Norton | 6,337 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 16 | Chinnor | 5,924 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 17 | Benson | 4,754 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 18 | Eynsham | 4,648 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 19 | Wheatley | 4,092 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 20 | Kennington | 4,076 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 21 | Sonning Common | 3,784 | 2011 | Civil Parish | | | 22 | Woodstock | 3,100 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 23 | Charlbury | 2,830 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 24 | Watlington | 2,727 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 25 | Bampton | 2,564 | 2011 | Civil parish | | | 26 | Deddington | 2,146 | 2011 | Civil parish | | Places of interest ------------------ | | | --- | | **Key** | | | Abbey/Priory/Cathedral | | Accessible open space | Accessible open space | | | Amusement/Theme Park | | | Castle | | Country Park | Country Park | | | English Heritage | | | Forestry Commission | | Heritage railway | Heritage railway | | Historic house | Historic House | | Places of Worship | Places of Worship | | Museum (free)Museum | Museum (free/not free) | | National Trust | National Trust | | | Theatre | | | Zoo | * Museum (free) Abingdon County Hall Museum – housed in a 17th-century county hall building * National Trust Ashdown House – 17th-century country house in the Lambourn Downs * Museum (free) Ashmolean Museum – Oxford University's museum of art and archaeology * Museum (free) Banbury Museum, Banbury * Bicester Village * Historic house Blenheim Palace and garden – UNESCO World Heritage Site * Historic house Broughton Castle – 14th-century fortified manor house * National Trust Buscot Park, Buscot – 18th-century country house and landscape garden * Museum (free) Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred – village museum in a 15th-century Carthusian chapel * Museum (free) Charlbury Museum * National Trust Chastleton House – 17th-century country house (limited access) * Accessible open space Chiltern Hills – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty * Heritage railway Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway – operated with steam and diesel locomotives * Museum (not free) Chipping Norton Museum * Heritage railway Cholsey and Wallingford Railway * Museum (not free) Cogges Manor Farm Museum, Witney – a living museum of country life * Museum (not free) Combe Mill Museum, Long Hanborough – working museum of stationary steam engines * Cotswold Wildlife Park and garden, Bradwell Grove, Holwell * Accessible open space Cotswolds – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty * Heritage railway Didcot Railway Centre – museum of the Great Western Railway * Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester-on-Thames – 12th-century church of former Augustinian abbey * National Trust Great Coxwell Barn – 14th-century tithe barn * National Trust Greys Court, Rotherfield Greys – 16th-century country house * Historic house Hampton Gay Manor – ruins of 16th-century manor house (no website) * Harcourt Arboretum, Nuneham Courtenay * Historic house Heythrop Hall – 17th-century country house: now a hotel, golf & country club * Hook Norton Brewery – working Victorian "tower" brewery that offers guided tours * Historic house Kelmscott Manor – Home of William Morris * Historic house Mapledurham Estate – 16th-century country house and 15th-century watermill * Historic house Milton Manor House – 18th-century country house * English Heritage Minster Lovell Hall – dovecote and ruins of 15th-century manor house * Museum (not free) Museum of Bygones, Claydon – private museum including stationary steam engines * Accessible open space North Wessex Downs – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty * Castle Museum (free) Museum (not free) Oxford * Museum (not free) Oxford Bus Museum and Morris Motors Museum, Long Hanborough * Accessible open space Oxford Canal – 18th-century "narrow" canal * Museum (free) The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock * Accessible open space The Ridgeway * Museum (not free) River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames * Accessible open space River Thames * Rollright Stones – megalithic stone circle and Whispering Knights burial chamber, near Little Rollright * Historic house Rousham House – 17th-century country house and landscape garden * Rycote chapel – 15th-century chapel with original furnishings * St Katharine's church, Chiselhampton – 18th-century parish church with original furnishings (no website, limited access) * St Mary's church, Iffley – 12th-century Norman parish church * Country Park Shotover Country Park, Headington * Country Park Spiceball Country Park, Banbury * Historic house Stanton Harcourt manor house (limited access), with garden and 15th-century chapel and Pope's Tower (no website) * Historic house Stonor Park – country house and 14th-century chapel of the recusant Stonor family * Museum (free) Swalcliffe Tithe Barn – 15th-century * Museum (free) Thame Museum * Museum (free) Tolsey Museum, Burford (no website) * Accessible open space Uffington White Horse, Uffington Castle and Wayland's Smithy burial chamber in the White Horse Hills * Museum (free) Vale and Downland Museum, Wantage * Museum (not free) Wallingford Museum * Museum (free) Wheatley Windmill – 18th-century tower mill See also -------- * Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire * High Sheriff of Oxfordshire * Oxfordshire Artweeks, an annual art festival each May * Oxford University (including links to the individual colleges) * Oxford Canal Further reading --------------- * Currie, Christopher Richard John (1992). "Larger Medieval Houses in the Vale of White Horse" (PDF). *Oxoniensia*. **57**: 81–224. Retrieved 20 March 2020. * Powell, Philip (2005). *The Geology of Oxfordshire*. Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-904349-19-6. 51°45′N 1°17′W / 51.75°N 1.28°W / 51.75; -1.28

Oxfordshire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfordshire

**Pope Eugene II** (Latin: *Eugenius II*; died 27 August 827) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 June 824 to his death. A native of Rome, he was chosen by nobles to succeed Paschal I as pope despite the clergy and the people favoring Zinzinnus. The influence of the Carolingian Franks on the selection of popes was then firmly established. Pope Eugene convened a council at Rome in 826 to condemn simony and suspend untrained clergy. It was decreed that schools were to be established at cathedral churches and other places to give instruction in sacred and secular literature. His involvement in the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy was largely inconsequential. Early career ------------ In earlier editions of the *Liber Pontificalis* Eugene is said to have been the son of Boemund, but in the more recent and more accurate editions, his father's name is not given. While he was archpriest of St Sabina on the Aventine, and was said to have fulfilled most conscientiously the duties of his position. Eugene is described by his biographer as simple and humble, learned and eloquent, handsome and generous, a lover of peace, and wholly occupied with the thought of doing what was pleasing to God. Accession --------- Eugene was elected pope on 6 June 824, after the death of Paschal I. Paschal had attempted to curb the rapidly increasing power of the Roman nobility, who had turned for support to the Franks to strengthen their positions against him. When Paschal died, these nobles made strenuous efforts to replace him with a candidate of their own. The clergy put forward Zinzinnus, a candidate likely to continue the policy of Paschal. Even though the Roman Council of 769 under Stephen III had decreed that the nobles had no right to a real share in a papal election, the nobles were successful in securing the consecration of Eugene. Eugene's candidacy was endorsed by Abbot Walla, who was then in Rome and served as a councilor to both the current emperor, Louis the Pious, and his predecessor, Charlemagne. The election of Eugene II was a triumph for the Franks, and they subsequently resolved to improve their position. Emperor Louis the Pious accordingly sent his son Lothair I to Rome to strengthen the Frankish influence. The Roman nobles who had been banished during the preceding reign and fled to France were recalled, and their property was restored to them. A *Constitutio Romana* was then agreed upon between the pope and the emperor in 824 which advanced the imperial pretensions in the city of Rome, but also checked the power of the nobles. This constitution included the statute that no pope should be consecrated until his election had the approval of the Frankish emperor. It decreed that those who were under the special protection of the pope or emperor were to be inviolable, and that church property not be plundered after the death of a pope. Pontificate ----------- Seemingly before Lothair left Rome, there arrived ambassadors from Emperor Louis and from the Greeks concerning the controversy of Byzantine Iconoclasm. At first the iconoclast Eastern Roman Emperor Michael II showed himself tolerant towards the icon worshippers, and their great champion, Theodore the Studite, wrote to him to exhort him "to unite us (the Church of Constantinople) to the head of the Churches of God, Rome, and through it with the three patriarchs" and to refer any doubtful points to the decision of Old Rome in accordance with ancient custom. But Michael soon forgot his tolerance, bitterly persecuted the icon worshippers, and endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Louis the Pious. He also sent envoys to the pope to consult him on certain points connected with the worship of icons. Before taking any steps to meet the wishes of Michael, Louis asked the pope's permission for a number of his bishops to assemble and make a selection of passages from the Fathers to elucidate the question that the Greeks had put before them. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris in 825 were incompetent for the task. Their collection of extracts from the Fathers was a mass of confused and ill-digested lore, and both their conclusions and the letters they wished the pope to forward to the Greeks were based on a complete misunderstanding of the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea. Their labours do not appear to have accomplished much; nothing is known of the result of their researches. In 826 Eugene held an important council at Rome of 62 bishops, in which 38 disciplinary decrees were issued. The council passed several enactments for the restoration of church discipline, and took measures for the foundation of schools or chapters. The decrees are noteworthy as showing that Eugene had at heart the advancement of learning. Not only were ignorant bishops and priests to be suspended till they had acquired sufficient learning to perform their sacred duties, but it was decreed that, as in some localities there were neither masters nor zeal for learning, masters were to be attached to the episcopal palaces, cathedral churches and other places to give instruction in sacred and polite literature. It also ruled against priests wearing secular dress or engaging in secular occupations. Simony was forbidden. Eugene also adopted various provisions for the care of the poor, widows and orphans, and on that account received the name of "father of the people". To help in the work of the conversion of the North, Eugene wrote commending St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the Scandinavians, and his companions "to all the sons of the Catholic Church". Death and legacy ---------------- Eugene II died on 27 August 827. It is supposed that he was buried in St. Peter's in accordance with the custom of the time, even though there is no documentary record to confirm it. He was succeeded by Valentine, with whom he had been so close that rumours circulated that Eugene was Valentine's father or lover. Coins of Eugene II are extant bearing his name and that of Emperor Louis. As pope, Eugene beautified his ancient church of St. Sabina with mosaics and metalwork bearing his name that were still intact as late as the 16th century.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Popes Eugene I-IV". *Catholic Encyclopedia*. New York: Robert Appleton Company. | Catholic Church titles | | --- | | Preceded byPaschal I | **Pope** 824–827 | Succeeded byValentine |

Pope Eugene II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Eugene_II

A **vehicle** (from Latin **vehiculum**) is a piece of equipment designed to transport people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), watercraft (ships, boats, underwater vehicles), amphibious vehicles (screw-propelled vehicles, hovercraft), aircraft (airplanes, helicopters, aerostats) and spacecraft. Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground: wheeled, tracked, railed or skied. ISO 3833-1977 is the standard, also internationally used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms and definitions. History ------- * The oldest boats found by archaeological excavation are logboats, with the oldest logboat found, the Pesse canoe found in a bog in the Netherlands, being carbon dated to 8040 - 7510 BC, making it 9,500–10,000 years old, * a 7,000-year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait. * Boats were used between 4000 -3000 BC in Sumer, ancient Egypt and in the Indian Ocean. * There is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 4000–3000 BC. * The earliest evidence of a wagonway, a predecessor of the railway, found so far was the 6 to 8.5 km (4 to 5 mi) long *Diolkos* wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. * In 200 CE, Ma Jun built a south-pointing chariot, a vehicle with an early form of guidance system. * The stagecoach, a four wheeled vehicle drawn by horses, originated in 13th century England. * Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350. * In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. * 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in 1769. * In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box and bearings; however, it was not developed further. * 1783 Montgolfier brothers first balloon vehicle * 1801 Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his *Puffing Devil* road locomotive, which many believe was the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, though it could not maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods and was of little practical use. * 1817 Push bikes, draisines or hobby horses were the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draisienne (or *Laufmaschine*, "running machine"), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle (and motorcycle). It was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817. * 1885 Karl Benz built (and subsequently patented) the first automobile, powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine in Mannheim, Germany * 1885 Otto Lilienthal began experimental gliding and achieved the first sustained, controlled, reproducible flights. * 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft * 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1 (tethered) and Cornu helicopter (free flight) * 1928 Opel RAK.1 rocket car * 1929 Opel RAK.1 rocket glider * 1961 Vostok vehicle carried the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space * 1969 Apollo Program first crewed vehicle landed on the moon * 2010 The number of road motor vehicles in operation worldwide surpassed the 1 billion mark – roughly one for every seven people. Types of vehicles ----------------- There are over 1 billion bicycles in use worldwide. In 2002 there were an estimated 590 million cars and 205 million motorcycles in service in the world. At least 500 million Chinese Flying Pigeon bicycles have been made, more than any other single model of vehicle. The most-produced model of motor vehicle is the Honda Super Cub motorcycle, having passed 60 million units in 2008. The most-produced car model is the Toyota Corolla, with at least 35 million made by 2010. The most common fixed-wing airplane is the Cessna 172, with about 44,000 having been made as of 2017. The Soviet Mil Mi-8, at 17,000, is the most-produced helicopter. The top commercial jet airliner is the Boeing 737, at about 10,000 in 2018. At around 14,000 for both, the most produced trams are the KTM-5 and Tatra T3. The most common trolleybus is ZiU-9. Locomotion ---------- Locomotion consists of a means that allows displacement with little opposition, a power source to provide the required kinetic energy and a means to control the motion, such as a brake and steering system. By far, most vehicles use wheels which employ the principle of rolling to enable displacement with very little rolling friction. ### Energy source It is essential that a vehicle have a source of energy to drive it. Energy can be extracted from external sources, as in the cases of a sailboat, a solar-powered car, or an electric streetcar that uses overhead lines. Energy can also be stored, provided it can be converted on demand and the storing medium's energy density and power density are sufficient to meet the vehicle's needs. Human power is a simple source of energy that requires nothing more than humans. Despite the fact that humans cannot exceed 500 W (0.67 hp) for meaningful amounts of time, the land speed record for human-powered vehicles (unpaced) is 133 km/h (83 mph), as of 2009 on a recumbent bicycle. The most common type of energy source is fuel. External combustion engines can use almost anything that burns as fuel, whilst internal combustion engines and rocket engines are designed to burn a specific fuel, typically gasoline, diesel or ethanol. Another common medium for storing energy is batteries, which have the advantages of being responsive, useful in a wide range of power levels, environmentally friendly, efficient, simple to install, and easy to maintain. Batteries also facilitate the use of electric motors, which have their own advantages. On the other hand, batteries have low energy densities, short service life, poor performance at extreme temperatures, long charging times, and difficulties with disposal (although they can usually be recycled). Like fuel, batteries store chemical energy and can cause burns and poisoning in event of an accident. Batteries also lose effectiveness with time. The issue of charge time can be resolved by swapping discharged batteries with charged ones; however, this incurs additional hardware costs and may be impractical for larger batteries. Moreover, there must be standard batteries for battery swapping to work at a gas station. Fuel cells are similar to batteries in that they convert from chemical to electrical energy, but have their own advantages and disadvantages. Electrified rails and overhead cables are a common source of electrical energy on subways, railways, trams, and trolleybuses. Solar energy is a more modern development, and several solar vehicles have been successfully built and tested, including Helios, a solar-powered aircraft. Nuclear power is a more exclusive form of energy storage, currently limited to large ships and submarines, mostly military. Nuclear energy can be released by a nuclear reactor, nuclear battery, or repeatedly detonating nuclear bombs. There have been two experiments with nuclear-powered aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-119 and the Convair X-6. Mechanical strain is another method of storing energy, whereby an elastic band or metal spring is deformed and releases energy as it is allowed to return to its ground state. Systems employing elastic materials suffer from hysteresis, and metal springs are too dense to be useful in many cases.[*clarification needed*] Flywheels store energy in a spinning mass. Because a light and fast rotor is energetically favorable, flywheels can pose a significant safety hazard. Moreover, flywheels leak energy fairly quickly and affect a vehicle's steering through the gyroscopic effect. They have been used experimentally in gyrobuses. Wind energy is used by sailboats and land yachts as the primary source of energy. It is very cheap and fairly easy to use, the main issues being dependence on weather and upwind performance. Balloons also rely on the wind to move horizontally. Aircraft flying in the jet stream may get a boost from high altitude winds. Compressed gas is currently an experimental method of storing energy. In this case, compressed gas is simply stored in a tank and released when necessary. Like elastics, they have hysteresis losses when gas heats up during compression. Gravitational potential energy is a form of energy used in gliders, skis, bobsleds and numerous other vehicles that go down hill. Regenerative braking is an example of capturing kinetic energy where the brakes of a vehicle are augmented with a generator or other means of extracting energy. ### Motors and engines When needed, the energy is taken from the source and consumed by one or more motors or engines. Sometimes there is an intermediate medium, such as the batteries of a diesel submarine. Most motor vehicles have internal combustion engines. They are fairly cheap, easy to maintain, reliable, safe and small. Since these engines burn fuel, they have long ranges but pollute the environment. A related engine is the external combustion engine. An example of this is the steam engine. Aside from fuel, steam engines also need water, making them impractical for some purposes. Steam engines also need time to warm up, whereas IC engines can usually run right after being started, although this may not be recommended in cold conditions. Steam engines burning coal release sulfur into the air, causing harmful acid rain. While intermittent internal combustion engines were once the primary means of aircraft propulsion, they have been largely superseded by continuous internal combustion engines: gas turbines. Turbine engines are light and, particularly when used on aircraft, efficient. On the other hand, they cost more and require careful maintenance. They can also be damaged by ingesting foreign objects, and they produce a hot exhaust. Trains using turbines are called gas turbine-electric locomotives. Examples of surface vehicles using turbines are M1 Abrams, MTT Turbine SUPERBIKE and the Millennium. Pulse jet engines are similar in many ways to turbojets, but have almost no moving parts. For this reason, they were very appealing to vehicle designers in the past; however, their noise, heat and inefficiency has led to their abandonment. A historical example of the use of a pulse jet was the V-1 flying bomb. Pulse jets are still occasionally used in amateur experiments. With the advent of modern technology, the pulse detonation engine has become practical and was successfully tested on a Rutan VariEze. While the pulse detonation engine is much more efficient than the pulse jet and even turbine engines, it still suffers from extreme noise and vibration levels. Ramjets also have few moving parts, but they only work at high speed, so that their use is restricted to tip jet helicopters and high speed aircraft such as the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Rocket engines are primarily used on rockets, rocket sleds and experimental aircraft. Rocket engines are extremely powerful. The heaviest vehicle ever to leave the ground, the Saturn V rocket, was powered by five F-1 rocket engines generating a combined 180 million horsepower (134.2 gigawatt). Rocket engines also have no need to "push off" anything, a fact that the New York Times denied in error. Rocket engines can be particularly simple, sometimes consisting of nothing more than a catalyst, as in the case of a hydrogen peroxide rocket. This makes them an attractive option for vehicles such as jet packs. Despite their simplicity, rocket engines are often dangerous and susceptible to explosions. The fuel they run off may be flammable, poisonous, corrosive or cryogenic. They also suffer from poor efficiency. For these reasons, rocket engines are only used when absolutely necessary. Electric motors are used in electric vehicles such as electric bicycles, electric scooters, small boats, subways, trains, trolleybuses, trams and experimental aircraft. Electric motors can be very efficient: over 90% efficiency is common. Electric motors can also be built to be powerful, reliable, low-maintenance and of any size. Electric motors can deliver a range of speeds and torques without necessarily using a gearbox (although it may be more economical to use one). Electric motors are limited in their use chiefly by the difficulty of supplying electricity. Compressed gas motors have been used on some vehicles experimentally. They are simple, efficient, safe, cheap, reliable and operate in a variety of conditions. One of the difficulties met when using gas motors is the cooling effect of expanding gas. These engines are limited by how quickly they absorb heat from their surroundings. The cooling effect can, however, double as air conditioning. Compressed gas motors also lose effectiveness with falling gas pressure. Ion thrusters are used on some satellites and spacecraft. They are only effective in a vacuum, which limits their use to spaceborne vehicles. Ion thrusters run primarily off electricity, but they also need a propellant such as caesium, or more recently xenon. Ion thrusters can achieve extremely high speeds and use little propellant; however, they are power-hungry. ### Converting energy to work The mechanical energy that motors and engines produce must be converted to work by wheels, propellers, nozzles, or similar means. Aside from converting mechanical energy into motion, wheels allow a vehicle to roll along a surface and, with the exception of railed vehicles, to be steered. Wheels are ancient technology, with specimens being discovered from over 5000 years ago. Wheels are used in a plethora of vehicles, including motor vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, amphibious vehicles, airplanes, trains, skateboards and wheelbarrows. Nozzles are used in conjunction with almost all reaction engines. Vehicles using nozzles include jet aircraft, rockets and personal watercraft. While most nozzles take the shape of a cone or bell, some unorthodox designs have been created such as the aerospike. Some nozzles are intangible, such as the electromagnetic field nozzle of a vectored ion thruster. Continuous track is sometimes used instead of wheels to power land vehicles. Continuous track has the advantages of a larger contact area, easy repairs on small damage, and high maneuverability. Examples of vehicles using continuous track are tanks, snowmobiles and excavators. Two continuous tracks used together allow for steering. The largest vehicle in the world, the Bagger 288, is propelled by continuous tracks. Propellers (as well as screws, fans and rotors) are used to move through a fluid. Propellers have been used as toys since ancient times; however, it was Leonardo da Vinci who devised what was one of the earliest propeller driven vehicles, the "aerial-screw". In 1661, Toogood & Hays adopted the screw for use as a ship propeller. Since then, the propeller has been tested on many terrestrial vehicles, including the Schienenzeppelin train and numerous cars. In modern times, propellers are most prevalent on watercraft and aircraft, as well as some amphibious vehicles such as hovercraft and ground-effect vehicles. Intuitively, propellers cannot work in space as there is no working fluid; however, some sources have suggested that since space is never empty, a propeller could be made to work in space. Similarly to propeller vehicles, some vehicles use wings for propulsion. Sailboats and sailplanes are propelled by the forward component of lift generated by their sails/wings. Ornithopters also produce thrust aerodynamically. Ornithopters with large rounded leading edges produce lift by leading-edge suction forces. Research at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies lead to a flight with an actual ornithopter on July 31, 2010. Paddle wheels are used on some older watercraft and their reconstructions. These ships were known as paddle steamers. Because paddle wheels simply push against the water, their design and construction is very simple. The oldest such ship in scheduled service is the Skibladner. Many pedalo boats also use paddle wheels for propulsion. Screw-propelled vehicles are propelled by auger-like cylinders fitted with helical flanges. Because they can produce thrust on both land and water, they are commonly used on all-terrain vehicles. The ZiL-2906 was a Soviet-designed screw-propelled vehicle designed to retrieve cosmonauts from the Siberian wilderness. ### Friction All or almost all of the useful energy produced by the engine is usually dissipated as friction; so minimising frictional losses is very important in many vehicles. The main sources of friction are rolling friction and fluid drag (air drag or water drag). Wheels have low bearing friction and pneumatic tyres give low rolling friction. Steel wheels on steel tracks are lower still. Aerodynamic drag can be reduced by streamlined design features. Friction is desirable and important in supplying traction to facilitate motion on land. Most land vehicles rely on friction for accelerating, decelerating and changing direction. Sudden reductions in traction can cause loss of control and accidents. Control ------- ### Steering Most vehicles, with the notable exception of railed vehicles, have at least one steering mechanism. Wheeled vehicles steer by angling their front or rear wheels. The B-52 Stratofortress has a special arrangement in which all four main wheels can be angled. Skids can also be used to steer by angling them, as in the case of a snowmobile. Ships, boats, submarines, dirigibles and aeroplanes usually have a rudder for steering. On an airplane, ailerons are used to bank the airplane for directional control, sometimes assisted by the rudder. ### Stopping With no power applied, most vehicles come to a stop due to friction. But it is often required to stop a vehicle faster than by friction alone: so almost all vehicles are equipped with a braking system. Wheeled vehicles are typically equipped with friction brakes, which use the friction between brake pads (stators) and brake rotors to slow the vehicle. Many airplanes have high performance versions of the same system in their landing gear for use on the ground. A Boeing 757 brake, for example, has 3 stators and 4 rotors. The Space Shuttle also uses frictional brakes on its wheels. As well as frictional brakes, hybrid/electric cars, trolleybuses and electric bicycles can also use regenerative brakes to recycle some of the vehicle's potential energy. High-speed trains sometimes use frictionless Eddy-current brakes; however, widespread application of the technology has been limited by overheating and interference issues. Aside from landing gear brakes, most large aircraft have other ways of decelerating. In aircraft, air brakes are aerodynamic surfaces that provide braking force by increasing the frontal cross section thus aerodynamic drag of the aircraft. These are usually implemented as flaps that oppose air flow when extended and are flush with aircraft when retracted. Reverse thrust is also used in many aeroplane engines. Propeller aircraft achieve reverse thrust by reversing the pitch of the propellers, while jet aircraft do so by redirecting their engine exhaust forwards. On aircraft carriers, arresting gears are used to stop an aircraft. Pilots may even apply full forward throttle on touchdown, in case the arresting gear does not catch and a go around is needed. Parachutes are used to slow down vehicles travelling very fast. Parachutes have been used in land, air and space vehicles such as the ThrustSSC, Eurofighter Typhoon and Apollo Command Module. Some older Soviet passenger jets had braking parachutes for emergency landings. Boats use similar devices called sea anchors to maintain stability in rough seas. To further increase the rate of deceleration or where the brakes have failed, several mechanisms can be used to stop a vehicle. Cars and rolling stock usually have hand brakes that, while designed to secure an already parked vehicle, can provide limited braking should the primary brakes fail. A secondary procedure called forward-slip is sometimes used to slow airplanes by flying at an angle, causing more drag. Legislation ----------- Motor vehicle and trailer categories are defined according to the following international classification: * Category M: passenger vehicles. * Category N: motor vehicles for the carriage of goods. * Category O: trailers and semi-trailers. ### European Union In the European Union the classifications for vehicle types are defined by: * Commission Directive 2001/116/EC of 20 December 2001, adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers * Directive 2002/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 March 2002 relating to the type-approval of two or three wheeled motor vehicles and repealing Council Directive 92/61/EEC European Community, is based on the Community's WVTA (whole vehicle type-approval) system. Under this system, manufacturers can obtain certification for a vehicle type in one Member State if it meets the EC technical requirements and then market it EU-wide with no need for further tests. Total technical harmonization already has been achieved in three vehicle categories (passenger cars, motorcycles, and tractors) and soon will extend to other vehicle categories (coaches and utility vehicles). It is essential that European car manufacturers be ensured access to as large a market as possible. While the Community type-approval system allows manufacturers to benefit fully from internal market opportunities, worldwide technical harmonization in the context of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) offers a market beyond European borders. ### Licensing In many cases, it is unlawful to operate a vehicle without a license or certification. The least strict form of regulation usually limits what passengers the driver may carry or prohibits them completely (e.g., a Canadian ultra-light license without endorsements). The next level of licensing may allow passengers, but without any form of compensation or payment. A private driver's license usually has these conditions. Commercial licenses that allow the transport of passengers and cargo are more tightly regulated. The most strict form of licensing is generally reserved for school buses, hazardous materials transports and emergency vehicles. The driver of a motor vehicle is typically required to hold a valid driver's license while driving on public lands, whereas the pilot of an aircraft must have a license at all times, regardless of where in the jurisdiction the aircraft is flying. ### Registration Vehicles are often required to be registered. Registration may be for purely legal reasons, for insurance reasons or to help law enforcement recover stolen vehicles. Toronto Police Service, for example, offers free and optional bicycle registration online. On motor vehicles, registration often takes the form of a vehicle registration plate, which makes it easy to identify a vehicle. In Russia, trucks and buses have their licence plate numbers repeated in large black letters on the back. On aircraft, a similar system is used where a tail number is painted on various surfaces. Like motor vehicles and aircraft, watercraft also have registration numbers in most jurisdictions; however, the vessel name is still the primary means of identification as has been the case since ancient times. For this reason, duplicate registration names are generally rejected. In Canada, boats with an engine power of 10 hp (7.5 kW) or greater require registration, leading to the ubiquitous "9.9 hp (7.4 kW)" engine. Registration may be conditional on the vehicle being approved for use on public highways, as in the case of the UK and Ontario. Many US states also have requirements for vehicles operating on public highways. Aircraft have more stringent requirements, as they pose a high risk of damage to people and property in event of an accident. In the US, the FAA requires aircraft to have an airworthiness certificate. Because US aircraft must be flown for some time before they are certified, there is a provision for an experimental airworthiness certificate. FAA experimental aircraft are restricted in operation, including no overflights of populated areas, in busy airspace or with unessential passengers. Materials and parts used in FAA certified aircraft must meet the criteria set forth by the *technical standard orders*. ### Mandatory safety equipment In many jurisdictions, the operator of a vehicle is legally obligated to carry safety equipment with or on them. Common examples include seat belts in cars, helmets on motorcycles and bicycles, fire extinguishers on boats, buses and airplanes and life jackets on boats and commercial aircraft. Passenger aircraft carry a great deal of safety equipment including inflatable slides are rafts, oxygen masks, oxygen tanks, life jackets, satellite beacons and first aid kits. Some equipment such as life jackets has led to debate regarding their usefulness. In the case of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, the life jackets saved many people but also led to many deaths when passengers inflated their vests prematurely. Right-of-way ------------ There are specific real-estate arrangements made to allow vehicles to travel from one place to another. The most common arrangements are public highways, where appropriately licensed vehicles can navigate without hindrance. These highways are on public land and are maintained by the government. Similarly, toll routes are open to the public after paying a toll. These routes and the land they rest on may be government or privately owned or a combination of both. Some routes are privately owned but grant access to the public. These routes often have a warning sign stating that the government does not maintain the way. An example of this are byways in England and Wales. In Scotland, land is open to un-motorised vehicles if the land meets certain criteria. Public land is sometimes open to use by off-road vehicles. On US public land, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decides where vehicles may be used. Railways often pass over land not owned by the railway company. The right to this land is granted to the railway company through mechanisms such as easement. Watercraft are generally allowed to navigate public waters without restriction as long as they do not cause a disturbance. Passing through a lock, however, may require paying a toll. Despite the common law tradition *Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos* of owning all the air above one's property, the US Supreme Court ruled that aircraft in the US have the right to use air above someone else's property without their consent. While the same rule generally applies in all jurisdictions, some countries such as Cuba and Russia have taken advantage of air rights on a national level to earn money. There are some areas that aircraft are barred from overflying. This is called prohibited airspace. Prohibited airspace is usually strictly enforced due to potential damage from espionage or attack. In the case of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the airliner entered prohibited airspace over Soviet territory and was shot down as it was leaving. Safety ------ For a comparison of air transportation fatality rates, see air safety statistics. Several different metrics used to compare and evaluate the safety of different vehicles. The main three are *deaths per billion passenger-journeys*, *deaths per billion passenger-hours* and *deaths per billion passenger-kilometers*. See also -------- * Automotive acronyms and abbreviations * ISIRI 6924 * Narrow-track vehicle * Outline of vehicles * Personal transporter * Propulsion * Single-track vehicle * Vehicular dynamics * Vehicular metrics

Vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle

**Somerset** (/ˈsʌmərsɪt, -sɛt/ () *SUM-ər-sit*, *-⁠set*; archaically **Somersetshire** /ˈsʌmərsɪt.ʃɪər, -sɛt-, -ʃər/ *SUM-ər-sit-sheer*, *-⁠set-*, *-⁠shər*) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath. Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is also a city, the second-smallest by population in England. The county is governed by three unitary authorities: Somerset Council, North Somerset Council, and Bath and North East Somerset Council. The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the northeast and west of the county are hilly. The northeast contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels. There is evidence Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and in the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals. Toponymy -------- Somerset's name derives from Old English *Sumorsǣte*, short for *Sumortūnsǣte*, meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortūn (Somerton)". The first known use of *Somersæte* is in the law code of King Ine who was the Saxon King of Wessex from 688 to 726 CE, making Somerset along with Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset one of the oldest extant units of local government in the world. An alternative suggestion is the name derives from *Seo-mere-saetan* meaning "settlers by the sea lakes". The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, *Sumorsǣte ealle*, meaning "all the people of Somerset". Adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle*. Somerset was a shire of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex from Viking invaders. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin (for example, Bath, Somerton, Wells and Keynsham), but numerous place names include British Celtic elements, such as the rivers Frome and Avon, and names of hills. For example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as "the hill the British call *Cructan* and the Anglo-Saxons call *Crychbeorh*". Some modern names are wholly Brittonic in origin, like Tarnock, Priddy, and Chard, while others have both Saxon and Brittonic elements, such as Pen Hill. History ------- ### Prehistory The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Gough's Cave have been dated to 12,000 BCE, and a complete skeleton, known as Cheddar Man, dates from 7150 BCE. Examples of cave art have been found in Aveline's Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole. The Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the world's oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, which dates from 3807 BCE or 3806 BCE. The exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle and Ham Hill, were later reoccupied in the Early Middle Ages. ### Roman invasion On the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in 47 CE. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 CE, when the Roman occupation of Britain came to an end. A variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. ### Saxon and Norman invasions After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples. By 600 CE they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The British held back Saxon advance into the south-west for some time longer, but by the early eighth century King Ine of Wessex had pushed the boundaries of the West Saxon kingdom far enough west to include Somerset. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. The nature of the relations between the Britons and the Saxons in Somerset is not entirely clear. Ine's laws demonstrate that the Britons were considered to be a significant enough population in Wessex to merit provisions; however, the laws also suggest that Britons could not attain the same social standing as the Saxons, and that many were slaves. In light of such policies, many Britons might have chosen to emigrate to places such as Brittany while those who remained would have had incentives to adopt Anglo-Saxon culture. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown, with fortifications such as Dunster Castle used for control and defence. Somerset came under the political influence of several different nobles during the Middle Ages. During the Wars of the Roses, an important magnate was Humphrey Stafford, earl of Devon whose wider influence stretched from Cornwall to Wiltshire. After 1485, one of the county's most influential figures was Henry VII's chamberlain Giles Daubeney. ### The 17th–19th centuries Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was England's oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. During the English Civil War, Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton and the Battle of Langport. In 1685, the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset. The rebels landed at Lyme Regis and travelled north, hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, but they were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last pitched battle fought in England. Arthur Wellesley took his title, Duke of Wellington from the town of Wellington; he is commemorated on a nearby hill by a large, spotlit obelisk, known as the Wellington Monument. The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelled the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. Farming continued to flourish, and the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was founded in 1777 to improve farming methods. Despite this, two decades later agriculturist John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 and found that agricultural methods could still be improved. Coal mining was an important industry in north Somerset during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1800 it was prominent in Radstock. The Somerset Coalfield reached its peak production by the 1920s. All the pits have now been closed, the last in 1973. Most of the surface buildings have been removed, and apart from a winding wheel outside Radstock Museum, little evidence of their former existence remains. Further west, the Brendon Hills were mined for iron ore in the late 19th century; this was taken by the West Somerset Mineral Railway to Watchet Harbour for shipment to the furnaces at Ebbw Vale. ### 20th century Many Somerset soldiers died during the First World War, with the Somerset Light Infantry suffering nearly 5,000 casualties. War memorials were put up in most of the county's towns and villages; only nine, described as the Thankful Villages, had none of their residents killed. During the Second World War the county was a base for troops preparing for the D-Day landings. Some of the hospitals which were built for the casualties of the war remain in use. The Taunton Stop Line was set up to repel a potential German invasion. The remains of its pill boxes can still be seen along the coast, and south through Ilminster and Chard. A number of decoy towns were constructed in Somerset in World War II to protect Bristol and other towns. They were designed to mimic the nighttime geometry of "blacked out" streets, railway lines, and Bristol Temple Meads railway station, to encourage German bombers away from these targets. One, on the German radio navigation beam flight path to Bristol, was constructed on Beacon Batch. It was laid out by Shepperton Studios, based on aerial photographs of the city's railway marshalling yards. The decoys were fitted with dim red lights, simulating activities such as the stoking of steam locomotives. Burning bales of straw soaked in creosote were used to simulate the effects of incendiary bombs dropped by the first wave of Pathfinder night bombers; meanwhile, incendiary bombs dropped on the correct location were quickly smothered, wherever possible. Drums of oil were also ignited to simulate the effect of a blazing city or town, with the aim of fooling subsequent waves of bombers into dropping their bombs on the wrong location. The Chew Magna decoy town was hit by half a dozen bombs on 2 December 1940, and over a thousand incendiaries on 3 January 1941. The following night the Uphill decoy town, protecting the airfield at Weston-super-Mare, was bombed; a herd of dairy cows was hit, killing some and severely injuring others. Geography --------- ### Boundaries The boundaries of Somerset are largely unaltered from medieval times. The main change has been in the north, where the River Avon formed the border with Gloucestershire, except that the hundred of Bath Forum, which straddles the Avon, formed part of Somerset. Bristol began as a town on the Gloucestershire side of the Avon, but as it grew it extended across the river into Somerset. In 1373 Edward III proclaimed "that the town of Bristol with its suburbs and precincts shall henceforth be separate from the counties of Gloucester and Somerset ... and that it should be a county by itself". The present-day northern border of Somerset (adjoining the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire) runs along the southern bank of the Avon from the Bristol Channel, then follows around the southern edge of the Bristol built-up area, before continuing upstream along the Avon and then diverges from the river to include Bath and its historic hinterland to the north of the Avon, before meeting Wiltshire at the *Three Shire Stones* on the *Fosse Way* at Batheaston. ### Cities and towns Somerton took over from Ilchester as the county town in the late thirteenth century, but it declined in importance and the status of county town transferred to Taunton about 1366. The county has two cities, Bath and Wells, and 30 towns (including the county town of Taunton, which has no town council but instead is the chief settlement of the county's only extant borough). The largest urban areas in terms of population are Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Taunton, Yeovil and Bridgwater. Many settlements developed because of their strategic importance in relation to geographical features, such as river crossings or valleys in ranges of hills. Examples include Axbridge on the River Axe, Castle Cary on the River Cary, North Petherton on the River Parrett, and Ilminster, where there was a crossing point on the River Isle. Midsomer Norton lies on the River Somer; while the Wellow Brook and the *Fosse Way* Roman road run through Radstock. Chard is the most southerly town in Somerset and one of the highest, though at an altitude of 126 m (413 ft) Wiveliscombe is the highest town in the county. ### Green belt The county contains several-miles-wide sections of the Avon green belt area, which is primarily in place to prevent urban sprawl from the Bristol and Bath built up areas encroaching into the rural areas of North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, and Mendip districts in the county, as well as maintaining surrounding countryside. It stretches from the coastline between the towns of Portishead and Clevedon, extending eastwards past Nailsea, around the Bristol conurbation, and through to the city of Bath. The green belt border intersects with the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) along its south boundary, and meets the Cotswolds AONB by its eastern extent along the Wiltshire county border, creating an extended area protected from inappropriate development. ### Geology Much of the landscape of Somerset falls into types determined by the underlying geology. These landscapes are the limestone karst and lias of the north, the clay vales and wetlands of the centre, the oolites of the east and south, and the Devonian sandstone of the west. To the north-east of the Somerset Levels, the Mendip Hills are moderately high limestone hills. The central and western Mendip Hills was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1972 and covers 198 km2 (76 sq mi). The main habitat on these hills is calcareous grassland, with some arable agriculture. To the south-west of the Somerset Levels are the Quantock Hills which was England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designated in 1956 which is covered in heathland, oak woodlands, ancient parklands with plantations of conifer and covers 99 square kilometres. The Somerset Coalfield is part of a larger coalfield which stretches into Gloucestershire. To the north of the Mendip hills is the Chew Valley and to the south, on the clay substrate, are broad valleys which support dairy farming and drain into the Somerset Levels. ### Caves and rivers There is an extensive network of caves, including Wookey Hole, underground rivers, and gorges, including the Cheddar Gorge and Ebbor Gorge. The county has many rivers, including the Axe, Brue, Cary, Parrett, Sheppey, Tone and Yeo. These both feed and drain the flat levels and moors of mid and west Somerset. In the north of the county the River Chew flows into the Bristol Avon. The Parrett is tidal almost to Langport, where there is evidence of two Roman wharfs. At the same site during the reign of King Charles I, river tolls were levied on boats to pay for the maintenance of the bridge. ### Levels and moors The Somerset Levels (or Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known) are a sparsely populated wetland area of central Somerset, between the Quantock and Mendip hills. They consist of marine clay levels along the coast, and the inland (often peat based) moors. The Levels are divided into two by the Polden Hills. Land to the south is drained by the River Parrett while land to the north is drained by the River Axe and the River Brue. The total area of the Levels amounts to about 647.5 square kilometres (160,000 acres) and broadly corresponds to the administrative district of Sedgemoor but also includes the south west of Mendip district. Approximately 70% of the area is grassland and 30% is arable. Stretching about 32 kilometres (20 mi) inland, this expanse of flat land barely rises above sea level. Before it was drained, much of the land was under a shallow brackish sea in winter and was marsh land in summer. Drainage began with the Romans, and was restarted at various times: by the Anglo-Saxons; in the Middle Ages by the Glastonbury Abbey, during 1400–1770; and during the Second World War, with the construction of the Huntspill River. Pumping and management of water levels still continues. The North Somerset Levels basin, north of the Mendips, covers a smaller geographical area than the Somerset Levels; and forms a coastal area around Avonmouth. It too was reclaimed by draining. It is mirrored, across the Severn Estuary, in Wales, by a similar low-lying area: the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels. In the far west of the county, running into Devon, is Exmoor, a high Devonian sandstone moor, which was designated as a national park in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. The highest point in Somerset is Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, with a maximum elevation of 519 metres (1,703 feet). Over 100 sites in Somerset have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. ### Coastline The 64 km (40 mi) coastline of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary forms part of the northern border of Somerset. The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range in the world. At Burnham-on-Sea, for example, the tidal range of a spring tide is more than 12 metres (39 feet). Proposals for the construction of a Severn Barrage aim to harness this energy. The island of Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel is within the ceremonial county and is now administered by North Somerset Council. The main coastal towns are, from the west to the north-east, Minehead, Watchet, Burnham-on-Sea, Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead. The coastal area between Minehead and the eastern extreme of the administrative county's coastline at Brean Down is known as Bridgwater Bay, and is a National Nature Reserve. North of that, the coast forms Weston Bay and Sand Bay whose northern tip, Sand Point, marks the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the mid and north of the county the coastline is low as the level wetlands of the levels meet the sea. In the west, the coastline is high and dramatic where the plateau of Exmoor meets the sea, with high cliffs and waterfalls. ### Climate Along with the rest of South West England, Somerset has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 °C (33.8 °F) or 2 °C (35.6 °F) are common. In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, but convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west. | Climate data for Yeovilton, England (1981–2010) data | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Average high °C (°F) | 8.1(46.6) | 8.3(46.9) | 10.6(51.1) | 12.9(55.2) | 16.5(61.7) | 19.3(66.7) | 21.7(71.1) | 21.5(70.7) | 18.6(65.5) | 14.8(58.6) | 11.1(52.0) | 9.0(48.2) | 14.4(57.9) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.8(40.6) | 4.8(40.6) | 6.7(44.1) | 8.3(46.9) | 11.7(53.1) | 14.5(58.1) | 16.8(62.2) | 16.6(61.9) | 14.1(57.4) | 10.9(51.6) | 7.4(45.3) | 5.7(42.3) | 10.2(50.4) | | Average low °C (°F) | 1.4(34.5) | 1.3(34.3) | 2.7(36.9) | 3.7(38.7) | 6.8(44.2) | 9.7(49.5) | 11.9(53.4) | 11.7(53.1) | 9.6(49.3) | 6.9(44.4) | 3.6(38.5) | 2.4(36.3) | 6.0(42.8) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 72.0(2.83) | 55.6(2.19) | 56.5(2.22) | 47.3(1.86) | 48.9(1.93) | 57.2(2.25) | 48.9(1.93) | 56.6(2.23) | 64.5(2.54) | 67.9(2.67) | 65.8(2.59) | 83.3(3.28) | 724.5(28.52) | | Average rainy days | 12.5 | 10.2 | 10.9 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 8.5 | 6.9 | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.3 | 11.6 | 12.6 | 121.2 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 50.2 | 68.9 | 107.6 | 155.4 | 193.1 | 186.0 | 205.8 | 197.8 | 139.8 | 101.1 | 70.2 | 46.8 | 1,522.7 | | Source: | Governance ---------- The ceremonial county of Somerset is currently governed by three unitary authorities: Somerset Council, North Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council. Modern local government in Somerset began in 1889, when an administrative county was created and Somerset County Council was established; Bath was administered separately as a county borough. In 1974 the county and council were abolished and replaced by two two-tier non-metropolitan counties, Somerset and Avon. Somerset was governed by a reconstituted county council and six districts: Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, Taunton Deane and West Somerset. Taunton Deane was granted borough status that same year. Avon consisted of six districts, of which three were created from areas formerly part of Somerset: Woodspring, Wansdyke, and Bath. In 1996 Avon was abolished and its districts were renamed and reorganised into unitary authorities. Woodspring was renamed 'North Somerset', and Wansydyke and Bath were abolished and a new district covering the same area created, named 'Bath and North East Somerset'. In 1997 the two districts and non-metropolitan county became part of the new ceremonial county of Somerset. On 1 September 2019 the non-metropolitan districts of West Somerset and Taunton Deane merged, with the new district being called Somerset West and Taunton. On 1 April 2023 the non-metropolitan county was reorganised into a unitary authority by abolishing the four districts and their councils and creating a new district which covers the area of the non-metropolitan county; Somerset County Council was reconstituted to have the powers of both a district and county council, and renamed 'Somerset Council'. The two existing unitary authorities were not altered. A previous attempt to reorganise the county as a unitary authority 2007 was rejected following local opposition. Somerset's local government records date to 1617, longer than those of any other county; a meeting of the Quarter Sessions held at Wells in that year decided that a room should be provided "for the safe keeping of the records of the Sessions". ### UK Parliament The county is divided into nine constituencies, each returning one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons. In the June 2017 general election, eight constituencies of the county elected Conservative MPs, while Bath elected a Liberal Democrat. The ceremonial county of Somerset contains the constituencies of Bridgwater and West Somerset, North East Somerset, North Somerset, Bath, Somerton and Frome, Taunton Deane, Wells, Yeovil and Weston-super-Mare. Traditionally several of these have been relatively strong constituencies for the Liberal Democrats, with Labour often getting few votes, even in larger towns such as Yeovil. In the 2019 general election, all nine seats were held, with Jacob Rees-Mogg increasing his majority in North East Somerset, as well as Wera Hobhouse doubling her majority in the Liberal Democrat Bath seat. ### European Parliament From 1984 to 1994, Somerset was represented by Conservative Margaret Daly as part of the Somerset and Dorset West constituency for elections to the European Parliament. From 1994 to 1999, Somerset was represented by Liberal Democrat Graham Watson as part of the Somerset and North Devon constituency for elections to the European Parliament. From 1999 to 2020, Somerset was part of the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament. ### Civil parishes Almost all of the county is covered by the lowest/most local form of English local government, the civil parish, with either a town or parish council (a city council in the instance of Wells) or a parish meeting; some parishes group together, with a single council or meeting for the group. The city of Bath (the area of the former county borough) and much of the town of Taunton are unparished areas. Demography ---------- In the 2011 census the population of the Somerset County Council area was 571,600 with 193,400 in Bath and North East Somerset, and 216,700 in North Somerset giving a total for the ceremonial county of 981,700. Population growth is higher than the national average, with a 6.4% increase, in the Somerset County Council area, since 1991, and a 17% increase since 1981. The population density is 1.4 persons per hectare, which can be compared to 2.07 persons per hectare for the South West region. Within the county, population density ranges 0.5 in West Somerset to 2.2 persons per hectare in Taunton Deane. The percentage of the population who are economically active is higher than the regional and national average, and the unemployment rate is lower than the regional and national average. Somerset has a high indigenous British population, with 94.6% registering as white British, and 2.0% as belonging to black and ethnic minority (BME) groups, according to the 2011 Census. Over 25% of Somerset's population is concentrated in Taunton, Bridgwater and Yeovil. The rest of the county is rural and sparsely populated. Over 9 million tourist nights are spent in Somerset each year, which significantly increases the population at peak times. | | | --- | | **Population since 1801** | | Year | **1801** | **1851** | **1901** | **1911** | **1921** | **1931** | **1941** | **1951** | **1961** | **1971** | **1981** | **1991** | **2001** | **2011** | **2021** | | Somerset CC area | 187,266 | 276,684 | 277,563 | 280,215 | 282,411 | 284,740 | 305,244 | 327,505 | 355,292 | 385,698 | 417,450 | 468,395 | 498,093 | 529,972 | 571,600 | | BANES | 57,188 | 96,992 | 107,637 | 113,732 | 113,351 | 112,972 | 123,185 | 134,346 | 144,950 | 156,421 | 154,083 | 164,737 | 169,045 | 176,015 | 193,400 | | North Somerset | 16,670 | 33,774 | 60,066 | 68,410 | 75,276 | 82,833 | 91,967 | 102,119 | 119,509 | 139,924 | 160,353 | 179,865 | 188,556 | 202,566 | 216,700 | | Total | **261,124** | **407,450** | **445,266** | **462,357** | **471,038** | **479,758** | **520,396** | **563,970** | **619,751** | **682,043** | **731,886** | **812,997** | **855,694** | **908,553** | **981,700** | Economy ------- Somerset has few industrial centres, but it does have a variety of light industry and high technology businesses, along with traditional agriculture and an increasingly important tourism sector, resulting in an unemployment rate of 2.5%. Tourism was estimated in 2013 to support around 26,000 people. Bridgwater was developed during the Industrial Revolution as the area's leading port. The River Parrett was navigable by large ships as far as Bridgwater. Cargoes were then loaded onto smaller boats at Langport Quay, next to the Bridgwater Bridge, to be carried further up river to Langport; or they could turn off at Burrowbridge and then travel via the River Tone to Taunton. The Parrett is now only navigable as far as Dunball Wharf. Bridgwater, in the 19th and 20th centuries, was a centre for the manufacture of bricks and clay roof tiles, and later cellophane, but those industries have now stopped. With its good links to the motorway system, Bridgwater has developed as a distribution hub for companies such as Argos, Toolstation, Morrisons and Gerber Juice. AgustaWestland manufactures helicopters in Yeovil, and Normalair Garratt, builder of aircraft oxygen systems, is also based in the town. Somerset is an important supplier of defence equipment and technology. A Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Bridgwater was built at the start of the Second World War, between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington, to manufacture explosives. The site was decommissioned and closed in July 2008. Templecombe has Thales Underwater Systems, and Taunton presently has the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and Avimo, which became part of Thales Optics. It was announced twice, in 2006 and 2007, that manufacturing is to end at Thales Optics' Taunton site, but the trade unions and Taunton Deane District Council are working to reverse or mitigate these decisions. Other high-technology companies include the optics company Gooch and Housego, at Ilminster. There are Ministry of Defence offices in Bath, and Norton Fitzwarren is the home of 40 Commando Royal Marines. The Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton, is one of Britain's two active Fleet Air Arm bases and is home to the Royal Navy's AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopters and the Royal Marines Commando AgustaWestland AW101 Merlins. Agriculture and food and drink production continue to be major industries in the county, employing over 15,000 people. Apple orchards were once plentiful, and Somerset is still a major producer of cider. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet are involved with the production of cider, especially Blackthorn Cider, which is sold nationwide, and there are specialist producers such as Burrow Hill Cider Farm and Thatchers Cider. Gerber Products Company in Bridgwater is the largest producer of fruit juices in Europe, producing brands such as Sunny Delight and Ocean Spray. Development of the milk-based industries, such as Ilchester Cheese Company and Yeo Valley Organic, have resulted in the production of ranges of desserts, yoghurts and cheeses. Traditional willow growing and weaving (such as basket weaving) is not as extensive as it used to be but is still carried out on the Somerset Levels and is commemorated at the Willows and Wetlands Visitor Centre. Fragments of willow basket were found near the Glastonbury Lake Village, and it was also used in the construction of several Iron Age causeways. The willow was harvested using a traditional method of pollarding, where a tree would be cut back to the main stem. During the 1930s more than 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of willow were being grown commercially on the Levels. Largely due to the displacement of baskets with plastic bags and cardboard boxes, the industry has severely declined since the 1950s. By the end of the 20th century only about 140 hectares (350 acres) were grown commercially, near the villages of Burrowbridge, Westonzoyland and North Curry. Towns such as Castle Cary and Frome grew around the medieval weaving industry. Street developed as a centre for the production of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes, with C&J Clark establishing its headquarters in the village. C&J Clark's shoes are no longer manufactured there as the work was transferred to lower-wage areas, such as China and Asia. The county has a long tradition of supplying freestone and building stone. Quarries at Doulting supplied freestone used in the construction of Wells Cathedral. Bath stone is also widely used. Ralph Allen promoted its use in the early 18th century, as did Hans Price in the 19th century, but it was used long before then. It was mined underground at Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, and as a result of cutting the Box Tunnel, at locations in Wiltshire such as Box. Bath stone is still used on a reduced scale today, but more often as a cladding rather than a structural material. Further south, Hamstone is the colloquial name given to stone from Ham Hill, which is also widely used in the construction industry. Blue Lias has been used locally as a building stone and as a raw material for lime mortar and Portland cement. Until the 1960s, Puriton had Blue Lias stone quarries, as did several other Polden villages. Its quarries also supplied a cement factory at Dunball, adjacent to the King's Sedgemoor Drain. Its derelict, early 20th century remains, was removed when the M5 motorway was constructed in the mid-1970s. Since the 1920s, the county has supplied aggregates. Foster Yeoman is Europe's large supplier of limestone aggregates, with quarries at Merehead Quarry. It has a dedicated railway operation, Mendip Rail, which is used to transport aggregates by rail from a group of Mendip quarries. In November 2008, a public sector inward investment organisation was launched, called Into Somerset, with the intention of growing the county's economy by promoting it to businesses that may wish to relocate from other parts of the UK (especially London) and the world. This now part of the Heart of the South West Growth Hub. ### Nuclear electricity Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is a project to construct a 3,200 MW two reactor nuclear power station. On 18 October 2010, the British government announced that Hinkley Point – already the site of the disused Hinkley Point A and (operational at the time) Hinkley Point B power stations – was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations. NNB Generation Company, a subsidiary of EDF, submitted an application for development consent to the Infrastructure Planning Commission on 31 October 2011. A protest group, Stop Hinkley, was formed to campaign for the closure of Hinkley Point B and oppose any expansion at the Hinkley Point site. In December 2013, the European Commission opened an investigation to assess whether the project breaks state-aid rules. On 8 October 2014 it was announced that the European Commission has approved the project, with an overwhelming majority and only four commissioners voting against the decision. Construction is underway and is projected to be completed in 2025. Emergency services ------------------ All of the ceremonial county of Somerset is covered by the Avon and Somerset Police, a police force which also covers Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The police force is governed by the elected Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner. The Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service covers the area of Somerset County Council as well as the entire ceremonial county of Devon. The unitary districts of North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset are instead covered by the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, a service which also covers Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The South Western Ambulance Service covers the entire South West of England, including all of Somerset. The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance is a charitable organisation based in the county. Culture ------- In Arthurian legend, Avalon became associated with Glastonbury Tor when monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of King Arthur and his queen. What is more certain is that Glastonbury was an important religious centre by 700 and claims to be "the oldest above-ground Christian church in the World" situated "in the mystical land of Avalon". The claim is based on dating the founding of the community of monks at AD 63, the year of the legendary visit of Joseph of Arimathea, who was supposed to have brought the Holy Grail. During the Middle Ages there were also important religious sites at Woodspring Priory and Muchelney Abbey. The present Diocese of Bath and Wells covers Somerset – with the exception of the Parish of Abbots Leigh with Leigh Woods in North Somerset – and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is now in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the city of Wells, having previously been at Bath Abbey. Before the English Reformation, it was a Roman Catholic diocese; the county now falls within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton. The Benedictine monastery Saint Gregory's Abbey, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, and the ruins of the former Cistercian Cleeve Abbey are near the village of Washford. Somerset has traditions of art, music and literature. Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote while staying in Coleridge Cottage, Nether Stowey. The novelist John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) lived in the Somerset village of Montacute from 1885 until 1894 and his novels *Wood and Stone* (1915) and *A Glastonbury Romance* (1932) are set in Somerset. The writer Evelyn Waugh spent his last years in the village of Combe Florey. Traditional folk music, both song and dance, was important in the agricultural communities. Somerset songs were collected by Cecil Sharp and incorporated into works such as Holst's *A Somerset Rhapsody*. Halsway Manor near Williton is an international centre for folk music. The tradition continues today with groups such as The Wurzels specialising in Scrumpy and Western music. The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts takes place most years in Pilton, near Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers from around the world to see world-famous entertainers. The Big Green Gathering which grew out of the Green fields at the Glastonbury Festival is held in the Mendip Hills between Charterhouse and Compton Martin each summer. The annual Bath Literature Festival is one of several local festivals in the county; others include the Frome Festival and the Trowbridge Village Pump Festival, which, despite its name, is held at Farleigh Hungerford in Somerset. The annual circuit of West Country Carnivals is held in a variety of Somerset towns during the autumn, forming a major regional festival, and the largest Festival of Lights in Europe. The county has several museums; those at Bath include the American Museum in Britain, the Museum of Bath Architecture, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, the Jane Austen Centre, and the Roman Baths. Other visitor attractions which reflect the cultural heritage of the county include: Claverton Pumping Station, Dunster Working Watermill, the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Nunney Castle, The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, King John's Hunting Lodge in Axbridge, Blake Museum Bridgwater, Radstock Museum, Museum of Somerset in Taunton, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury, and Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum. Somerset has 11,500 listed buildings, 523 scheduled monuments, 192 conservation areas, 41 parks and gardens including those at Barrington Court, Holnicote Estate, Prior Park Landscape Garden and Tintinhull Garden, 36 English Heritage sites and 19 National Trust sites, including Clevedon Court, Fyne Court, Montacute House and Tyntesfield as well as Stembridge Tower Mill, the last remaining thatched windmill in England. Other historic houses in the county which have remained in private ownership or used for other purposes include Halswell House and Marston Bigot. A key contribution of Somerset architecture is its medieval church towers. Jenkins writes, "These structures, with their buttresses, bell-opening tracery and crowns, rank with Nottinghamshire alabaster as England's finest contribution to medieval art." Bath Rugby play at the Recreation Ground in Bath, and the Somerset County Cricket Club are based at the County Ground in Taunton. The county's highest ranked football club is Yeovil Town, currently playing in the National League. Horse racing courses are at Taunton, Bath and Wincanton. The county is served by the regional *Western Daily Press* and local newspapers including the *Weston & Somerset Mercury*, the *Bath Chronicle*, *Chew Valley Gazette*, *Somerset County Gazette,* *Clevedon Mercury* *Mendip Times*, and the *West Somerset Free Press*. Television is provided by BBC West and ITV West Country, while southwestern parts of the county can receive BBC South West. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Somerset, BBC Radio Bristol (in northern parts of the county), Heart West, and Greatest Hits Radio South West in Yeovil. The Flag of Somerset, representing the ceremonial county, has been registered with the Flag Institute following a competition in July 2013. Transport --------- Somerset has 6,531 km (4,058 mi) of roads. The main arterial routes, which include the M5 motorway, A303, A37, A38, A39, A358 and A361 give good access across the county, but many areas can only be accessed via narrow country lanes. Rail services are provided by the West of England Main Line through Yeovil Junction, the Bristol to Exeter line, Heart of Wessex line which runs from Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth and the Reading to Taunton line. The main train operator in Somerset is Great Western Railway, with other services operated by South Western Railway and CrossCountry. Bristol Airport, located in North Somerset, provides national and international air services. The Somerset Coal Canal was built in the early 19th century to reduce the cost of transportation of coal and other heavy produce. The first 16 kilometres (10 mi), running from a junction with the Kennet & Avon Canal, along the Cam valley, to a terminal basin at Paulton, were in use by 1805, together with several tramways. A planned 11.7 km (7.3 mi) branch to Midford was never built, but in 1815 a tramway was laid along its towing path. In 1871 the tramway was purchased by the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR), and operated until the 1950s. The 19th century saw improvements to Somerset's roads with the introduction of turnpikes, and the building of canals and railways. Nineteenth-century canals included the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal, Westport Canal, Glastonbury Canal and Chard Canal. The Dorset & Somerset Canal was proposed, but little of it was ever constructed and it was abandoned in 1803. The usefulness of the canals was short-lived, though some have now been restored for recreation. The 19th century also saw the construction of railways to and through Somerset. The county was served by five pre-1923 Grouping railway companies: the Great Western Railway (GWR); a branch of the Midland Railway (MR) to Bath Green Park (and another one to Bristol); the S&DJR, and the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). The former main lines of the GWR are still in use today, although many of its branch lines were scrapped as part of the Beeching cuts. The former lines of the S&DJR closed completely, as has the branch of the Midland Railway to Bath Green Park (and to Bristol St Philips). The L&SWR survived as a part of the present West of England Main Line. None of these lines, in Somerset, are electrified. Two branch lines, the West and East Somerset Railways, were rescued and transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines. The fifth railway was a short-lived light railway, the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway. The West Somerset Mineral Railway carried the iron ore from the Brendon Hills to Watchet. Until the 1960s the piers at Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portishead and Minehead were served by the paddle steamers of P & A Campbell who ran regular services to Barry and Cardiff as well as Ilfracombe and Lundy Island. The original stone pier at Burnham-on-Sea was used for commercial goods, one of the reasons for the S&DJR was to provide a link between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. The newer concrete pier at Burnham-on-Sea is claimed to be the shortest pier in Britain. In the 1970s the Royal Portbury Dock was constructed to provide extra capacity for the Port of Bristol. For long-distance holiday traffic travelling through the county to and from Devon and Cornwall, Somerset is often regarded as a marker on the journey. North–south traffic moves through the county via the M5 motorway. Traffic to and from the east travels either via the A303 road, or the M4 motorway, which runs east–west, crossing the M5 motorway just beyond the northern limits of the county. Education --------- State schools in Somerset are provided by three local education authorities: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and the larger Somerset County Council. All state schools are comprehensive. In some areas primary, infant and junior schools cater for ages four to eleven, after which the pupils move on to secondary schools. There is a three-tier system of first, middle and upper schools in the Cheddar Valley, and in West Somerset, while most other schools in the county use the two-tier system. Somerset has 30 state and 17 independent secondary schools; Bath and North East Somerset has 13 state and 5 independent secondary schools; and North Somerset has 10 state and 2 independent secondary schools, excluding sixth form colleges. | **% of pupils gaining 5 grades A-C including English and Maths in 2006** (average for England is 45.8%) | | --- | | Education Authority |  % | | Bath and North East Somerset (Unitary Authority) | 52.0% | | West Somerset | 51.0% | | Taunton Deane | 49.5% | | Mendip | 47.7% | | North Somerset (Unitary Authority) | 47.4% | | South Somerset | 42.3% | | Sedgemoor | 41.4% | Some of the county's secondary schools have specialist school status. Some schools have sixth forms and others transfer their sixth formers to colleges. Several schools can trace their origins back many years, such as The Blue School in Wells and Richard Huish College in Taunton. Others have changed their names over the years such as Beechen Cliff School which was started in 1905 as the City of Bath Boys' School and changed to its present name in 1972 when the grammar school was amalgamated with a local secondary modern school, to form a comprehensive school. Many others were established and built since the Second World War. In 2006, 5,900 pupils in Somerset sat GCSE examinations, with 44.5% achieving 5 grades A-C including English and Maths (compared to 45.8% for England). Sexey's School is a state boarding school in Bruton that also takes day pupils from the surrounding area. The Somerset LEA also provides special schools such as Newbury Manor School, which caters for children aged between 10 and 17 with special educational needs. Provision for pupils with special educational needs is also made by the mainstream schools. There is also a range of private or public schools. Many of these are for pupils between 11 and 18 years, such as King's College, Taunton, Wellington School, Somerset and Taunton School. King's School, Bruton, was founded in 1519 and received royal foundation status around 30 years later in the reign of Edward VI. Millfield is the largest co-educational boarding school. There are also preparatory schools for younger children, such as All Hallows, and Hazlegrove Preparatory School. Chilton Cantelo School offers places both to day pupils and boarders aged 7 to 16. Other schools provide education for children from the age of 3 or 4 years through to 18, such as King Edward's School, Bath, Queen's College, Taunton and Wells Cathedral School which is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in Britain. Some of these schools have religious affiliations, such as Monkton Combe School, Prior Park College, Sidcot School which is associated with the Religious Society of Friends, Downside School which is a Roman Catholic public school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, situated next to the Benedictine Downside Abbey, and Kingswood School, which was founded by John Wesley in 1748 in Kingswood near Bristol, originally for the education of the sons of the itinerant ministers (clergy) of the Methodist Church. ### Further and higher education A wide range of adult education and further education courses is available in Somerset, in schools, colleges and other community venues. The colleges include Weston College, Bridgwater and Taunton College (formed in 2016 when Bridgwater College and Somerset College of Arts and Technology merged, and includes the Taunton-based University Centre Somerset), Bath College, Frome Community College, Richard Huish College, Strode College and Yeovil College. Somerset County Council operates Dillington House, a residential adult education college located in Ilminster. The University of Bath, Bath Spa University and University Centre Weston are higher education establishments in the north of the county. The University of Bath gained its Royal Charter in 1966, although its origins go back to the Bristol Trade School (founded 1856) and Bath School of Pharmacy (founded 1907). It has a purpose-built campus at Claverton on the outskirts of Bath, and has 15,000 students. Bath Spa University, which is based at Newton St Loe, achieved university status in 2005, and has origins including the Bath Academy of Art (founded 1898), Bath Teacher Training College, and the Bath College of Higher Education. It has several campuses and 5,500 students. See also -------- * *Outline of England* * List of High Sheriffs of Somerset * List of hills of Somerset * Grade I listed buildings in Somerset * List of tourist attractions in Somerset * Lord Lieutenant of Somerset * West Country English * Healthcare in Somerset Further reading --------------- * Victoria History of the Counties of England – *History of the County of Somerset*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, for: The Institute of Historical Research. + Note: Volumes I to IX published so far \*\* "Link to on-line version (not all volumes)". Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. + Volume I: Natural History, Prehistory, Domesday + Volume II: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Houses, Political, Maritime, and Social and Economic History, Earthworks, Agriculture, Forestry, Sport. + Volume III: Pitney, Somerton, and Tintinhull hundreds. + Volume IV: Crewkerne, Martock, and South Petherton hundreds. + Volume V: Williton and Freemanors hundred. + Volume VI: Andersfield, Cannington and North Petherton hundreds (Bridgwater and neighbouring parishes). + Volume VII: Bruton, Horethorne and Norton Ferris Hundreds. + Volume VIII: The Poldens and the Levels. + Volume IX: Glastonbury and Street, Baltonsborough, Butleigh, Compton Dundon, Meare, North Wootton, Podimore, Milton, Walton, West Bradley, and West Pennard. * Adkins, Lesley and Roy (1992). *A Field Guide to Somerset Archaeology*. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 978-0-946159-94-9. * Aston, Michael; Burrow, Ian (1982). *The Archaeology of Somerset: A review to 1500 AD*. Somerset: Somerset County Council. ISBN 0-86183-028-8. * Aston, Michael (1988). *Aspects of the Medieval Landscape of Somerset & Contributions to the landscape history of the county*. Somerset: Somerset County Council. ISBN 0-86183-129-2. * Bush, Robin (1994). *Somerset: The complete guide*. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-874336-27-X. * Costen, Michael (1992). *The origins of Somerset*. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-3675-5. * Croft, Robert; Aston, Mick (1993). *Somerset from the air: An aerial Guide to the Heritage of the County*. Somerset: Somerset County Council. ISBN 978-0-86183-215-6. * Dunning, Robert (1995). *Somerset Castles*. Somerset: Somerset Books. ISBN 0-86183-278-7. * Leach, Peter (2001). *Roman Somerset*. Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-874336-93-8. * Little, Bryan (1983). *Portrait of Somerset*. London: Robert Hale Ltd. ISBN 0-7090-0915-1. * Palmer, Kingsley (1976). *The Folklore of Somerset*. London: Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-3166-0. * Robinson, Stephen (1992). *Somerset Place Names*. Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press Ltd. ISBN 978-1-874336-03-7. * Stansfield-Cudworth, R. E. (2009). *Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses*. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-77344-714-1.

Somerset

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset

**Olympic sports** are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2020 Summer Olympics included 33 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented by an international governing body, namely an International Federation (IF). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a hierarchy of sports, disciplines, and events. According to this hierarchy, each Olympic sport can be subdivided into multiple disciplines, which are often mistaken as distinct sports. Examples include swimming and water polo, which in the Olympic scheme are *disciplines* of the sport of "Aquatics" (represented by World Aquatics), and figure skating and speed skating, which are each *disciplines* of the sport of "ice skating" (represented by the International Skating Union). In turn, disciplines are subdivided into events, for which Olympic medals are awarded. The number and types of events may change slightly from one Olympiad to another. Previous Olympic Games included sports that are no longer included in the current program, such as polo and tug of war. Known as "discontinued sports", these have been removed due to either a lack of interest or the absence of an appropriate governing body for the sport. Some sports that were competed at the early Games and later dropped by the IOC, have managed to return to the Olympic program, for example archery, which made a comeback in 1972, and tennis, which was reintroduced in 1988. The Olympics have often included one or more demonstration sports, normally to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest in an entirely new sport. Some such sports, like baseball and curling, were added to the official Olympic program (in 1992 and 1998, respectively). Baseball was discontinued after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, only to be revived again for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which saw the introduction of new disciplines within a number of existing Summer Olympic sports as well as several new sports, such as karate and skateboarding, making their Olympic debuts. Breakdancing will make its debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and Ski Mountaineering will debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Olympic sports definitions -------------------------- The term "sport" in Olympic terminology refers to all events sanctioned by an international sport federation, a definition that may differ from the common meaning of the word "sport". One sport, by Olympic definition, may comprise several disciplines, which would often be regarded as separate sports in common usage. For example, aquatics is a summer Olympic sport that includes six disciplines: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and high diving (the last of which is a non-Olympic discipline), since all these disciplines are governed at international level by World Aquatics. Skating is a winter Olympic sport represented by the International Skating Union, and includes four disciplines: figure skating, speed skating (on a traditional long track), short track speed skating, and synchronized skating (the latter is a non-Olympic discipline). The sport with the largest number of Olympic disciplines is skiing, with six: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing. Other notable multi-discipline sports are gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline), cycling (road, track, mountain, and BMX), volleyball (indoors and beach), wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), canoeing (flatwater and slalom), and bobsleigh (includes skeleton). The disciplines listed here are only those contested in the Olympics—gymnastics has two non-Olympic disciplines, while cycling and wrestling have three each. The IOC definition of a "discipline" may differ from that used by an international federation. For example, the IOC considers artistic gymnastics a single discipline, but the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) classifies men's and women's artistic gymnastics as separate disciplines. Similarly, the IOC considers freestyle wrestling to be a single discipline, but United World Wrestling uses "freestyle wrestling" strictly for the men's version, classifying women's freestyle wrestling as the separate discipline of "female wrestling". On some occasions, notably in the case of snowboarding, the IOC agreed to add a sport that previously had a separate international federation to the Olympics on condition that they dissolve their governing body and instead affiliate with an existing Olympic sport federation, therefore not increasing the number of Olympic sports. An event, by IOC definition, is a competition that leads to the award of medals. Therefore, the sport of aquatics includes a total of 46 Olympic events, of which 32 are in the discipline of swimming, eight in diving, and two each in artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming. The number of events per sport ranges from a minimum of two (until 2008, there were sports with only one event) to a maximum of 47 in athletics, which despite its large number of events and its diversity is not divided into disciplines except on an informal basis - the division between, for example, swimming and diving in aquatics is not replicated within athletics by divisions between track and field events, or stadium and road events. Criteria for inclusion and thresholds ------------------------------------- In the past there have been numeric criteria about widely practiced sports, disciplines or events. Nowadays such criteria have been abolished. The sports that are eligible for inclusion in the programme, beside the current Olympic International Federations, are only those "*governed by other IFs recognised by the IOC*", as per the Bye-law to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter (§1.3.2). If this criterion is met, then the opportunity to propose additional sports to the programme is at the full discretion of the respective Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and subject to the final decision of the IOC Session. However, there are indicative thresholds which restrict the addition of new sports, disciplines and events. According to Bye-law 3.2 to Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter, in the edition of 2021: "Unless agreed otherwise with the relevant OCOG [Organising Committee for the Olympic Games], the following approximate numbers shall apply: – with respect to the Games of the Olympiad, ten thousand five hundred (10,500) athletes, five thousand (5,000) accredited coaches and athletes' support personnel and three hundred and ten (310) events. – with respect to the Olympic Winter Games, two thousand nine hundred (2,900) athletes, two thousand (2,000) accredited coaches and athletes' support personnel and one hundred (100) events." However, such thresholds have already been surpassed. Changes in Olympic sports ------------------------- The list of Olympic sports has changed considerably during the course of Olympic history, and has gradually increased over time. The only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic program are athletics, aquatics (the discipline of swimming has been in every Olympics), cycling, fencing, and gymnastics (the discipline of artistic gymnastics has been in every Olympics). The only winter sports that were included in all Winter Olympic Games are skiing (only nordic skiing), skating (figure skating and speed skating), and ice hockey. Figure skating and ice hockey were also included in the Summer Olympics before the Winter Olympics were introduced in 1924. For most of the 20th century, demonstration sports were included in many Olympic Games, usually to promote a non-Olympic sport popular in the host country, or to gauge interest and support for the sport. The competitions and ceremonies in these sports were identical to official Olympic sports, except that the medals were not counted in the official record. Some demonstration sports, like baseball and curling, were later added to the official Olympic program. This changed when the International Olympic Committee decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports from Olympic Games after 1992. An exception was made in 2008, when the Beijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize a wushu tournament. Women are still barred from Greco-Roman wrestling and Nordic combined, but on the other hand, there are women-only disciplines, such as rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming. In previous years, sports that depend primarily on mechanical propulsion, such as motor sports, could not be considered for recognition as Olympic sports, though there were power-boating events in the early days of the Olympics before this rule was enacted by the IOC. Part of the story of the founding of aviation sports' international governing body, the FAI, originated from an IOC meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 10 June 1905.The relevant strict clause excluding motorsports, stating that "Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not accepted" has been removed from the Olympic Charter. FIA and FAI are included in the International Federations recognised by the International Olympic Committee, and therefore in theory could be eligible. Previous Olympic Games included sports which are no longer present on the current program, like polo and tug of war. In the early days of the modern Olympics, the organizers were able to decide which sports or disciplines were included on the program, until the IOC took control of the program in 1924. As a result, a number of sports were on the Olympic program for relatively brief periods before 1924. These sports, known as discontinued sports, were removed because of lack of interest or absence of an appropriate governing body, or because they became fully professional at the time that the Olympic Games were strictly for amateurs, as in the case of tennis. Several discontinued sports, such as archery and tennis, were later readmitted to the Olympic program (in 1972 and 1984, respectively). Curling, which was an official sport in 1924 and then discontinued, was reinstated as Olympic sport in 1998. The Olympic Charter decrees that Olympic sports for each edition of the Olympic Games should be decided at an IOC Session no later than seven years prior to the Games. ### Changes since 2000 The only sports that have been dropped from the Olympics since 1936 are baseball and softball, which were both voted out by the IOC Session in Singapore on 11 July 2005, a decision that was reaffirmed on 9 February 2006, and reversed on 3 August 2016. These sports were last included in 2008, although officially they remain recognized in the Olympic Charter as a single sport, since both are now governed internationally by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. Therefore, the number of sports in the 2012 Summer Olympics was dropped from 28 to 26. Following the addition of women's boxing in 2012, and women's ski jumping in 2014, there are only Greco-Roman wrestling and nordic combined, respectively, that are only for men in those games. Two previously discontinued sports, golf and rugby, returned for the 2016 Summer Olympics. On 13 August 2009, the IOC Executive Board proposed that golf and rugby sevens be added to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games. On 9 October 2009, during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, the IOC voted to admit both sports as official Olympic sports and to include them in the 2016 Summer Olympics. The IOC voted 81–8 in favor of including rugby sevens and 63–27 in favor of reinstating golf, thus bringing the number of sports back to 28. In February 2013, the IOC considered dropping a sport from the 2020 Summer Olympics to make way for a new sport. Modern pentathlon and taekwondo were thought to be vulnerable, but instead the IOC recommended dismissing wrestling. On 8 September 2013, the IOC added wrestling to the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games. On 3 August 2016, the IOC voted to add baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding for the 2020 Summer Olympics. On 21 February 2019, the Paris Organising Committee announced they would propose the inclusion of breakdancing (breaking), as well as skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing—three sports which debuted at the then-upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics as optional sports. All four sports were approved during the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 June 2019. On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee issued a proposal for a new winter sport, ski mountaineering, for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The proposal was approved during the IOC's session in Tokyo on 20 July. Summer Olympics --------------- At the first Olympic Games, nine sports were contested. Since then, the number of sports contested at the Summer Olympic Games has gradually risen to twenty-eight on the program for 2000–2008. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, however, the number of sports fell back to twenty-six following an IOC decision in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the Olympic program. These sports retain their status as Olympic sports with the possibility of a return to the Olympic program in future games. At the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009, the IOC voted to reinstate both golf and rugby to the Olympic program, meaning that the number of sports to be contested in 2016 was once again 28. In order for a sport or discipline to be considered for inclusion in the list of Summer Olympic sports, it must be widely practiced in at least 75 countries, spread over four continents. ### Current and discontinued summer program The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current and discontinued Summer Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically according to the name used by the IOC. The discontinued sports were previously part of the Summer Olympic Games program as official sports, but are no longer on the current program. The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport contested at the respective Games; a bullet (**•**) denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport. Eight of the 32 sports at the 2024 Summer Olympics consist of multiple disciplines. Each discipline is marked with a unique 3-character identifier code. Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under the same color:   Aquatics –   Basketball –   Canoeing –   Cycling –   Gymnastics –   Volleyball –   Equestrian –   Wrestling –   Baseball and Softball | Sport (Discipline) | Body | 96 | 00 | 04 | *06* | 08 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 96 | 00 | 04 | 08 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |   | | **Current summer sports** | |   | | Artistic Swimming | SWA | | WAqua | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Diving | DIV | | | | 2 | *1* | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | | Marathon Swimming | OWS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Swimming | SWM | | 4 | 7 | 9 | *4* | 6 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 29 | 29 | 26 | 26 | 29 | 31 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 35 | 35 | | Water Polo | WPO | | | 1 | **•** | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |   | | 3x3 Basketball | BK3 | | FIBA | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | | Basketball | BKB | | | | **•** | | | | | **•** | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |   | | Canoe Sprint | CSP | | ICF | | | | | | | | **•** | | | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | | Canoe Slalom | CSL | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | |   | | Cycling BMX Freestyle | BMF | | UCI | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | | Cycling BMX Racing | BMX | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Cycling Mountain Bike | MTB | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Cycling Road | CRD | | 1 | | | *1* | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | | Cycling Track | CTR | | 5 | 3 | 7 | *5* | 7 | | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | |   | | Artistic Gymnastics | GAR | | FIG | 8 | 1 | 11 | *4* | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | | Rhythmic Gymnastics | GRY | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Trampoline Gymnastics | GTR | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |   | | Volleyball - Beach | VBV | | FIVB | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Volleyball - Indoor | VVO | | | | | | | | | **•** | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |   | | Equestrian - Dressage | EDR | | FEI | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Equestrian - Eventing | EVE | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Equestrian - Jumping | EJP | | | 3 | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |   | | Wrestling - Freestyle | WRE | | UWW | | | 7 | | 5 | | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | | Wrestling - Greco-Roman | WRG | | 1 | | | *4* | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | |   | | Archery | ARC | | WArch | | 7 | 6 | | 3 | | 10 | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | | Athletics | ATH | | WAthle | 12 | 23 | 25 | *21* | 26 | 30 | 29 | 27 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 34 | 36 | 36 | 38 | 37 | 38 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 47 | 47 | 47 | 48 | 48 | | Badminton | BDM | | BWF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | | | | **•** | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | | Boxing | BOX | | AIBA | | | 7 | | 5 | | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | | Breaking | BKG | | WDSF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | Fencing | FEN | | FIE | 3 | 7 | 5 | *8* | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | | Field hockey | HOC | | FIH | | | | | 1 | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Football | FBL | | FIFA | | 1 | 1 | *1* | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Golf | GLF | | IGF | | 2 | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Handball | HBL | | IHF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Judo | JUD | | IJF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 | | Modern Pentathlon | MPN | | UIPM | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Rowing | ROW | | WRow | | 5 | 5 | *6* | 4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | | Rugby Sevens | RU7 | | WRug | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Sailing | SAL | | WSail | | 13 | | | 4 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | | Shooting | SHO | | ISSF | 5 | 8 | | *16* | 15 | 18 | 21 | 10 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | | Skateboarding | SKB | | WSkate | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | 4 | | Sport Climbing | CLB | | IFSC | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 4 | | Surfing | SRF | | ISA | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | | Table Tennis | TTE | | ITTF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | | Taekwondo | TKW | | WT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | **•** | | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | | Tennis | TEN | | ITF | 2 | 4 | 2 | *4* | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | | | | | | | | | **•** | | | | **•** | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | | Triathlon | TRI | | ITU | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | | Weightlifting | WLF | | IWF | 2 | | 2 | *2* | | | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 10 | |   | | **Discontinued summer sports** | |   | | Baseball | BSB | | WBSC | | | | | | **•** | | | | | **•** | | **•** | **•** | | **•** | | | | | **•** | **•** | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | 1 | | | Softball | SBL | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | 1 | | |   | | Equestrian - Vaulting | EVL | | FEI | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Equestrian - Driving | EDV | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |   | | Handball - Field Handball | HBL | | IHF | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | **•** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rugby - Rugby Union | RUG | | WRug | | 1 | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |   | | Basque Pelota | PEL | | FIPV | | 1 | | | | | | **•** | | | | | | | | | **•** | | | | | | **•** | | | | | | | | | | Cricket | CKT | | ICC | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Croquet | CQT | | WCF | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jeu de Paume | JDP\* | | – | | **•** | | | 1 | | | **•** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Karate | KTE | | WKF | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 8 | | | Lacrosse | LAX | | WL | | | 1 | | 1 | | | | **•** | **•** | | **•** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Polo | POL | | FIP | | 1 | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rackets | RQT | | – | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Roque | ROQ\* | | – | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tug of War | TOW | | TWIF | | 1 | 1 | *1* | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Water Motorsports | PBT | | UIM | | **•** | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |   | | Figure Skating | FSK | | ISU | | | | | 4 | | 3 | *Rescheduled during winter games* | | Ice Hockey | IHO | | IIHF | | | | | | | 1 | |   | | Total events | 43 | 95 | 94 | *78* | 110 | 102 | 156 | 126 | 109 | 117 | 129 | 136 | 149 | 151 | 150 | 163 | 172 | 195 | 198 | 203 | 221 | 237 | 257 | 271 | 300 | 301 | 302 | 302 | 306 | 339 | 329 | | Total Sports | 10 | 21 | 17 | *14* | 25 | 18 | 29 | 23 | 20 | 20 | 25 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 24 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 29 | 31 | 34 | 37 | 40 | 40 | 42 | 40 | 42 | 50 | 48 | | Sport (Discipline) | Body | 96 | 00 | 04 | *06* | 08 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 96 | 00 | 04 | 08 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 1. ↑ At the time skateboarding was announced as part of the 2020 Summer Games, the sport was governed by the International Skateboarding Federation. That body merged with Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports in September 2017 to form the current World Skate. 2. ↑ The World Baseball Softball Confederation, which currently governs both baseball and softball, was created by a 2013 merger of two former governing bodies—the International Baseball Federation and the International Softball Federation, thus at the Olympic games until 2012 baseball and softball were presented as two different sports. 3. ↑ At the time lacrosse was contested in the Olympics, both as an official sport and a demonstration sport, it had no official international governing body. The first international governing body to be founded was the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations in 1972. The men's International Lacrosse Federation followed in 1974. The two bodies merged in 2008 to become the Federation of International Lacrosse, which in turn became World Lacrosse in 2019. \* Unofficial discipline code that does not appear on the IOC's list. ### Demonstration summer sports The following sports or disciplines have been demonstrated at the Summer Olympic Games for the years shown, but have never been included on the official Olympic program. Organizers of the 1900 and 1904 Olympic Games, which were staged in conjunction with world's fairs, included numerous sporting events on an equal footing under their programmes. Historians generally regard many of these as not satisfying retrospective inclusion criteria to qualify as "official." However, the IOC has never made a determination regarding which events were official and which were not. Designation of official demonstration sports began with the 1912 Olympic Games. * American football (1932) * Australian football (1956) * Tenpin Bowling (1988) * Budō (1964) * Pesäpallo (1952) * Gaelic football (1904) * Glima (1912) * Gliding (1936) * Hurling (1904) * Kaatsen (1928) * Korfball (1920 and 1928) * La canne (1924) * Roller hockey (1992) * Savate (1924) * Swedish (Ling) gymnastics (1948) * Weight training with dumbbells (1904) * Water skiing (1972) Like all the 1900 Olympic events widely regarded today as official, there were other events conducted during the 1900 World's Fair. * Angling * Ballooning (hydrogen-filled, non-fueled) * Boules * Cannon shooting * Fire fighting * Kite flying * Surf lifesaving * Longue paume * Motor racing * Motorcycle racing * Pigeon racing * Water motorsports Gliding was promoted from demonstration sport to an official Olympic sport in 1936 in time for the 1940 Summer Olympics, but the Games were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Tenpin bowling, demonstrated separately from the Olympics in 1936 in Germany (alongside forms of ninepin bowling), but part of the demonstration sports at Seoul in 1988, has been a regular medal sport of the World Games since 1981 and the Pan American Games since 1991. ### Classification of Olympic sports for revenue share Summer Olympic sports are divided into categories based on popularity, gauged by: television viewers (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%). The category determines the share the sport's International Federation receives of Olympic revenue. The current categories, as of 2013, are as follows, with the pre-2013 categorizations also being available. Category A represents the most popular sports; category E lists either the sports that are the least popular or that are new to the Olympics (golf and rugby). | Category | Sport | | --- | --- | | A | athletics, aquatics, gymnastics | | B | cycling, tennis, basketball, football, volleyball | | C | archery, badminton, boxing, judo, rowing, shooting, table tennis, weightlifting | | D | canoe/kayaking, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, handball, sailing, taekwondo, triathlon, wrestling | | E | modern pentathlon, golf, rugby | | Winter Olympics --------------- Before 1924, ice sports like figure skating and ice hockey were held at the Summer Olympic Games. These two sports made their debuts at the 1908 and the 1920 Summer Olympics respectively, but in 1924 they were moved to the first edition of the Winter Olympic Games and became permanent fixtures on the sports program for the Winter Olympics from then on. The *International Winter Sports Week*, later dubbed the I Olympic Winter Games and retroactively recognized as such by the IOC, consisted of nine sports. The number of sports contested at the Winter Olympics has since been decreased to seven, comprising a total of fifteen disciplines. A sport or discipline must be widely practised in at least 25 countries, and on three different continents, to be eligible for inclusion on the Olympic program for the Winter Games. ### Current winter program The following sports (or disciplines of a sport) make up the current Winter Olympic Games official program and are listed alphabetically, according to the name used by the IOC. The figures in each cell indicate the number of events for each sport that were contested at the respective Games (the red cells indicate that those sports were held at the Summer Games); a bullet (**•**) denotes that the sport was contested as a demonstration sport. On some occasions, both official medal events and demonstration events were contested in the same sport at the same Games. Three out of the eight sports consist of multiple disciplines. Disciplines from the same sport are grouped under the same color:   Bobsleigh –   Skating –   Skiing | Sport (Discipline) | Body | *08* | *20* | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 94 | 98 | 02 | 06 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 26 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |   | | Bobsleigh | BOB | | IBSF |   | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | | Skeleton | SKN | |   | | 1 | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |   | | Figure Skating | FSK | | ISU | *4* | *3* | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | | Short Track Speed Skating | STK | |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | 4 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | | Speed Skating | SSK | |   | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | |   | | Alpine Skiing | ALP | | FIS |   | | | | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 10 | | Cross-Country Skiing | CCS | |   | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | | Freestyle Skiing | FRS | |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 15 | | Nordic Combined | NCB | |   | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | | Ski Jumping | SJP | |   | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | | Snowboarding | SBD | |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | |   | | Biathlon | BTH | | IBU |   | | | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | | Curling | CUR | | WCF |   | 1 | | **•** | | | | | | | | | | | | **•** | **•** | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | | Ice Hockey | IHO | | IIHF |   | *1* | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | Luge | LUG | | FIL |   | | | | | | | | | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | | Ski Mountaineering | SMT | | ISMF |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3 | |   | | **Discontinued winter sports** | |   | | Biathlon - Military Patrol | BTH | | IBU |   | 1 | **•** | | **•** | **•** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Total events | 16 | 14 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 27 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 46 | 57 | 61 | 68 | 78 | 84 | 86 | 98 | 102 | 109 | 116 | | Total Sports | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 1. ↑ Men's and women's Alpine Combined events have been included in the 2026 program on a provisional basis, subject to further review. 2. ↑ The official website of the Olympic Movement designates men's military patrol at the 1924 Games as an event within the sport of biathlon. The Official Report of the 1924 Games regards it as an event within the sport of skiing. ### Demonstration winter sports The following sports have been demonstrated at the Winter Olympic Games for the years shown, but have never been included on the official Olympic program: * Bandy (1952) * Disabled skiing (1984 and 1988) * Ice stock sport (1936, 1964) * Ski ballet (acroski) (1988 and 1992) * Skijoring (1928) * Sled-dog racing (1932) * Speed skiing (1992) * Winter pentathlon (1948) Ice climbing was showcased at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, was on the non-competition program at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, and aims to become an official competition sport. Ski ballet was a demonstration event under the scope of freestyle skiing. Disabled sports are now part of the Winter Paralympic Games. Recognized international federations ------------------------------------ Many sports are not contested at the Olympics although their governing bodies are recognized by the IOC. Such sports, if eligible under the terms of the Olympic Charter, may apply for inclusion in the program of future Games, through a recommendation by the IOC Olympic Programme Commission, followed by a decision of the IOC Executive Board and a vote of the IOC Session. When Olympic demonstration sports were allowed, a sport usually appeared as such before being officially admitted. An International Sport Federation (IF) is responsible for ensuring that the sport's activities follow the Olympic Charter. When a sport is recognized by the IOC, the IF becomes an official Olympic sport federation and can assemble with other Olympic IFs in the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF, for summer sports contested in the Olympic Games), Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWS, for winter sports contested in the Olympic Games), or Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF, for sports not contested in the Olympic Games). A number of recognized sports are included in the program of the World Games, a multi-sport event run by the International World Games Association, an organization that operates under the patronage of the IOC. Since the start of the World Games in 1981, a number of sports, including badminton, taekwondo, and triathlon have subsequently been incorporated into the Olympic program. In 2020, the IOC altered the way it plans the Olympic sports program: rather than basing it on a maximum number of *sports*, the total number of *events* are now taken into account, opening the schedule up for the inclusion on a per-Games basis of additional sports to the 25 "core" sports. For the 2020 Summer Olympics, the local organizing committee was thus permitted to add five sports to the program in addition to the existing 28, taking the total to 33. Baseball and softball have been treated by the IOC as a single sport since the governing bodies for baseball and softball merged into a single international federation in 2013 (with male athletes competing in baseball and female athletes competing in softball). The governing bodies of the following sports, though not contested in the Olympic Games, are recognized by the IOC: * Air sports1,3 * American football (provisional) * Auto racing3 * Bandy * Baseball2,5 * Billiard sports1 * Boules1 * Bowling1 * Bridge * Cheerleading (provisional) * Chess * Cricket2 * Floorball1 * Flying disc1 * Ice stock sport * Karate1,2 * Kickboxing (provisional)1 * Korfball1 * Lacrosse1 * Lifesaving1 * Motorcycle racing3 * Mountaineering and climbing * Muaythai1 * Netball * Orienteering1 * Pelota vasca * Polo2 * Powerboating3 * Racquetball1 * Roller sports1,4 * Sambo * Softball2,5 * Squash1 * Sumo1 * Tug of war1,2 * Underwater sports1 * Water skiing1,3,6 * Wakeboarding1,3,6 * Wushu 1 Official sport at the World Games 2 Discontinued Olympic sport 3 The Olympic Charter no longer forbids motorized sports from being included in the Olympic program, but environmental impact is now considered when deciding whether to adopt new sports making the inclusion of motorized sports unlikely. 4 Skateboarding, a discipline within roller sports, was included at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Inline and roller skating has never been contested. 5 Baseball and softball share the same governing body. 6 Waterski and wakeboard share the same governing body. Cable waterskiing and cable wakeboarding have been proposed as sports that do not rely on motorboats. See also -------- * Association of Summer Olympic International Federations * Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations * Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations

Olympic sports

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_sports

The **darters**, **anhingas**, or **snakebirds** are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, *Anhinga*. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. The term *snakebird* is usually used without any additions to signify whichever of the completely allopatric species occurs in any one region. It refers to their long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when they swim with their bodies submerged, or when mated pairs twist it during their bonding displays. "Darter" is used with a geographical term when referring to particular species. It alludes to their manner of procuring food, as they impale fishes with their thin, pointed beak. The American darter (*A. anhinga*) is more commonly known as the anhinga. It is sometimes called "water turkey" in the southern United States; though the anhinga is quite unrelated to the wild turkey, they are both large, blackish birds with long tails that are sometimes hunted for food. Description ----------- Anhingidae are large birds with sexually dimorphic plumage. They measure about 80 to 100 cm (2.6 to 3.3 ft) in length, with a wingspan around 120 cm (3.9 ft), and weigh some 1,050 to 1,350 grams (37 to 48 oz). The males have black and dark-brown plumage, a short erectile crest on the nape and a larger bill than the female. The females have much paler plumage, especially on the neck and underparts, and are a bit larger overall. Both have grey stippling on long scapulars and upper wing coverts. The sharply pointed bill has serrated edges, a desmognathous palate and no external nostrils. The darters have completely webbed feet, and their legs are short and set far back on the body. There is no eclipse plumage, but the bare parts vary in color around the year. During breeding, however, their small gular sac changes from pink or yellow to black, and the bare facial skin, otherwise yellow or yellow-green, turns turquoise. The iris changes in color between yellow, red or brown seasonally. The young hatch naked, but soon grow white or tan down. Darter vocalizations include a clicking or rattling when flying or perching. In the nesting colonies, adults communicate with croaks, grunts or rattles. During breeding, adults sometimes give a *caw* or sighing or hissing calls. Nestlings communicate with squealing or squawking calls. Distribution and ecology ------------------------ Darters are mostly tropical in distribution, ranging into subtropical and barely into warm temperate regions. They typically inhabit fresh water lakes, rivers, marshes, swamps, and are less often found along the seashore in brackish estuaries, bays, lagoons and mangrove. Most are sedentary and do not migrate; the populations in the coolest parts of the range may migrate however. Their preferred mode of flight is soaring and gliding; in flapping flight they are rather cumbersome. On dry land, darters walk with a high-stepped gait, wings often spread for balance, just like pelicans do. They tend to gather in flocks – sometimes up to about 100 birds – and frequently associate with storks, herons or ibises, but are highly territorial on the nest: despite being a colonial nester, breeding pairs – especially males – will stab at any other bird that ventures within reach of their long neck and bill. The Oriental darter (*A. melanogaster sensu stricto*) is a Near Threatened species. Habitat destruction along with other human interferences (such as egg collection and pesticide overuse) are the main reasons for declining darter populations. ### Diet Darters feed mainly on mid-sized fish; far more rarely, they eat other aquatic vertebrates and large invertebrates of comparable size. These birds are foot-propelled divers which quietly stalk and ambush their prey; then they use their sharply pointed bill to impale the food animal. They do not dive deep but make use of their low buoyancy made possible by wettable plumage, small air sacs and denser bones. On the underside of the cervical vertebrae 5–7 is a keel, which allows for muscles to attach to form a hinge-like mechanism that can project the neck, head and bill forward like a throwing spear. After they have stabbed the prey, they return to the surface where they toss their food into the air and catch it again, so that they can swallow it head-first. Like cormorants, they have a vestigial preen gland and their plumage gets wet during diving. To dry their feathers after diving, darters move to a safe location and spread their wings. Darters go through a synchronous moult of all their primaries and secondaries making them temporarily flightless, although it is possible that some individuals go through incomplete moults. ### Predation Predators of darters are mainly large carnivorous birds, including passerines like the Australian raven (*Corvus coronoides*) and house crow (*Corvus splendens*), and birds of prey such as marsh harriers (*Circus aeruginosus* complex) or Pallas's fish eagle (*Haliaeetus leucoryphus*). Predation by *Crocodylus* crocodiles has also been noted. But many would-be predators know better than to try to catch a darter. The long neck and pointed bill in combination with the "darting" mechanism make the birds dangerous even to larger carnivorous mammals, and they will actually move toward an intruder to attack rather than defending passively or fleeing. ### Breeding They usually breed in colonies, occasionally mixed with cormorants or herons. The darters pair bond monogamously at least for a breeding season. There are many different types of displays used for mating. Males display to attract females by raising (but not stretching) their wings to wave them in an alternating fashion, bowing and snapping the bill, or giving twigs to potential mates. To strengthen the pair bond, partners rub their bills or wave, point upwards or bow their necks in unison. When one partner comes to relieve the other at the nest, males and females use the same display the male employs during courtship; during changeovers, the birds may also "yawn" at each other. Breeding is seasonal (peaking in March/April) at the northern end of their range; elsewhere they can be found breeding all year round. The nests are made of twigs and lined with leaves; they are built in trees or reeds, usually near water. Typically, the male gathers nesting material and brings it to the female, which does most of the actual construction work. Nest construction takes only a few days (about three at most), and the pairs copulate at the nest site. The clutch size is two to six eggs (usually about four) which have a pale green color. The eggs are laid within 24–48 hours and incubated for 25 to 30 days, starting after the first has been laid; they hatch asynchronously. To provide warmth to the eggs, the parents will cover them with their large webbed feet, because like their relatives they lack a brood patch. The last young to hatch will usually starve in years with little food available. Bi-parental care is given and the young are considered altricial. They are fed by regurgitation of partly digested food when young, switching to entire food items as they grow older. After fledging, the young are fed for about two more weeks while they learn to hunt for themselves. These birds reach sexual maturity by about two years, and generally live to around nine years. The maximum possible lifespan of darters seems to be about sixteen years. Darter eggs are edible and considered delicious by some; they are locally collected by humans as food. The adults are also eaten occasionally, as they are rather meaty birds (comparable to a domestic duck); like other fish-eating birds such as cormorants or seaducks they do not taste particularly good though. Darter eggs and nestlings are also collected in a few places to raise the young. Sometimes this is done for food, but some nomads in Assam and Bengal train tame darters to be employed as in cormorant fishing. With an increasing number of nomads settling down in recent decades, this cultural heritage is in danger of being lost. On the other hand, as evidenced by the etymology of "anhinga" detailed below, the Tupi seem to have considered the anhinga a kind of bird of ill omen. Systematics and evolution ------------------------- The genus *Anhinga* was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760, with the anhinga or American darter (*Anhinga anhinga*) as the type species. *Anhinga* is derived from the Tupi *ajíŋa* (also transcribed *áyinga* or *ayingá*), which in local mythology refers to a malevolent demonic forest spirit; it is often translated as "devil bird". The name changed to *anhingá* or *anhangá* as it was transferred to the Tupi–Portuguese Língua Geral. However, in its first documented use as an English term in 1818, it referred to an Old World darter. Ever since, it has also been used for the modern genus *Anhinga* as a whole. This family is very closely related to the other families in the suborder Sulae, i.e. the Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants and shags) and the Sulidae (gannets and boobies). Cormorants and darters are extremely similar as regards their body and leg skeletons and may be sister taxa. In fact, several darter fossils were initially believed to be cormorants or shags (see below). Some earlier authors included the darters in the Phalacrocoracidae as subfamily Anhingina, but this is nowadays generally considered overlumping. However, as this agrees quite well with the fossil evidence, some unite the Anhingidae and Phalacrocoracidae in a superfamily Phalacrocoracoidea. The Sulae are also united by their characteristic display behavior, which agrees with the phylogeny as laid out by anatomical and DNA sequence data. While the darters' lack of many display behaviors is shared with gannets (and that of a few with cormorants), these are all symplesiomorphies that are absent in frigatebirds, tropicbirds and pelicans also. Like cormorants but unlike other birds, darters use their hyoid bone to stretch the gular sac in display. Whether the pointing display of mates is another synapomorphy of darters and cormorants that was dropped again in some of the latter, or whether it evolved independently in darters and those cormorants that do it, is not clear. The male raised-wing display seems to be a synapomorphy of the Sulae; like almost all cormorants and shags but unlike almost all gannets and boobies, darters keep their wrists bent as they lift the wings in display, but their alternating wing-waving, which they also show before take-off, is unique. That they often balance with their outstretched wings during walking is probably an autapomorphy of darters, necessitated by their being plumper than the other Sulae. The Sulae were traditionally included in the Pelecaniformes, then a paraphyletic group of "higher waterbirds". The supposed traits uniting them, like all-webbed toes and a bare gular sac, are now known to be convergent, and pelicans are apparently closer relatives of storks than of the Sulae. Hence, the Sulae and the frigatebirds – and some prehistoric relatives – are increasingly separated as the Suliformes, which is sometimes dubbed "Phalacrocoraciformes". ### Living species There are four living species of darters recognized, all in the genus *Anhinga*, although the Old World ones were often lumped together as subspecies of *A. melanogaster*. They may form a superspecies with regard to the more distinct anhinga: * Anhinga or American darter, *Anhinga anhinga* * Oriental darter or Indian darter, *Anhinga melanogaster* * African darter, *Anhinga rufa* * Australasian darter or Australian darter, *Anhinga novaehollandiae* Extinct "darters" from Mauritius and Australia known only from bones were described as *Anhinga nana* ("Mauritian darter") and *Anhinga parva*. But these are actually misidentified bones of the long-tailed cormorant (*Microcarbo/Phalacrocorax africanus*) and the little pied cormorant (*M./P. melanoleucos*), respectively. In the former case, however, the remains are larger than those of the geographically closest extant population of long-tailed cormorants on Madagascar: they thus might belong to an extinct subspecies (Mauritian cormorant), which would have to be called *Microcarbo africanus nanus* (or *Phalacrocorax a. nanus*) – quite ironically, as the Latin term *nanus* means dwarf. The Late Pleistocene *Anhinga laticeps* is not specifically distinct from the Australasian darter; it might have been a large paleosubspecies of the last ice age. ### Fossil record The fossil record of the Anhingidae is rather dense, but very apomorphic already and appears to be lacking its base. The other families placed in the Phalacrocoraciformes sequentially appear throughout the Eocene, the most distinct – frigatebirds – being known since almost 50 Ma (million years ago) and probably of Paleocene origin. With fossil gannets being known since the mid-Eocene (c. 40 Ma) and fossil cormorants appearing soon thereafter, the origin of the darters as a distinct lineage was presumably around 50–40 Ma, maybe a bit earlier. Fossil Anhingidae are known since the Early Miocene; a number of prehistoric darters similar to those still alive have been described, as well as some more distinct genera now extinct. The diversity was highest in South America, and thus it is likely that the family originated there. Some of the genera which ultimately became extinct were very large, and a tendency to become flightless has been noted in prehistoric darters. Their distinctness has been doubted, but this was due to the supposed *"Anhinga" fraileyi* being rather similar to *Macranhinga*, rather than due to them resembling the living species: * *Meganhinga* Alvarenga, 1995 (Early Miocene of Chile) * "Paranavis" (Middle/Late Miocene of Paraná, Argentina) – a *nomen nudum* * *Macranhinga* Noriega, 1992 (Middle/Late Miocene – Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of SC South America) – may include *"Anhinga" fraileyi* * *Giganhinga* Rinderknecht & Noriega, 2002 (Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of Uruguay) *Anhinga* Prehistoric members of *Anhinga* were presumably distributed in similar climates as today, ranging into Europe in the hotter and wetter Miocene. With their considerable stamina and continent-wide distribution abilities (as evidenced by the anhinga and the Old World superspecies), the smaller lineage has survived for over 20 Ma. As evidenced by the fossil species' biogeography centered around the equator, with the younger species ranging eastwards out of the Americas, the Hadley cell seems to have been the main driver of the genus' success and survival: * *Anhinga walterbolesi* Worthy, 2012 (Late Oligocene to Early Miocene of central Australia * *Anhinga subvolans* (Brodkorb, 1956) (Early Miocene of Thomas Farm, US) – formerly in *Phalacrocorax* * *Anhinga* cf. *grandis* (Middle Miocene of Colombia –? Late Pliocene of SC South America) * *Anhinga* sp. (Sajóvölgyi Middle Miocene of Mátraszõlõs, Hungary) – *A. pannonica*? * *"Anhinga" fraileyi* Campbell, 1996 (Late Miocene –? Early Pliocene of SC South America) – may belong in *Macranhinga* * *Anhinga pannonica* Lambrecht, 1916 (Late Miocene of C Europe ?and Tunisia, East Africa, Pakistan and Thailand –? Sahabi Early Pliocene of Libya) * *Anhinga minuta* Alvarenga & Guilherme, 2003 (Solimões Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of SC South America) * *Anhinga grandis* Martin & Mengel, 1975 (Late Miocene –? Late Pliocene of US) * *Anhinga malagurala* Mackness, 1995 (Allingham Early Pliocene of Charters Towers, Australia) * *Anhinga* sp. (Early Pliocene of Bone Valley, US) – *A. beckeri*? * *Anhinga hadarensis* Brodkorb & Mourer-Chauviré, 1982 (Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of E Africa) * *Anhinga beckeri* Emslie, 1998 (Early – Late Pleistocene of SE US) *Protoplotus*, a small Paleogene phalacrocoraciform from Sumatra, was in old times considered a primitive darter. However, it is also placed in its own family (Protoplotidae) and might be a basal member of the Sulae and/or close to the common ancestor of cormorants and darters. External links --------------

Darter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darter

**Egyptology** (from *Egypt* and Greek -λογία, *-logia*; Arabic: علم المصريات) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the 4th century AD. A practitioner of the discipline is an "Egyptologist". In Europe, particularly on the Continent, Egyptology is primarily regarded as being a philological discipline, while in North America it is often regarded as a branch of archaeology. History ------- ### First explorers The earliest explorers of ancient Egypt were the ancient Egyptians themselves. Inspired by a dream he had, Thutmose IV led an excavation of the Great Sphinx of Giza and inscribed a description of the dream on the Dream Stele. Less than two centuries later, Prince Khaemweset, fourth son of Ramesses II, would gain fame for identifying and restoring historic buildings, tombs and temples, including pyramids; and has subsequently been described as the first Egyptologist. ### Graeco–Roman Period Some of the first historical accounts of Egypt were given by Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus and the largely lost work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, during the reign of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC. The Ptolemies were very interested in the work of the ancient Egyptians, and many of the Egyptian monuments, including the pyramids, were restored by them. The Ptolemies also built many new temples in the Egyptian style. The Romans also carried out restoration work in Egypt. ### Middle Ages Throughout the Middle Ages travelers on pilgrimages to the Holy Land would occasionally detour to visit sites in Egypt. Destinations would include Cairo and its environs, where the Holy Family was thought to have fled, and the great Pyramids, which were thought to be Joseph's Granaries, built by the Hebrew patriarch to store grain during the years of plenty. A number of their accounts (*Itineraria*) have survived and offer insights into conditions in their respective time periods. Abdul Latif al-Baghdadi, a teacher at Cairo's Al-Azhar University in the 13th century, wrote detailed descriptions of ancient Egyptian monuments. Similarly, the 15th-century Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi wrote detailed accounts of Egyptian antiquities. ### European explorers European exploration and travel writings of ancient Egypt commenced in the 13th century, with only occasional detours into what could be considered a scientific approach, notably by Claude Sicard, Benoît de Maillet, Frederic Louis Norden and Richard Pococke. In the early 17th century, John Greaves measured the pyramids, having inspected the broken Obelisk of Domitian in Rome, then intended for Lord Arundel's collection in London. He went on to publish the illustrated *Pyramidographia* in 1646. The Jesuit scientist-priest Athanasius Kircher was perhaps the first to hint at the phonetic importance of Egyptian hieroglyphs, demonstrating Coptic as a vestige of early Egyptian, for which he is considered a founder of Egyptology. ### Modern Egyptology Egyptology's modern history begins with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 18th century. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. The study of many aspects of ancient Egypt became more scientifically oriented with the publication of *Mémoires sur l'Égypte* in 1800 and the more comprehensive *Description de l'Egypte* between 1809 and 1829. These recorded Egyptian flora, fauna, and history—making numerous ancient Egyptian source materials available to Europeans for the first time. The British captured Egypt from the French and gained the Rosetta Stone in 1801, the Greek script of which was translated by 1803. In 1822, the respective Egyptian hieroglyphs were transliterated by Jean-François Champollion, marking the beginning of modern Egyptology. With increasing knowledge of Egyptian writing, the study of ancient Egypt was able to proceed with greater academic rigour. Champollion, Thomas Young and Ippolito Rosellini were some of the first Egyptologists of wide acclaim. The German Karl Richard Lepsius was an early participant in the investigations of Egypt—mapping, excavating and recording several sites. English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) introduced archaeological techniques of field preservation, recording, and excavation to the field. Many highly educated amateurs also travelled to Egypt, including women such as Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale. Both of these left accounts of their travels, which revealed learned familiarity with all of the latest European Egyptology. Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the tomb of 18th Dynasty King Tutankhamun brought a greater understanding of Egyptian relics and wide acclaim to the field. In the modern era, the Ministry of State for Antiquities controls excavation permits for Egyptologists to conduct their work. The field can now use geophysical methods and other applications of modern sensing techniques. In June 2000, the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), directed by Franck Goddio, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities discovered the ancient sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion in today's Abu Qir Bay. The statues of a colossal King and Queen are on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum. Other discovered artefacts are exhibited at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Alexandria National Museum (ANM). The excavations are documented through several publications In March 2017, the Egyptian-German team of archaeologists unearthed an eight-meter 3,000-year-old statue that included a head and a torso thought to depict Pharaoh Ramses II. According to Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister, the statue was more likely thought to be King Psammetich I. Excavators also revealed an 80 cm-long part of a limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II while excavating the site. In August 2017, archaeologists from the Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of five mud-brick tombs at Bir esh-Shaghala, dating back nearly 2,000 years. Researchers also revealed worn masks gilded with gold, several large jars and a piece of pottery with unsolved ancient Egyptian writing on it. In November 2017 (25 October 2000), the Egyptian mission in cooperation with the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology announced the discovery of 2,000-year-old three sunken shipwrecks dated back to the Roman Era in Alexandria's Abu Qir Bay. The sunken cargo included a royal head of crystal perhaps belong to the commander of the Roman armies of “Antonio”, three gold coins from the era of Emperor Octavius Augustus, large wooden planks and pottery vessels. In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the head of the bust of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Temple of Kom Ombo in Aswan during work to protect the site from groundwater. In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the shrine of god Osiris- Ptah Neb, dating back to the 25th dynasty in the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. According to archaeologist Essam Nagy, the material remains from the area contained clay pots, the lower part of a sitting statue and part of a stone panel showing an offering table filled with a sheep and a goose which were the symbols of the god Amun. In July 2018, German-Egyptian researchers’ team head by Ramadan Badry Hussein of the University of Tübingen reported the discovery of an extremely rare gilded burial mask that probably dates from the Saite-Persian period in a partly damaged wooden coffin in Saqqara. The last time a similar mask was found was in 1939. The eyes were covered with obsidian, calcite, and black hued gemstone possibly onyx. "The finding of this mask could be called a sensation. Very few masks of precious metal have been preserved to the present day, because the tombs of most Ancient Egyptian dignitaries were looted in ancient times." said Hussein. In July 2018, archaeologists led by Zeinab Hashish announced the discovery of a 2,000-year-old 30-ton black granite sarcophagus in Alexandria. It contained three damaged skeletons in red-brown sewage water. According to archaeologist Mostafa Waziri, the skeletons looked like a family burial with a middle-aged woman and two men. Researchers also revealed a small gold artifact and three thin sheets of gold. In September 2018, a sandstone sphinx statue  was discovered at the temple of Kom Ombo. The statue, measuring approximately 28 cm (11 in) in width and 38 cm (15 in) in height, likely dates to the Ptolemaic Dynasty. In September 2018, several dozen cache of mummies dating 2,000 years back were found in Saqqara by a team of Polish archaeologists led by Kamil Kuraszkiewicz from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw. In November 2018, an Egyptian archaeological mission located seven ancient Egyptian tombs at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara containing a collection of scarab and cat mummies dating back to the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. Three of the tombs were used for cats, some dating back more than 6,000 years, while one of four other sarcophagi was unsealed. With the remains of cat mummies were unearthed gilded and 100 wooden statues of cats and one in bronze dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet. In addition, funerary items dating back to the 12th Dynasty were found besides the skeletal remains of cats. In mid-December 2018, the Egyptian government announced the discovery at Saqqara of a previously unknown 4,400-year-old tomb, containing paintings and more than fifty sculptures. It belongs to Wahtye, a high-ranking priest who served under King Neferirkare Kakai during the Fifth Dynasty. The tomb also contains four shafts that lead to a sarcophagus below. According to the Al-Ahram, in January 2019, archaeologists headed by Mostafa Waziri revealed a collection of 20 tombs dated back to the Second Intermediate Period in Kom Al-Khelgan. The burials contained the remains of animals, amulets, and scarabs carved from faience, round and oval pots with handholds, flint knives, broken and burned pottery. All burials included skulls and skeletons in the bending position and were not very well-preserved. In April 2019, archaeologists discovered 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in a tomb in Aswan. Italian archaeologist Patrizia Piacentini, professor of Egyptology at the University of Milan, and Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian minister of antiquities reported that the tomb where the remains of ancient men, women and children were found, dates back to the Greco-Roman period between 332 BC and 395 AD. While the findings assumed belonging to a mother and a child were well preserved, others had suffered major destruction. Beside the mummies, artefacts including painted funerary masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphics on the tomb, it was detected that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit. On 13 April 2019, an expedition led by a member of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Mohamed Megahed, discovered a 4,000-year-old tomb near Egypt's Saqqara Necropolis in Saqqara. Archaeologists confirmed that the tomb belonged to an influential person named Khuwy, who lived in Egypt during the 5th Dynasty. "The L-shaped Khuwy tomb starts with a small corridor heading downwards into an antechamber and from there a larger chamber with painted reliefs depicting the tomb owner seated at an offerings table", reported Megahed. Some paintings maintained their brightness over a long time in the tomb. Mainly made of white limestone bricks, the tomb had a tunnel entrance generally typical for pyramids. Archaeologists say that there might be a connection between Khuwy and pharaoh because the mausoleum was found near the pyramid of Egyptian Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, who ruled during that time. In July 2019, ancient granite columns and a smaller Greek temple, treasure-laden ships, along with bronze coins from the reign of Ptolemy II, pottery dating back to the third and fourth centuries BC were found at the sunken city of Heracleion. The investigations were conducted by Egyptian and European divers led by underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. They also uncovered the ruins of the city's main temple off of Egypt's north coast. In September 2019, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 2,200-year-old temple believed to belong to the Ptolemy IV Philosopher of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Kom Shakau village of Tama township. Researchers also revealed limestone walls carved with inscriptions of Hapi, the Nile god, and inscriptions with fragments of text featuring the name of Ptolemy IV. In May 2020, Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission head by Esther Ponce uncovered a unique cemetery dating back to the 26th Dynasty (so-called the El-Sawi era) at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus. Archaeologists found tombstones, bronze coins, small crosses, and clay seals inside eight Roman-era tombs with domed and unmarked roofs. On 3 October 2020, Khalid el-Anany, Egypt's tourism and antiquities minister announced the discovery of at least 59 sealed sarcophagi with mummies more than 2,600 years old in Saqqara. Archaeologists also revealed the 20 statues of Ptah-Soker and a carved 35-centimeter tall bronze statue of god Nefertem. On 19 October 2020, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of more than 2,500 years of colorful, sealed sarcophagi in Saqqara. The archaeological team unearthed gilded, wooden statues and more than 80 coffins. In November 2020, archaeologists unearthed more than 100 delicately painted wooden coffins and 40 funeral statues. The sealed, wooden coffins, some containing mummies, date as far back as 2,500 years. Other artifacts discovered include funeral masks, canopic jars and amulets. According to Khaled el-Anany, tourism and antiquities minister, the items date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty. One of the coffins was opened and a mummy was scanned with an X-ray, determining it was most likely a man about the age of 40. In January 2021, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced the discovery of more than 50 wooden sarcophagi in 52 burial shafts which date back to the New Kingdom period and a 13 ft-long papyrus that contains texts from the Book of the Dead. Archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass also found the funerary temple of Naert and warehouses made of bricks in Saqqara. In January 2021, Egyptian-Dominican researchers led by Kathleen Martinez have announced the discovery of 2,000-year-old ancient tombs with golden tongues dating to the Greek and Roman periods at Taposiris Magna. The team also unearthed gold leaf amulets in the form of tongues placed for speaking with God Osiris afterlife. The mummies were depicted in different forms: one of them was wearing a crown, decorated with horns, and the cobra snake at the forehead and the other was depicted with gilded decorations representing the wide necklace. A team of archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass also found the funerary temple of Naert or Narat and warehouses made of bricks in Saqqara. Researchers also revealed that Narat's name engraved on a fallen obelisk near the main entrance. Previously unknown to researchers, Naert was a wife of Teti, the first king of the sixth dynasty. In February 2021, archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of a Ptolemaic period temple, a Roman fort, an early Coptic church and an inscription written in hieratic script at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan. According to Mostafa Waziri, crumbling temple was decorated with palm leaf carvings and an incomplete sandstone panel that described a Roman emperor. According to researcher Abdel Badie, generally, the church with about 2.1 meters width contained oven that were used to bake pottery, four rooms, a long hall, stairs, and stone tiles. In April 2021, Egyptian archeologists announced the discovery of 110 burial tombs at the Koum el-Khulgan archeological site in Dakahlia Governorate. 68 oval-shaped tombs of them dated back to the Predynastic Period and 37 rectangular-shaped tombs were from Second Intermediate Period. Rest of them dated back to the Naqada III period. The tombs also contained the remains of adults and a baby (buried in a jar), a group of ovens, stoves, remnants of mud-brick foundations, funerary equipment, cylindrical, pear-shaped vessels and a bowl with geometric designs. In September 2021, archaeologists announce the discovery of ritualistic tools used in religious rituals at the ancient site of Tel al-Fara in the Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. Remains included a limestone pillar depicting goddess Hathor, some incense burners with the head of the god Horus. Dr. Hossam Ghanim, said: “*The mission also discovered a huge building of polished limestone from the inside, representing a well for holy water used in daily rituals*”. In May 2022, the discovery of the nearly 4,300-year-old tomb of an ancient Egyptian high-ranked person who handled royal, sealed documents of pharaoh was announced at Saqqara, Egypt. According to University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, the elaborately decorated tomb belonged to a man named Mehtjetju who served as a priest and an inspector of the royal property. Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz, expedition director stated that Mehtjetju  most likely lived at about the same time, at some point during the reigns of the first three rulers of the Sixth Dynasty: Teti, Userkare and Pepy I. In June 2022, archaeologists from The Cairo Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of an alabaster bust of Alexander the Great as well as molds and other materials for creating amulets for warriors and for statues of Alexander the Great. In July 2022, archaeologists from the Prague’s Charles University led by Dr Miroslav Bárta discovered the robbed tomb of an ancient Egyptian military official named Wahibre merry Neith and a scarab in Giza's Abusir necropolis 12 km southeast of the Pyramids of Giza. He commanded battalions of non-local soldiers and lived in the late 26th dynasty and early 27th century BC, around 500 BC, according to the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry. The tomb's main well was about 6 meters deep and it was divided into separate parts by narrow bridges cut into the natural rock. Inside the main well there was a smaller and deeper shaft which contained two sarcophagi one inside the other where Wahibre-merry-Neith was buried. The external sarcophagus was made of white limestone while the internal coffin was made out of basalt rock measures 2.30 meters long and 1.98 meters wide. The inner sarcophagus contained an inscription from the 72nd chapter of the Egyptian Book of Dead said Dr Marslav Barta. In August 2022, archaeologists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw announced the discovery of a 4,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian sun god Ra. The recently discovered sun temple was made from mud bricks and was about 60 meters long by 20 m wide. According to Massimiliano Nuzzolo, co-director of the excavation, storage rooms and other rooms may have been served for cultic purposes and the walls of the building were all plastered in black and white. The L-shaped entrance portico had two limestone columns and was partly made of white limestone. Dozens of well-preserved beer jars and several well-made and red-lined vessels, seal impressions, including seals of the pharaohs who ruled during the fifth and sixth dynasties were also uncovered. One of the earliest seals might belonged to pharaoh Shepseskare, who ruled Egypt before Nyuserre. ### Bias in Egyptology Various scholars have highlighted the role of colonial racism in shaping the attitudes of early Egyptologists, and criticised the continued over-representation of North American and European perspectives in the field. Diop in his work, "The African Origin of Civilization" argued that the prevailing views in Egyptology were driven by biased scholarship and colonial attitudes. Similarly, Bruce Trigger wrote that early modern scholarship on the Nile Valley populations had been "marred by a confusion of race, language, and culture and by an accompanying racism". British Africanist Basil Davidson wrote in 1995 that a number of unsatisfactory labels are often attached—such as "Bushmen", "Negro", or "Negroid"—to indigenous, African populations. He was also critical of the Hamitic hypothesis and other categorisations of "North African stocks" as "white". Davidson further added that the "ancient Egyptians belonged, that is, not to any specific Egyptian region or Near Eastern heritage but to that wide community of peoples who lived between the Red Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, shared a common "Saharan-Sudanese culture", and drew their reinforcements from the same great source, even though, as time went by, they also absorbed a number of wanderers from the Near East". In 2018, Stuart Tyson Smith argued that a common practice among Egyptologists was to "divorce Egypt from its proper northeast African context, instead framing it as fundamentally part of a Near Eastern or "Mediterranean" economic, social and political sphere, hardly African at all or at best a crossroad between the Near East, the eastern Mediterranean and Africa, which carries with it the implication that it is ultimately not really part of Africa". He explicitly criticised the view that ancient Egypt was clearly 'in Africa' it was not so clearly 'of Africa' as reflecting "long-standing Egyptological biases". He concluded that the interrelated cultural features shared between northeast African dynamic and Pharaonic Egypt are not "survivals" or coincidence, but shared traditions with common origins in the deep past". In 2021, Marc Van De Mieroop stated that "It was only recently that traditional scholarship started to acknowledge the African background of Egyptian culture, partly in response to world history's aim to replace dominant western-centered narratives with others than focused more on the contributions of other regions, including Africa. At the same time, primarily African diaspora communities wanted the continent's ancient history to be approached outside a Eurocentric context, and insisted, for example, on the use of ancient Egyptian term *kemet* instead of the European one". In 2022, Andrea Manzo argued that early Egyptologists had situated the origins of dynastic Egypt within a "broad Hamitic horizon that characterised several regions of Africa" and that these views had continued to dominate in the second half of the twentieth century. Manzo stated more recent studies had "pointed out the relevance of African elements to the rise of Egyptian culture, following earlier suggestions on Egyptian kingship and religion by Henri Frankfort" which countered the traditional view that considered Egypt "more closely linked to the Near East than to the rest of Africa". In 2023, Christopher Ehret outlined that the previous two centuries of Western scholarship had presented Egypt as an “offshoot of earlier Middle Eastern developments”. Although, he acknowledged that recent generations of scholars in Egypt and Nubia have been “uncovering extensive new bodies of evidence” which have dispelled older assumptions. However, Ehret continued to argue that these old ideas had influenced the attitudes of scholars in other disciplines such as genetics. Ehret reported that the physical anthropological findings from the “major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant”. Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of Northeastern Africa “such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa”. He further commented that the Naqada and Badarian populations did not migrate “from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia. Ehret also cited supporting archaeological and linguistic evidence which situated ancient Egypt in a northeastern African context. Academic discipline ------------------- Egyptology was established as an academic discipline through the research of Ippolito Rosellini in Italy, Emmanuel de Rougé in France, Samuel Birch in England, and Heinrich Brugsch in Germany. In 1880, Flinders Petrie, another British Egyptologist, revolutionised the field of archaeology through controlled and scientifically recorded excavations. Petrie's work determined that Egyptian culture dated back as early as 4500 BC. The British Egypt Exploration Fund founded in 1882 and other Egyptologists promoted Petrie's methods. Other scholars worked on producing a hieroglyphic dictionary, developing a Demotic lexicon, and establishing an outline of ancient Egyptian history. In the United States, the founding of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the expedition of James Henry Breasted to Egypt and Nubia established Egyptology as a legitimate field of study. In 1924, Breasted also started the Epigraphic Survey to make and publish accurate copies of monuments. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the University of Pennsylvania; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Brooklyn Institute of Fine Arts; and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University also conducted excavations in Egypt, expanding American collections. The archaeology and history of Egypt (Egyptology) was first officially introduced in Greek university curricula in the Department of Mediterranean Studies (DMS) of the University of the Aegean. It was back in 1999 and the bright vision of Prof. Ioannis Liritzis, that Egyptology was inaugurated as an academic discipline in Greek academia. Prof. Ioannis Liritzis established the chair. Since 1998 official contacts between the DMS essentially formed by Prof Liritzis, and the Egyptian authorities, were encouraged in research, fieldwork and education, through Greek and European funding. Through Prof Liritzis the Hellenic-Egyptian relationship in Egyptological studies in University curricula took off and has since then credited in plethora of publications and interactions. Some universities and colleges offer degrees in Egyptology. In the United States, these include the University of Chicago, Brown University, New York University, Yale University and Indiana University - Bloomington, and California State University San Bernardino. There are also many programmes in the United Kingdom, including those at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Swansea University, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, and the University of London. While Egyptology is widely studied in continental Europe, only Leiden University and Uppsala University offers English taught degree programs in Egyptology. Societies for Egyptology include: * The Society for the Study of Ancient Egypt * The Society for the Study of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities, Canada * Sussex Egyptology Society Online * Egypt Exploration Society According to UCLA, the standard text that scholars referenced for studies of Egyptology was for three decades or more, the *Lexikon der Ägyptologie* (LÄ). The first volume published in 1975 (containing largely German-language articles, with a few in English and French). List of Egyptology journals --------------------------- * Journal of Egyptian Archaeology * Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections * Journal of Egyptian History * Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt * Journal of Ancient Egyptian Architecture * Journal of Near Eastern Studies * Revue d'Égyptologie * Damqatum * Antiguo Oriente * Cambridge Archaeological Journal * Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology * Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research * UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology See also -------- * Artifact (archaeology) * Cultural tourism in Egypt * Egyptomania * Excavation (archaeology) * List of Egyptologists * Archaeology of Ancient Egypt * Champollion Museum Other related disciplines not mentioned in the article: * Anthropology * Archaeoastronomy * Architecture * Art history * Assyriology * Biblical studies * Chronology * Coptology * Epigraphy * Ethnoarchaeology * Iranology * Language studies * Nubiology * Oriental studies * Philology * Social history Further reading --------------- * David, Rosalie. *Religion and magic in ancient Egypt*. Penguin Books, 2002. ISBN 0-14-026252-0 * Chaney, Edward. 'Egypt in England and America: The Cultural Memorials of Religion, Royalty and Revolution', in: *Sites of Exchange: European Crossroads and Faultlines*, eds. M. Ascari and A. Corrado (Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York,2006), 39–74. * Chaney, Edward. "Roma Britannica and the Cultural Memory of Egypt: Lord Arundel and the Obelisk of Domitian", in *Roma Britannica: Art Patronage and Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Rome*, eds. D. Marshall, K. Wolfe and S. Russell, British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 147–70. * Hill, Marsha (2007). Gifts for the gods: images from Egyptian temples. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9781588392312. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2014. * Jacq, Christian. *Magic and mystery in ancient Egypt*. Souvenir Press, 1998. ISBN 0-285-63462-3 * Manley, Bill (ed.). *The Seventy Great Mysteries of Ancient Egypt*. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05123-2 * Mertz, Barbara. *Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt*. Dodd Mead, 1978. ISBN 0-396-07575-4 * Mertz, Barbara. *Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt*. Bedrick, 1990. ISBN 0-87226-223-5 * *Mysteries of Egypt*. National Geographic Society, 1999. ISBN 0-7922-9752-0 * Reeves, Nicholas (2000). *Ancient Egypt: The Great Discoveries*. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05105-4. * Sheppard, Kathleen. 2022. Tea on the terrace: hotels and Egyptologists’ social networks, 1885–1925. Manchester University Press * Thompson, Jason (2015). *Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology: 1: From Antiquity to 1881*. The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-599-3. * Thompson, Jason (2016). *Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology: 2: The Golden Age: 1881–1914*. The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-692-1. * Thompson, Jason (2018). *Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology: 3: From 1914 to the Twenty-first Century*. The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-760-7. * Wilkinson, Toby (2020). *A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology* (Hardbook). London: Picador. ISBN 978-1-5098-5870-5.

Egyptology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptology

An **aircraft carrier** is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone. There is no single definition of an "aircraft carrier", and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, and sometimes as distinct types of naval aviation-capable ships. Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, RN, former First Sea Lord (head) of the Royal Navy, has said, "To put it simply, countries that aspire to strategic international influence have aircraft carriers." Henry Kissinger, while United States Secretary of State, also said: "An aircraft carrier is 100,000 tons of diplomacy." As of June 2023, there are 47 active aircraft carriers in the world operated by fourteen navies. The United States Navy has 11 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers—carrying around 80 fighters each—the largest carriers in the world; the total combined deck space is over twice that of all other nations combined. As well as the aircraft carrier fleet, the US Navy has nine amphibious assault ships used primarily for helicopters, although these also each carry up to 20 vertical or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) fighter jets and are similar in size to medium-sized fleet carriers. The United Kingdom, India and China each operate two aircraft carriers. France and Russia each operate a single aircraft carrier with a capacity of 30 to 60 fighters. Italy operates two light V/STOL carriers and Spain operates one V/STOL aircraft-carrying assault ship. Helicopter carriers are operated by Japan (4, two of which are being converted to operate V/STOL fighters), France (3), Australia (2), Egypt (2), South Korea (2), China (3), Thailand (1) and Brazil (1). Future aircraft carriers are under construction or in planning by China, France, India, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and the US. Types of carriers ----------------- ### General features * Speed is a crucial attribute for aircraft carriers, as they need to be able to be deployed quickly anywhere in the world and have to be fast enough to evade detection and targeting from enemy forces. A high speed also increases the "wind over the deck", boosting the lift available for fixed-wing aircraft to carry fuel and ammunition. In order to evade nuclear submarines, the carriers should have a speed of more than 30 knots. * Aircraft carriers are among the largest types of warships due to their need for ample deck space. * An aircraft carrier must be able to perform increasingly diverse mission sets. Diplomacy, power projection, quick crisis response force, land attack from the sea, sea base for helicopter and amphibious assault forces, anti-surface warfare (ASUW), Defensive Counter Air (DCA), and humanitarian aid disaster relief (HADR) are some of the missions the aircraft carrier is expected to accomplish. Traditionally an aircraft carrier is supposed to be one ship that can perform at least power projection and sea control missions. * An aircraft carrier must be able to efficiently operate an air combat group. This means it should handle fixed-wing jets as well as helicopters. This includes ships designed to support operations of short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) jets. ### Basic types * Aircraft cruiser * Amphibious assault ship and sub-types * Anti-submarine warfare carrier * Balloon carrier and balloon tenders * Escort carrier * Fleet carrier * Flight deck cruiser * Helicopter carrier * Light aircraft carrier * Sea Control Ship * Seaplane tender and seaplane carriers * Utility carrier: This type was mainly used in the US Navy, in the decade after World War 2. Some of the types listed here are not strictly defined as aircraft carriers by some sources. ### By role A fleet carrier is intended to operate with the main fleet and usually provides an offensive capability. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds. By comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried. Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet but of smaller size with reduced aircraft capacity. The Soviet aircraft carrier *Admiral Kusnetsov* was termed a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". This was primarily a legal construct to avoid the limitations of the Montreux Convention preventing 'aircraft carriers' transiting the Turkish Straits between the Soviet Black Sea bases and the Mediterranean Sea. These ships, while sized in the range of large fleet carriers, were designed to deploy alone or with escorts. In addition to supporting fighter aircraft and helicopters, they provide both strong defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles equivalent to a guided-missile cruiser. ### By configuration Aircraft carriers today are usually divided into the following four categories based on the way that aircraft take off and land: * Catapult-assisted take-off barrier-arrested recovery (CATOBAR): these carriers generally carry the largest, heaviest, and most heavily armed aircraft, although smaller CATOBAR carriers may have other limitations (weight capacity of aircraft elevator, etc.). All CATOBAR carriers in service today are nuclear powered. Twelve are in service: ten *Nimitz* and one *Gerald R. Ford*-class fleet carriers in the United States; and the Charles de Gaulle in France. * Short take-off barrier-arrested recovery (STOBAR): these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads. STOBAR carrier air wings, such as the Sukhoi Su-33 and future Mikoyan MiG-29K wings of *Admiral Kuznetsov* are often geared primarily towards air superiority and fleet defense roles rather than strike/power projection tasks, which require heavier payloads (bombs and air-to-ground missiles). Five are in service: two in China; two in India and one in Russia. * Short take-off vertical-landing (STOVL): limited to carrying STOVL aircraft. STOVL aircraft, such as the Harrier family and Yakovlev Yak-38 generally have limited payloads, lower performance, and high fuel consumption when compared with conventional fixed-wing aircraft; however, a new generation of STOVL aircraft, currently consisting of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, has much improved performance. Fourteen are in service; nine STOVL amphibious assault ships in the US; two carriers each in Italy and the UK; and one STOVL amphibious assault ship in Spain. * Helicopter carrier: Helicopter carriers have a similar appearance to other aircraft carriers but operate only helicopters – those that mainly operate helicopters but can also operate fixed-wing aircraft are known as STOVL carriers (see above). Seventeen are in service: four in Japan; three in France; two each in Australia, China, Egypt and South Korea; and one each in Brazil and Thailand. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and these were called "commando carriers" by the Royal Navy. Some helicopter carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships, tasked with landing and supporting ground forces on enemy territory. ### By size * Fleet carrier * Light aircraft carrier * Escort carrier ### Supercarrier The appellation "supercarrier" is not an official designation with any national navy, but a term used predominantly by the media and typically when reporting on larger and more advanced carrier types. It is also used when comparing carriers of various sizes and capabilities, both current and past. It was first used by *The New York Times* in 1938, in an article about the Royal Navy's HMS *Ark Royal*, that had a length of 209 meters (686 ft), a displacement of 22,000 ton and was designed to carry 72 aircraft. Since then, aircraft carriers have consistently grown in size, both in length and displacement, as well as improved capabilities; in defense, sensors, electronic warfare, propulsion, range, launch and recovery systems, number and types of aircraft carried and number of sorties flown per day. China, Russia, and the United Kingdom all have carriers in service or under construction with displacements ranging from 65,000 to 85,000 tons and lengths from 280 to 320 meters (920 to 1,050 ft) which have been described as "supercarriers". The largest "supercarriers" in service as of 2022, however, are with the US Navy, with displacements exceeding 100,000 tons, lengths of over 337 meters (1,106 ft), and capabilities that exceed or in few cases match that of any other class. ### Hull type identification symbols Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers and related types of ship have been used. These include the pennant numbers used by the Royal Navy, Commonwealth countries, and Europe, along with the hull classification symbols used by the US and Canada. US hull classification symbols for aircraft carriers and related ship types| Symbol | Designation | | --- | --- | | CV | Generic aircraft carrier | | CVA | Attack carrier (up to 1975) | | CVB | Large aircraft carrier (retired 1952) | | CVAN | Nuclear-powered attack carrier | | CVE | Escort carrier | | CVHA | Aircraft carrier, Helicopter Assault (retired) | | CVHE | Aircraft carrier, Helicopter, Escort (retired) | | CVV | Aircraft Carrier (Medium) (proposed) | | CVL | Light aircraft carrier | | CVN | Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier | | CVS | Anti-submarine warfare carrier | | CVT | Training Aircraft Carrier | | LHA | Landing helicopter assault, a type of amphibious assault ship | | LHD | Landing helicopter dock, a type of amphibious assault ship | | LPH | Landing platform helicopter, a type of amphibious assault ship | History ------- ### Origins The 1903 advent of the heavier-than-air fixed-wing airplane with the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was closely followed on 14 November 1910, by Eugene Burton Ely's first experimental take-off of a Curtiss Pusher airplane from the deck of a United States Navy ship, the cruiser USS *Birmingham* anchored off Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia. Two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS *Pennsylvania* anchored in San Francisco Bay. On 9 May 1912, the first take off of an airplane from a ship while underway was made by Commander Charles Samson flying a Short Improved S.27 biplane "S.38" of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) from the deck of the Royal Navy's pre-dreadnought battleship HMS *Hibernia*, thus providing the first practical demonstration of the aircraft carrier for naval operations at sea. Seaplane tender support ships came next, with the French *Foudre* of 1911. Early in World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy ship *Wakamiya* conducted the world's first successful ship-launched air raid: on 6 September 1914, a Farman aircraft launched by *Wakamiya* attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS *Kaiserin Elisabeth* and the Imperial German gunboat *Jaguar* in Jiaozhou Bay off Qingdao; neither was hit. The first attack using an air-launched torpedo occurred on 2 August, when a torpedo was fired by Flight Commander Charles H. K. Edmonds from a Short Type 184 seaplane, launched from the seaplane carrier HMS *Ben-my-Chree*. The first carrier-launched airstrike was the Tondern raid in July 1918. Seven Sopwith Camels were launched from the battlecruiser HMS *Furious* which had been modified by replacing her forward turret with a flight deck and hangar turret. The Camels attacked and damaged the German airbase at Tondern, Germany (modern day Tønder, Denmark) and destroyed two zeppelin airships. The first landing of an airplane on a moving ship was by Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, when he landed his Sopwith Pup on HMS *Furious* in Scapa Flow, Orkney on 2 August 1917. Landing on the forward flight deck required the pilot to approach round the ship's superstructure, a difficult and dangerous manoeuver and Dunning was later killed when his airplane was thrown overboard while attempting another landing on *Furious*. HMS *Furious* was modified again when her rear turret was removed and another flight deck added over a second hangar for landing aircraft over the stern. Her funnel and superstructure remained intact however and turbulence from the funnel and superstructure was severe enough that only three landing attempts were successful before further attempts were forbidden. This experience prompted the development of vessels with a flush deck and produced the first large fleet ships. In 1918, HMS *Argus* became the world's first carrier capable of launching and recovering naval aircraft. As a result of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which limited the construction of new heavy surface combat ships, most early aircraft carriers were conversions of ships that were laid down (or had served) as different ship types: cargo ships, cruisers, battlecruisers, or battleships. These conversions gave rise to the US *Lexington*-class aircraft carriers (1927), Japanese *Akagi* and *Kaga*, and British *Courageous* class. Specialist carrier evolution was well underway, with several navies ordering and building warships that were purposefully designed to function as aircraft carriers by the mid-1920s. This resulted in the commissioning of ships such as the Japanese *Hōshō* (1922), HMS *Hermes* (1924, although laid down in 1918 before *Hōshō*), and *Béarn* (1927). During World War II, these ships would become known as fleet carriers. ### World War II The aircraft carrier dramatically changed naval warfare in World War II, because air power was becoming a significant factor in warfare. The advent of aircraft as focal weapons was driven by the superior range, flexibility, and effectiveness of carrier-launched aircraft. They had greater range and precision than naval guns, making them highly effective. The versatility of the carrier was demonstrated in November 1940, when HMS *Illustrious* launched a long-range strike on the Italian fleet at their base in Taranto, signalling the beginning of the effective and highly mobile aircraft strikes. This operation in the shallow water harbor incapacitated three of the six anchored battleships at a cost of two torpedo bombers. World War II in the Pacific Ocean involved clashes between aircraft carrier fleets. The Japanese surprise attack on the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor naval and air bases on Sunday, 7 December 1941, was a clear illustration of the power projection capability afforded by a large force of modern carriers. Concentrating six carriers in a single unit turned naval history about, as no other nation had fielded anything comparable. Further versatility was demonstrated during the "Doolittle Raid", on 18 April 1942, when US Navy carrier USS *Hornet* sailed to within 650 nautical miles (1,200 km) of Japan and launched 16 B-25 bombers from her deck in a retaliatory strike on the mainland, including the capital, Tokyo. However, the vulnerability of carriers compared to traditional battleships when forced into a gun-range encounter was quickly illustrated by the sinking of HMS *Glorious* by German battleships during the Norwegian campaign in 1940. This new-found importance of naval aviation forced nations to create a number of carriers, in efforts to provide air superiority cover for every major fleet in order to ward off enemy aircraft. This extensive usage led to the development and construction of 'light' carriers. Escort aircraft carriers, such as USS *Bogue*, were sometimes purpose-built but most were converted from merchant ships as a stop-gap measure to provide anti-submarine air support for convoys and amphibious invasions. Following this concept, light aircraft carriers built by the US, such as USS *Independence*, represented a larger, more "militarized" version of the escort carrier. Although with similar complement to escort carriers, they had the advantage of speed from their converted cruiser hulls. The UK 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier was designed for building quickly by civilian shipyards and with an expected service life of about 3 years. They served the Royal Navy during the war, and the hull design was chosen for nearly all aircraft carrier equipped navies after the war, until the 1980s. Emergencies also spurred the creation or conversion of highly unconventional aircraft carriers. CAM ships were cargo-carrying merchant ships that could launch (but not retrieve) a single fighter aircraft from a catapult to defend the convoy from long range land-based German aircraft. ### Postwar era Before World War II, international naval treaties of 1922, 1930, and 1936 limited the size of capital ships including carriers. Since World War II, aircraft carrier designs have increased in size to accommodate a steady increase in aircraft size. The large, modern *Nimitz* class of US Navy carriers has a displacement nearly four times that of the World War II–era USS *Enterprise*, yet its complement of aircraft is roughly the same—a consequence of the steadily increasing size and weight of individual military aircraft over the years. Today's aircraft carriers are so expensive that some nations which operate them risk significant economic and military impact if a carrier is lost. Some changes were made after 1945 in carriers: * The **angled flight deck** was invented by Royal Navy Captain (later Rear Admiral) Dennis Cambell, as naval aviation jets higher speeds required carriers be modified to "fit" their needs. Additionally, the angled flight deck allows for simultaneous launch and recovery. * Jet blast deflectors became necessary to protect aircraft and handlers from jet blast. The first US Navy carriers to be fitted with them were the wooden-decked *Essex*-class aircraft carriers which were adapted to operate jets in the late 1940s. Later versions had to be water-cooled because of increasing engine power. * Optical landing systems were developed to facilitate the very precise landing angles required by jet aircraft, which have a faster landing speed giving the pilot little time to correct misalignments, or mistakes. The first system was fitted to HMS *Illustrious* in 1952. * Aircraft carrier designs have increased in size to accommodate continuous increase in aircraft size. The 1950s saw US Navy's commission of "supercarriers", designed to operate naval jets, which offered better performance at the expense of bigger size and demanded more ordnance to be carried on-board (fuel, spare parts, electronics, etc.). * Increase in size and requirements of being capable of more than 30 knots in speed and to be able to be at sea for long periods means that larger aircraft carriers often nuclear reactors are now used to create the steam used to produce power for propulsion, electric power, catapulting airplanes from aircraft carriers, and a few more minor uses. Modern navies that operate such aircraft carriers treat them as capital ships of fleets, a role previously held by the galleons, ships-of-the-line and battleships. This change took place during World War II in response to air power becoming a significant factor in warfare, driven by the superior range, flexibility and effectiveness of carrier-launched aircraft. Following the war, carrier operations continued to increase in size and importance, and along with, carrier designs also increased in size and ability. Some of these larger carriers, dubbed by the media as "supercarriers", displacing 75,000 tons or greater, have become the pinnacle of carrier development. Some are powered by nuclear reactors and form the core of a fleet designed to operate far from home. Amphibious assault ships, such as the *Wasp* and *Mistral* classes, serve the purpose of carrying and landing Marines, and operate a large contingent of helicopters for that purpose. Also known as "commando carriers" or "helicopter carriers", many have the capability to operate VSTOL aircraft. The threatening role of aircraft carriers has a place in modern asymmetric warfare, like the gunboat diplomacy of the past. Carriers also facilitate quick and precise projections of overwhelming military power into such local and regional conflicts. Lacking the firepower of other warships, carriers by themselves are considered vulnerable to attack by other ships, aircraft, submarines, or missiles. Therefore, an aircraft carrier is generally accompanied by a number of other ships to provide protection for the relatively unwieldy carrier, to carry supplies, re-supply (Many carriers are self-sufficient and will supply their escorts) and perform other support services, and to provide additional offensive capabilities. The resulting group of ships is often termed a carrier strike group, battle group, carrier group, or carrier battle group. There is a view among some military pundits [*who?*] that modern anti-ship weapons systems, such as torpedoes and missiles, or even ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads have made aircraft carriers and carrier groups too vulnerable for modern combat. Carriers can also be vulnerable to diesel-electric submarines like the German *U24* of the conventional 206 class which in 2001 "fired" at the *Enterprise* during the exercise *JTFEX 01-2* in the Caribbean Sea by firing flares and taking a photograph through its periscope or the Swedish Gotland which managed the same feat in 2006 during *JTFEX 06-2* by penetrating the defensive measures of Carrier Strike Group 7 which was protecting USS *Ronald Reagan*. Description ----------- ### Structure Carriers are large and long ships, although there is a high degree of variation depending on their intended role and aircraft complement. The size of the carrier has varied over history and among navies, to cater to the various roles that global climates have demanded from naval aviation. Regardless of size, the ship itself must house their complement of aircraft, with space for launching, storing, and maintaining them. Space is also required for the large crew, supplies (food, munitions, fuel, engineering parts), and propulsion. US aircraft carriers are notable for having nuclear reactors powering their systems and propulsion. The top of the carrier is the flight deck, where aircraft are launched and recovered. On the starboard side of this is the island, where the funnel, air-traffic control and the bridge are located. The constraints of constructing a flight deck affect the role of a given carrier strongly, as they influence the weight, type, and configuration of the aircraft that may be launched. For example, assisted launch mechanisms are used primarily for heavy aircraft, especially those loaded with air-to-ground weapons. CATOBAR is most commonly used on US Navy fleet carriers as it allows the deployment of heavy jets with full load-outs, especially on ground-attack missions. STOVL is used by other navies because it is cheaper to operate and still provides good deployment capability for fighter aircraft. Due to the busy nature of the flight deck, only 20 or so aircraft may be on it at any one time. A hangar storage several decks below the flight deck is where most aircraft are kept, and aircraft are taken from the lower storage decks to the flight deck through the use of an elevator. The hangar is usually quite large and can take up several decks of vertical space. Munitions are commonly stored on the lower decks because they are highly explosive. Usually this is below the waterline so that the area can be flooded in case of emergency. ### Flight deck As "runways at sea", aircraft carriers have a flat-top flight deck, which launches and recovers aircraft. Aircraft launch forward, into the wind, and are recovered from astern. The flight deck is where the most notable differences between a carrier and a land runway are found. Creating such a surface at sea poses constraints on the carrier. For example, the size of the vessel is a fundamental limitation on runway length. This affects take-off procedure, as a shorter runway length of the deck requires that aircraft accelerate more quickly to gain lift. This either requires a thrust boost, a vertical component to its velocity, or a reduced take-off load (to lower mass). The differing types of deck configuration, as above, influence the structure of the flight deck. The form of launch assistance a carrier provides is strongly related to the types of aircraft embarked and the design of the carrier itself. There are two main philosophies in order to keep the deck short: add thrust to the aircraft, such as using a Catapult Assisted Take-Off (CATO-); and changing the direction of the airplanes' thrust, as in Vertical and/or Short Take-Off (V/STO-). Each method has advantages and disadvantages of its own: * Catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR): A steam- or electric-powered catapult is connected to the aircraft, and is used to accelerate conventional aircraft to a safe flying speed. By the end of the catapult stroke, the aircraft is airborne and further propulsion is provided by its own engines. This is the most expensive method as it requires complex machinery to be installed under the flight deck, but allows for even heavily loaded aircraft to take off. * Short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) depends on increasing the net lift on the aircraft. Aircraft do not require catapult assistance for take off; instead on nearly all ships of this type an upwards vector is provided by a ski-jump at the forward end of the flight deck, often combined with thrust vectoring by the aircraft. Alternatively, by reducing the fuel and weapon load, an aircraft is able to reach faster speeds and generate more upwards lift and launch without a ski-jump or catapult. * Short take-off vertical-landing (STOVL): On aircraft carriers, non-catapult-assisted, fixed-wing short takeoffs are accomplished with the use of thrust vectoring, which may also be used in conjunction with a runway "ski-jump". Use of STOVL tends to allow aircraft to carry a larger payload as compared to during VTOL use, while still only requiring a short runway. The most famous examples are the Hawker Siddeley Harrier and the BAe Sea Harrier. Although technically VTOL aircraft, they are operationally STOVL aircraft due to the extra weight carried at take-off for fuel and armaments. The same is true of the Lockheed F-35B Lightning II, which demonstrated VTOL capability in test flights but is operationally STOVL or in the case of UK uses "shipborne rolling vertical landing" * Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL): Certain aircraft are specifically designed for the purpose of using very high degrees of thrust vectoring (e.g. if the thrust to weight-force ratio is greater than 1, it can take off vertically), but are usually slower than conventionally propelled aircraft due to the additional weight from associated systems. On the recovery side of the flight deck, the adaptation to the aircraft load-out is mirrored. Non-VTOL or conventional aircraft cannot decelerate on their own, and almost all carriers using them must have arrested-recovery systems (-BAR, e.g. CATOBAR or STOBAR) to recover their aircraft. Aircraft that are landing extend a tailhook that catches on arrestor wires stretched across the deck to bring themselves to a stop in a short distance. Post-World War II Royal Navy research on safer CATOBAR recovery eventually led to universal adoption of a landing area angled off axis to allow aircraft who missed the arresting wires to "bolt" and safely return to flight for another landing attempt rather than crashing into aircraft on the forward deck. If the aircraft are VTOL-capable or helicopters, they do not need to decelerate and hence there is no such need. The arrested-recovery system has used an angled deck since the 1950s because, in case the aircraft does not catch the arresting wire, the short deck allows easier take off by reducing the number of objects between the aircraft and the end of the runway. It also has the advantage of separating the recovery operation area from the launch area. Helicopters and aircraft capable of vertical or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) usually recover by coming abreast of the carrier on the port side and then using their hover capability to move over the flight deck and land vertically without the need for arresting gear. #### Staff and deck operations Carriers steam at speed, up to 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) into the wind during flight deck operations to increase wind speed over the deck to a safe minimum. This increase in effective wind speed provides a higher launch airspeed for aircraft at the end of the catapult stroke or ski-jump, as well as making recovery safer by reducing the difference between the relative speeds of the aircraft and ship. Since the early 1950s on conventional carriers it has been the practice to recover aircraft at an angle to port of the axial line of the ship. The primary function of this angled deck is to allow aircraft that miss the arresting wires, referred to as a bolter, to become airborne again without the risk of hitting aircraft parked forward. The angled deck allows the installation of one or two "waist" catapults in addition to the two bow cats. An angled deck also improves launch and recovery cycle flexibility with the option of simultaneous launching and recovery of aircraft. Conventional ("tailhook") aircraft rely upon a landing signal officer (LSO, radio call sign 'paddles') to monitor the aircraft's approach, visually gauge glideslope, attitude, and airspeed, and transmit that data to the pilot. Before the angled deck emerged in the 1950s, LSOs used colored paddles to signal corrections to the pilot (hence the nickname). From the late 1950s onward, visual landing aids such as the optical landing system have provided information on proper glide slope, but LSOs still transmit voice calls to approaching pilots by radio. Key personnel involved in the flight deck include the shooters, the handler, and the air boss. Shooters are naval aviators or naval flight officers and are responsible for launching aircraft. The handler works just inside the island from the flight deck and is responsible for the movement of aircraft before launching and after recovery. The "air boss" (usually a commander) occupies the top bridge (Primary Flight Control, also called *primary* or *the tower*) and has the overall responsibility for controlling launch, recovery and "those aircraft in the air near the ship, and the movement of planes on the flight deck, which itself resembles a well-choreographed ballet". The captain of the ship spends most of his time one level below primary on the Navigation Bridge. Below this is the Flag Bridge, designated for the embarked admiral and his staff. To facilitate working on the flight deck of a US aircraft carrier, the sailors wear colored shirts that designate their responsibilities. There are at least seven different colors worn by flight deck personnel for modern United States Navy carrier air operations. Carrier operations of other nations use similar color schemes. #### Deck structures The superstructure of a carrier (such as the bridge, flight control tower) are concentrated in a relatively small area called an *island*, a feature pioneered on HMS *Hermes* in 1923. While the island is usually built on the starboard side of the flight deck, the Japanese aircraft carriers *Akagi* and *Hiryū* had their islands built on the port side. Very few carriers have been designed or built without an island. The *flush deck* configuration proved to have significant drawbacks, primary of which was management of the exhaust from the power plant. Fumes coming across the deck were a major issue in USS *Langley*. In addition, lack of an island meant difficulties managing the flight deck, performing air traffic control, a lack of radar housing placements and problems with navigating and controlling the ship itself. Another deck structure that can be seen is a ski-jump ramp at the forward end of the flight deck. This was first developed to help launch short take off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft take off at far higher weights than is possible with a vertical or rolling takeoff on flat decks. Originally developed by the Royal Navy, it since has been adopted by many navies for smaller carriers. A ski-jump ramp works by converting some of the forward rolling movement of the aircraft into vertical velocity and is sometimes combined with the aiming of jet thrust partly downwards. This allows heavily loaded and fueled aircraft a few more precious seconds to attain sufficient air velocity and lift to sustain normal flight. Without a ski-jump, launching fully-loaded and fueled aircraft such as the Harrier would not be possible on a smaller flat deck ship before either stalling out or crashing directly into the sea. Although STOVL aircraft are capable of taking off vertically from a spot on the deck, using the ramp and a running start is far more fuel efficient and permits a heavier launch weight. As catapults are unnecessary, carriers with this arrangement reduce weight, complexity, and space needed for complex steam or electromagnetic launching equipment. Vertical landing aircraft also remove the need for arresting cables and related hardware. Russian, Chinese, and Indian carriers include a ski-jump ramp for launching lightly loaded conventional fighter aircraft but recover using traditional carrier arresting cables and a tailhook on their aircraft. The disadvantage of the ski-jump is the penalty it exacts on aircraft size, payload, and fuel load (and thus range); heavily laden aircraft cannot launch using a ski-jump because their high loaded weight requires either a longer takeoff roll than is possible on a carrier deck, or assistance from a catapult or JATO rocket. For example, the Russian Sukhoi Su-33 is only able to launch from the carrier *Admiral Kuznetsov* with a minimal armament and fuel load. Another disadvantage is on mixed flight deck operations where helicopters are also present, such as on a US landing helicopter dock or landing helicopter assault amphibious assault ship. A ski jump is not included as this would eliminate one or more helicopter landing areas; this flat deck limits the loading of Harriers but is somewhat mitigated by the longer rolling start provided by a long flight deck compared to many STOVL carriers. National fleets --------------- The US Navy has the largest fleet of carriers in the world, with eleven supercarriers currently in service. China and India each have two STOBAR carriers in service. The UK has two STOVL carriers in service. The navies of France and Russia each operate a single medium-sized carrier. The US also has nine similarly sized Amphibious Warfare Ships. There are five small light carriers in use capable of operating both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters; Japan and Italy each operate two, and Spain one. Additionally there are eighteen small carriers which only operate helicopters serving the navies of Australia (2), Brazil (1), China (2), Egypt (2), France (3), Japan (4), South Korea (2), Thailand (1) and Turkey (1). ### Algeria Current *Kalaat Béni Abbès* (L-474) is an amphibious transport dock of the Algerian National Navy with two deck-landing spots for helicopters. ### Australia Current The Royal Australian Navy operates two *Canberra*-class landing helicopter docks. The two-ship class, based on the Spanish vessel *Juan Carlos I* and built by Navantia and BAE Systems Australia, represents the largest ships ever built for the Royal Australian Navy. HMAS *Canberra* underwent sea trials in late 2013 and was commissioned in 2014. Her sister ship, HMAS *Adelaide*, was commissioned in December 2015. The Australian ships retain the ski-ramp from the *Juan Carlos I* design, although the RAN has not acquired carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. ### Brazil Current In December 2017, the Brazilian Navy confirmed the purchase of HMS *Ocean* for (GBP) £84.6 million (equivalent to R$359.5M and US$113.2M) and renamed her *Atlântico*. The ship was decommissioned from Royal Navy service in March 2018. The Brazilian Navy commissioned the carrier on 29 June 2018 in the United Kingdom. After undertaking a period of maintenance in the UK, the ship travelled to its new home port, Arsenal de Marinha do Rio de Janeiro (AMRJ) in order to be fully operational by 2020. The ship displaces 21,578 tonnes, is 203.43 meters (667.4 ft) long and has a range of 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi). Before leaving HMNB Devonport for her new homeport in Rio's AMRJ, *Atlântico* underwent operational sea training under the Royal Navy's Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) program. On 12 November 2020, *Atlântico* was redesignated "NAM", for "multipurpose aircraft carrier" (Portuguese: *Navio Aeródromo Multipropósito*), from "PHM", for "multipurpose helicopter carrier" (Portuguese: *Porta-Helicópteros Multipropósito*), to reflect the ship's capability to operate with fixed-wing medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles as well as crewed tiltrotor VTOL aircraft. ### China Current 2 STOBAR carriers: * *Liaoning* (60,900 tons) was originally built as the Soviet *Kuznetsov*-class carrier *Varyag* and was later purchased as a hulk in 1998 on the pretext of use as a floating casino, then towed to China for rebuild and completion. *Liaoning* was commissioned on 25 September 2012 and began service for testing and training. In November 2012, *Liaoning* launched and recovered Shenyang J-15 naval fighter aircraft for the first time. After a refit in January 2019, she was assigned to the North Sea Fleet, a change from her previous role as a training carrier. * *Shandong* (60,000-70,000 tons) was launched on 26 April 2017. She is the first to be built domestically, to an improved *Kuznetsov*-class design. *Shandong* started sea trials on 23 April 2018, and entered service in December 2019. 1 CATOBAR carrier: * *Fujian* (80,000 tons) is a CATOBAR carrier which was under construction between 2015 and 2016 before being completed in June 2022. She is being fitted out as of 2022 and will commence service in 2023–2024. 3 Landing helicopter docks * A Type 075 LHD, *Hainan* was commissioned on 23 April 2021 at the naval base in Sanya. A second ship, *Guangxi*, was commissioned on 26 December 2021 and a third ship, *Anhui*, was commissioned in October 2022. Future China has had a long-term plan to operate six large aircraft carriers with two carriers per fleet. China is planning a class of eight landing helicopter dock vessels, the Type 075 (NATO reporting name Yushen-class landing helicopter assault). This is a class of amphibious assault ship under construction by the Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding company. The first ship was commissioned in April 2021. China is also planning a modified class of the same concept, the Type 076 landing helicopter dock, that will also be equipped with an electromagnetic catapult launch system. ### Egypt Current Egypt signed a contract with French shipbuilder DCNS to buy two *Mistral*-class helicopter carriers for approximately 950 million euros. The two ships were originally destined for Russia, but the deal was cancelled by France due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 2 June 2016, Egypt received the first of two helicopter carriers acquired in October 2015, the landing helicopter dock *Gamal Abdel Nasser*. The flag transfer ceremony took place in the presence of Egyptian and French Navies' chiefs of staff, chairman and chief executive officers of both DCNS and STX France, and senior Egyptian and French officials. On 16 September 2016, DCNS delivered the second of two helicopter carriers, the landing helicopter dock *Anwar El Sadat* which also participated in a joint military exercise with the French Navy before arriving at her home port of Alexandria. Egypt is so far the only country in Africa or the Middle East to possess a helicopter carrier. ### France Current The French Navy operates the 42,000-tonne nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, *Charles de Gaulle*. Commissioned in 2001, she is the flagship of the French Navy. The ship carries a complement of Dassault Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar helicopters for combat search and rescue, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles. She is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses two 75 m C13-3 steam catapults of a shorter version of the catapult system installed on the US *Nimitz*-class carriers, one catapult at the bow and one across the front of the landing area. In addition, the French Navy operates three *Mistral*-class amphibious assault ships. Future In October 2018, the French Ministry of Defence began an 18-month study for €40 million for the eventual future replacement of the French aircraft carrier *Charles de Gaulle* beyond 2030. In December 2020, President Macron announced that construction of the next generation carrier would begin in around 2025 with sea trials to start in about 2036. The carrier is planned to have a displacement of around 75,000 tons and to carry about 32 next-generation fighters, two to three E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes and a yet-to-be-determined number of unmanned carrier air vehicles. ### India Current 2 STOBAR carriers: INS *Vikramaditya*, 45,400 tonnes, modified *Kiev* class. The carrier was purchased by India on 20 January 2004 after years of negotiations at a final price of $2.35 billion (equivalent to $2,839,000,000 in 2021). The ship successfully completed her sea trials in July 2013 and aviation trials in September 2013. She was formally commissioned on 16 November 2013 at a ceremony held at Severodvinsk, Russia. INS *Vikrant*, also known as *Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 1 (IAC-1)* a 45,000-tonne, 262-metre-long (860 ft) aircraft carrier whose keel was laid in 2009. The new carrier will operate MiG-29K and naval HAL Tejas aircraft. The ship is powered by gas-turbines and has a range of 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 kilometres) and deploys 10 helicopters and 30 aircraft. The ship was launched in 2013, sea-trials began in August 2021 and was commissioned on 02 September 2022. Future India has plans for a third carrier, INS *Vishal*, also known as *Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 2 (IAC-2)* with a displacement of over 65,000 tonnes and is planned with a CATOBAR system to launch and recover heavier aircraft. India has also issued a request for information (RFI) to procure four Landing helicopter dock displacing 30,000-40,000 tons with a capacity to operate 12 medium lift special ops and two heavy lift helicopters and troops for amphibious operations. ### Italy Current 2 STOVL carriers: * *Giuseppe Garibaldi*: 14,000-tonne Italian STOVL carrier, commissioned in 1985. * *Cavour*: 30000-tonne Italian STOVL carrier designed and built with secondary amphibious assault facilities, commissioned in 2008. Future Italy plans to replace ageing aircraft carrier *Giuseppe Garibaldi*, as well as one of the *San Giorgio*-class landing helicopter docks, with a new amphibious 'assault ship, to be named *Trieste*. The ship will be significantly larger than her predecessors with a displacement of 38,000 tonnes at full load. *Trieste* is to carry the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. Meanwhile, *Giuseppe Garibaldi* will be transferred to Italian Space Operation Command for use as a satellite launch platform. ### Japan Current * 2 *Izumo*-class multi-purpose destroyers – 820-foot-long (250 m), 19,500-tonne (27,000 tonnes full load) STOVL carrier *Izumo* was launched August 2013 and commissioned March 2015. *Izumo*'s sister ship, *Kaga*, was commissioned in 2017. In December 2018, the Japanese Cabinet gave approval to convert both *Izumo-class* destroyers into aircraft carriers for F-35B STOVL operations. The conversion of *Izumo* was underway as of mid-2020. The modification of maritime escort vessels is to "increase operational flexibility" and enhance Pacific air defense, the Japanese defense ministry's position is "We are not creating carrier air wings or carrier air squadrons" similar to the US Navy. The Japanese STOVL F-35s, when delivered, will be operated by the Japan Air Self Defense Force from land bases; according to the 2020 Japanese Defense Ministry white paper the STOVL model was chosen for the JASDF due the lack of appropriately long runways to support air superiority capability across all of Japanese airspace. Japan has requested that the USMC deploy STOVL F-35s and crews aboard the *Izumo-class* ships "for cooperation and advice on how to operate the fighter on the deck of the modified ships". On 3 October 2021, two USMC F-35Bs performed the first vertical landings and horizontal take-offs from JS *Izumo*, marking 75 years since fixed-wing aircraft operated from a Japanese carrier. * 2 *Hyūga*-class helicopter destroyers – 19,000-tonne (full load) anti-submarine warfare carriers with enhanced command-and-control capabilities allowing them to serve as fleet flagships. ### Russia Current 1 STOBAR carrier: *Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov*: 55,000-tonne *Admiral Kuznetsov*-class STOBAR aircraft carrier. Launched in 1985 as *Tbilisi*, renamed and operational from 1995. Without catapults she can launch and recover lightly fueled naval fighters for air defense or anti-ship missions but not heavy conventional bombing strikes. Officially designated an aircraft carrying cruiser, she is unique in carrying a heavy cruiser's complement of defensive weapons and large P-700 Granit offensive missiles. The P-700 systems will be removed in the coming refit to enlarge her below decks aviation facilities as well as upgrading her defensive systems. Future The Russian Government has been considering the potential replacement of *Admiral Kuznetsov* for some time and has considered the Shtorm-class aircraft carrier as a possible option. This carrier will be a hybrid of CATOBAR and STOBAR, given the fact that she utilizes both systems of launching aircraft. The carrier is expected to cost between $1.8 billion and $5.63 billion[*clarification needed*]. As of 2020, the project had not yet been approved and, given the financial costs, it was unclear whether it would be made a priority over other elements of Russian naval modernization. A class of 2 LHD, Project 23900 is planned and an official keel laying ceremony for the project happened on 20 July 2020. ### South Korea Current Two *Dokdo*-class 18,860-tonne full deck amphibious assault ships with hospital and well deck and facilities to serve as fleet flagships. Future South Korea has set tentative plans for procuring two light aircraft carriers by 2033, which would help make the ROKN a blue water navy. In December 2020, details of South Korea's planned carrier program (CVX) were finalized. A vessel of about 40,000 tons is envisaged carrying about 20 F-35B fighters as well as future maritime attack helicopters. Service entry had been anticipated in the early 2030s. The program has encountered opposition in the National Assembly. In November 2021, the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly reduced the program's requested budget of 7.2 billion KRW and to just 500 million KRW (about $400K USD), effectively putting the project on hold, at least temporarily. However, on 3 December 2021 the full budget of 7.2 billion won was passed by the National Assembly. Basic design work is to begin in earnest starting 2022. ### Spain Current *Juan Carlos I*: 27,000-tonne, specially designed multipurpose strategic projection ship which can operate as an amphibious assault ship and aircraft carrier. Juan Carlos I has full facilities for both functions including a ski jump for STOVL operations, is equipped with the AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft. Also, well deck, and vehicle storage area which can be used as additional hangar space, launched in 2008, commissioned 30 September 2010. ### Thailand Current 1 offshore helicopter support ship: HTMS *Chakri Naruebet* helicopter carrier: 11,400-tonne STOVL carrier based on Spanish *Príncipe de Asturias* design. Commissioned in 1997. The AV-8S Matador/Harrier STOVL fighter wing, mostly inoperable by 1999, was retired from service without replacement in 2006. As of 2010, the ship is used for helicopter operations and for disaster relief. ### Turkey Current TCG *Anadolu* is a 27,079-tonne amphibious assault ship (LHD) of the Turkish Navy that can be configured as a 24,660-tonne V/STOL aircraft carrier. Construction began on 30 April 2016 by Sedef Shipbuilding Inc. at their Istanbul shipyard. TCG *Anadolu* was commissioned with a ceremony on April 10, 2023. The construction of a sister ship, to be named TCG *Trakya*, is currently being planned by the Turkish Navy. The Baykar Kızılelma, a newly designed, jet-engined UCAV developed for the Turkish Navy and Turkish Air Force as part of Project MIUS, will operate from TCG *Anadolu*. Its maiden flight was successfully completed on December 14, 2022. The runway tests of TAI Anka-3, another jet-engined UCAV of Project MIUS (with a flying wing design and stealth technology), began in April 2023. Its maiden flight is scheduled for May 2023. ### United Kingdom Current Two 65,000-tonne *Queen Elizabeth*-class STOVL carriers which operate the F-35 Lightning II. HMS *Queen Elizabeth* was commissioned in December 2017 and HMS *Prince of Wales* in December 2019. *Queen Elizabeth* undertook her first operational deployment in 2021. Each *Queen Elizabeth*-class ship is able to operate around 40 aircraft during peacetime operations and is thought to be able to carry up to 72 at maximum capacity. As of the end of April 2020, 18 F-35B aircraft had been delivered to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. "Full operating capability" for the UK's carrier strike capability had been planned for 2023 (2 squadrons or 24 jets operating from one carrier). The longer-term aim remains for the ability to conduct a wide range of air operations and support amphibious operations worldwide from both carriers by 2026. They form the central part of the UK Carrier Strike Group. Future The *Queen Elizabeth*-class ships are expected to have service lives of 50 years. ### United States Current 11 CATOBAR carriers, all nuclear-powered: * *Nimitz* class: ten 101,000-tonne, 333-meter-long (1,092 ft) fleet carriers, the first of which was commissioned in 1975. A *Nimitz*-class carrier is powered by two nuclear reactors providing steam to four steam turbines. * *Gerald R. Ford* class, one 100,000-tonne, 337-meter-long (1,106 ft) fleet carrier. The lead of the class *Gerald R. Ford* came into service in 2017, with another nine planned to replace the aging *Nimitz*-class ships. Nine amphibious assault ships carrying vehicles, Marine fighters, attack and transport helicopters, and landing craft with STOVL fighters for CAS and CAP: * *America* class: a class of 45,000-tonne amphibious assault ships, although the first two ships in this class, (Flight 0) do not have a well decks, all subsequent ships (Flight I) will have well decks. Two ships are currently in service out of a planned 11 ships. Ships of this class can have a secondary mission as a light aircraft carrier with 20 AV-8B Harrier II, and in the future the F-35B Lightning II aircraft after unloading their Marine expeditionary unit. * *Wasp* class: a class of 41,000-tonne amphibious assault ships, members of this class have been used in wartime in their secondary mission as light carriers with 20 to 25 AV-8Bs after unloading their Marine expeditionary unit. Seven ship currently in service of an original eight, with one lost to fire. Future The current US fleet of *Nimitz*-class carriers will be followed into service (and in some cases replaced) by the *Gerald R. Ford* class. It is expected that the ships will be more automated in an effort to reduce the amount of funding required to maintain and operate the vessels. The main new features are implementation of Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) (which replaces the old steam catapults) and unmanned aerial vehicles. In terms of future carrier developments, Congress has discussed the possibility of accelerating the phasing-out of one or more *Nimitz*-class carriers, postponing or canceling the procurement of CVN-81 and CVN-82, or modifying the purchase contract. Following the deactivation of USS *Enterprise* in December 2012, the US fleet comprised 10 fleet carriers, but that number increased back to 11 with the commissioning of *Gerald R. Ford* in July 2017. The House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee on 24 July 2007, recommended seven or eight new carriers (one every four years). However, the debate has deepened over budgeting for the $12–14.5 billion (plus $12 billion for development and research) for the 100,000-tonne *Gerald R. Ford*-class carrier (estimated service 2017) compared to the smaller $2 billion 45,000-tonne *America*-class amphibious assault ships, which are able to deploy squadrons of F-35Bs. The first of this class, USS *America*, is now in active service with another, USS *Tripoli*, and 9 more are planned. In a report to Congress in February 2018, the Navy stated it intends to maintain a "12 CVN force" as part of its 30-year acquisition plan. Aircraft carriers in preservation --------------------------------- ### Current museum carriers A few aircraft carriers have been preserved as museum ships. They are: * USS *Yorktown* (CV-10) in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina * USS *Intrepid* (CV-11) in New York City * USS *Hornet* (CV-12) in Alameda, California * USS *Lexington* (CV-16) in Corpus Christi, Texas * USS *Midway* (CV-41) in San Diego, California * Soviet aircraft carrier *Kiev* in Tianjin, China * Soviet aircraft carrier *Minsk* in Nantong, China ### Former museum carriers * INS *Vikrant* (1961) was moored as a museum in Mumbai from 2001 to 2012, but was never able to find an industrial partner and was closed that year. She was scrapped in 2014. * USS *Cabot* (CVL-28) was acquired for preservation and moored in New Orleans from 1990 to 2002, but due to an embezzlement scandal, funding for the museum never materialized and the ship was scrapped in 2002. ### Future museum carriers * USS *Tarawa* (LHA-1) has a preservation campaign to bring her to the West Coast of the United States as the world's first amphibious assault ship museum. See also -------- * Airborne aircraft carrier * Aviation-capable naval vessels * Carrier-based aircraft * Lily and Clover * Merchant aircraft carrier * Mobile offshore base * Project Habakkuk * Seadrome * Submarine aircraft carrier * Unsinkable aircraft carrier ### Related lists * List of aircraft carriers * List of aircraft carriers in service * List of aircraft carriers by configuration * List of aircraft carriers of the Second World War * List of sunken aircraft carriers * List of amphibious warfare ships * List of carrier-based aircraft * List of Canadian Navy aircraft carriers * List of aircraft carriers of the People's Liberation Army Navy (China) * List of current French Navy aircraft carriers * List of German aircraft carriers * List of aircraft carriers of the Indian Navy * List of Italian Navy aircraft carriers * List of aircraft carriers of the Japanese Navy * List of aircraft carriers of Russia and the Soviet Union * List of active Spanish aircraft carriers * List of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy * List of escort carriers of the Royal Navy * List of seaplane carriers of the Royal Navy * List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy * List of aircraft carrier classes of the United States Navy * List of escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy Bibliography ------------ * Friedman, Norman (1983). *U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History*. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9780870217395. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020. * Hobbs, David (2009). *A Century of Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of Ships and Shipborne Aircraft*. Barnsley, S Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1783466986. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2021. * Polak, Christian (2005). *Sabre et Pinceau: Par d'autres Français au Japon. 1872–1960* (in French and Japanese). Hiroshi Ueki (植木 浩), Philippe Pons, foreword; 筆と刀・日本の中のもうひとつのフランス (1872–1960). éd. L'Harmattan. * Sturtivant, Ray (1990). *British Naval Aviation, The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990*. London: Arm & Armour Press. ISBN 0-85368-938-5. * Till, Geoffrey (1996). "Adopting the Aircraft Carrier: The British, Japanese, and American Case Studies". In Murray, Williamson; Millet, Allan R (eds.). *Military Innovation in the Interwar Period*. Cambridge University Press. Further reading --------------- * Ader, Clement. *Military Aviation*, 1909, Edited and translated by Lee Kennett, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 2003, ISBN 978-1-58566-118-3. * Chesneau, Roger. *Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia*. Naval Institute Press, 1984. * Francillon, René J, *Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club US Carrier Operations off Vietnam*, 1988, ISBN 978-0-87021-696-1. * Friedman, Norman (1988). *British Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of the Ships and Their Aircraft*. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 9780870210549. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020. * Hone, Thomas C.; Friedman, Norman; Mandeles, Mark D. (2011). "Innovation in Carrier Aviation". *Naval War College Newport Papers* (37): 1–171. Archived from the original on 23 March 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020. * Melhorn, Charles M. *Two-Block Fox: The Rise of the Aircraft Carrier, 1911–1929*. Naval Institute Press, 1974. * Nordeen, Lon, *Air Warfare in the Missile Age*, 1985, ISBN 978-1-58834-083-2. * Polmar, Norman. *Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and its Influence on World Events, 1901–2006*. (two vols.) Potomac Books, 2006. * Trimble, William F. (1994). *Admiral William A. Moffett: Architect of Naval Aviation*. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 9781612514284. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020. * Wadle, Ryan David. *United States navy fleet problems and the development of carrier aviation, 1929–1933*. PhD dissertation Texas A&M University, 2005. online.

Aircraft carrier

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_carrier

**Sappho** (/ˈsæfoʊ/; Greek: Σαπφώ *Sapphō* [sap.pʰɔ̌ː]; Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω *Psápphō*; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the "Ode to Aphrodite" is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style. Little is known of Sappho's life. She was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though her parents' names are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; Charaxos (Χάραξος), Larichos (Λάριχος) and Eurygios (Εὐρύγιος). Two of them, Charaxos and Larichos, are mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014. She was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570 BC. According to legend, she killed herself by leaping from the Leucadian cliffs due to her unrequited love for the ferryman Phaon. Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines. She was best-known in antiquity for her love poetry; other themes in the surviving fragments of her work include family and religion. She probably wrote poetry for both individual and choral performance. Most of her best-known and best-preserved fragments explore personal emotions and were probably composed for solo performance. Her works are known for their clarity of language, vivid images, and immediacy. Sappho's poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, and she was among the canon of Nine Lyric Poets most highly esteemed by scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. Sappho's poetry is still considered extraordinary and her works continue to influence other writers. Beyond her poetry, she is well known as a symbol of love and desire between women, with the English words *sapphic* and *lesbian* deriving from her name and that of her home island respectively. Ancient sources --------------- Modern knowledge of Sappho comes both from what can be inferred from her own poetry, and from mentions of her in other ancient texts. Sappho's own poetry is the only contemporary source for her life. The earliest surviving biography of Sappho dates to the late second or early third century AD, approximately eight centuries after her own lifetime; the next is the *Suda*, a Byzantine-era encyclopedia. Other sources that mention details of her life were written much closer to her own era, beginning in the fifth century BC. The information about Sappho's life recorded in ancient sources was derived from statements in her own poetry that ancient authors assumed were biographical, along with local traditions. Some of the ancient traditions about her, such as those about her sexuality and appearance, may derive from comedy. Until the 19th century, ancient sources about archaic poets' lives were largely accepted uncritically. In the 19th century, classicists began to be more sceptical of these traditions, and instead tried to derive biographical information from their surviving poetry. In the latter half of the 20th century, scholars became increasingly sceptical of Greek lyric poetry as a source of autobiographical information. Some scholars, such as Mary Lefkowitz, argued that almost nothing can be known about the lives of early Greek poets such as Sappho; most scholars believe that ancient testimonies about poets' lives contain some truth but must be treated with caution. Life ---- Little is known about Sappho's life for certain. She was from the island of Lesbos and lived at the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth centuries BC. This is the date given by most ancient sources, who considered her a contemporary of Alcaeus and Pittacus. She therefore may have been born in the third quarter of the seventh century – Franco Ferrari infers a date of around 650 or 640 BC; David Campbell suggests around or before 630 BC. Gregory Hutchinson suggests she was active until around 570 BC. Tradition names Sappho's mother as Cleïs. This may derive from a now-lost poem or record, though ancient scholars may simply have guessed this name, assuming that Sappho's daughter was named Cleïs after her mother. Sappho's father's name is less certain. Ancient sources record ten different names for him; this proliferation of possible names suggests that he was not explicitly named in any of Sappho's poetry. The earliest and most commonly attested name for him is Scamandronymus. In Ovid's *Heroides*, Sappho's father died when she was seven. He is not mentioned in any of her surviving works, but Campbell suggests that this detail may have been based on a now-lost poem. Sappho's own name is found in numerous variant spellings; the form that appears in her own extant poetry is Psappho (Ψάπφω). Sappho was said to have three brothers: Eurygios, Larichos, and Charaxos. According to Athenaeus, she often praised Larichos for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families. This indication that Sappho was born into an aristocratic family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments that her verses record. One ancient tradition tells of a relation between Charaxos and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis. Herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxos ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that Sappho wrote a poem rebuking him for this. The names of two of the brothers, Charaxos and Larichos, are mentioned in the Brothers Poem, discovered in 2014; the final brother, Eurygios, is mentioned in three ancient sources but nowhere in the extant works of Sappho. Sappho may have had a daughter named Cleïs, who is referred to in two fragments. Not all scholars accept that Cleïs was Sappho's daughter. Fragment 132 describes Cleïs as "παῖς" (*pais*), which, as well as meaning "child", can also refer to the "youthful beloved in a male homosexual liaison". It has been suggested that Cleïs was one of her younger lovers, rather than her daughter, though Judith Hallett argues that the language used in fragment 132 suggests that Sappho was referring to Cleïs as her daughter. According to the Suda, Sappho was married to Kerkylas of Andros. This name appears to have been invented by a comic poet: the name "Kerkylas" (Κερκύλας) appears to be a diminutive of the word κέρκος (*kerkos*), a possible meaning of which is "penis", and is not otherwise attested as a name, while "Andros", as well as being the name of a Greek island, is a form of the Greek word ἀνήρ (*aner*), which means "man". Thus, the name is likely a joke, that Sappho was married to "Dick of Man" (or, as some scholars have facetiously translated it, "he's Dick-Allcock from the Isle of MAN"). One tradition said that Sappho was exiled from Lesbos around 600 BC. The only ancient source for this story is the Parian Chronicle, which records Sappho going into exile in Sicily some time between 604 and 595. This may have been as a result of her family's involvement with the conflicts between political elites on Lesbos in this period. It is unknown which side Sappho's family took in these conflicts, but most scholars believe that they were in the same faction as her contemporary Alcaeus, who was exiled when Myrsilus took power. A tradition going back at least to Menander (Fr. 258 K) suggested that Sappho killed herself by jumping off the Leucadian cliffs due to her unrequited love of Phaon, a ferryman. This story is related to two myths about the goddess Aphrodite. In one, Aphrodite rewarded the elderly ferryman Phaon with youth and good looks as a reward for taking her in his ferry without asking for payment; in the other, Aphrodite was cured of her grief at the death of her lover Adonis by throwing herself off of the Leucadian cliffs on the advice of Apollo. The story of Sappho's leap is regarded as ahistorical by modern scholars, perhaps invented by the comic poets or originating from a misreading of a first-person reference in a non-biographical poem. The legend may have resulted in part from a desire to assert Sappho as heterosexual. Works ----- Sappho probably wrote around 10,000 lines of poetry; today, only about 650 survive. She is best known for her lyric poetry, written to be accompanied by music. The Suda also attributes to Sappho epigrams, elegiacs, and iambics; three of these epigrams are extant, but are in fact later Hellenistic poems inspired by Sappho. The iambic and elegiac poems attributed to her in the Suda may also be later imitations. Ancient authors claim that Sappho primarily wrote love poetry, and the indirect transmission of Sappho's work supports this notion. However, the papyrus tradition suggests that this may not have been the case: a series of papyri published in 2014 contains fragments of ten consecutive poems from Book I of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho, of which only two are certainly love poems, while at least three and possibly four are primarily concerned with family. ### Ancient editions It is uncertain when Sappho's was first written down: some scholars believe that Sappho wrote her own poetry down for future readers; others that if she wrote her works down it was as an aid to reperformance rather than as a work of literature in its own right. In the fifth century BC, Athenian book publishers probably began to produce copies of Lesbian lyric poetry, some including explanatory material and glosses as well as the poems themselves. Some time in the second or third century, Alexandrian scholars produced a critical edition of Sappho's poetry. There may have been more than one Alexandrian edition – John J. Winkler argues for two, one edited by Aristophanes of Byzantium and another by his pupil Aristarchus of Samothrace. This is not certain – ancient sources tell us that Aristarchus' edition of Alcaeus replaced the edition by Aristophanes, but are silent on whether Sappho's work also went through multiple editions. The Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry may have been based on an Athenian text of Sappho's poems, or one from her native Lesbos, and was divided into at least eight books, though the exact number is uncertain. Many modern scholars have followed Denys Page, who conjectured a ninth book in the standard edition; Yatromanolakis doubts this, noting that though ancient sources refer to an eighth book of Sappho's poetry, none mention a ninth. The Alexandrian edition of Sappho probably grouped her poems by their metre: ancient sources tell us that each of the first three books contained poems in a single specific metre. Ancient editions of Sappho, possibly starting with the Alexandrian edition, seem to have ordered the poems in at least the first book of Sappho's poetry – which contained works composed in Sapphic stanzas – alphabetically. Even after the publication of the standard Alexandrian edition, Sappho's poetry continued to circulate in other poetry collections. For instance, the Cologne Papyrus on which the Tithonus poem is preserved was part of a Hellenistic anthology of poetry, which contained poetry arranged by theme, rather than by metre and incipit, as it was in the Alexandrian edition. ### Surviving poetry Fragments of papyrusA fragment of teracotta pottery, written on with black ink.Most of Sappho's poetry is preserved in manuscripts of other ancient writers or on papyrus fragments, but part of one poem survives on a potsherd. The papyrus pictured (left) preserves the Tithonus poem (fragment 58); the potsherd (right) preserves fragment 2. The earliest surviving manuscripts of Sappho, including the potsherd on which fragment 2 is preserved, date to the third century BC, and thus might predate the Alexandrian edition. The latest surviving copies of Sappho's poems transmitted directly from ancient times are written on parchment codex pages from the sixth and seventh centuries AD, and were surely reproduced from ancient papyri now lost. Manuscript copies of Sappho's works may have survived a few centuries longer, but around the ninth century her poetry appears to have disappeared, and by the 12th century, John Tzetzes could write that "the passage of time has destroyed Sappho and her works". According to legend, Sappho's poetry was lost because the church disapproved of her morals. These legends appear to have originated in the Renaissance – around 1550, Jerome Cardan wrote that Gregory Nazianzen had Sappho's work publicly destroyed, and at the end of the 16th century Joseph Justus Scaliger claimed that Sappho's works were burned in Rome and Constantinople in 1073 on the orders of Pope Gregory VII. In reality, Sappho's work was probably lost as the demand for it was insufficiently great for it to be copied onto parchment when codices superseded papyrus scrolls as the predominant form of book. A contributing factor to the loss of Sappho's poems may have been her Aeolic dialect, considered provincial in a period where the Attic dialect was seen as the true classical Greek, and had become the standard for literary compositions. Consequently, many readers found Sappho's dialect difficult to understand: in the second century AD, the Roman author Apuleius specifically remarks on its "strangeness", and several commentaries on the subject demonstrate the difficulties that readers had with it. This was part of a more general decline in interest in the archaic poets; indeed, the surviving papyri suggest that Sappho's poetry survived longer than that of her contemporaries such as Alcaeus. Only approximately 650 lines of Sappho's poetry still survive, of which just one poem – the "Ode to Aphrodite" – is complete, and more than half of the original lines survive in around ten more fragments. Many of the surviving fragments of Sappho contain only a single word – for example, fragment 169A is simply a word meaning "wedding gifts", and survives as part of a dictionary of rare words. The two major sources of surviving fragments of Sappho are quotations in other ancient works, from a whole poem to as little as a single word, and fragments of papyrus, many of which were rediscovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Other fragments survive on other materials, including parchment and potsherds. The oldest surviving fragment of Sappho currently known is the Cologne papyrus that contains the Tithonus poem, dating to the third century BC. Until the last quarter of the 19th century, only the ancient quotations of Sappho survived. In 1879, the first new discovery of a fragment of Sappho was made at Fayum. By the end of the 19th century, Grenfell and Hunt had begun to excavate an ancient rubbish dump at Oxyrhynchus, leading to the discoveries of many previously unknown fragments of Sappho. Fragments of Sappho continue to be rediscovered. Most recently, major discoveries in 2004 (the "Tithonus poem" and a new, previously unknown fragment) and 2014 (fragments of nine poems: five already known but with new readings, four, including the "Brothers Poem", not previously known) have been reported in the media around the world. ### Style Sappho worked within a well-developed tradition of Lesbian poetry, which had evolved its own poetic diction, metres, and conventions. Prior to Sappho and her contemporary Alcaeus, Lesbos was associated with poetry and music through the mythical Orpheus and Arion, and the seventh-century BC poet Terpander. The Lesbian metrical tradition in which Sappho composed her poetry was distinct from that of the rest of Greece as its lines always contained a fixed number of syllables – in contrast to other traditions that allowed for the substitution of two short syllables for one long or vice versa. Sappho was one of the first Greek poets to adopt the "lyric 'I'" – to write poetry adopting the viewpoint of a specific person, in contrast to the earlier epic poets Homer and Hesiod, who present themselves more as "conduits of divine inspiration". Her poetry explores individual identity and personal emotions – desire, jealousy, and love; it also adopts and reinterprets the existing imagery of epic poetry in exploring these themes. Much of her poetry focuses on the lives and experiences of women. Along with the love poetry for which she is best known, her surviving works include poetry focused on the family, epic-influenced narrative, wedding songs, cult hymns, and invective. With the exception of a few songs, where the performance context can be deduced from the surviving fragments with some degree of confidence, scholars disagree on how and where Sappho's works were performed. It seems to have been composed for a variety of occasions both public and private, and probably encompassed both solo and choral works. Most of her best-preserved fragments, such as the Ode to Aphrodite, are usually thought to be written for solo performance – though some scholars, such as André Lardinois, believe that most or all of her poems were originally composed for choral performances. These works, which Leslie Kurke describes as "private and informal compositions" in contrast to the public ritual nature of cultic hymns and wedding songs, tend to avoid giving details of a specific chronological, geographical, or occasional setting, which Kurke suggests facilitated their reperformance by other performers outside of Sappho's original context. Sappho's poetry is known for its clear language and simple thoughts, sharply-drawn images, and use of direct quotation that brings a sense of immediacy. Unexpected word-play is a characteristic feature of her style. An example is from fragment 96: "now she stands out among Lydian women as after sunset the rose-fingered moon exceeds all stars", a variation of the Homeric epithet "rosy-fingered Dawn". Her poetry often uses hyperbole, according to ancient critics "because of its charm": for example, in fragment 111 she writes that "The groom approaches like Ares [...] Much bigger than a big man". Kurke groups Sappho with those archaic Greek poets from what has been called the "élite" ideological tradition, which valued luxury (*habrosyne*) and high birth. These elite poets tended to identify themselves with the worlds of Greek myths, gods, and heroes, as well as the wealthy East, especially Lydia. Thus in fragment 2 she has Aphrodite "pour into golden cups nectar lavishly mingled with joys", while in the Tithonus poem she explicitly states that "I love the finer things [*habrosyne*]". According to Page DuBois, the language, as well as the content, of Sappho's poetry evokes an aristocratic sphere. She contrasts Sappho's "flowery,[...] adorned" style with the "austere, decorous, restrained" style embodied in the works of later classical authors such as Sophocles, Demosthenes, and Pindar. ### Music Sappho's poetry was written to be sung but its musical content is largely uncertain. As it is unlikely that any system of musical notation existed in Ancient Greece before the fifth century, the original music that would have accompanied Sappho's songs probably did not survive until the classical period, and no ancient musical scores to accompany Sappho's poetry survive. Sappho was said to have written in the mixolydian mode, which was considered sorrowful; it was commonly used in Greek tragedy, and Aristoxenus believed that the tragedians learned it from Sappho. Aristoxenus attributed Sappho the invention of this mode, but this is unlikely. While there are no attestations that she used other modes, she presumably varied them depending on the poem's character. When originally sung, each syllable of her text likely corresponded to one note as the use of lengthy melismas developed in the later classical period. Sappho chiefly wrote for two formats: solo singers and choirs. With Alcaeus, she pioneered a new style of sung monody (single-line melody) that departed from the multi-part choral style that largely defined earlier Greek music. This style afforded her more opportunities to individualize the content of her poems; the historian Plutarch noted that she "speaks words mingled truly with fire, and through her songs, she draws up the heat of her heart". Some scholars theorize that the Tithonus Poem was among her works meant for a solo singer. Only fragments of Sappho's choral works are extant; of these, her epithalamia (wedding songs) survive better than her cultic hymns. The later compositions were probably meant for antiphonal performance between either a male and female choir or a soloist and choir. In Sappho's time, sung poetry was usually accompanied by musical instruments, which usually doubled the voice in unison or played homophonically an octave higher or lower. Her poems mention numerous instruments, including the pēktis, a harp of Lydian origin, and lyre. Sappho is most closely associated with the barbitos, a lyre-like string instrument that was deep in pitch. Euphorion of Chalcis reports that she referred to it in her poetry, and a well-known fifth-century vase by either the Dokimasia Painter or Brygos Painter includes Sappho and Alcaeus with barbitoi. Sappho mentions the aulos, a wind instrument with two pipes, in fragment 44 as accompanying the song of the Trojan women at Hector and Andromache's wedding, but not as accompanying her own poetry. Later Greek commentators wrongly believed that she had invented the plectrum. Social context -------------- One of the major focuses of scholars studying Sappho has been to attempt to determine the cultural context in which Sappho's poems were composed and performed. Various cultural contexts and social roles played by Sappho have been suggested: primarily teacher, priestess, chorus leader, and symposiast. However, the performance contexts of many of Sappho's fragments are not easy to determine, and for many more than one possible context is conceivable. One longstanding suggestion of a social role for Sappho is that of "Sappho as schoolmistress". This view, popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was advocated by the German classicist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, to "explain away Sappho's passion for her 'girls'" and defend her from accusations of homosexuality. The view continues to be influential, both among scholars and the general public, though more recently the idea has been criticised by historians as anachronistic and has been rejected by several prominent classicists as unjustified by the evidence. In 1959, Denys Page, for example, stated that Sappho's extant fragments portray "the loves and jealousies, the pleasures and pains, of Sappho and her companions"; and he adds, "We have found, and shall find, no trace of any formal or official or professional relationship between them... no trace of Sappho the principal of an academy." David A. Campbell in 1967 judged that Sappho may have "presided over a literary coterie", but that "evidence for a formal appointment as priestess or teacher is hard to find". None of Sappho's own poetry mentions her teaching, and the earliest source to support the idea of Sappho as a teacher comes from Ovid, six centuries after Sappho's lifetime. Despite these problems, many newer interpretations of Sappho's social role are still based on this idea. In these interpretations, Sappho was involved in the ritual education of girls, for instance as a trainer of choruses of girls. Though not all of her poems can be interpreted in this light, Lardinois argues that this is the most plausible social context to site Sappho in. In the twentieth century, the suggestion that Sappho was a priestess of Aphrodite became more popular. However, though Sappho wrote hymns, including some dedicated to Aphrodite, there is no evidence that she held a priesthood. More recent scholars have proposed that Sappho was part of a circle of women who took part in symposia, for which she composed and performed poetry, or that she wrote her poetry to be performed at men's symposia. Though her songs were certainly later performed at symposia, there is no external evidence for archaic Greek women's symposia, and even if some of her works were composed for a sympotic context, it is doubtful that the cultic hymns or poems about family would have been. Despite scholars' best attempts to find one, Yatromanolakis argues that there is no single performance context to which all of Sappho's poems can be attributed. Camillo Neri argues that it is unnecessary to assign all of her poetry to one context, and suggests that she could have composed poetry both in a pedogogic role and as part of a circle of friends. Sexuality --------- A man plays the lyre in front of an audience of five women, in a Greek-style theatre. The names of women associated with Sappho are inscribed on the seats.Two seated women embrace. A lyre is propped up beside them.Sappho's sexuality has long been the subject of debate. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's *Sappho and Alcaeus* (above) portrays her staring rapturously at Alcaeus; images of a lesbian Sappho, such as Simeon Solomon's painting of *Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene* (below), were much less common in the 19th century. The common term *lesbian* is an allusion to Sappho, originating from the name of the island of Lesbos, where she was born. However, she has not always been considered so. In classical Athenian comedy (from the Old Comedy of the fifth century to Menander in the late fourth and early third centuries BC), Sappho was caricatured as a promiscuous heterosexual woman, and the earliest surviving sources to explicitly discuss Sappho's homoeroticism come from the Hellenistic period. The earliest of these is a fragmentary biography written on papyrus in the late third or early second century BC, which states that Sappho was "accused by some of being irregular in her ways and a woman-lover". Denys Page comments that the phrase "by some" implies that even the full corpus of Sappho's poetry did not provide conclusive evidence of whether she described herself as having sex with women. These ancient authors do not appear to have believed that Sappho did, in fact, have sexual relationships with other women, and as late as the 10th century the Suda records that Sappho was "slanderously accused" of having sexual relationships with her "female pupils". Among modern scholars, Sappho's sexuality is still debated – André Lardinois has described it as the "Great Sappho Question". Early translators of Sappho sometimes heterosexualised her poetry. Ambrose Philips' 1711 translation of the Ode to Aphrodite portrayed the object of Sappho's desire as male, a reading that was followed by virtually every other translator of the poem until the 20th century, while in 1781 Alessandro Verri interpreted fragment 31 as being about Sappho's love for Phaon. Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker argued that Sappho's feelings for other women were "entirely idealistic and non-sensual", while Karl Otfried Müller wrote that fragment 31 described "nothing but a friendly affection": Glenn Most comments that "one wonders what language Sappho would have used to describe her feelings if they had been ones of sexual excitement", if this theory were correct. By 1970, it would be argued that the same poem contained "proof positive of [Sappho's] lesbianism". Today, it is generally accepted that Sappho's poetry portrays homoerotic feelings: as Sandra Boehringer puts it, her works "clearly celebrate eros between women". Toward the end of the 20th century, though, some scholars began to reject the question of whether or not Sappho was a lesbian – Glenn Most wrote that Sappho herself "would have had no idea what people mean when they call her nowadays a homosexual", André Lardinois stated that it is "nonsensical" to ask whether Sappho was a lesbian, and Page DuBois calls the question a "particularly obfuscating debate". Legacy ------ ### Ancient reputation In antiquity, Sappho's poetry was highly admired, and several ancient sources refer to her as the "tenth Muse". The earliest surviving poem to do so is a third-century BC epigram by Dioscorides, but poems are preserved in the *Greek Anthology* by Antipater of Sidon and attributed to Plato on the same theme. She was sometimes referred to as "The Poetess", just as Homer was "The Poet". The scholars of Alexandria included her in the canon of nine lyric poets. According to Aelian, the Athenian lawmaker and poet Solon asked to be taught a song by Sappho "so that I may learn it and then die". This story may well be apocryphal, especially as Ammianus Marcellinus tells a similar story about Socrates and a song of Stesichorus, but it is indicative of how highly Sappho's poetry was considered in the ancient world. Sappho's poetry also influenced other ancient authors. In Greek, the Hellenistic poet Nossis was described by Marilyn B. Skinner as an imitator of Sappho, and Kathryn Gutzwiller argues that Nossis explicitly positioned herself as an inheritor of Sappho's position as a woman poet. Beyond poetry, Plato cites Sappho in his *Phaedrus*, and Socrates' second speech on love in that dialogue appears to echo Sappho's descriptions of the physical effects of desire in fragment 31. In the first century BC, Catullus established the themes and metres of Sappho's poetry as a part of Latin literature, adopting the Sapphic stanza, believed in antiquity to have been invented by Sappho, giving his lover in his poetry the name "Lesbia" in reference to Sappho, and adapting and translating Sappho's 31st fragment in his poem 51. Other ancient poets wrote about Sappho's life. She was a popular character in ancient Athenian comedy, and at least six separate comedies called *Sappho* are known. The earliest known ancient comedy to take Sappho as its main subject was the early-fifth or late-fourth century BC *Sappho* by Ameipsias, though nothing is known of it apart from its name. As these comedies survive only in fragments, it is uncertain exactly how they portrayed Sappho, but she was likely characterised as a promiscuous woman. In Diphilos' play, she was the lover of the poets Anacreon and Hipponax. Sappho was also a favourite subject in the visual arts. She was the most commonly depicted poet on sixth and fifth-century Attic red-figure vase paintings – though unlike male poets such as Anacreon and Alcaeus, in the four surviving vases in which she is identified by an inscription she is never shown singing. She was also shown on coins from Mytilene and Eresos from the first to third centuries AD, and reportedly depicted in a sculpture by Silanion at Syracuse, statues in Pergamon and Constantinople, and a painting by the Hellenistic artist Leon. From the fourth century BC, ancient works portray Sappho as a tragic heroine, driven to suicide by her unrequited love for Phaon. A fragment of a play by Menander says that Sappho threw herself off of the cliff at Leucas out of her love for him. Ovid's *Heroides* 15 is written as a letter from Sappho to Phaon, and when it was first rediscovered in the 15th century was thought to be a translation of an authentic letter of Sappho's. Sappho's suicide was also depicted in classical art, for instance on the first-century BC Porta Maggiore Basilica in Rome. While Sappho's poetry was admired in the ancient world, her character was not always so well considered. In the Roman period, critics found her lustful and perhaps even homosexual. Horace called her "mascula Sappho" in his *Epistles*, which the later Porphyrio commented was "either because she is famous for her poetry, in which men more often excel, or because she is maligned for having been a tribad". By the third century AD, the difference between Sappho's literary reputation as a poet and her moral reputation as a woman had become so significant that the suggestion that there were in fact two Sapphos began to develop. In his *Historical Miscellanies*, Aelian wrote that there was "another Sappho, a courtesan, not a poetess". ### Modern reception By the medieval period, Sappho's works had been lost, though she was still quoted in later authors. Her work became more accessible in the 16th century through printed editions of those authors who had quoted her. In 1508 Aldus Manutius printed an edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which contained Sappho 1, the "Ode to Aphrodite", and the first printed edition of Longinus' *On the Sublime*, complete with his quotation of Sappho 31, appeared in 1554. In 1566, the French printer Robert Estienne produced an edition of the Greek lyric poets that contained around 40 fragments attributed to Sappho. In 1652, the first English translation of a poem by Sappho was published, in John Hall's translation of *On the Sublime*. In 1681 Anne Le Fèvre's French edition of Sappho made her work even more widely known. Theodor Bergk's 1854 edition became the standard edition of Sappho in the second half of the 19th century; in the first part of the 20th century, the papyrus discoveries of new poems by Sappho led to editions and translations by Edwin Marion Cox and John Maxwell Edmonds, and culminated in the 1955 publication of Edgar Lobel's and Denys Page's *Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta*. Like the ancients, modern critics have tended to consider Sappho's poetry "extraordinary". As early as the ninth century, Sappho was referred to as a talented woman poet, and in works such as Boccaccio's *De Claris Mulieribus* and Christine de Pisan's *Book of the City of Ladies* she gained a reputation as a learned lady. Even after Sappho's works had been lost, the Sapphic stanza continued to be used in medieval lyric poetry, and with the rediscovery of her work in the Renaissance, she began to increasingly influence European poetry. In the 16th century, members of La Pléiade, a circle of French poets, were influenced by her to experiment with Sapphic stanzas and with writing love-poetry with a first-person female voice. Western classical composers have also been inspired by Sappho; notable compositions based on her life or works include operas such as *Sappho* (1794) by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, *Sappho* (1897) by Jules Massenet, *Sappho* (1963) by Peggy Glanville-Hicks; the percussion piece *Psappha* (1975) and orchestral work *Aïs* (1980) by Iannis Xenakis; and the composition *Charaxos, Eos and Tithonos* (2014) by Theodore Antoniou. From the Romantic era, Sappho's work – especially her "Ode to Aphrodite" – has been a key influence of conceptions of what lyric poetry should be. Such influential poets as Alfred Lord Tennyson in the 19th century, and A. E. Housman in the 20th century, have been influenced by her poetry. Tennyson based poems including "Eleanore" and "Fatima" on Sappho's fragment 31, while three of Housman's works are adaptations of the Midnight poem, long thought to be by Sappho though the authorship is now disputed. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Imagists – especially Ezra Pound, H. D., and Richard Aldington – were influenced by Sappho's fragments; a number of Pound's poems in his early collection *Lustra* were adaptations of Sapphic poems, while H. D.'s poetry was frequently Sapphic in "style, theme or content", and in some cases, such as "Fragment 40" more specifically invoke Sappho's writing. It was not long after the rediscovery of Sappho that her sexuality once again became the focus of critical attention. In the early 17th century, John Donne wrote "Sapho to Philaenis", returning to the idea of Sappho as a hypersexual lover of women. The modern debate on Sappho's sexuality began in the 19th century, with Welcker publishing, in 1816, an article defending Sappho from charges of prostitution and lesbianism, arguing that she was chaste – a position that would later be taken up by Wilamowitz at the end of the 19th and Henry Thornton Wharton at the beginning of the 20th centuries. In the 19th century Sappho was co-opted by the Decadent Movement as a lesbian "daughter of de Sade", by Charles Baudelaire in France and later Algernon Charles Swinburne in England. By the late 19th century, lesbian writers such as Michael Field and Amy Levy became interested in Sappho for her sexuality, and by the turn of the 20th century she was a sort of "patron saint of lesbians". From the beginning of the 19th century, women poets such as Felicia Hemans (*The Last Song of Sappho*) and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (*Sketch the First. Sappho*, and in *Ideal Likenesses*) took Sappho as one of their progenitors. Sappho also began to be regarded as a role model for campaigners for women's rights, beginning with works such as Caroline Norton's *The Picture of Sappho*. Later in that century, she would become a model for the so-called New Woman – independent and educated women who desired social and sexual autonomy – and by the 1960s, the feminist Sappho was – along with the hypersexual, often but not exclusively lesbian Sappho – one of the two most important cultural perceptions of Sappho. The discoveries of new poems by Sappho in 2004 and 2014 excited both scholarly and media attention. The announcement of the Tithonus poem was the subject of international news coverage, and was described by Marilyn Skinner as "the *trouvaille* of a lifetime". See also -------- * Ancient Greek literature * Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 7 – papyrus preserving Sappho fr. 5 * Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1231 – papyrus preserving Sappho fr. 15–30 * Lesbian poetry Works cited ----------- * Anderson, Warren (2001). "Sappho". *Grove Music Online*. Revised by Thomas J. Mathiesen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24571. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required) * Battezzato, Luigi (2021). "Sappho's Metres and Music". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 121–134. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Bierl, Anton; Lardinois, André (2016). "Introduction". In Bierl, Anton; Lardinois, André (eds.). *The Newest Sappho: P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105, frs.1–4*. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-31483-2. * Boehringer, Sandra (2014). "Female Homoeroticism". In Hubbard, Thomas K. (ed.). *A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities*. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-9572-0. * Bolling, George Melville (1961). "Textual Notes on the Lesbian Poets". *The American Journal of Philology*. **82** (2): 151–163. doi:10.2307/292403. JSTOR 292403. * Budelmann, Felix (2019). *Greek Lyric: A Selection*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63387-1. * Burn, A. R. (1960). *The Lyric Age of Greece*. New York: St Martin's Press. OCLC 1331549123. * Campbell, D. A. (1967). *Greek Lyric Poetry: A Selection of Early Greek Lyric, Elegiac and Iambic Poetry*. London: Macmillan. OCLC 867865631. * Campbell, D. A., ed. (1982). *Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus*. Loeb Classical Library No. 142. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99157-6. * Clayman, Dee (2011). "The New Sappho in a Hellenistic Poetry Book". *Classics@*. **4**. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2016. * Dale, Alexander (2011). "Sapphica". *Harvard Studies in Classical Philology*. **106**. JSTOR 23621995. * DeJean, Joan (1989). *Fictions of Sappho: 1546–1937*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-14135-0. * de Kreij, Mark (2015). "Transmissions and Textual Variants: Divergent Fragments of Sappho's Songs Examined". In Lardinois, André; Levie, Sophie; Hoeken, Hans; Lüthy, Christoph (eds.). *Texts, Transmissions, Receptions: Modern Approaches to Narratives*. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-27084-8. * Devereux, George (1970). "The Nature of Sappho's Seizure in Fr. 31 LP as Evidence of Her Inversion". *The Classical Quarterly*. **20** (1): 17–31. doi:10.1017/S0009838800044542. JSTOR 637501. PMID 11620360. S2CID 3193720. * duBois, Page (1995). *Sappho Is Burning*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-16755-8. * duBois, Page (2015). *Sappho*. Understanding Classics. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-784-53361-8. * Ferrari, Franco (2010). *Sappho's Gift: The Poet and Her Community*. Translated by Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin; Prauscello, Lucia. Ann Arbor: Michigan Classical Press. ISBN 978-0-9799713-3-4. * Ferrari, Franco (2021). "Performing Sappho". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Finglass, P. J. (2021). "Sappho on the Papyri". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Gordon, Pamela (2002). "Introduction". *Sappho: Poems and Fragments*. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-87220-591-8. * Gosetti-Murrayjohn, Angela (Winter 2006). "Sappho as the Tenth Muse in Hellenistic Epigram". *Arethusa*. **39** (1): 21–45. doi:10.1353/are.2006.0003. JSTOR 44578087. S2CID 161681219. * Gubar, Susan (1984). "Sapphistries". *Signs*. **10** (1): 43–62. doi:10.1086/494113. JSTOR 3174236. S2CID 225088703. * Hallett, Judith P. (1979). "Sappho and her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality". *Signs*. **4** (3): 447–464. doi:10.1086/493630. JSTOR 3173393. S2CID 143119907. * Hallett, Judith P. (1982). "Beloved Cleïs". *Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica*. **10**: 21–31. doi:10.2307/20538708. JSTOR 20538708. * Hutchinson, G. O. (2001). *Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924017-3. * Johannides, P. (1983). *The Drawings of Raphael: With a Complete Catalogue*. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05087-7. * Kivilo, Maarit (2010). *Early Greek Poets' Lives: The Shaping of the Tradition*. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-19328-4. * Kivilo, Maarit (2021). "Sappho's Lives". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Klinck, Anne L. (2005). "Sleeping in the Bosom of a Tender Companion". *Journal of Homosexuality*. **49** (3–4): 193–208. doi:10.1300/j082v49n03\_07. PMID 16338894. S2CID 35046856. * Kurke, Leslie V. (2007). "Archaic Greek Poetry". In Shapiro, H.A. (ed.). *The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82200-8. * Kurke, Leslie V. (2021). "Sappho and Genre". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Lardinois, André (2008). "Someone, I Say, Will Remember Us: Oral Memory in Sappho's Poetry". In Mackay, Anne (ed.). *Orality, Literacy, Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman World*. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-47-43384-2. * Lardinois, André (2014) [1989]. "Lesbian Sappho and Sappho of Lesbos". In Bremmer, Jan (ed.). *From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality*. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-78124-5. * Lardinois, André (2021). "Sappho's Personal Poetry". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * Lardinois, André (2022). "Sappho". 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In Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olga; Lyons, Claire L.; Kampen, Natalie Boymel (eds.). *Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology*. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-60385-5. * Thomas, Rosalind (2021). "Sappho's Lesbos". In Finglass, P. J.; Kelly, Adrian (eds.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sappho*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63877-4. * West, Martin Litchfield (1992). *Ancient Greek Music*. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-158685-9. * West, Martin L. (2005). "The New Sappho". *Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik*. **151**. JSTOR 20191962. * Williamson, Margaret (1995). *Sappho's Immortal Daughters*. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-78912-8. * Wilson, Penelope (2012). "Women Writers and the Classics". In Hopkins, David; Martindale, Charles (eds.). *The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature*. Vol. 3 (1660–1790). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921981-0. * Winkler, John J. (1990). *The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece*. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-90123-9. * Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios (1999). "Alexandrian Sappho Revisited". *Harvard Studies in Classical Philology*. **99**: 179–195. doi:10.2307/311481. JSTOR 311481. * Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios (2008). *Sappho in the Making: the Early Reception*. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02686-5. * Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios (2009). "Alcaeus and Sappho". In Budelmann, Felix (ed.). *The Cambridge Companion to Greek Lyric*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-00247-9. * Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios (27 February 2019) [10 May 2017]. "Sappho". *Oxford Bibliographies: Classics*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OBO/9780195389661-0074. ISBN 978-0-19-538966-1. (subscription required) * Zellner, Harold (Summer 2008). "Sappho's Sparrows". *The Classical World*. **101** (4): 435–442. doi:10.1353/clw.0.0026. JSTOR 25471966. S2CID 162301196. Further reading --------------- * Balmer, Josephine (2018). *Sappho: Poems and Fragments* (2 ed.). Hexham: Bloodaxe Books. ISBN 978-1-78037-457-4. * Barnstone, Willis, ed. (2009). *The Complete Poems of Sappho*. Boulder: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-0-8348-2200-9. * Boehringer, Sandra (2021). *Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome*. Translated by Preger, Anna. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-74476-2. * Carson, Anne (2002). *If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho*. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-41067-3. * Duban, Jeffrey M. (1983). *Ancient and Modern Images of Sappho: Translations and Studies in Archaic Greek love Lyric*. Lanham: University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-3560-5. * Freeman, Philip (2016). *Searching for Sappho: The Lost Songs and World of the First Woman Poet*. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-24223-2. * Greene, Ellen, ed. (1996). *Reading Sappho*. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20603-8. * Lobel, E.; Page, D. L., eds. (1955). *Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta*. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814137-2. * Powell, Jim (2019). *The Poetry Of Sappho*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-093738-6. * Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1997). *Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho*. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-09994-3. * Voigt, Eva-Maria (1971). *Sappho et Alcaeus. Fragmenta*. Amsterdam: Polak & van Gennep. OCLC 848526203.

Sappho

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho

**Samson** (/ˈsæmsən/; Hebrew: שִׁמְשׁוֹן *Šimšōn* "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes considered as an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero also embodied by the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Enkidu and the Greek Heracles. The biblical account states that Samson was a Nazirite, and that he was given immense strength to aid him against his enemies and allow him to perform superhuman feats, including slaying a lion with his bare hands and massacring an entire army of Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey. However, if Samson's long hair were cut, then his Nazirite vow would be violated and he would lose his strength. Samson is betrayed by his lover Delilah, who, sent by the Philistines officials to entice him, orders a servant to cut his hair while he is sleeping and turns him over to his Philistine enemies, who gouge out his eyes and force him to grind grain in a mill at Gaza. While there, his hair begins to grow again. When the Philistines take Samson into their temple of Dagon, Samson asks to rest against one of the support pillars. After being granted permission, he prays to God and miraculously recovers his strength, allowing him to bring down the columns, collapsing the temple and killing himself as well as all of the Philistines. In some Jewish traditions, Samson is believed to have been buried in Zorah in Israel overlooking the Sorek valley. Samson has been the subject of rabbinic and Christian commentary, with some Christians viewing him as a type of Jesus, based on similarities between their lives. Notable depictions of Samson include John Milton's closet drama *Samson Agonistes* and Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 Hollywood film *Samson and Delilah*. Samson also plays a major role in Western art and traditions. Biblical narrative ------------------ ### Birth According to the account in the Book of Judges, Samson lived during a time of repeated conflict between Israel and Philistia, when God was disciplining the Israelites by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines". Manoah was an Israelite from Zorah, descended from the Danites, and his wife had been unable to conceive. The Angel of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife and proclaims that the couple would soon have a son who would begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. The Angel of the Lord states that Manoah's wife was to abstain from all alcoholic drinks, unclean foods, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a Nazirite from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a time could take a Nazirite vow which included abstaining from wine and spirits, not cutting hair or shaving, and other requirements. Manoah's wife believes the Angel of the Lord; her husband was not present, so he prays and asks God to send the messenger once again to teach them how to raise the boy who is going to be born. After the Angel of the Lord returns, Manoah asks him his name, but he says, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." Manoah then prepares a sacrifice, but the Angel of the Lord will only allow it to be for God. He touches it with his staff, miraculously engulfing it in flames, and then ascends into the sky in the fire. This is such dramatic evidence of the nature of the Messenger that Manoah fears for his life, since it was said that no one could live after seeing God. However, his wife convinces him that, if God planned to slay them, he would never have revealed such things to them. In due time, their son Samson is born, and he is raised according to the angel's instructions. ### Marriage to a Philistine When he is a young adult, Samson leaves the hills of his people to see the cities of Philistia. He falls in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah, whom he decides to marry, ignoring the objections of his parents over the fact that she is not an Israelite. In the development of the narrative, the intended marriage is shown to be part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines. According to the biblical account, Samson is repeatedly seized by the "Spirit of the Lord," who blesses him with immense strength. The first instance of this is seen when Samson is on his way to ask for the Philistine woman's hand in marriage, when he is attacked by a lion. He simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the spirit of God divinely empowers him. However, Samson keeps it a secret, not even mentioning the miracle to his parents. He arrives at the Philistine's house and becomes betrothed to her. He returns home, then comes back to Timnah some time later for the wedding. On his way, Samson sees that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and made honey. He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents. At the wedding feast, Samson tells a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines). If they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments, but if they cannot they must give him thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle is a veiled account of two encounters with the lion, at which only he was present: Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle. The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she did not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them. At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson gives her the solution, and she passes it on to the thirty groomsmen. Before sunset on the seventh day, they say to him, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? Samson replies, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. Samson then travels to Ashkelon (a distance of roughly 30 miles) where he slays thirty Philistines for their garments; he then returns and gives those garments to his thirty groomsmen. In a rage, Samson returns to his father's house. The family of his bride instead give her to one of the groomsmen as wife. Some time later, Samson returns to Timnah to visit his wife, unaware that she is now married to one of his former groomsmen. But her father refuses to allow Samson to see her, offering to give Samson a younger sister instead. Samson goes out, gathers 300 foxes, and ties them together in pairs by their tails. He then attaches a burning torch to each pair of foxes' tails and turns them loose in the grain fields and olive groves of the Philistines. The Philistines learn why Samson burned their crops and burn Samson's wife and father-in-law to death in retribution. In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, saying, "I have done to them what they did to me." Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam. An army of Philistines go to the tribe of Judah and demand that 3,000 men of Judah deliver them Samson. With Samson's consent, given on the condition that the Judahites would not kill him themselves, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free of the ropes. Using the jawbone of a donkey, he slays 1,000 Philistines. ### Delilah Later, Samson travels to Gaza, where he sees a prostitute (Hebrew: אִשָּׁ֣ה זוֹנָ֔ה) and visits her. His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he tears the gate from its very hinges and frame and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron". He then falls in love with Delilah in the valley of Sorek. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her with 1,100 silver coins to find the secret of Samson's strength so that they can capture their enemy, but Samson refuses to reveal the secret and teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength if he is bound with fresh bowstrings. She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her that he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says that he can be bound if his locks are woven into a weaver's loom. She weaves them into a loom, but he simply destroys the entire loom and carries it off when he wakes. Delilah, however, persists and Samson finally capitulates and tells Delilah that God supplies his power because of his consecration to God as a Nazirite, symbolized by the fact that a razor has never touched his head, and that if his hair is cut off he will lose his strength. Delilah then woos him to sleep "in her lap" and calls for a servant to cut his hair. Samson loses his strength and he is captured by the Philistines, who blind him by gouging out his eyes. They then take him to Gaza, imprison him, and put him to work turning a large millstone and grinding grain. Pushing or pulling?PushingPullingAccording to the biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV). This has been variously interpreted as Samson pushing the pillars apart (*left*) or pulling them together (*right*). ### Death One day, the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson so that people can watch him perform for them. The temple is so crowded that people are even climbing onto the roof to watch – and all the rulers of the entire government of Philistia have gathered there too, some 3,000 people in all. Samson is led into the temple, and he asks his captors to let him lean against the supporting pillars to rest. However, while in prison his hair had begun to grow again. He prays for strength and God gives him strength to break the pillars, causing the temple to collapse, killing him and the people inside. After his death, Samson's family recovered his body from the rubble and buried him near the tomb of his father Manoah. A tomb structure which some attribute to Samson and his father stands on the top of the mountain in Tel Tzora. At the conclusion of Judges 16, it is said that Samson had "judged" Israel for twenty years. Interpretations --------------- ### Rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature identifies Samson with Bedan, a Judge mentioned by Samuel in his farewell address (1 Samuel 12:11) among the Judges who delivered Israel from their enemies. However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges. The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word *šemeš*, which means "sun", so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in Psalms 84:11; and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a). Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty cubits broad. Many Talmudic commentaries, however, explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society; rather, it means that he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders. He was lame in both feet but, when the spirit of God came upon him, he could step with one stride from Zorah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance. Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth, yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor. In licentiousness, he is compared with Amnon and Zimri, both of whom were punished for their sins. Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often. It is said that, in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel, he never required the least service from an Israelite, and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain. Therefore, as soon as he told Delilah that he was a Nazarite of God, she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth. When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines, the structure fell backward so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father. In the Talmudic period, some seem to have denied that Samson was a historical figure, regarding him instead as a purely mythological personage. This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they attempted to refute this. They named Hazzelelponi as his mother in Numbers Rabbah Naso 10 and in Bava Batra 91a and stated that he had a sister named "Nishyan" or "Nashyan". ### Christian interpretations Samson's story has also garnered commentary from a Christian perspective; the Epistle to the Hebrews praises him for his faith. Ambrose, following the portrayal of Josephus and Pseudo-Philo, represents Delilah as a Philistine prostitute, and declares that "men should avoid marriage with those outside the faith, lest, instead of love of one's spouse, there be treachery." Caesarius of Arles interpreted Samson's death as prefiguring the crucifixion of Jesus, remarking: "Notice here an image of the cross. Samson extends his hands spread out to the two columns as to the two beams of the cross." He also equates Delilah with Satan, who tempted Christ. Following this trend, more recent Christian commentators have viewed Samson as a type of Jesus Christ, based on similarities between Samson's story and the life of Jesus in the New Testament. Samson's and Jesus' births were both foretold by angels, who predicted that they would save their people. Samson was born to a barren woman, and Jesus was born of a virgin. Samson defeated a lion; Jesus defeated Satan, whom the First Epistle of Peter describes as a "roaring lion looking for someone to devour". Samson's betrayal by Delilah has also been compared to Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot; both Delilah and Judas were paid in pieces of silver for their respective deeds. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer notes in his *A Guide to Scripture History: The Old Testament* that Samson was "blinded, insulted [and] enslaved" prior to his death, and that Jesus was "blindfolded, insulted, and treated as a slave" prior to his crucifixion. Brewer also compares Samson's death among "the wicked" with Christ being crucified between two thieves. ### Scholarly Academics have interpreted Samson as a demigod (such as Heracles or Enkidu) enfolded into Jewish folklore, or as an archetypical folk hero. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some comparative mythologists interpreted Samson as a euhemerized solar deity, arguing that Samson's name is derived from Hebrew *šemeš*, meaning "Sun", and that his long hair might represent the Sun's rays. These solar theorists also pointed out that the legend of Samson is set within the general vicinity of Beth Shemesh, a village whose name means "Temple of the Sun". They argued that the name *Delilah* may have been a wordplay with the Hebrew word for night, *layla*, which "consumes" the day. Although this hypothesis is still sometimes promoted in scholarly circles, it has generally fallen out of favor due to the superficiality of supporting evidence. An interpretation far more popular among current scholars holds that Samson is a Hebrew variant of the same international Near Eastern folk hero which inspired the earlier Mesopotamian Enkidu and the later Greek Heracles (and, by extension, his Roman Hercules adaptation). Heracles and Samson both slew a lion bare-handed (the former killed the Nemean lion). Likewise, they were both believed to have once been extremely thirsty and drunk water which poured out from a rock, and to have torn down the gates of a city. They were both betrayed by a woman (Heracles by Deianira, Samson by Delilah), who led them to their respective dooms. Both heroes, champions of their respective peoples, die by their own hands: Heracles ends his life on a pyre; whereas Samson makes the Philistine temple collapse upon himself and his enemies. In this interpretation, the annunciation of Samson's birth to his mother is a censored account of divine conception. Samson also strongly resembles Shamgar, another hero mentioned in the Book of Judges, who, in Judges 3:31, is described as having slain 600 Philistines with an ox-goad. These views are disputed by traditional and conservative biblical scholars who consider Samson to be a literal historical figure and thus reject any connections to mythological heroes. The concept of Samson as a "solar hero" has been described as "an artificial ingenuity". Joan Comay, co-author of *Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament*, believes that the biblical story of Samson is so specific concerning time and place that Samson was undoubtedly a real person who pitted his great strength against the oppressors of Israel. In contrast, James King West considers that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a "purely personal and local sort". He also considers that Samson stories have, in contrast to much of Judges, an "almost total lack of a religious or moral tone". Conversely, Elon Gilad of *Haaretz* writes "some biblical stories are flat-out cautions against marrying foreign women, none more than the story of Samson". Gilad notes how Samson's parents disapprove of his desire to marry a Philistine woman and how Samson's relationship with Delilah leads to his demise. He contrasts this with what he sees as a more positive portrayal of intermarriage in the Book of Ruth. Some academic writers have interpreted Samson as a suicide terrorist portrayed in a positive light by the text, and compared him to those responsible for the September 11 attacks. In August 2012, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University announced the discovery of a circular stone seal, approximately 15 mm (0.59 in) in diameter, which was found on the floor of a house at Beth Shemesh and appears to depict a long-haired man slaying a lion. The seal is dated to the 12th century BCE. According to *Haaretz*, "excavation directors Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University say they do not suggest that the human figure on the seal is the biblical Samson. Rather, the geographical proximity to the area where Samson lived, and the time period of the seal, show that a story was being told at the time of a hero who fought a lion, and that the story eventually found its way into the biblical text and onto the seal." Cultural influence ------------------ Statue of Samson and the lion in Peterhof, RussiaSamson parade Mauterndorf, Austria As an important biblical character, Samson has been referred to in popular culture and depicted in a vast array of films, artwork, and popular literature. Preserved Smith argued that John Milton's closet drama *Samson Agonistes* is an allegory for the downfall of the Puritans and the restoration of the English monarchy in which the blinded and imprisoned Samson represents Milton himself, the "Chosen People" represent the Puritans, and the Philistines represent the English Royalists. The play combines elements of ancient Greek tragedy and biblical narrative. Samson is portrayed as a hero, whose violent actions are mitigated by the righteous cause in whose name they are enacted. The play casts Delilah as an unrepentant, but sympathetic, deceiver and speaks approvingly of the subjugation of women. In 1735, George Frideric Handel wrote the oratorio *Samson*, with a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, based on *Samson Agonistes*. The oratorio is almost entirely set inside Samson's prison and Delilah only briefly appears in Part II. In 1877, Camille Saint-Saëns composed the opera *Samson and Delilah* with a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire in which the entire story of Samson and Delilah is retold. In the libretto, Delilah is portrayed as a seductive *femme fatale*, but the music played during her parts invokes sympathy for her. The 1949 biblical drama *Samson and Delilah*, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the titular roles, was widely praised by critics for its cinematography, lead performances, costumes, sets, and innovative special effects. It became the highest-grossing film of 1950, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two. According to *Variety*, the film portrays Samson as a stereotypical "handsome but dumb hulk of muscle". Samson has been especially honored in Russian artwork because the Russians defeated the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava on the feast day of St. Sampson, whose name is homophonous with Samson's. The lion slain by Samson was interpreted to represent Sweden, as a result of the lion's placement on the Swedish coat of arms. In 1735, C. B. Rastrelli's bronze statue of Samson slaying the lion was placed in the center of the great cascade of the fountain at Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg. Samson is the emblem of Lungau, Salzburg, and parades in his honor are held annually in ten villages of the Lungau and two villages in the north-west Styria (Austria). During the parade, a young bachelor from the community carries a massive figure made of wood or aluminum said to represent Samson. The tradition, which was first documented in 1635, was entered into the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria in 2010. Samson is one of the giant figures at the "Ducasse" festivities, which take place at Ath, Belgium. | | | --- | | Samson **Tribe of Dan** | | Preceded byAbdon | **Judge of Israel** | Succeeded byEli |

Samson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson

**Potassium nitrate** is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula KNO 3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−, and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate. It occurs in nature as a mineral, niter (or *nitre* in the UK). It is a source of nitrogen, and nitrogen was named after niter. Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as **saltpeter** (or *saltpetre* in the UK). Major uses of potassium nitrate are in fertilizers, tree stump removal, rocket propellants and fireworks. It is one of the major constituents of gunpowder (black powder). In processed meats, potassium nitrate reacts with hemoglobin and myoglobin generating a red color. Etymology --------- Potash, or potassium nitrate, because of its early and global use and production, has many names. The chemical potassium was first isolated by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy, from pot ash. This refers to an early method of extracting various potassium salts: by placing in an iron pot the ash of burnt wood or tree leaves, adding water, heating, and evaporating the solution. As for nitrate, Hebrew and Egyptian words for it had the consonants n-t-r, indicating likely cognation in the Greek *nitron*, which was Latinised to *nitrum* or *nitrium*. Thence Old French had *niter* and Middle English *nitre*. By the 15th century, Europeans referred to it as *saltpetre*, specifically Indian saltpetre (sodium nitrate is chile saltpetre) and later as *nitrate of potash,* as the chemistry of the compound was more fully understood. The Arabs called it "Chinese snow" (Arabic: ثلج الصين **thalj al-ṣīn**). It was called "Chinese salt" by the Iranians/Persians or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" (Persian: نمک شوره چينی **namak shūra chīnī**). Historical production --------------------- ### From mineral sources In Ancient India,[*when?*] saltpeter manufacturers formed the Nuniya & Labana caste. Saltpeter finds mention in Kautilya's Arthashastra (compiled 300BC - 300AD), which mentions using its poisonous smoke as a weapon of war, although its use for propulsion did not appear until medieval times. A purification process for potassium nitrate was outlined in 1270 by the chemist and engineer Hasan al-Rammah of Syria in his book *al-Furusiyya wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya* (*The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices*). In this book, al-Rammah describes first the purification of *barud* (crude saltpeter mineral) by boiling it with minimal water and using only the hot solution, then the use of potassium carbonate (in the form of wood ashes) to remove calcium and magnesium by precipitation of their carbonates from this solution, leaving a solution of purified potassium nitrate, which could then be dried. This was used for the manufacture of gunpowder and explosive devices. The terminology used by al-Rammah indicated the gunpowder he wrote about originated in China. At least as far back as 1845, nitratite deposits were exploited in Chile and California. ### From caves Major natural sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the accumulations of bat guano in caves. Extraction is accomplished by immersing the guano in water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water. Traditionally, guano was the source used in Laos for the manufacture of gunpowder for *Bang Fai* rockets. ### Nitraries Potassium nitrate was produced in a *nitrary*. The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in a field beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until leaching allowed saltpeter to come to the ground surface by efflorescence. Operators then gathered the resulting powder and transported it to be concentrated by ebullition in the boiler plant. Besides "Montepellusanus", during the thirteenth century (and beyond) the only supply of saltpeter across Christian Europe (according to "De Alchimia" in 3 manuscripts of Michael Scot, 1180–1236) was "found in Spain in Aragon in a certain mountain near the sea". In 1561, Elizabeth I of England, at war with Philip II of Spain, became unable to import saltpeter (of which the Kingdom of England had no home production), and had to pay "300 pounds gold" to the German captain Gerrard Honrik for the manual "Instructions for making salpeter to growe" (the secret of the "*Feuerwerkbuch*" -the nitraries-). ### Nitre bed A *nitre bed* is a similar process used to produce nitrate from excrement. Unlike the leaching-based process of the nitrary, however, one mixes the excrements with soil and waits for soil microbes to convert amino-nitrogen into nitrates by nitrification. The nitrates are extracted from soil with water and then purified into saltpeter by adding wood ash. The process was discovered in the early 15th century and was very widely used until the Chilean mineral deposits were found. The Confederate side of the American Civil War had a significant shortage of saltpeter. As a result, the Nitre and Mining Bureau was set up to encourage local production, including by nitre beds and by providing excrement to government nitraries. On November 13, 1862, the government advertised in the Charleston Daily Courier for 20 or 30 "able bodied Negro men" to work in the new nitre beds at Ashley Ferry, S.C. The nitre beds were large rectangles of rotted manure and straw, moistened weekly with urine, "dung water", and liquid from privies, cesspools and drains, and turned over regularly. The National Archives published payroll records that account for more than 29,000 people compelled to such labor in the state of Virginia. The South was so desperate for saltpeter for gunpowder that one Alabama official reportedly placed a newspaper ad asking that the contents of chamber pots be saved for collection. In South Carolina, in April 1864, the Confederate government forced 31 enslaved people to work at the Ashley Ferry Nitre Works, outside Charleston. Perhaps the most exhaustive discussion of the niter-bed production is the 1862 LeConte text. He was writing with the express purpose of increasing production in the Confederate States to support their needs during the American Civil War. Since he was calling for the assistance of rural farming communities, the descriptions and instructions are both simple and explicit. He details the "French Method", along with several variations, as well as a "Swiss method". N.B. Many references have been made to a method using only straw and urine, but there is no such method in this work. #### French method Turgot and Lavoisier created the *Régie des Poudres et Salpêtres* a few years before the French Revolution. Niter-beds were prepared by mixing manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and organic materials such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile typically 4 feet (1.2 m) high, 6 feet (1.8 m) wide, and 15 feet (4.6 m) long. The heap was usually under a cover from the rain, kept moist with urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition, then finally leached with water after approximately one year, to remove the soluble calcium nitrate which was then converted to potassium nitrate by filtering through potash. #### Swiss method LeConte describes a process using only urine and not dung, referring to it as the *Swiss method*. Urine is collected directly, in a sandpit under a stable. The sand itself is dug out and leached for nitrates which were then converted to potassium nitrate using potash, as above. ### From nitric acid From 1903 until the World War I era, potassium nitrate for black powder and fertilizer was produced on an industrial scale from nitric acid produced using the Birkeland–Eyde process, which used an electric arc to oxidize nitrogen from the air. During World War I the newly industrialized Haber process (1913) was combined with the Ostwald process after 1915, allowing Germany to produce nitric acid for the war after being cut off from its supplies of mineral sodium nitrates from Chile (see nitratite). Modern production ----------------- Potassium nitrate can be made by combining ammonium nitrate and potassium hydroxide. NH4NO3 (aq) + KOH (aq) → NH3 (g) + KNO3 (aq) + H2O (l) An alternative way of producing potassium nitrate without a by-product of ammonia is to combine ammonium nitrate, found in instant ice packs, and potassium chloride, easily obtained as a sodium-free salt substitute. NH4NO3 (aq) + KCl (aq) → NH4Cl (aq) + KNO3 (aq) Potassium nitrate can also be produced by neutralizing nitric acid with potassium hydroxide. This reaction is highly exothermic. KOH (aq) + HNO3 → KNO3 (aq) + H2O (l) On industrial scale it is prepared by the double displacement reaction between sodium nitrate and potassium chloride. NaNO3 (aq) + KCl (aq) → NaCl (aq) + KNO3 (aq) Properties ---------- Potassium nitrate has an orthorhombic crystal structure at room temperature, which transforms to a trigonal system at 128 °C (262 °F). On cooling from 200 °C (392 °F), another trigonal phase forms between 124 °C (255 °F) and 100 °C (212 °F). Sodium nitrate is isomorphous with calcite, the most stable form of calcium carbonate, whereas room-temperature potassium nitrate is isomorphous with aragonite, a slightly less stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. The difference is attributed to the similarity in size between nitrate (NO−3) and carbonate (CO2−3) ions and the fact that the potassium ion (K+) is larger than sodium (Na+) and calcium (Ca2+) ions. In the room-temperature structure of potassium nitrate, each potassium ion is surrounded by 6 nitrate ions. In turn, each nitrate ion is surrounded by 6 potassium ions. Room temperature crystal structure and coordination geometry of potassium nitrate| Unit cell | Potassium coordination | Nitrate coordination | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | Potassium nitrate is moderately soluble in water, but its solubility increases with temperature. The aqueous solution is almost neutral, exhibiting pH 6.2 at 14 °C (57 °F) for a 10% solution of commercial powder. It is not very hygroscopic, absorbing about 0.03% water in 80% relative humidity over 50 days. It is insoluble in alcohol and is not poisonous; it can react explosively with reducing agents, but it is not explosive on its own. ### Thermal decomposition Between 550–790 °C (1,022–1,454 °F), potassium nitrate reaches a temperature-dependent equilibrium with potassium nitrite: 2 KNO3 ⇌ 2 KNO2 + O2 Uses ---- Potassium nitrate has a wide variety of uses, largely as a source of nitrate. ### Nitric acid production Historically, nitric acid was produced by combining sulfuric acid with nitrates such as saltpeter. In modern times this is reversed: nitrates are produced from nitric acid produced via the Ostwald process. ### Oxidizer The most famous use of potassium nitrate is probably as the oxidizer in blackpowder. From the most ancient times until the late 1880s, blackpowder provided the explosive power for all the world's firearms. After that time, small arms and large artillery increasingly began to depend on cordite, a smokeless powder. Blackpowder remains in use today in black powder rocket motors, but also in combination with other fuels like sugars in "rocket candy" (a popular amateur rocket fuel). It is also used in fireworks such as smoke bombs. It is also added to cigarettes to maintain an even burn of the tobacco and is used to ensure complete combustion of paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers. It can also be heated to several hundred degrees to be used for niter bluing, which is less durable than other forms of protective oxidation, but allows for specific and often beautiful coloration of steel parts, such as screws, pins, and other small parts of firearms. ### Meat processing Potassium nitrate has been a common ingredient of salted meat since antiquity or the Middle Ages. The widespread adoption of nitrate use is more recent and is linked to the development of large-scale meat processing. The use of potassium nitrate has been mostly discontinued because of slow and inconsistent results compared to sodium nitrite compounds such as "Prague powder" or pink "curing salt". Even so, potassium nitrate is still used in some food applications, such as salami, dry-cured ham, charcuterie, and (in some countries) in the brine used to make corned beef (sometimes together with sodium nitrite). When used as a food additive in the European Union, the compound is referred to as E252; it is also approved for use as a food additive in the United States and Australia and New Zealand (where it is listed under its INS number 252). #### Possible cancer risk In April 2023 the French Court of Appeals of Limoges confirmed that food-watch NGO Yuka was legally legitimate in describing Potassium Nitrate E249 to E252 as a "cancer risk", and thus rejected an appeal by the French *charcuterie* industry against the organisation. ### Food preparation In West African cuisine, potassium nitrate (saltpetre) is widely used as a thickening agent in soups and stews such as okra soup and *isi ewu*. It is also used to soften food and reduce cooking time when boiling beans and tough meat. Saltpetre is also an essential ingredient in making special porridges, such as *kunun kanwa* literally translated from the Hausa language as "saltpetre porridge". In the Shetland Islands (UK) it is used in the curing of mutton to make reestit mutton, a local delicacy. ### Fertilizer Potassium nitrate is used in fertilizers as a source of nitrogen and potassium – two of the macronutrients for plants. When used by itself, it has an NPK rating of 13-0-44. ### Pharmacology * Used in some toothpastes for sensitive teeth. Recently, the use of potassium nitrate in toothpastes for treating sensitive teeth has increased. * Used historically to treat asthma. Used in some toothpastes to relieve asthma symptoms. * Used in Thailand as main ingredient in kidney tablets to relieve the symptoms of cystitis, pyelitis and urethritis. * Combats high blood pressure and was once used as a hypotensive. ### Other uses * Electrolyte in a salt bridge * Active ingredient of condensed aerosol fire suppression systems. When burned with the free radicals of a fire's flame, it produces potassium carbonate. * Works as an aluminium cleaner. * Component (usually about 98%) of some tree stump removal products. It accelerates the natural decomposition of the stump by supplying nitrogen for the fungi attacking the wood of the stump. * In heat treatment of metals as a medium temperature molten salt bath, usually in combination with sodium nitrite. A similar bath is used to produce a durable blue/black finish typically seen on firearms. Its oxidizing quality, water solubility, and low cost make it an ideal short-term rust inhibitor. * To induce flowering of mango trees in the Philippines. * Thermal storage medium in power generation systems. Sodium and potassium nitrate salts are stored in a molten state with the solar energy collected by the heliostats at the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant. Ternary salts, with the addition of calcium nitrate or lithium nitrate, have been found to improve the heat storage capacity in the molten salts. * As a source of potassium ions for exchange with sodium ions in chemically strengthened glass. * As an oxidizer in model rocket fuel called Rocket candy. In folklore and popular culture ------------------------------- Potassium nitrate was once thought to induce impotence, and is still rumored to be in institutional food (such as military fare) as an anaphrodisiac; however, there is no scientific evidence for such properties. In *Bank Shot*, El (Joanna Cassidy) propositions Walter Ballantine (George C. Scott), who tells her that he has been fed saltpeter in prison. "You know why they feed you saltpeter in prison?" Ballantine asks her. She shakes her head no. They kiss. He glances down at his crotch, making a gesture that reveals his body has not responded to her advances, and says, "That's why they feed you saltpeter in prison." In *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*, Randle is asked by the nurses to take his medications, but not knowing what they are, he mentions he does not want anyone to "slip me saltpeter". He then proceeds to imitate the motions of masturbation in reference to its supposed effects as an anaphrodisiac. In *1776*, John Adams asks his wife Abigail to make saltpeter for the Continental Army. She, eventually, is able to do so in exchange for pins for sewing. In the *Star Trek* episode "Arena", Captain Kirk injures a gorn using a rudimentary cannon that he constructs using potassium nitrate as a key ingredient of gunpowder. In *21 Jump Street*, Jenko, played by Channing Tatum, gives a rhyming presentation about potassium nitrate for his chemistry class. In *Eating Raoul*, Paul hires a dominatrix to impersonate a nurse and trick Raoul into consuming saltpeter in a ploy to reduce his sexual appetite for his wife. In *The Simpsons* episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)", Mr. Burns is seen pouring saltpeter into his chili entry, titled Old Elihu's Yale-Style Saltpeter Chili. In the *Sharpe* novel series by Bernard Cornwell, numerous mentions are made of an advantageous supply of saltpeter from India being a crucial component of British military supremacy in the Napoleonic Wars. In *Sharpe's Havoc*, the French Captain Argenton laments that France needs to scrape its supply from cesspits. In the *Dr Stone* anime and manga series, the struggle for control over a natural saltpeter source from guano features prominently in the plot. In the farming lore from the Corn Belt of the 1800s, drought-killed corn in manured fields could accumulate saltpeter to the extent that upon opening the stalk for examination it would "fall as a fine powder upon the table". See also -------- * History of gunpowder * Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works * Niter, a mineral form of potassium nitrate * Nitratine * Nitrocellulose * Potassium perchlorate | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | HNO3 | | | | He | | LiNO3 | Be(NO3)2 | B(NO3)−4 | RONO2 | NO−3NH4NO3 | HOONO2 | FNO3 | Ne | | NaNO3 | Mg(NO3)2 | Al(NO3)3Al(NO3)−4 | Si | P | S | ClONO2 | Ar | | KNO3 | Ca(NO3)2 | | Sc(NO3)3 | Ti(NO3)4 | VO(NO3)3 | Cr(NO3)3 | Mn(NO3)2 | Fe(NO3)2 Fe(NO3)3 | Co(NO3)2 Co(NO3)3 | Ni(NO3)2 | CuNO3 Cu(NO3)2 | Zn(NO3)2 | Ga(NO3)3 | Ge | As | Se | BrNO3 | Kr | | RbNO3 | Sr(NO3)2 | | Y(NO3)3 | Zr(NO3)4 | NbO(NO3)3 | MoO2(NO3)2 | Tc | Ru(NO3)3 | Rh(NO3)3 | Pd(NO3)2 Pd(NO3)4 | AgNO3 Ag(NO3)2 | Cd(NO3)2 | In(NO3)3 | Sn(NO3)4 | Sb(NO3)3 | Te | INO3 | Xe(NO3)2 | | CsNO3 | Ba(NO3)2 |   | Lu(NO3)3 | Hf(NO3)4 | TaO(NO3)3 | W | Re | Os | Ir | Pt(NO3)2 Pt(NO3)4 | Au(NO3)3 | Hg2(NO3)2 Hg(NO3)2 | TlNO3 Tl(NO3)3 | Pb(NO3)2 | Bi(NO3)3BiO(NO3) | Po(NO3)4 | At | Rn | | FrNO3 | Ra(NO3)2 |   | Lr | Rf | Db | Sg | Bh | Hs | Mt | Ds | Rg | Cn | Nh | Fl | Mc | Lv | Ts | Og | | | ↓ | | | | | La(NO3)3 | Ce(NO3)3 Ce(NO3)4 | Pr(NO3)3 | Nd(NO3)3 | Pm(NO3)3 | Sm(NO3)3 | Eu(NO3)3 | Gd(NO3)3 | Tb(NO3)3 | Dy(NO3)3 | Ho(NO3)3 | Er(NO3)3 | Tm(NO3)3 | Yb(NO3)3 | | | | Ac(NO3)3 | Th(NO3)4 | PaO2(NO3)3 | UO2(NO3)2 | Np(NO3)4 | Pu(NO3)4 | Am(NO3)3 | Cm(NO3)3 | Bk(NO3)3 | Cf | Es | Fm | Md | No | |

Potassium nitrate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate

In mathematics, **exponentiation** is an operation involving two numbers, the *base* and the *exponent* or *power*. Exponentiation is written as *b**n*, where b is the *base* and n is the *power*; this is pronounced as "b (raised) to the (power of) n". When n is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, *b**n* is the product of multiplying n bases: b n = b × b × ⋯ × b × b ⏟ n  times . {\displaystyle b^{n}=\underbrace {b\times b\times \dots \times b\times b} \_{n{\text{ times}}}.} {\displaystyle b^{n}=\underbrace {b\times b\times \dots \times b\times b} _{n{\text{ times}}}.} The exponent is usually shown as a superscript to the right of the base. In that case, *b**n* is called "*b* raised to the *n*th power", "*b* (raised) to the power of *n*", "the *n*th power of *b*", "*b* to the *n*th power", or most briefly as "*b* to the *n*th". Starting from the basic fact stated above that, for any positive integer n {\displaystyle n} n, b n {\displaystyle b^{n}} b^{n} is n {\displaystyle n} n occurrences of b {\displaystyle b} b all multiplied by each other, several other properties of exponentiation directly follow. In particular: b n + m = b × ⋯ × b ⏟ n + m  times = b × ⋯ × b ⏟ n  times × b × ⋯ × b ⏟ m  times = b n × b m {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}b^{n+m}&=\underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} \_{n+m{\text{ times}}}\\[1ex]&=\underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} \_{n{\text{ times}}}\times \underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} \_{m{\text{ times}}}\\[1ex]&=b^{n}\times b^{m}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}b^{n+m}&=\underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} _{n+m{\text{ times}}}\\[1ex]&=\underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} _{n{\text{ times}}}\times \underbrace {b\times \dots \times b} _{m{\text{ times}}}\\[1ex]&=b^{n}\times b^{m}\end{aligned}}} In other words, when multiplying a base raised to one exponent by the same base raised to another exponent, the exponents add. From this basic rule that exponents add, we can derive that b 0 {\displaystyle b^{0}} b^{0} must be equal to 1 for any b ≠ 0 {\displaystyle b\neq 0} b\neq 0, as follows. For any n {\displaystyle n} n, b 0 ⋅ b n = b 0 + n = b n {\displaystyle b^{0}\cdot b^{n}=b^{0+n}=b^{n}} {\displaystyle b^{0}\cdot b^{n}=b^{0+n}=b^{n}}. Dividing both sides by b n {\displaystyle b^{n}} b^{n} gives b 0 = b n / b n = 1 {\displaystyle b^{0}=b^{n}/b^{n}=1} {\displaystyle b^{0}=b^{n}/b^{n}=1}. The fact that b 1 = b {\displaystyle b^{1}=b} b^{1}=b can similarly be derived from the same rule. For example, ( b 1 ) 3 = b 1 ⋅ b 1 ⋅ b 1 = b 1 + 1 + 1 = b 3 {\displaystyle (b^{1})^{3}=b^{1}\cdot b^{1}\cdot b^{1}=b^{1+1+1}=b^{3}} {\displaystyle (b^{1})^{3}=b^{1}\cdot b^{1}\cdot b^{1}=b^{1+1+1}=b^{3}}. Taking the cube root of both sides gives b 1 = b {\displaystyle b^{1}=b} b^{1}=b. The rule that multiplying makes exponents add can also be used to derive the properties of negative integer exponents. Consider the question of what b − 1 {\displaystyle b^{-1}} b^{-1} should mean. In order to respect the "exponents add" rule, it must be the case that b − 1 ⋅ b 1 = b − 1 + 1 = b 0 = 1 {\displaystyle b^{-1}\cdot b^{1}=b^{-1+1}=b^{0}=1} {\displaystyle b^{-1}\cdot b^{1}=b^{-1+1}=b^{0}=1}. Dividing both sides by b 1 {\displaystyle b^{1}} {\displaystyle b^{1}} gives b − 1 = 1 / b 1 {\displaystyle b^{-1}=1/b^{1}} {\displaystyle b^{-1}=1/b^{1}}, which can be more simply written as b − 1 = 1 / b {\displaystyle b^{-1}=1/b} {\displaystyle b^{-1}=1/b}, using the result from above that b 1 = b {\displaystyle b^{1}=b} b^{1}=b. By a similar argument, b − n = 1 / b n {\displaystyle b^{-n}=1/b^{n}} {\displaystyle b^{-n}=1/b^{n}}. The properties of fractional exponents also follow from the same rule. For example, suppose we consider b {\displaystyle {\sqrt {b}}} \sqrt{b} and ask if there is some suitable exponent, which we may call r {\displaystyle r} r, such that b r = b {\displaystyle b^{r}={\sqrt {b}}} {\displaystyle b^{r}={\sqrt {b}}}. From the definition of the square root, we have that b ⋅ b = b {\displaystyle {\sqrt {b}}\cdot {\sqrt {b}}=b} {\displaystyle {\sqrt {b}}\cdot {\sqrt {b}}=b}. Therefore, the exponent r {\displaystyle r} r must be such that b r ⋅ b r = b {\displaystyle b^{r}\cdot b^{r}=b} {\displaystyle b^{r}\cdot b^{r}=b}. Using the fact that multiplying makes exponents add gives b r + r = b {\displaystyle b^{r+r}=b} {\displaystyle b^{r+r}=b}. The b {\displaystyle b} b on the right-hand side can also be written as b 1 {\displaystyle b^{1}} {\displaystyle b^{1}}, giving b r + r = b 1 {\displaystyle b^{r+r}=b^{1}} {\displaystyle b^{r+r}=b^{1}}. Equating the exponents on both sides, we have r + r = 1 {\displaystyle r+r=1} {\displaystyle r+r=1}. Therefore, r = 1 2 {\displaystyle r={\frac {1}{2}}} r={\frac {1}{2}}, so b = b 1 / 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {b}}=b^{1/2}} {\displaystyle {\sqrt {b}}=b^{1/2}}. The definition of exponentiation can be extended to allow any real or complex exponent. Exponentiation by integer exponents can also be defined for a wide variety of algebraic structures, including matrices. Exponentiation is used extensively in many fields, including economics, biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science, with applications such as compound interest, population growth, chemical reaction kinetics, wave behavior, and public-key cryptography. History of the notation ----------------------- The term *power* (Latin: *potentia, potestas, dignitas*) is a mistranslation of the ancient Greek δύναμις (*dúnamis*, here: "amplification") used by the Greek mathematician Euclid for the square of a line, following Hippocrates of Chios. In *The Sand Reckoner*, Archimedes discovered and proved the law of exponents, 10*a* · 10*b* = 10*a*+*b*, necessary to manipulate powers of 10. In the 9th century, the Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī used the terms مَال (*māl*, "possessions", "property") for a square—the Muslims, "like most mathematicians of those and earlier times, thought of a squared number as a depiction of an area, especially of land, hence property"—and كَعْبَة (*kaʿbah*, "cube") for a cube, which later Islamic mathematicians represented in mathematical notation as the letters *mīm* (m) and *kāf* (k), respectively, by the 15th century, as seen in the work of Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī. In the late 16th century, Jost Bürgi used Roman numerals for exponents. Nicolas Chuquet used a form of exponential notation in the 15th century, which was later used by Henricus Grammateus and Michael Stifel in the 16th century. The word *exponent* was coined in 1544 by Michael Stifel. Samuel Jeake introduced the term *indices* in 1696. In the 16th century, Robert Recorde used the terms square, cube, zenzizenzic (fourth power), sursolid (fifth), zenzicube (sixth), second sursolid (seventh), and zenzizenzizenzic (eighth). *Biquadrate* has been used to refer to the fourth power as well. Early in the 17th century, the first form of our modern exponential notation was introduced by René Descartes in his text titled *La Géométrie*; there, the notation is introduced in Book I. Some mathematicians (such as René Descartes) used exponents only for powers greater than two, preferring to represent squares as repeated multiplication. Thus they would write polynomials, for example, as *ax* + *bxx* + *cx*3 + *d*. Another historical synonym,[*clarification needed*] **involution**, is now rare and should not be confused with its more common meaning. In 1748, Leonhard Euler introduced variable exponents, and, implicitly, non-integer exponents by writing: > "consider exponentials or powers in which the exponent itself is a variable. It is clear that quantities of this kind are not algebraic functions, since in those the exponents must be constant." > > Terminology ----------- The expression *b*2 = *b* · *b* is called "the square of *b*" or "*b* squared", because the area of a square with side-length *b* is *b*2. Similarly, the expression *b*3 = *b* · *b* · *b* is called "the cube of *b*" or "*b* cubed", because the volume of a cube with side-length *b* is *b*3. When it is a positive integer, the exponent indicates how many copies of the base are multiplied together. For example, 35 = 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 = 243. The base 3 appears 5 times in the multiplication, because the exponent is 5. Here, 243 is the *5th power of 3*, or *3 raised to the 5th power*. The word "raised" is usually omitted, and sometimes "power" as well, so 35 can be simply read "3 to the 5th", or "3 to the 5". Therefore, the exponentiation *b**n* can be expressed as "*b* to the power of *n*", "*b* to the *n*th power", "*b* to the *n*th", or most briefly as "*b* to the *n*". A formula with nested exponentiation, such as 357 (which means 3(57) and not (35)7), is called a tower of powers, or simply a tower. For example, writing b c d {\displaystyle b^{c^{d}}} {\displaystyle b^{c^{d}}} is equivalent to writing b ( c d ) {\displaystyle b^{\left(c^{d}\right)}} {\displaystyle b^{\left(c^{d}\right)}}. This can be generalized to where writing b c d f {\displaystyle b^{c^{d^{f}}}} {\displaystyle b^{c^{d^{f}}}} means b ( c ( d f ) ) {\displaystyle b^{\left(c^{\left(d^{f}\right)}\right)}} {\displaystyle b^{\left(c^{\left(d^{f}\right)}\right)}}. For example, 100 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {100}}} {\displaystyle {\sqrt {100}}} can be computed as 100 1 2 {\displaystyle 100^{\frac {1}{2}}} {\displaystyle 100^{\frac {1}{2}}}, which can be computed as 100 2 − 1 {\displaystyle 100^{2^{-1}}} {\displaystyle 100^{2^{-1}}}, which is equal to 100 ( 2 − 1 ) {\displaystyle 100^{\left(2^{-1}\right)}} {\displaystyle 100^{\left(2^{-1}\right)}}, which is equal to 10. Integer exponents ----------------- The exponentiation operation with integer exponents may be defined directly from elementary arithmetic operations. ### Positive exponents The definition of the exponentiation as an iterated multiplication can be formalized by using induction, and this definition can be used as soon one has an associative multiplication: The base case is b 1 = b {\displaystyle b^{1}=b} b^{1}=b and the recurrence is b n + 1 = b n ⋅ b . {\displaystyle b^{n+1}=b^{n}\cdot b.} {\displaystyle b^{n+1}=b^{n}\cdot b.} The associativity of multiplication implies that for any positive integers m and n, b m + n = b m ⋅ b n , {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n},} {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n},} and ( b m ) n = b m n . {\displaystyle (b^{m})^{n}=b^{mn}.} {\displaystyle (b^{m})^{n}=b^{mn}.} ### Zero exponent By definition, any nonzero number raised to the 0 power is 1: b 0 = 1. {\displaystyle b^{0}=1.} {\displaystyle b^{0}=1.} This definition is the only possible that allows extending the formula b m + n = b m ⋅ b n {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}} {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}} to zero exponents. It may be used in every algebraic structure with a multiplication that has an identity. Intuitionally, b 0 {\displaystyle b^{0}} b^{0} may be interpreted as the empty product of copies of b. So, the equality b 0 = 1 {\displaystyle b^{0}=1} b^{0}=1 is a special case of the general convention for the empty product. The case of 00 is more complicated. In contexts where only integer powers are considered, the value 1 is generally assigned to 0 0 , {\displaystyle 0^{0},} {\displaystyle 0^{0},} but, otherwise, the choice of whether to assign it a value and what value to assign may depend on context. ### Negative exponents Exponentiation with negative exponents is defined by the following identity, which holds for any integer n and nonzero b: b − n = 1 b n {\displaystyle b^{-n}={\frac {1}{b^{n}}}} {\displaystyle b^{-n}={\frac {1}{b^{n}}}}. Raising 0 to a negative exponent is undefined but, in some circumstances, it may be interpreted as infinity ( ∞ {\displaystyle \infty } \infty ). This definition of exponentiation with negative exponents is the only one that allows extending the identity b m + n = b m ⋅ b n {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}} {\displaystyle b^{m+n}=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}} to negative exponents (consider the case m = − n {\displaystyle m=-n} {\displaystyle m=-n}). The same definition applies to invertible elements in a multiplicative monoid, that is, an algebraic structure, with an associative multiplication and a multiplicative identity denoted 1 (for example, the square matrices of a given dimension). In particular, in such a structure, the inverse of an invertible element x is standardly denoted x − 1 . {\displaystyle x^{-1}.} x^{{-1}}. ### Identities and properties The following identities, often called **exponent rules**, hold for all integer exponents, provided that the base is non-zero: b m + n = b m ⋅ b n ( b m ) n = b m ⋅ n ( b ⋅ c ) n = b n ⋅ c n {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}b^{m+n}&=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}\\\left(b^{m}\right)^{n}&=b^{m\cdot n}\\(b\cdot c)^{n}&=b^{n}\cdot c^{n}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}b^{m+n}&=b^{m}\cdot b^{n}\\\left(b^{m}\right)^{n}&=b^{m\cdot n}\\(b\cdot c)^{n}&=b^{n}\cdot c^{n}\end{aligned}}} Unlike addition and multiplication, exponentiation is not commutative. For example, 23 = 8 ≠ 32 = 9. Also unlike addition and multiplication, exponentiation is not associative. For example, (23)2 = 82 = 64, whereas 2(32) = 29 = 512. Without parentheses, the conventional order of operations for serial exponentiation in superscript notation is top-down (or *right*-associative), not bottom-up (or *left*-associative). That is, b p q = b ( p q ) , {\displaystyle b^{p^{q}}=b^{\left(p^{q}\right)},} {\displaystyle b^{p^{q}}=b^{\left(p^{q}\right)},} which, in general, is different from ( b p ) q = b p q . {\displaystyle \left(b^{p}\right)^{q}=b^{pq}.} {\displaystyle \left(b^{p}\right)^{q}=b^{pq}.} ### Powers of a sum The powers of a sum can normally be computed from the powers of the summands by the binomial formula ( a + b ) n = ∑ i = 0 n ( n i ) a i b n − i = ∑ i = 0 n n ! i ! ( n − i ) ! a i b n − i . {\displaystyle (a+b)^{n}=\sum \_{i=0}^{n}{\binom {n}{i}}a^{i}b^{n-i}=\sum \_{i=0}^{n}{\frac {n!}{i!(n-i)!}}a^{i}b^{n-i}.} {\displaystyle (a+b)^{n}=\sum _{i=0}^{n}{\binom {n}{i}}a^{i}b^{n-i}=\sum _{i=0}^{n}{\frac {n!}{i!(n-i)!}}a^{i}b^{n-i}.} However, this formula is true only if the summands commute (i.e. that *ab* = *ba*), which is implied if they belong to a structure that is commutative. Otherwise, if a and b are, say, square matrices of the same size, this formula cannot be used. It follows that in computer algebra, many algorithms involving integer exponents must be changed when the exponentiation bases do not commute. Some general purpose computer algebra systems use a different notation (sometimes ^^ instead of ^) for exponentiation with non-commuting bases, which is then called **non-commutative exponentiation**. ### Combinatorial interpretation For nonnegative integers n and m, the value of *n**m* is the number of functions from a set of m elements to a set of n elements (see cardinal exponentiation). Such functions can be represented as m-tuples from an n-element set (or as m-letter words from an n-letter alphabet). Some examples for particular values of m and n are given in the following table: | *n**m* | The *n**m* possible m-tuples of elements from the set {1, ..., *n*} | | --- | --- | | 05 = 0 | none | | 14 = 1 | (1, 1, 1, 1) | | 23 = 8 | (1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 2), (1, 2, 1), (1, 2, 2), (2, 1, 1), (2, 1, 2), (2, 2, 1), (2, 2, 2) | | 32 = 9 | (1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (2, 1), (2, 2), (2, 3), (3, 1), (3, 2), (3, 3) | | 41 = 4 | (1), (2), (3), (4) | | 50 = 1 | () | ### Particular bases #### Powers of ten In the base ten (decimal) number system, integer powers of 10 are written as the digit 1 followed or preceded by a number of zeroes determined by the sign and magnitude of the exponent. For example, 103 = 1000 and 10−4 = 0.0001. Exponentiation with base 10 is used in scientific notation to denote large or small numbers. For instance, 299792458 m/s (the speed of light in vacuum, in metres per second) can be written as 2.99792458×108 m/s and then approximated as 2.998×108 m/s. SI prefixes based on powers of 10 are also used to describe small or large quantities. For example, the prefix kilo means 103 = 1000, so a kilometre is 1000 m. #### Powers of two The first negative powers of 2 are commonly used, and have special names, e.g.: *half* and *quarter*. Powers of 2 appear in set theory, since a set with *n* members has a power set, the set of all of its subsets, which has 2*n* members. Integer powers of 2 are important in computer science. The positive integer powers 2*n* give the number of possible values for an *n*-bit integer binary number; for example, a byte may take 28 = 256 different values. The binary number system expresses any number as a sum of powers of 2, and denotes it as a sequence of 0 and 1, separated by a binary point, where 1 indicates a power of 2 that appears in the sum; the exponent is determined by the place of this 1: the nonnegative exponents are the rank of the 1 on the left of the point (starting from 0), and the negative exponents are determined by the rank on the right of the point. #### Powers of one Every power of one equals: 1*n* = 1. This is true even if n is negative. The first power of a number is the number itself: n 1 = n . {\displaystyle n^{1}=n.} {\displaystyle n^{1}=n.} #### Powers of zero If the exponent n is positive (*n* > 0), the nth power of zero is zero: 0*n* = 0. If the exponent n is negative (*n* < 0), the nth power of zero 0*n* is undefined, because it must equal 1 / 0 − n {\displaystyle 1/0^{-n}} {\displaystyle 1/0^{-n}} with −*n* > 0, and this would be 1 / 0 {\displaystyle 1/0} 1/0 according to above. The expression 00 is either defined as 1, or it is left undefined. #### Powers of negative one If *n* is an even integer, then (−1)*n* = 1. This is because a negative number multiplied by another negative number cancels out, and gives a positive number. If *n* is an odd integer, then (−1)*n* = −1. This is because there will be a remaining (-1) after removing all (-1) pairs. Because of this, powers of −1 are useful for expressing alternating sequences. For a similar discussion of powers of the complex number *i*, see § nth roots of a complex number. ### Large exponents The limit of a sequence of powers of a number greater than one diverges; in other words, the sequence grows without bound: *b**n* → ∞ as *n* → ∞ when *b* > 1 This can be read as "*b* to the power of *n* tends to +∞ as *n* tends to infinity when *b* is greater than one". Powers of a number with absolute value less than one tend to zero: *b**n* → 0 as *n* → ∞ when |*b*| < 1 Any power of one is always one: *b**n* = 1 for all *n* if *b* = 1 Powers of –1 alternate between 1 and –1 as *n* alternates between even and odd, and thus do not tend to any limit as *n* grows. If *b* < –1, *b**n* alternates between larger and larger positive and negative numbers as *n* alternates between even and odd, and thus does not tend to any limit as *n* grows. If the exponentiated number varies while tending to 1 as the exponent tends to infinity, then the limit is not necessarily one of those above. A particularly important case is (1 + 1/*n*)*n* → *e* as *n* → ∞ See *§ The exponential function* below. Other limits, in particular those of expressions that take on an indeterminate form, are described in § Limits of powers below. ### Power functions Real functions of the form f ( x ) = c x n {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}} {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}}, where c ≠ 0 {\displaystyle c\neq 0} c\neq 0, are sometimes called power functions. When n {\displaystyle n} n is an integer and n ≥ 1 {\displaystyle n\geq 1} n\geq 1, two primary families exist: for n {\displaystyle n} n even, and for n {\displaystyle n} n odd. In general for c > 0 {\displaystyle c>0} c>0, when n {\displaystyle n} n is even f ( x ) = c x n {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}} {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}} will tend towards positive infinity with increasing x {\displaystyle x} x, and also towards positive infinity with decreasing x {\displaystyle x} x. All graphs from the family of even power functions have the general shape of y = c x 2 {\displaystyle y=cx^{2}} {\displaystyle y=cx^{2}}, flattening more in the middle as n {\displaystyle n} n increases. Functions with this kind of symmetry ( f ( − x ) = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(-x)=f(x)} {\displaystyle f(-x)=f(x)}) are called even functions. When n {\displaystyle n} n is odd, f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} f(x)'s asymptotic behavior reverses from positive x {\displaystyle x} x to negative x {\displaystyle x} x. For c > 0 {\displaystyle c>0} c>0, f ( x ) = c x n {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}} {\displaystyle f(x)=cx^{n}} will also tend towards positive infinity with increasing x {\displaystyle x} x, but towards negative infinity with decreasing x {\displaystyle x} x. All graphs from the family of odd power functions have the general shape of y = c x 3 {\displaystyle y=cx^{3}} {\displaystyle y=cx^{3}}, flattening more in the middle as n {\displaystyle n} n increases and losing all flatness there in the straight line for n = 1 {\displaystyle n=1} n=1. Functions with this kind of symmetry ( f ( − x ) = − f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(-x)=-f(x)} {\displaystyle f(-x)=-f(x)}) are called odd functions. For c < 0 {\displaystyle c<0} c < 0, the opposite asymptotic behavior is true in each case. ### Table of powers of decimal digits | *n* | *n*2 | *n*3 | *n*4 | *n*5 | *n*6 | *n*7 | *n*8 | *n*9 | *n*10 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **1** | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | **2** | 4 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 256 | 512 | 1024 | | **3** | 9 | 27 | 81 | 243 | 729 | 2187 | 6561 | 19683 | 59049 | | **4** | 16 | 64 | 256 | 1024 | 4096 | 16384 | 65536 | 262144 | 1048576 | | **5** | 25 | 125 | 625 | 3125 | 15625 | 78125 | 390625 | 1953125 | 9765625 | | **6** | 36 | 216 | 1296 | 7776 | 46656 | 279936 | 1679616 | 10077696 | 60466176 | | **7** | 49 | 343 | 2401 | 16807 | 117649 | 823543 | 5764801 | 40353607 | 282475249 | | **8** | 64 | 512 | 4096 | 32768 | 262144 | 2097152 | 16777216 | 134217728 | 1073741824 | | **9** | 81 | 729 | 6561 | 59049 | 531441 | 4782969 | 43046721 | 387420489 | 3486784401 | | **10** | 100 | 1000 | 10000 | 100000 | 1000000 | 10000000 | 100000000 | 1000000000 | 10000000000 | Rational exponents ------------------ If x is a nonnegative real number, and n is a positive integer, x 1 / n {\displaystyle x^{1/n}} x^{1/n} or x n {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{n}]{x}}} {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{n}]{x}}} denotes the unique positive real nth root of x, that is, the unique positive real number y such that y n = x . {\displaystyle y^{n}=x.} {\displaystyle y^{n}=x.} If x is a positive real number, and p q {\displaystyle {\frac {p}{q}}} {\frac pq} is a rational number, with p and q > 0 integers, then x p / q {\textstyle x^{p/q}} {\textstyle x^{p/q}} is defined as x p q = ( x p ) 1 q = ( x 1 q ) p . {\displaystyle x^{\frac {p}{q}}=\left(x^{p}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=(x^{\frac {1}{q}})^{p}.} {\displaystyle x^{\frac {p}{q}}=\left(x^{p}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=(x^{\frac {1}{q}})^{p}.} The equality on the right may be derived by setting y = x 1 q , {\displaystyle y=x^{\frac {1}{q}},} {\displaystyle y=x^{\frac {1}{q}},} and writing ( x 1 q ) p = y p = ( ( y p ) q ) 1 q = ( ( y q ) p ) 1 q = ( x p ) 1 q . {\displaystyle (x^{\frac {1}{q}})^{p}=y^{p}=\left((y^{p})^{q}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=\left((y^{q})^{p}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=(x^{p})^{\frac {1}{q}}.} {\displaystyle (x^{\frac {1}{q}})^{p}=y^{p}=\left((y^{p})^{q}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=\left((y^{q})^{p}\right)^{\frac {1}{q}}=(x^{p})^{\frac {1}{q}}.} If r is a positive rational number, 0 r = 0 , {\displaystyle 0^{r}=0,} {\displaystyle 0^{r}=0,} by definition. All these definitions are required for extending the identity ( x r ) s = x r s {\displaystyle (x^{r})^{s}=x^{rs}} {\displaystyle (x^{r})^{s}=x^{rs}} to rational exponents. On the other hand, there are problems with the extension of these definitions to bases that are not positive real numbers. For example, a negative real number has a real nth root, which is negative, if n is odd, and no real root if n is even. In the latter case, whichever complex nth root one chooses for x 1 n , {\displaystyle x^{\frac {1}{n}},} {\displaystyle x^{\frac {1}{n}},} the identity ( x a ) b = x a b {\displaystyle (x^{a})^{b}=x^{ab}} {\displaystyle (x^{a})^{b}=x^{ab}} cannot be satisfied. For example, ( ( − 1 ) 2 ) 1 2 = 1 1 2 = 1 ≠ ( − 1 ) 2 ⋅ 1 2 = ( − 1 ) 1 = − 1. {\displaystyle \left((-1)^{2}\right)^{\frac {1}{2}}=1^{\frac {1}{2}}=1\neq (-1)^{2\cdot {\frac {1}{2}}}=(-1)^{1}=-1.} {\displaystyle \left((-1)^{2}\right)^{\frac {1}{2}}=1^{\frac {1}{2}}=1\neq (-1)^{2\cdot {\frac {1}{2}}}=(-1)^{1}=-1.} See § Real exponents and § Non-integer powers of complex numbers for details on the way these problems may be handled. Real exponents -------------- For positive real numbers, exponentiation to real powers can be defined in two equivalent ways, either by extending the rational powers to reals by continuity (§ Limits of rational exponents, below), or in terms of the logarithm of the base and the exponential function (§ Powers via logarithms, below). The result is always a positive real number, and the identities and properties shown above for integer exponents remain true with these definitions for real exponents. The second definition is more commonly used, since it generalizes straightforwardly to complex exponents. On the other hand, exponentiation to a real power of a negative real number is much more difficult to define consistently, as it may be non-real and have several values (see § Real exponents with negative bases). One may choose one of these values, called the principal value, but there is no choice of the principal value for which the identity ( b r ) s = b r s {\displaystyle \left(b^{r}\right)^{s}=b^{rs}} {\displaystyle \left(b^{r}\right)^{s}=b^{rs}} is true; see § Failure of power and logarithm identities. Therefore, exponentiation with a basis that is not a positive real number is generally viewed as a multivalued function. ### Limits of rational exponents Since any irrational number can be expressed as the limit of a sequence of rational numbers, exponentiation of a positive real number b with an arbitrary real exponent x can be defined by continuity with the rule b x = lim r ( ∈ Q ) → x b r ( b ∈ R + , x ∈ R ) , {\displaystyle b^{x}=\lim \_{r(\in \mathbb {Q} )\to x}b^{r}\quad (b\in \mathbb {R} ^{+},\,x\in \mathbb {R} ),} {\displaystyle b^{x}=\lim _{r(\in \mathbb {Q} )\to x}b^{r}\quad (b\in \mathbb {R} ^{+},\,x\in \mathbb {R} ),} where the limit is taken over rational values of r only. This limit exists for every positive b and every real x. For example, if *x* = π, the non-terminating decimal representation *π* = 3.14159... and the monotonicity of the rational powers can be used to obtain intervals bounded by rational powers that are as small as desired, and must contain b π : {\displaystyle b^{\pi }:} {\displaystyle b^{\pi }:} [ b 3 , b 4 ] , [ b 3.1 , b 3.2 ] , [ b 3.14 , b 3.15 ] , [ b 3.141 , b 3.142 ] , [ b 3.1415 , b 3.1416 ] , [ b 3.14159 , b 3.14160 ] , … {\displaystyle \left[b^{3},b^{4}\right],\left[b^{3.1},b^{3.2}\right],\left[b^{3.14},b^{3.15}\right],\left[b^{3.141},b^{3.142}\right],\left[b^{3.1415},b^{3.1416}\right],\left[b^{3.14159},b^{3.14160}\right],\ldots } {\displaystyle \left[b^{3},b^{4}\right],\left[b^{3.1},b^{3.2}\right],\left[b^{3.14},b^{3.15}\right],\left[b^{3.141},b^{3.142}\right],\left[b^{3.1415},b^{3.1416}\right],\left[b^{3.14159},b^{3.14160}\right],\ldots } So, the upper bounds and the lower bounds of the intervals form two sequences that have the same limit, denoted b π . {\displaystyle b^{\pi }.} {\displaystyle b^{\pi }.} This defines b x {\displaystyle b^{x}} b^x for every positive b and real x as a continuous function of b and x. See also Well-defined expression. ### The exponential function The *exponential function* is often defined as x ↦ e x , {\displaystyle x\mapsto e^{x},} {\displaystyle x\mapsto e^{x},} where e ≈ 2.718 {\displaystyle e\approx 2.718} {\displaystyle e\approx 2.718} is Euler's number. For avoiding circular reasoning, this definition cannot be used here. So, a definition of the exponential function, denoted exp ⁡ ( x ) , {\displaystyle \exp(x),} {\displaystyle \exp(x),} and of Euler's number are given, which rely only on exponentiation with positive integer exponents. Then a proof is sketched that, if one uses the definition of exponentiation given in preceding sections, one has exp ⁡ ( x ) = e x . {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}.} {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}.} There are many equivalent ways to define the exponential function, one of them being exp ⁡ ( x ) = lim n → ∞ ( 1 + x n ) n . {\displaystyle \exp(x)=\lim \_{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x}{n}}\right)^{n}.} {\displaystyle \exp(x)=\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x}{n}}\right)^{n}.} One has exp ⁡ ( 0 ) = 1 , {\displaystyle \exp(0)=1,} {\displaystyle \exp(0)=1,} and the *exponential identity* exp ⁡ ( x + y ) = exp ⁡ ( x ) exp ⁡ ( y ) {\displaystyle \exp(x+y)=\exp(x)\exp(y)} {\displaystyle \exp(x+y)=\exp(x)\exp(y)} holds as well, since exp ⁡ ( x ) exp ⁡ ( y ) = lim n → ∞ ( 1 + x n ) n ( 1 + y n ) n = lim n → ∞ ( 1 + x + y n + x y n 2 ) n , {\displaystyle \exp(x)\exp(y)=\lim \_{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x}{n}}\right)^{n}\left(1+{\frac {y}{n}}\right)^{n}=\lim \_{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x+y}{n}}+{\frac {xy}{n^{2}}}\right)^{n},} {\displaystyle \exp(x)\exp(y)=\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x}{n}}\right)^{n}\left(1+{\frac {y}{n}}\right)^{n}=\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\left(1+{\frac {x+y}{n}}+{\frac {xy}{n^{2}}}\right)^{n},} and the second-order term x y n 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {xy}{n^{2}}}} {\displaystyle {\frac {xy}{n^{2}}}} does not affect the limit, yielding exp ⁡ ( x ) exp ⁡ ( y ) = exp ⁡ ( x + y ) {\displaystyle \exp(x)\exp(y)=\exp(x+y)} {\displaystyle \exp(x)\exp(y)=\exp(x+y)}. Euler's number can be defined as e = exp ⁡ ( 1 ) {\displaystyle e=\exp(1)} {\displaystyle e=\exp(1)}. It follows from the preceding equations that exp ⁡ ( x ) = e x {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}} {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}} when x is an integer (this results from the repeated-multiplication definition of the exponentiation). If x is real, exp ⁡ ( x ) = e x {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}} {\displaystyle \exp(x)=e^{x}} results from the definitions given in preceding sections, by using the exponential identity if x is rational, and the continuity of the exponential function otherwise. The limit that defines the exponential function converges for every complex value of x, and therefore it can be used to extend the definition of exp ⁡ ( z ) {\displaystyle \exp(z)} {\displaystyle \exp(z)}, and thus e z , {\displaystyle e^{z},} {\displaystyle e^{z},} from the real numbers to any complex argument z. This extended exponential function still satisfies the exponential identity, and is commonly used for defining exponentiation for complex base and exponent. ### Powers via logarithms The definition of *e**x* as the exponential function allows defining *b**x* for every positive real numbers b, in terms of exponential and logarithm function. Specifically, the fact that the natural logarithm ln(*x*) is the inverse of the exponential function *e**x* means that one has b = exp ⁡ ( ln ⁡ b ) = e ln ⁡ b {\displaystyle b=\exp(\ln b)=e^{\ln b}} {\displaystyle b=\exp(\ln b)=e^{\ln b}} for every *b* > 0. For preserving the identity ( e x ) y = e x y , {\displaystyle (e^{x})^{y}=e^{xy},} {\displaystyle (e^{x})^{y}=e^{xy},} one must have b x = ( e ln ⁡ b ) x = e x ln ⁡ b {\displaystyle b^{x}=\left(e^{\ln b}\right)^{x}=e^{x\ln b}} {\displaystyle b^{x}=\left(e^{\ln b}\right)^{x}=e^{x\ln b}} So, e x ln ⁡ b {\displaystyle e^{x\ln b}} {\displaystyle e^{x\ln b}} can be used as an alternative definition of *b**x* for any positive real b. This agrees with the definition given above using rational exponents and continuity, with the advantage to extend straightforwardly to any complex exponent. Complex exponents with a positive real base ------------------------------------------- If b is a positive real number, exponentiation with base b and complex exponent z is defined by means of the exponential function with complex argument (see the end of § The exponential function, above) as b z = e ( z ln ⁡ b ) , {\displaystyle b^{z}=e^{(z\ln b)},} {\displaystyle b^{z}=e^{(z\ln b)},} where ln ⁡ b {\displaystyle \ln b} \ln b denotes the natural logarithm of b. This satisfies the identity b z + t = b z b t , {\displaystyle b^{z+t}=b^{z}b^{t},} {\displaystyle b^{z+t}=b^{z}b^{t},} In general, ( b z ) t {\textstyle \left(b^{z}\right)^{t}} {\textstyle \left(b^{z}\right)^{t}} is not defined, since *b**z* is not a real number. If a meaning is given to the exponentiation of a complex number (see § Non-integer powers of complex numbers, below), one has, in general, ( b z ) t ≠ b z t , {\displaystyle \left(b^{z}\right)^{t}\neq b^{zt},} {\displaystyle \left(b^{z}\right)^{t}\neq b^{zt},} unless z is real or t is an integer. Euler's formula, e i y = cos ⁡ y + i sin ⁡ y , {\displaystyle e^{iy}=\cos y+i\sin y,} {\displaystyle e^{iy}=\cos y+i\sin y,} allows expressing the polar form of b z {\displaystyle b^{z}} {\displaystyle b^{z}} in terms of the real and imaginary parts of z, namely b x + i y = b x ( cos ⁡ ( y ln ⁡ b ) + i sin ⁡ ( y ln ⁡ b ) ) , {\displaystyle b^{x+iy}=b^{x}(\cos(y\ln b)+i\sin(y\ln b)),} {\displaystyle b^{x+iy}=b^{x}(\cos(y\ln b)+i\sin(y\ln b)),} where the absolute value of the trigonometric factor is one. This results from b x + i y = b x b i y = b x e i y ln ⁡ b = b x ( cos ⁡ ( y ln ⁡ b ) + i sin ⁡ ( y ln ⁡ b ) ) . {\displaystyle b^{x+iy}=b^{x}b^{iy}=b^{x}e^{iy\ln b}=b^{x}(\cos(y\ln b)+i\sin(y\ln b)).} {\displaystyle b^{x+iy}=b^{x}b^{iy}=b^{x}e^{iy\ln b}=b^{x}(\cos(y\ln b)+i\sin(y\ln b)).} Non-integer powers of complex numbers ------------------------------------- In the preceding sections, exponentiation with non-integer exponents has been defined for positive real bases only. For other bases, difficulties appear already with the apparently simple case of nth roots, that is, of exponents 1 / n , {\displaystyle 1/n,} {\displaystyle 1/n,} where n is a positive integer. Although the general theory of exponentiation with non-integer exponents applies to nth roots, this case deserves to be considered first, since it does not need to use complex logarithms, and is therefore easier to understand. ### nth roots of a complex number Every nonzero complex number z may be written in polar form as z = ρ e i θ = ρ ( cos ⁡ θ + i sin ⁡ θ ) , {\displaystyle z=\rho e^{i\theta }=\rho (\cos \theta +i\sin \theta ),} {\displaystyle z=\rho e^{i\theta }=\rho (\cos \theta +i\sin \theta ),} where ρ {\displaystyle \rho } \rho is the absolute value of z, and θ {\displaystyle \theta } \theta is its argument. The argument is defined up to an integer multiple of 2π; this means that, if θ {\displaystyle \theta } \theta is the argument of a complex number, then θ + 2 k π {\displaystyle \theta +2k\pi } {\displaystyle \theta +2k\pi } is also an argument of the same complex number. The polar form of the product of two complex numbers is obtained by multiplying the absolute values and adding the arguments. It follows that the polar form of an nth root of a complex number can be obtained by taking the nth root of the absolute value and dividing its argument by n: ( ρ e i θ ) 1 n = ρ n e i θ n . {\displaystyle \left(\rho e^{i\theta }\right)^{\frac {1}{n}}={\sqrt[{n}]{\rho }}\,e^{\frac {i\theta }{n}}.} {\displaystyle \left(\rho e^{i\theta }\right)^{\frac {1}{n}}={\sqrt[{n}]{\rho }}\,e^{\frac {i\theta }{n}}.} If 2 π {\displaystyle 2\pi } 2\pi is added to θ {\displaystyle \theta } \theta , the complex number is not changed, but this adds 2 i π / n {\displaystyle 2i\pi /n} {\displaystyle 2i\pi /n} to the argument of the nth root, and provides a new nth root. This can be done n times, and provides the n nth roots of the complex number. It is usual to choose one of the n nth root as the principal root. The common choice is to choose the nth root for which − π < θ ≤ π , {\displaystyle -\pi <\theta \leq \pi ,} {\displaystyle -\pi <\theta \leq \pi ,} that is, the nth root that has the largest real part, and, if they are two, the one with positive imaginary part. This makes the principal nth root a continuous function in the whole complex plane, except for negative real values of the radicand. This function equals the usual nth root for positive real radicands. For negative real radicands, and odd exponents, the principal nth root is not real, although the usual nth root is real. Analytic continuation shows that the principal nth root is the unique complex differentiable function that extends the usual nth root to the complex plane without the nonpositive real numbers. If the complex number is moved around zero by increasing its argument, after an increment of 2 π , {\displaystyle 2\pi ,} 2\pi , the complex number comes back to its initial position, and its nth roots are permuted circularly (they are multiplied by e 2 i π / n e^{2i\pi /n} e^{2i\pi /n}). This shows that it is not possible to define a nth root function that is continuous in the whole complex plane. #### Roots of unity The nth roots of unity are the n complex numbers such that *w**n* = 1, where n is a positive integer. They arise in various areas of mathematics, such as in discrete Fourier transform or algebraic solutions of algebraic equations (Lagrange resolvent). The n nth roots of unity are the n first powers of ω = e 2 π i n {\displaystyle \omega =e^{\frac {2\pi i}{n}}} {\displaystyle \omega =e^{\frac {2\pi i}{n}}}, that is 1 = ω 0 = ω n , ω = ω 1 , ω 2 , ω n − 1 . {\displaystyle 1=\omega ^{0}=\omega ^{n},\omega =\omega ^{1},\omega ^{2},\omega ^{n-1}.} {\displaystyle 1=\omega ^{0}=\omega ^{n},\omega =\omega ^{1},\omega ^{2},\omega ^{n-1}.} The nth roots of unity that have this generating property are called *primitive nth roots of unity*; they have the form ω k = e 2 k π i n , {\displaystyle \omega ^{k}=e^{\frac {2k\pi i}{n}},} {\displaystyle \omega ^{k}=e^{\frac {2k\pi i}{n}},} with k coprime with n. The unique primitive square root of unity is − 1 ; {\displaystyle -1;} {\displaystyle -1;} the primitive fourth roots of unity are i {\displaystyle i} i and − i . {\displaystyle -i.} -i. The nth roots of unity allow expressing all nth roots of a complex number z as the n products of a given nth roots of z with a nth root of unity. Geometrically, the nth roots of unity lie on the unit circle of the complex plane at the vertices of a regular n-gon with one vertex on the real number 1. As the number e 2 k π i n {\displaystyle e^{\frac {2k\pi i}{n}}} {\displaystyle e^{\frac {2k\pi i}{n}}} is the primitive nth root of unity with the smallest positive argument, it is called the *principal primitive nth root of unity*, sometimes shortened as *principal nth root of unity*, although this terminology can be confused with the principal value of 1 1 / n {\displaystyle 1^{1/n}} {\displaystyle 1^{1/n}} which is 1. ### Complex exponentiation Defining exponentiation with complex bases leads to difficulties that are similar to those described in the preceding section, except that there are, in general, infinitely many possible values for z w z^{w} z^{w}. So, either a principal value is defined, which is not continuous for the values of z that are real and nonpositive, or z w z^{w} z^{w} is defined as a multivalued function. In all cases, the complex logarithm is used to define complex exponentiation as z w = e w log ⁡ z , {\displaystyle z^{w}=e^{w\log z},} {\displaystyle z^{w}=e^{w\log z},} where log ⁡ z {\displaystyle \log z} \log z is the variant of the complex logarithm that is used, which is, a function or a multivalued function such that e log ⁡ z = z {\displaystyle e^{\log z}=z} {\displaystyle e^{\log z}=z} for every z in its domain of definition. #### Principal value The principal value of the complex logarithm is the unique continuous function, commonly denoted log , {\displaystyle \log ,} {\displaystyle \log ,} such that, for every nonzero complex number z, e log ⁡ z = z , {\displaystyle e^{\log z}=z,} {\displaystyle e^{\log z}=z,} and the argument of z satisfies − π < Arg ⁡ z ≤ π . {\displaystyle -\pi <\operatorname {Arg} z\leq \pi .} {\displaystyle -\pi <\operatorname {Arg} z\leq \pi .} The principal value of the complex logarithm is not defined for z = 0 , {\displaystyle z=0,} {\displaystyle z=0,} it is discontinuous at negative real values of z, and it is holomorphic (that is, complex differentiable) elsewhere. If z is real and positive, the principal value of the complex logarithm is the natural logarithm: log ⁡ z = ln ⁡ z . {\displaystyle \log z=\ln z.} {\displaystyle \log z=\ln z.} The principal value of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} is defined as z w = e w log ⁡ z , {\displaystyle z^{w}=e^{w\log z},} {\displaystyle z^{w}=e^{w\log z},} where log ⁡ z {\displaystyle \log z} \log z is the principal value of the logarithm. The function ( z , w ) → z w {\displaystyle (z,w)\to z^{w}} {\displaystyle (z,w)\to z^{w}} is holomorphic except in the neighbourhood of the points where z is real and nonpositive. If z is real and positive, the principal value of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} equals its usual value defined above. If w = 1 / n , {\displaystyle w=1/n,} {\displaystyle w=1/n,} where n is an integer, this principal value is the same as the one defined above. #### Multivalued function In some contexts, there is a problem with the discontinuity of the principal values of log ⁡ z {\displaystyle \log z} \log z and z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} at the negative real values of z. In this case, it is useful to consider these functions as multivalued functions. If log ⁡ z {\displaystyle \log z} \log z denotes one of the values of the multivalued logarithm (typically its principal value), the other values are 2 i k π + log ⁡ z , {\displaystyle 2ik\pi +\log z,} {\displaystyle 2ik\pi +\log z,} where k is any integer. Similarly, if z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} is one value of the exponentiation, then the other values are given by e w ( 2 i k π + log ⁡ z ) = z w e 2 i k π w , {\displaystyle e^{w(2ik\pi +\log z)}=z^{w}e^{2ik\pi w},} {\displaystyle e^{w(2ik\pi +\log z)}=z^{w}e^{2ik\pi w},} where k is any integer. Different values of k give different values of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} unless w is a rational number, that is, there is an integer d such that dw is an integer. This results from the periodicity of the exponential function, more specifically, that e a = e b {\displaystyle e^{a}=e^{b}} {\displaystyle e^{a}=e^{b}} if and only if a − b {\displaystyle a-b} a-b is an integer multiple of 2 π i . {\displaystyle 2\pi i.} 2\pi i. If w = m n {\displaystyle w={\frac {m}{n}}} {\displaystyle w={\frac {m}{n}}} is a rational number with m and n coprime integers with n > 0 , {\displaystyle n>0,} {\displaystyle n>0,} then z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} has exactly n values. In the case m = 1 , {\displaystyle m=1,} m=1, these values are the same as those described in § nth roots of a complex number. If w is an integer, there is only one value that agrees with that of § Integer exponents. The multivalued exponentiation is holomorphic for z ≠ 0 , {\displaystyle z\neq 0,} {\displaystyle z\neq 0,} in the sense that its graph consists of several sheets that define each a holomorphic function in the neighborhood of every point. If z varies continuously along a circle around 0, then, after a turn, the value of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} has changed of sheet. #### Computation The *canonical form* x + i y {\displaystyle x+iy} {\displaystyle x+iy} of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} can be computed from the canonical form of z and w. Although this can be described by a single formula, it is clearer to split the computation in several steps. * *Polar form of z*. If z = a + i b {\displaystyle z=a+ib} {\displaystyle z=a+ib} is the canonical form of z (a and b being real), then its polar form is z = ρ e i θ = ρ ( cos ⁡ θ + i sin ⁡ θ ) , {\displaystyle z=\rho e^{i\theta }=\rho (\cos \theta +i\sin \theta ),} {\displaystyle z=\rho e^{i\theta }=\rho (\cos \theta +i\sin \theta ),} where ρ = a 2 + b 2 {\displaystyle \rho ={\sqrt {a^{2}+b^{2}}}} {\displaystyle \rho ={\sqrt {a^{2}+b^{2}}}} and θ = atan2 ⁡ ( a , b ) {\displaystyle \theta =\operatorname {atan2} (a,b)} {\displaystyle \theta =\operatorname {atan2} (a,b)} (see atan2 for the definition of this function). * *Logarithm of z*. The principal value of this logarithm is log ⁡ z = ln ⁡ ρ + i θ , {\displaystyle \log z=\ln \rho +i\theta ,} {\displaystyle \log z=\ln \rho +i\theta ,} where ln {\displaystyle \ln } \ln denotes the natural logarithm. The other values of the logarithm are obtained by adding 2 i k π {\displaystyle 2ik\pi } {\displaystyle 2ik\pi } for any integer k. * *Canonical form of w log ⁡ z . {\displaystyle w\log z.} {\displaystyle w\log z.}* If w = c + d i {\displaystyle w=c+di} {\displaystyle w=c+di} with c and d real, the values of w log ⁡ z {\displaystyle w\log z} {\displaystyle w\log z} are w log ⁡ z = ( c ln ⁡ ρ − d θ − 2 d k π ) + i ( d ln ⁡ ρ + c θ + 2 c k π ) , {\displaystyle w\log z=(c\ln \rho -d\theta -2dk\pi )+i(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi ),} {\displaystyle w\log z=(c\ln \rho -d\theta -2dk\pi )+i(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi ),} the principal value corresponding to k = 0. {\displaystyle k=0.} {\displaystyle k=0.} * *Final result.* Using the identities e x + y = e x e y {\displaystyle e^{x+y}=e^{x}e^{y}} {\displaystyle e^{x+y}=e^{x}e^{y}} and e y ln ⁡ x = x y , {\displaystyle e^{y\ln x}=x^{y},} {\displaystyle e^{y\ln x}=x^{y},} one gets z w = ρ c e − d ( θ + 2 k π ) ( cos ⁡ ( d ln ⁡ ρ + c θ + 2 c k π ) + i sin ⁡ ( d ln ⁡ ρ + c θ + 2 c k π ) ) , {\displaystyle z^{w}=\rho ^{c}e^{-d(\theta +2k\pi )}\left(\cos(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi )+i\sin(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi )\right),} {\displaystyle z^{w}=\rho ^{c}e^{-d(\theta +2k\pi )}\left(\cos(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi )+i\sin(d\ln \rho +c\theta +2ck\pi )\right),} with k = 0 {\displaystyle k=0} k=0 for the principal value. ##### Examples * i i {\displaystyle i^{i}} i^{i} The polar form of i is i = e i π / 2 , {\displaystyle i=e^{i\pi /2},} {\displaystyle i=e^{i\pi /2},} and the values of log ⁡ i {\displaystyle \log i} {\displaystyle \log i} are thus log ⁡ i = i ( π 2 + 2 k π ) . {\displaystyle \log i=i\left({\frac {\pi }{2}}+2k\pi \right).} {\displaystyle \log i=i\left({\frac {\pi }{2}}+2k\pi \right).} It follows that i i = e i log ⁡ i = e − π 2 e − 2 k π . {\displaystyle i^{i}=e^{i\log i}=e^{-{\frac {\pi }{2}}}e^{-2k\pi }.} {\displaystyle i^{i}=e^{i\log i}=e^{-{\frac {\pi }{2}}}e^{-2k\pi }.}So, all values of i i {\displaystyle i^{i}} i^{i} are real, the principal one being e − π 2 ≈ 0.2079. {\displaystyle e^{-{\frac {\pi }{2}}}\approx 0.2079.} {\displaystyle e^{-{\frac {\pi }{2}}}\approx 0.2079.} * ( − 2 ) 3 + 4 i {\displaystyle (-2)^{3+4i}} {\displaystyle (-2)^{3+4i}} Similarly, the polar form of −2 is − 2 = 2 e i π . {\displaystyle -2=2e^{i\pi }.} {\displaystyle -2=2e^{i\pi }.} So, the above described method gives the values ( − 2 ) 3 + 4 i = 2 3 e − 4 ( π + 2 k π ) ( cos ⁡ ( 4 ln ⁡ 2 + 3 ( π + 2 k π ) ) + i sin ⁡ ( 4 ln ⁡ 2 + 3 ( π + 2 k π ) ) ) = − 2 3 e − 4 ( π + 2 k π ) ( cos ⁡ ( 4 ln ⁡ 2 ) + i sin ⁡ ( 4 ln ⁡ 2 ) ) . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}(-2)^{3+4i}&=2^{3}e^{-4(\pi +2k\pi )}(\cos(4\ln 2+3(\pi +2k\pi ))+i\sin(4\ln 2+3(\pi +2k\pi )))\\&=-2^{3}e^{-4(\pi +2k\pi )}(\cos(4\ln 2)+i\sin(4\ln 2)).\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}(-2)^{3+4i}&=2^{3}e^{-4(\pi +2k\pi )}(\cos(4\ln 2+3(\pi +2k\pi ))+i\sin(4\ln 2+3(\pi +2k\pi )))\\&=-2^{3}e^{-4(\pi +2k\pi )}(\cos(4\ln 2)+i\sin(4\ln 2)).\end{aligned}}}In this case, all the values have the same argument 4 ln ⁡ 2 , {\displaystyle 4\ln 2,} {\displaystyle 4\ln 2,} and different absolute values. In both examples, all values of z w {\displaystyle z^{w}} z^{w} have the same argument. More generally, this is true if and only if the real part of w is an integer. #### Failure of power and logarithm identities Some identities for powers and logarithms for positive real numbers will fail for complex numbers, no matter how complex powers and complex logarithms are defined *as single-valued functions*. For example: * The identity log(*b**x*) = *x* ⋅ log *b* holds whenever b is a positive real number and x is a real number. But for the principal branch of the complex logarithm one has log ⁡ ( ( − i ) 2 ) = log ⁡ ( − 1 ) = i π ≠ 2 log ⁡ ( − i ) = 2 log ⁡ ( e − i π / 2 ) = 2 − i π 2 = − i π {\displaystyle \log((-i)^{2})=\log(-1)=i\pi \neq 2\log(-i)=2\log(e^{-i\pi /2})=2\,{\frac {-i\pi }{2}}=-i\pi } {\displaystyle \log((-i)^{2})=\log(-1)=i\pi \neq 2\log(-i)=2\log(e^{-i\pi /2})=2\,{\frac {-i\pi }{2}}=-i\pi } Regardless of which branch of the logarithm is used, a similar failure of the identity will exist. The best that can be said (if only using this result) is that: log ⁡ w z ≡ z log ⁡ w ( mod 2 π i ) {\displaystyle \log w^{z}\equiv z\log w{\pmod {2\pi i}}} {\displaystyle \log w^{z}\equiv z\log w{\pmod {2\pi i}}} This identity does not hold even when considering log as a multivalued function. The possible values of log(*w**z*) contain those of *z* ⋅ log *w* as a proper subset. Using Log(*w*) for the principal value of log(*w*) and m, n as any integers the possible values of both sides are: { log ⁡ w z } = { z ⋅ Log ⁡ w + z ⋅ 2 π i n + 2 π i m ∣ m , n ∈ Z } { z log ⁡ w } = { z Log ⁡ w + z ⋅ 2 π i n ∣ n ∈ Z } {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\left\{\log w^{z}\right\}&=\left\{z\cdot \operatorname {Log} w+z\cdot 2\pi in+2\pi im\mid m,n\in \mathbb {Z} \right\}\\\left\{z\log w\right\}&=\left\{z\operatorname {Log} w+z\cdot 2\pi in\mid n\in \mathbb {Z} \right\}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\left\{\log w^{z}\right\}&=\left\{z\cdot \operatorname {Log} w+z\cdot 2\pi in+2\pi im\mid m,n\in \mathbb {Z} \right\}\\\left\{z\log w\right\}&=\left\{z\operatorname {Log} w+z\cdot 2\pi in\mid n\in \mathbb {Z} \right\}\end{aligned}}} * The identities (*bc*)*x* = *b**x**c**x* and (*b*/*c*)*x* = *b**x*/*c**x* are valid when b and c are positive real numbers and x is a real number. But, for the principal values, one has ( − 1 ⋅ − 1 ) 1 2 = 1 ≠ ( − 1 ) 1 2 ( − 1 ) 1 2 = − 1 {\displaystyle (-1\cdot -1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=1\neq (-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=-1} {\displaystyle (-1\cdot -1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=1\neq (-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=-1} and ( 1 − 1 ) 1 2 = ( − 1 ) 1 2 = i ≠ 1 1 2 ( − 1 ) 1 2 = 1 i = − i {\displaystyle \left({\frac {1}{-1}}\right)^{\frac {1}{2}}=(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=i\neq {\frac {1^{\frac {1}{2}}}{(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}}}={\frac {1}{i}}=-i} {\displaystyle \left({\frac {1}{-1}}\right)^{\frac {1}{2}}=(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}=i\neq {\frac {1^{\frac {1}{2}}}{(-1)^{\frac {1}{2}}}}={\frac {1}{i}}=-i} On the other hand, when x is an integer, the identities are valid for all nonzero complex numbers. If exponentiation is considered as a multivalued function then the possible values of (−1 ⋅ −1)1/2 are {1, −1}. The identity holds, but saying {1} = {(−1 ⋅ −1)1/2} is wrong. * The identity (*e**x*)*y* = *e**xy* holds for real numbers x and y, but assuming its truth for complex numbers leads to the following paradox, discovered in 1827 by Clausen: For any integer n, we have: 1. e 1 + 2 π i n = e 1 e 2 π i n = e ⋅ 1 = e {\displaystyle e^{1+2\pi in}=e^{1}e^{2\pi in}=e\cdot 1=e} {\displaystyle e^{1+2\pi in}=e^{1}e^{2\pi in}=e\cdot 1=e} 2. ( e 1 + 2 π i n ) 1 + 2 π i n = e {\displaystyle \left(e^{1+2\pi in}\right)^{1+2\pi in}=e\qquad } {\displaystyle \left(e^{1+2\pi in}\right)^{1+2\pi in}=e\qquad } (taking the ( 1 + 2 π i n ) {\displaystyle (1+2\pi in)} {\displaystyle (1+2\pi in)}-th power of both sides) 3. e 1 + 4 π i n − 4 π 2 n 2 = e {\displaystyle e^{1+4\pi in-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=e\qquad } {\displaystyle e^{1+4\pi in-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=e\qquad } (using ( e x ) y = e x y {\displaystyle \left(e^{x}\right)^{y}=e^{xy}} {\displaystyle \left(e^{x}\right)^{y}=e^{xy}} and expanding the exponent) 4. e 1 e 4 π i n e − 4 π 2 n 2 = e {\displaystyle e^{1}e^{4\pi in}e^{-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=e\qquad } {\displaystyle e^{1}e^{4\pi in}e^{-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=e\qquad } (using e x + y = e x e y {\displaystyle e^{x+y}=e^{x}e^{y}} {\displaystyle e^{x+y}=e^{x}e^{y}}) 5. e − 4 π 2 n 2 = 1 {\displaystyle e^{-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=1\qquad } {\displaystyle e^{-4\pi ^{2}n^{2}}=1\qquad } (dividing by e)but this is false when the integer n is nonzero. The error is the following: by definition, e y {\displaystyle e^{y}} e^{y} is a notation for exp ⁡ ( y ) , {\displaystyle \exp(y),} {\displaystyle \exp(y),} a true function, and x y {\displaystyle x^{y}} x^y is a notation for exp ⁡ ( y log ⁡ x ) , {\displaystyle \exp(y\log x),} {\displaystyle \exp(y\log x),} which is a multi-valued function. Thus the notation is ambiguous when *x* = *e*. Here, before expanding the exponent, the second line should be exp ⁡ ( ( 1 + 2 π i n ) log ⁡ exp ⁡ ( 1 + 2 π i n ) ) = exp ⁡ ( 1 + 2 π i n ) . {\displaystyle \exp \left((1+2\pi in)\log \exp(1+2\pi in)\right)=\exp(1+2\pi in).} {\displaystyle \exp \left((1+2\pi in)\log \exp(1+2\pi in)\right)=\exp(1+2\pi in).} Therefore, when expanding the exponent, one has implicitly supposed that log ⁡ exp ⁡ z = z {\displaystyle \log \exp z=z} {\displaystyle \log \exp z=z} for complex values of z, which is wrong, as the complex logarithm is multivalued. In other words, the wrong identity (*e**x*)*y* = *e**xy* must be replaced by the identity ( e x ) y = e y log ⁡ e x , {\displaystyle \left(e^{x}\right)^{y}=e^{y\log e^{x}},} {\displaystyle \left(e^{x}\right)^{y}=e^{y\log e^{x}},} which is a true identity between multivalued functions. Irrationality and transcendence ------------------------------- If b is a positive real algebraic number, and x is a rational number, then *b**x* is an algebraic number. This results from the theory of algebraic extensions. This remains true if b is any algebraic number, in which case, all values of *b**x* (as a multivalued function) are algebraic. If x is irrational (that is, *not rational*), and both b and x are algebraic, Gelfond–Schneider theorem asserts that all values of *b**x* are transcendental (that is, not algebraic), except if b equals 0 or 1. In other words, if x is irrational and b ∉ { 0 , 1 } , {\displaystyle b\not \in \{0,1\},} {\displaystyle b\not \in \{0,1\},} then at least one of b, x and *b**x* is transcendental. Integer powers in algebra ------------------------- The definition of exponentiation with positive integer exponents as repeated multiplication may apply to any associative operation denoted as a multiplication. The definition of x 0 {\displaystyle x^{0}} x^{0} requires further the existence of a multiplicative identity. An algebraic structure consisting of a set together with an associative operation denoted multiplicatively, and a multiplicative identity denoted by 1 is a monoid. In such a monoid, exponentiation of an element x is defined inductively by * x 0 = 1 , {\displaystyle x^{0}=1,} {\displaystyle x^{0}=1,} * x n + 1 = x x n {\displaystyle x^{n+1}=xx^{n}} {\displaystyle x^{n+1}=xx^{n}} for every nonnegative integer n. If n is a negative integer, x n {\displaystyle x^{n}} x^{n} is defined only if x has a multiplicative inverse. In this case, the inverse of x is denoted x − 1 , {\displaystyle x^{-1},} {\displaystyle x^{-1},} and x n {\displaystyle x^{n}} x^{n} is defined as ( x − 1 ) − n . {\displaystyle \left(x^{-1}\right)^{-n}.} {\displaystyle \left(x^{-1}\right)^{-n}.} Exponentiation with integer exponents obeys the following laws, for x and y in the algebraic structure, and m and n integers: x 0 = 1 x m + n = x m x n ( x m ) n = x m n ( x y ) n = x n y n if  x y = y x , and, in particular, if the multiplication is commutative. {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}x^{0}&=1\\x^{m+n}&=x^{m}x^{n}\\(x^{m})^{n}&=x^{mn}\\(xy)^{n}&=x^{n}y^{n}\quad {\text{if }}xy=yx,{\text{and, in particular, if the multiplication is commutative.}}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}x^{0}&=1\\x^{m+n}&=x^{m}x^{n}\\(x^{m})^{n}&=x^{mn}\\(xy)^{n}&=x^{n}y^{n}\quad {\text{if }}xy=yx,{\text{and, in particular, if the multiplication is commutative.}}\end{aligned}}} These definitions are widely used in many areas of mathematics, notably for groups, rings, fields, square matrices (which form a ring). They apply also to functions from a set to itself, which form a monoid under function composition. This includes, as specific instances, geometric transformations, and endomorphisms of any mathematical structure. When there are several operations that may be repeated, it is common to indicate the repeated operation by placing its symbol in the superscript, before the exponent. For example, if f is a real function whose valued can be multiplied, f n {\displaystyle f^{n}} f^{n} denotes the exponentiation with respect of multiplication, and f ∘ n {\displaystyle f^{\circ n}} {\displaystyle f^{\circ n}} may denote exponentiation with respect of function composition. That is, ( f n ) ( x ) = ( f ( x ) ) n = f ( x ) f ( x ) ⋯ f ( x ) , {\displaystyle (f^{n})(x)=(f(x))^{n}=f(x)\,f(x)\cdots f(x),} {\displaystyle (f^{n})(x)=(f(x))^{n}=f(x)\,f(x)\cdots f(x),} and ( f ∘ n ) ( x ) = f ( f ( ⋯ f ( f ( x ) ) ⋯ ) ) . {\displaystyle (f^{\circ n})(x)=f(f(\cdots f(f(x))\cdots )).} {\displaystyle (f^{\circ n})(x)=f(f(\cdots f(f(x))\cdots )).} Commonly, ( f n ) ( x ) {\displaystyle (f^{n})(x)} {\displaystyle (f^{n})(x)} is denoted f ( x ) n , {\displaystyle f(x)^{n},} {\displaystyle f(x)^{n},} while ( f ∘ n ) ( x ) {\displaystyle (f^{\circ n})(x)} {\displaystyle (f^{\circ n})(x)} is denoted f n ( x ) . {\displaystyle f^{n}(x).} {\displaystyle f^{n}(x).} ### In a group A multiplicative group is a set with as associative operation denoted as multiplication, that has an identity element, and such that every element has an inverse. So, if G is a group, x n {\displaystyle x^{n}} x^{n} is defined for every x ∈ G {\displaystyle x\in G} x\in G and every integer n. The set of all powers of an element of a group form a subgroup. A group (or subgroup) that consists of all powers of a specific element x is the cyclic group generated by x. If all the powers of x are distinct, the group is isomorphic to the additive group Z {\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} } \mathbb {Z} of the integers. Otherwise, the cyclic group is finite (it has a finite number of elements), and its number of elements is the order of x. If the order of x is n, then x n = x 0 = 1 , {\displaystyle x^{n}=x^{0}=1,} {\displaystyle x^{n}=x^{0}=1,} and the cyclic group generated by x consists of the n first powers of x (starting indifferently from the exponent 0 or 1). Order of elements play a fundamental role in group theory. For example, the order of an element in a finite group is always a divisor of the number of elements of the group (the *order* of the group). The possible orders of group elements are important in the study of the structure of a group (see Sylow theorems), and in the classification of finite simple groups. Superscript notation is also used for conjugation; that is, *g**h* = *h*−1*gh*, where *g* and *h* are elements of a group. This notation cannot be confused with exponentiation, since the superscript is not an integer. The motivation of this notation is that conjugation obeys some of the laws of exponentiation, namely ( g h ) k = g h k {\displaystyle (g^{h})^{k}=g^{hk}} {\displaystyle (g^{h})^{k}=g^{hk}} and ( g h ) k = g k h k . {\displaystyle (gh)^{k}=g^{k}h^{k}.} {\displaystyle (gh)^{k}=g^{k}h^{k}.} ### In a ring In a ring, it may occur that some nonzero elements satisfy x n = 0 {\displaystyle x^{n}=0} {\displaystyle x^{n}=0} for some integer n. Such an element is said to be nilpotent. In a commutative ring, the nilpotent elements form an ideal, called the nilradical of the ring. If the nilradical is reduced to the zero ideal (that is, if x ≠ 0 {\displaystyle x\neq 0} x\neq 0 implies x n ≠ 0 {\displaystyle x^{n}\neq 0} {\displaystyle x^{n}\neq 0} for every positive integer n), the commutative ring is said reduced. Reduced rings important in algebraic geometry, since the coordinate ring of an affine algebraic set is always a reduced ring. More generally, given an ideal I in a commutative ring R, the set of the elements of R that have a power in I is an ideal, called the radical of I. The nilradical is the radical of the zero ideal. A radical ideal is an ideal that equals its own radical. In a polynomial ring k [ x 1 , … , x n ] {\displaystyle k[x\_{1},\ldots ,x\_{n}]} {\displaystyle k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{n}]} over a field k, an ideal is radical if and only if it is the set of all polynomials that are zero on an affine algebraic set (this is a consequence of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz). ### Matrices and linear operators If *A* is a square matrix, then the product of *A* with itself *n* times is called the matrix power. Also A 0 {\displaystyle A^{0}} A^{0} is defined to be the identity matrix, and if *A* is invertible, then A − n = ( A − 1 ) n {\displaystyle A^{-n}=\left(A^{-1}\right)^{n}} {\displaystyle A^{-n}=\left(A^{-1}\right)^{n}}. Matrix powers appear often in the context of discrete dynamical systems, where the matrix *A* expresses a transition from a state vector *x* of some system to the next state *Ax* of the system. This is the standard interpretation of a Markov chain, for example. Then A 2 x {\displaystyle A^{2}x} A^{2}x is the state of the system after two time steps, and so forth: A n x {\displaystyle A^{n}x} A^{n}x is the state of the system after *n* time steps. The matrix power A n {\displaystyle A^{n}} A^{n} is the transition matrix between the state now and the state at a time *n* steps in the future. So computing matrix powers is equivalent to solving the evolution of the dynamical system. In many cases, matrix powers can be expediently computed by using eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Apart from matrices, more general linear operators can also be exponentiated. An example is the derivative operator of calculus, d / d x {\displaystyle d/dx} d/dx, which is a linear operator acting on functions f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} f(x) to give a new function ( d / d x ) f ( x ) = f ′ ( x ) {\displaystyle (d/dx)f(x)=f'(x)} {\displaystyle (d/dx)f(x)=f'(x)}. The *n*-th power of the differentiation operator is the *n*-th derivative: ( d d x ) n f ( x ) = d n d x n f ( x ) = f ( n ) ( x ) . {\displaystyle \left({\frac {d}{dx}}\right)^{n}f(x)={\frac {d^{n}}{dx^{n}}}f(x)=f^{(n)}(x).} \left({\frac {d}{dx}}\right)^{n}f(x)={\frac {d^{n}}{dx^{n}}}f(x)=f^{(n)}(x). These examples are for discrete exponents of linear operators, but in many circumstances it is also desirable to define powers of such operators with continuous exponents. This is the starting point of the mathematical theory of semigroups. Just as computing matrix powers with discrete exponents solves discrete dynamical systems, so does computing matrix powers with continuous exponents solve systems with continuous dynamics. Examples include approaches to solving the heat equation, Schrödinger equation, wave equation, and other partial differential equations including a time evolution. The special case of exponentiating the derivative operator to a non-integer power is called the fractional derivative which, together with the fractional integral, is one of the basic operations of the fractional calculus. ### Finite fields A field is an algebraic structure in which multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division are defined and satisfy the properties that multiplication is associative and every nonzero element has a multiplicative inverse. This implies that exponentiation with integer exponents is well-defined, except for nonpositive powers of 0. Common examples are the complex numbers and their subfields, the rational numbers and the real numbers, which have been considered earlier in this article, and are all infinite. A *finite field* is a field with a finite number of elements. This number of elements is either a prime number or a prime power; that is, it has the form q = p k , {\displaystyle q=p^{k},} {\displaystyle q=p^{k},} where p is a prime number, and k is a positive integer. For every such q, there are fields with q elements. The fields with q elements are all isomorphic, which allows, in general, working as if there were only one field with q elements, denoted F q . {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q}.} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q}.} One has x q = x {\displaystyle x^{q}=x} {\displaystyle x^{q}=x} for every x ∈ F q . {\displaystyle x\in \mathbb {F} \_{q}.} {\displaystyle x\in \mathbb {F} _{q}.} A primitive element in F q {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q}} \mathbb {F} _{q} is an element g such that the set of the *q* − 1 first powers of g (that is, { g 1 = g , g 2 , … , g p − 1 = g 0 = 1 } {\displaystyle \{g^{1}=g,g^{2},\ldots ,g^{p-1}=g^{0}=1\}} {\displaystyle \{g^{1}=g,g^{2},\ldots ,g^{p-1}=g^{0}=1\}}) equals the set of the nonzero elements of F q . {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q}.} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q}.} There are φ ( p − 1 ) {\displaystyle \varphi (p-1)} {\displaystyle \varphi (p-1)} primitive elements in F q , {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q},} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q},} where φ {\displaystyle \varphi } \varphi is Euler's totient function. In F q , {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q},} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q},} the Freshman's dream identity ( x + y ) p = x p + y p {\displaystyle (x+y)^{p}=x^{p}+y^{p}} (x+y)^{p}=x^{p}+y^{p} is true for the exponent p. As x p = x {\displaystyle x^{p}=x} x^{p}=x in F q , {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q},} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q},} It follows that the map F : F q → F q x ↦ x p {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}F\colon {}&\mathbb {F} \_{q}\to \mathbb {F} \_{q}\\&x\mapsto x^{p}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}F\colon {}&\mathbb {F} _{q}\to \mathbb {F} _{q}\\&x\mapsto x^{p}\end{aligned}}} is linear over F q , {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q},} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q},} and is a field automorphism, called the Frobenius automorphism. If q = p k , {\displaystyle q=p^{k},} {\displaystyle q=p^{k},} the field F q {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q}} \mathbb {F} _{q} has k automorphisms, which are the k first powers (under composition) of F. In other words, the Galois group of F q {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q}} \mathbb {F} _{q} is cyclic of order k, generated by the Frobenius automorphism. The Diffie–Hellman key exchange is an application of exponentiation in finite fields that is widely used for secure communications. It uses the fact that exponentiation is computationally inexpensive, whereas the inverse operation, the discrete logarithm, is computationally expensive. More precisely, if g is a primitive element in F q , {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} \_{q},} {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} _{q},} then g e {\displaystyle g^{e}} {\displaystyle g^{e}} can be efficiently computed with exponentiation by squaring for any e, even if q is large, while there is no known algorithm allowing retrieving e from g e {\displaystyle g^{e}} {\displaystyle g^{e}} if q is sufficiently large. Powers of sets -------------- The Cartesian product of two sets S and T is the set of the ordered pairs ( x , y ) {\displaystyle (x,y)} (x,y) such that x ∈ S {\displaystyle x\in S} x\in S and y ∈ T . {\displaystyle y\in T.} {\displaystyle y\in T.} This operation is not properly commutative nor associative, but has these properties up to canonical isomorphisms, that allow identifying, for example, ( x , ( y , z ) ) , {\displaystyle (x,(y,z)),} {\displaystyle (x,(y,z)),} ( ( x , y ) , z ) , {\displaystyle ((x,y),z),} {\displaystyle ((x,y),z),} and ( x , y , z ) . {\displaystyle (x,y,z).} {\displaystyle (x,y,z).} This allows defining the nth power S n {\displaystyle S^{n}} S^{n} of a set S as the set of all n-tuples ( x 1 , … , x n ) {\displaystyle (x\_{1},\ldots ,x\_{n})} (x_1, \ldots, x_n) of elements of S. When S is endowed with some structure, it is frequent that S n {\displaystyle S^{n}} S^{n} is naturally endowed with a similar structure. In this case, the term "direct product" is generally used instead of "Cartesian product", and exponentiation denotes product structure. For example R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} \mathbb {R} ^{n} (where R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } \mathbb {R} denotes the real numbers) denotes the Cartesian product of n copies of R , {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ,} {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ,} as well as their direct product as vector space, topological spaces, rings, etc. ### Sets as exponents A n-tuple ( x 1 , … , x n ) {\displaystyle (x\_{1},\ldots ,x\_{n})} (x_1, \ldots, x_n) of elements of S can be considered as a function from { 1 , … , n } . {\displaystyle \{1,\ldots ,n\}.} {\displaystyle \{1,\ldots ,n\}.} This generalizes to the following notation. Given two sets S and T, the set of all functions from T to S is denoted S T {\displaystyle S^{T}} {\displaystyle S^{T}}. This exponential notation is justified by the following canonical isomorphisms (for the first one, see Currying): ( S T ) U ≅ S T × U , {\displaystyle (S^{T})^{U}\cong S^{T\times U},} {\displaystyle (S^{T})^{U}\cong S^{T\times U},} S T ⊔ U ≅ S T × S U , {\displaystyle S^{T\sqcup U}\cong S^{T}\times S^{U},} {\displaystyle S^{T\sqcup U}\cong S^{T}\times S^{U},} where × {\displaystyle \times } \times denotes the Cartesian product, and ⊔ {\displaystyle \sqcup } \sqcup the disjoint union. One can use sets as exponents for other operations on sets, typically for direct sums of abelian groups, vector spaces, or modules. For distinguishing direct sums from direct products, the exponent of a direct sum is placed between parentheses. For example, R N {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\mathbb {N} }} {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\mathbb {N} }} denotes the vector space of the infinite sequences of real numbers, and R ( N ) {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{(\mathbb {N} )}} {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{(\mathbb {N} )}} the vector space of those sequences that have a finite number of nonzero elements. The latter has a basis consisting of the sequences with exactly one nonzero element that equals 1, while the Hamel bases of the former cannot be explicitly described (because their existence involves Zorn's lemma). In this context, 2 can represents the set { 0 , 1 } . {\displaystyle \{0,1\}.} {\displaystyle \{0,1\}.} So, 2 S {\displaystyle 2^{S}} 2^{S} denotes the power set of S, that is the set of the functions from S to { 0 , 1 } , {\displaystyle \{0,1\},} {\displaystyle \{0,1\},} which can be identified with the set of the subsets of S, by mapping each function to the inverse image of 1. This fits in with the exponentiation of cardinal numbers, in the sense that |*S**T*| = |*S*||*T*|, where |*X*| is the cardinality of *X*. ### In category theory In the category of sets, the morphisms between sets X and Y are the functions from X to Y. It results that the set of the functions from X to Y that is denoted Y X {\displaystyle Y^{X}} Y^X in the preceding section can also be denoted hom ⁡ ( X , Y ) . {\displaystyle \hom(X,Y).} {\displaystyle \hom(X,Y).} The isomorphism ( S T ) U ≅ S T × U {\displaystyle (S^{T})^{U}\cong S^{T\times U}} {\displaystyle (S^{T})^{U}\cong S^{T\times U}} can be rewritten hom ⁡ ( U , S T ) ≅ hom ⁡ ( T × U , S ) . {\displaystyle \hom(U,S^{T})\cong \hom(T\times U,S).} {\displaystyle \hom(U,S^{T})\cong \hom(T\times U,S).} This means the functor "exponentiation to the power T " is a right adjoint to the functor "direct product with T ". This generalizes to the definition of exponentiation in a category in which finite direct products exist: in such a category, the functor X → X T {\displaystyle X\to X^{T}} {\displaystyle X\to X^{T}} is, if it exists, a right adjoint to the functor Y → T × Y . {\displaystyle Y\to T\times Y.} {\displaystyle Y\to T\times Y.} A category is called a *Cartesian closed category*, if direct products exist, and the functor Y → X × Y {\displaystyle Y\to X\times Y} {\displaystyle Y\to X\times Y} has a right adjoint for every T. Repeated exponentiation ----------------------- Just as exponentiation of natural numbers is motivated by repeated multiplication, it is possible to define an operation based on repeated exponentiation; this operation is sometimes called hyper-4 or tetration. Iterating tetration leads to another operation, and so on, a concept named hyperoperation. This sequence of operations is expressed by the Ackermann function and Knuth's up-arrow notation. Just as exponentiation grows faster than multiplication, which is faster-growing than addition, tetration is faster-growing than exponentiation. Evaluated at (3, 3), the functions addition, multiplication, exponentiation, and tetration yield 6, 9, 27, and 7625597484987 (= 327 = 333 = 33) respectively. Limits of powers ---------------- Zero to the power of zero gives a number of examples of limits that are of the indeterminate form 00. The limits in these examples exist, but have different values, showing that the two-variable function *x**y* has no limit at the point (0, 0). One may consider at what points this function does have a limit. More precisely, consider the function f ( x , y ) = x y {\displaystyle f(x,y)=x^{y}} {\displaystyle f(x,y)=x^{y}} defined on D = { ( x , y ) ∈ R 2 : x > 0 } {\displaystyle D=\{(x,y)\in \mathbf {R} ^{2}:x>0\}} {\displaystyle D=\{(x,y)\in \mathbf {R} ^{2}:x>0\}}. Then *D* can be viewed as a subset of **R**2 (that is, the set of all pairs (*x*, *y*) with *x*, *y* belonging to the extended real number line **R** = [−∞, +∞], endowed with the product topology), which will contain the points at which the function *f* has a limit. In fact, *f* has a limit at all accumulation points of *D*, except for (0, 0), (+∞, 0), (1, +∞) and (1, −∞). Accordingly, this allows one to define the powers *x**y* by continuity whenever 0 ≤ *x* ≤ +∞, −∞ ≤ y ≤ +∞, except for 00, (+∞)0, 1+∞ and 1−∞, which remain indeterminate forms. Under this definition by continuity, we obtain: * *x*+∞ = +∞ and *x*−∞ = 0, when 1 < *x* ≤ +∞. * *x*+∞ = 0 and *x*−∞ = +∞, when 0 ≤ *x* < 1. * 0*y* = 0 and (+∞)*y* = +∞, when 0 < *y* ≤ +∞. * 0*y* = +∞ and (+∞)*y* = 0, when −∞ ≤ *y* < 0. These powers are obtained by taking limits of *x**y* for *positive* values of *x*. This method does not permit a definition of *x**y* when *x* < 0, since pairs (*x*, *y*) with *x* < 0 are not accumulation points of *D*. On the other hand, when *n* is an integer, the power *x**n* is already meaningful for all values of *x*, including negative ones. This may make the definition 0*n* = +∞ obtained above for negative *n* problematic when *n* is odd, since in this case *x**n* → +∞ as *x* tends to 0 through positive values, but not negative ones. Efficient computation with integer exponents -------------------------------------------- Computing *b**n* using iterated multiplication requires *n* − 1 multiplication operations, but it can be computed more efficiently than that, as illustrated by the following example. To compute 2100, apply Horner's rule to the exponent 100 written in binary: 100 = 2 2 + 2 5 + 2 6 = 2 2 ( 1 + 2 3 ( 1 + 2 ) ) {\displaystyle 100=2^{2}+2^{5}+2^{6}=2^{2}(1+2^{3}(1+2))} {\displaystyle 100=2^{2}+2^{5}+2^{6}=2^{2}(1+2^{3}(1+2))}. Then compute the following terms in order, reading Horner's rule from right to left. | | | --- | | 22 = 4 | | 2 (22) = 23 = 8 | | (23)2 = 26 = 64 | | (26)2 = 212 = 4096 | | (212)2 = 224 = 16777216 | | 2 (224) = 225 = 33554432 | | (225)2 = 250 = 1125899906842624 | | (250)2 = 2100 = 1267650600228229401496703205376 | This series of steps only requires 8 multiplications instead of 99. In general, the number of multiplication operations required to compute *b**n* can be reduced to ♯ n + ⌊ log 2 ⁡ n ⌋ − 1 , {\displaystyle \sharp n+\lfloor \log \_{2}n\rfloor -1,} {\displaystyle \sharp n+\lfloor \log _{2}n\rfloor -1,} by using exponentiation by squaring, where ♯ n {\displaystyle \sharp n} {\displaystyle \sharp n} denotes the number of 1 in the binary representation of n. For some exponents (100 is not among them), the number of multiplications can be further reduced by computing and using the minimal addition-chain exponentiation. Finding the *minimal* sequence of multiplications (the minimal-length addition chain for the exponent) for *b**n* is a difficult problem, for which no efficient algorithms are currently known (see Subset sum problem), but many reasonably efficient heuristic algorithms are available. However, in practical computations, exponentiation by squaring is efficient enough, and much more easy to implement. Iterated functions ------------------ Function composition is a binary operation that is defined on functions such that the codomain of the function written on the right is included in the domain of the function written on the left. It is denoted g ∘ f , {\displaystyle g\circ f,} {\displaystyle g\circ f,} and defined as ( g ∘ f ) ( x ) = g ( f ( x ) ) {\displaystyle (g\circ f)(x)=g(f(x))} {\displaystyle (g\circ f)(x)=g(f(x))} for every x in the domain of f. If the domain of a function f equals its codomain, one may compose the function with itself an arbitrary number of time, and this defines the nth power of the function under composition, commonly called the *nth iterate* of the function. Thus f n {\displaystyle f^{n}} f^{n} denotes generally the nth iterate of f; for example, f 3 ( x ) {\displaystyle f^{3}(x)} {\displaystyle f^{3}(x)} means f ( f ( f ( x ) ) ) . {\displaystyle f(f(f(x))).} {\displaystyle f(f(f(x))).} When a multiplication is defined on the codomain of the function, this defines a multiplication on functions, the pointwise multiplication, which induces another exponentiation. When using functional notation, the two kinds of exponentiation are generally distinguished by placing the exponent of the functional iteration *before* the parentheses enclosing the arguments of the function, and placing the exponent of pointwise multiplication *after* the parentheses. Thus f 2 ( x ) = f ( f ( x ) ) , {\displaystyle f^{2}(x)=f(f(x)),} {\displaystyle f^{2}(x)=f(f(x)),} and f ( x ) 2 = f ( x ) ⋅ f ( x ) . {\displaystyle f(x)^{2}=f(x)\cdot f(x).} {\displaystyle f(x)^{2}=f(x)\cdot f(x).} When functional notation is not used, disambiguation is often done by placing the composition symbol before the exponent; for example f ∘ 3 = f ∘ f ∘ f , {\displaystyle f^{\circ 3}=f\circ f\circ f,} {\displaystyle f^{\circ 3}=f\circ f\circ f,} and f 3 = f ⋅ f ⋅ f . {\displaystyle f^{3}=f\cdot f\cdot f.} {\displaystyle f^{3}=f\cdot f\cdot f.} For historical reasons, the exponent of a repeated multiplication is placed before the argument for some specific functions, typically the trigonometric functions. So, sin 2 ⁡ x {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}x} \sin ^{2}x and sin 2 ⁡ ( x ) {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(x)} \sin^2(x) both mean sin ⁡ ( x ) ⋅ sin ⁡ ( x ) {\displaystyle \sin(x)\cdot \sin(x)} {\displaystyle \sin(x)\cdot \sin(x)} and not sin ⁡ ( sin ⁡ ( x ) ) , {\displaystyle \sin(\sin(x)),} {\displaystyle \sin(\sin(x)),} which, in any case, is rarely considered. Historically, several variants of these notations were used by different authors. In this context, the exponent − 1 {\displaystyle -1} -1 denotes always the inverse function, if it exists. So sin − 1 ⁡ x = sin − 1 ⁡ ( x ) = arcsin ⁡ x . {\displaystyle \sin ^{-1}x=\sin ^{-1}(x)=\arcsin x.} {\displaystyle \sin ^{-1}x=\sin ^{-1}(x)=\arcsin x.} For the multiplicative inverse fractions are generally used as in 1 / sin ⁡ ( x ) = 1 sin ⁡ x . {\displaystyle 1/\sin(x)={\frac {1}{\sin x}}.} {\displaystyle 1/\sin(x)={\frac {1}{\sin x}}.} In programming languages ------------------------ Programming languages generally express exponentiation either as an infix operator or as a function application, as they do not support superscripts. The most common operator symbol for exponentiation is the caret (`^`). The original version of ASCII included an uparrow symbol (`↑`), intended for exponentiation, but this was replaced by the caret in 1967, so the caret became usual in programming languages. The notations include: * `x ^ y`: AWK, BASIC, J, MATLAB, Wolfram Language (Mathematica), R, Microsoft Excel, Analytica, TeX (and its derivatives), TI-BASIC, bc (for integer exponents), Haskell (for nonnegative integer exponents), Lua and most computer algebra systems. * `x ** y`. The Fortran character set did not include lowercase characters or punctuation symbols other than `+-*/()&=.,'` and so used `**` for exponentiation (the initial version used `a xx b` instead.). Many other languages followed suit: Ada, Z shell, KornShell, Bash, COBOL, CoffeeScript, Fortran, FoxPro, Gnuplot, Groovy, JavaScript, OCaml, F#, Perl, PHP, PL/I, Python, Rexx, Ruby, SAS, Seed7, Tcl, ABAP, Mercury, Haskell (for floating-point exponents), Turing, VHDL. * `x ↑ y`: Algol Reference language, Commodore BASIC, TRS-80 Level II/III BASIC. * `x ^^ y`: Haskell (for fractional base, integer exponents), D. * `x⋆y`: APL. In most programming languages with an infix exponentiation operator, it is right-associative, that is, `a^b^c` is interpreted as `a^(b^c)`. This is because `(a^b)^c` is equal to `a^(b*c)` and thus not as useful. In some languages, it is left-associative, notably in Algol, Matlab and the Microsoft Excel formula language. Other programming languages use functional notation: * `(expt x y)`: Common Lisp. * `pown x y`: F# (for integer base, integer exponent). Still others only provide exponentiation as part of standard libraries: * `pow(x, y)`: C, C++ (in `math` library). * `Math.Pow(x, y)`: C#. * `math:pow(X, Y)`: Erlang. * `Math.pow(x, y)`: Java. * `[Math]::Pow(x, y)`: PowerShell. In some statically typed languages that prioritize type safety such as Rust, exponentiation is performed via a multitude of methods: * `x.pow(y)` for `x` and `y` as integers * `x.powf(y)` for `x` and `y` as floating point numbers * `x.powi(y)` for `x` as a float and `y` as an integer See also -------- * Double exponential function * Exponential decay * Exponential field * Exponential growth * List of exponential topics * Modular exponentiation * Scientific notation * Unicode subscripts and superscripts * *x**y* = *y**x* * Zero to the power of zero

Exponentiation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation

An Iraqi woman voting in a parliamentary election in Iraq; Nene Teye Kwesi Agyeman, a Shai Chief of Ghana; inauguration of Park Geun-hye as President of South Korea; Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg; Coronation of King Rama X of Thailand, protesters demonstrating in Chile, a woman voting in the 2012 Russian presidential election **Politics** (from Greek: *Πολιτικά*, *politiká*, 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science. It may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and nonviolent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but also often carries a negative connotation. The concept has been defined in various ways, and different approaches have fundamentally differing views on whether it should be used extensively or limitedly, empirically or normatively, and on whether conflict or co-operation is more essential to it. A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising internal and external force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level. In modern nation states, people often form political parties to represent their ideas. Members of a party often agree to take the same position on many issues and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a competition between different parties. A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a society. The history of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's *Republic*, Aristotle's *Politics*, Confucius's political manuscripts and Chanakya's *Arthashastra*. Etymology --------- The English *politics* has its roots in the name of Aristotle's classic work, *Politiká*, which introduced the Greek term **politiká** (*Πολιτικά*, 'affairs of the cities')*.* In the mid-15th century, Aristotle's composition would be rendered in Early Modern English as *Polettiques* [*sic*], which would become *Politics* in Modern English. The singular *politic* first attested in English in 1430, coming from Middle French *politique*—itself taking from *politicus*, a Latinization of the Greek *πολιτικός* (*politikos*) from πολίτης (*polites*, 'citizen') and πόλις (*polis*, 'city'). ### Definitions * Harold Lasswell: "who gets what, when, how" * David Easton: "the authoritative allocation of values for a society" * Vladimir Lenin: "the most concentrated expression of economics" * Otto von Bismarck: "the capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful" * Bernard Crick: "a distinctive form of rule whereby people act together through institutionalized procedures to resolve differences" * Adrian Leftwich: "comprises all the activities of co-operation, negotiation and conflict within and between societies" Approaches ---------- There are several ways in which approaching politics has been conceptualized. ### Extensive and limited Adrian Leftwich has differentiated views of politics based on how extensive or limited their perception of what accounts as 'political' is. The extensive view sees politics as present across the sphere of human social relations, while the limited view restricts it to certain contexts. For example, in a more restrictive way, politics may be viewed as primarily about governance, while a feminist perspective could argue that sites which have been viewed traditionally as non-political, should indeed be viewed as political as well. This latter position is encapsulated in the slogan "*the personal is political*," which disputes the distinction between private and public issues. Politics may also be defined by the use of power, as has been argued by Robert A. Dahl. ### Moralism and realism Some perspectives on politics view it empirically as an exercise of power, while others see it as a social function with a normative basis. This distinction has been called the difference between political *moralism* and political *realism**.* For moralists, politics is closely linked to ethics, and is at its extreme in utopian thinking. For example, according to Hannah Arendt, the view of Aristotle was that "to be political…meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through violence;" while according to Bernard Crick "politics is the way in which free societies are governed. Politics is politics and other forms of rule are something else." In contrast, for realists, represented by those such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Harold Lasswell, politics is based on the use of power, irrespective of the ends being pursued. ### Conflict and co-operation Agonism argues that politics essentially comes down to conflict between conflicting interests. Political scientist Elmer Schattschneider argued that "at the root of all politics is the universal language of conflict," while for Carl Schmitt the essence of politics is the distinction of 'friend' from foe'. This is in direct contrast to the more co-operative views of politics by Aristotle and Crick. However, a more mixed view between these extremes is provided by Irish political scientist Michael Laver, who noted that: > Politics is about the characteristic blend of conflict and co-operation that can be found so often in human interactions. Pure conflict is war. Pure co-operation is true love. Politics is a mixture of both. > > History ------- The history of politics spans human history and is not limited to modern institutions of government. ### Prehistoric Frans de Waal argued that chimpanzees engage in politics through "social manipulation to secure and maintain influential positions." Early human forms of social organization—bands and tribes—lacked centralized political structures. These are sometimes referred to as stateless societies. ### Early states In ancient history, civilizations did not have definite boundaries as states have today, and their borders could be more accurately described as frontiers. Early dynastic Sumer, and early dynastic Egypt were the first civilizations to define their borders. Moreover, up to the 12th century, many people lived in non-state societies. These range from relatively egalitarian bands and tribes to complex and highly stratified chiefdoms. #### State formation There are a number of different theories and hypotheses regarding early state formation that seek generalizations to explain why **the state** developed in some places but not others. Other scholars believe that generalizations are unhelpful and that each case of early state formation should be treated on its own. **Voluntary theories** contend that diverse groups of people came together to form states as a result of some shared rational interest. The theories largely focus on the development of agriculture, and the population and organizational pressure that followed and resulted in state formation. One of the most prominent theories of early and primary state formation is the *hydraulic hypothesis*, which contends that the state was a result of the need to build and maintain large-scale irrigation projects. **Conflict theories** of state formation regard conflict and dominance of some population over another population as key to the formation of states. In contrast with voluntary theories, these arguments believe that people do not voluntarily agree to create a state to maximize benefits, but that states form due to some form of oppression by one group over others. Some theories in turn argue that warfare was critical for state formation. #### Ancient history The first states of sorts were those of early dynastic Sumer and early dynastic Egypt, which arose from the Uruk period and Predynastic Egypt respectively around approximately 3000 BCE. Early dynastic Egypt was based around the Nile River in the north-east of Africa, the kingdom's boundaries being based around the Nile and stretching to areas where oases existed. Early dynastic Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia with its borders extending from the Persian Gulf to parts of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Egyptians, Romans, and the Greeks were the first people known to have explicitly formulated a political philosophy of the state, and to have rationally analyzed political institutions. Prior to this, states were described and justified in terms of religious myths. Several important political innovations of classical antiquity came from the Greek city-states (*polis*) and the Roman Republic. The Greek city-states before the 4th century granted citizenship rights to their free population; in Athens these rights were combined with a directly democratic form of government that was to have a long afterlife in political thought and history. ### Modern states The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is considered by political scientists to be the beginning of the modern international system, in which external powers should avoid interfering in another country's domestic affairs. The principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs was laid out in the mid-18th century by Swiss jurist Emer de Vattel. States became the primary institutional agents in an interstate system of relations. The Peace of Westphalia is said to have ended attempts to impose supranational authority on European states. The "Westphalian" doctrine of states as independent agents was bolstered by the rise in 19th century thought of nationalism, under which legitimate states were assumed to correspond to *nations*—groups of people united by language and culture. In Europe, during the 18th century, the classic non-national states were the multinational empires: the Austrian Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Hungary, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire. Such empires also existed in Asia, Africa, and the Americas; in the Muslim world, immediately after the death of Muhammad in 632, Caliphates were established, which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. The multinational empire was an absolute monarchy ruled by a king, emperor or sultan. The population belonged to many ethnic groups, and they spoke many languages. The empire was dominated by one ethnic group, and their language was usually the language of public administration. The ruling dynasty was usually, but not always, from that group. Some of the smaller European states were not so ethnically diverse, but were also dynastic states, ruled by a royal house. A few of the smaller states survived, such as the independent principalities of Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, and the republic of San Marino. Most theories see the nation state as a 19th-century European phenomenon, facilitated by developments such as state-mandated education, mass literacy, and mass media. However, historians[*who?*] also note the early emergence of a relatively unified state and identity in Portugal and the Dutch Republic. Scholars such as Steven Weber, David Woodward, Michel Foucault, and Jeremy Black have advanced the hypothesis that the nation state did not arise out of political ingenuity or an unknown undetermined source, nor was it an accident of history or political invention. Rather, the nation state is an inadvertent byproduct of 15th-century intellectual discoveries in political economy, capitalism, mercantilism, political geography, and geography combined with cartography and advances in map-making technologies. Some nation states, such as Germany and Italy, came into existence at least partly as a result of political campaigns by nationalists, during the 19th century. In both cases, the territory was previously divided among other states, some of them very small. Liberal ideas of free trade played a role in German unification, which was preceded by a customs union, the Zollverein. National self-determination was a key aspect of United States President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, leading to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, while the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union after the Russian Civil War. Decolonization lead to the creation of new nation states in place of multinational empires in the Third World. ### Globalization Political globalization began in the 20th century through intergovernmental organizations and supranational unions. The League of Nations was founded after World War I, and after World War II it was replaced by the United Nations. Various international treaties have been signed through it. Regional integration has been pursued by the African Union, ASEAN, the European Union, and Mercosur. International political institutions on the international level include the International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. Political science ----------------- The study of politics is called **political science**, or **politology**. It comprises numerous subfields, including comparative politics, political economy, international relations, political philosophy, public administration, public policy, gender and politics, and political methodology. Furthermore, political science is related to, and draws upon, the fields of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology/psychiatry, anthropology, and neurosciences. Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions, political actors, legislature and associated fields. International relations deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political philosophy is more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers and philosophers. Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, social research, and cognitive neuroscience. Approaches include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and model building. Political system ---------------- The political system defines the process for making official government decisions. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. According to David Easton, "A political system can be designated as the interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society." Each political system is embedded in a society with its own political culture, and they in turn shape their societies through public policy. The interactions between different political systems are the basis for global politics. ### Forms of government Forms of government can be classified by several ways. In terms of the **structure of power**, there are monarchies (including constitutional monarchies) and republics (usually presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary). The separation of powers describes the degree of **horizontal integration** between the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and other independent institutions. #### Source of power The source of power determines the difference between democracies, oligarchies, and autocracies. In a democracy, political legitimacy is based on popular sovereignty. Forms of democracy include representative democracy, direct democracy, and demarchy. These are separated by the way decisions are made, whether by elected representatives, referendums, or by citizen juries. Democracies can be either republics or constitutional monarchies. Oligarchy is a power structure where a minority rules. These may be in the form of anocracy, aristocracy, ergatocracy, geniocracy, gerontocracy, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, meritocracy, noocracy, particracy, plutocracy, stratocracy, technocracy, theocracy, or timocracy. Autocracies are either dictatorships (including military dictatorships) or absolute monarchies. #### Vertical integration In terms of level of vertical integration, political systems can be divided into (from least to most integrated) confederations, federations, and unitary states. A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Federations were formed first in Switzerland, then in the United States in 1776, in Canada in 1867 and in Germany in 1871 and in 1901, Australia. Compared to a federation, a confederation has less centralized power. ### State All the above forms of government are variations of the same basic polity, the sovereign state. The state has been defined by Max Weber as a political entity that has monopoly on violence within its territory, while the Montevideo Convention holds that states need to have a defined territory; a permanent population; a government; and a capacity to enter into international relations. A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held positions; and social bodies that resolve disputes through predefined rules tend to be small. Stateless societies are highly variable in economic organization and cultural practices. While stateless societies were the norm in human prehistory, few stateless societies exist today; almost the entire global population resides within the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. In some regions nominal state authorities may be very weak and wield little or no actual power. Over the course of history most stateless peoples have been integrated into the state-based societies around them. Some political philosophies consider the state undesirable, and thus consider the formation of a stateless society a goal to be achieved. A central tenet of anarchism is the advocacy of society without states. The type of society sought for varies significantly between anarchist schools of thought, ranging from extreme individualism to complete collectivism. In Marxism, Marx's theory of the state considers that in a post-capitalist society the state, an undesirable institution, would be unnecessary and wither away. A related concept is that of stateless communism, a phrase sometimes used to describe Marx's anticipated post-capitalist society. ### Constitutions Constitutions are written documents that specify and limit the powers of the different branches of government. Although a constitution is a written document, there is also an unwritten constitution. The unwritten constitution is continually being written by the legislative and judiciary branch of government; this is just one of those cases in which the nature of the circumstances determines the form of government that is most appropriate. England did set the fashion of written constitutions during the Civil War but after the Restoration abandoned them to be taken up later by the American Colonies after their emancipation and then France after the Revolution and the rest of Europe including the European colonies. Constitutions often set out separation of powers, dividing the government into the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary (together referred to as the trias politica), in order to achieve checks and balances within the state. Additional independent branches may also be created, including civil service commissions, election commissions, and supreme audit institutions. ### Political culture Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Lucian Pye's definition is that "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system". Trust is a major factor in political culture, as its level determines the capacity of the state to function. Postmaterialism is the degree to which a political culture is concerned with issues which are not of immediate physical or material concern, such as human rights and environmentalism. Religion has also an impact on political culture. ### Political dysfunction #### Political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers for illegitimate private gain, conducted by government officials or their network contacts. Forms of political corruption include bribery, cronyism, nepotism, and political patronage. Forms of political patronage, in turn, includes clientelism, earmarking, pork barreling, slush funds, and spoils systems; as well as political machines, which is a political system that operates for corrupt ends. When corruption is embedded in political culture, this may be referred to as patrimonialism or neopatrimonialism. A form of government that is built on corruption is called a *kleptocracy* ('rule of thieves'). Levels of politics ------------------ ### Macropolitics Macropolitics can either describe political issues that affect an entire political system (e.g. the nation state), or refer to interactions between political systems (e.g. international relations). Global politics (or world politics) covers all aspects of politics that affect multiple political systems, in practice meaning any political phenomenon crossing national borders. This can include cities, nation-states, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and/or international organizations. An important element is international relations: the relations between nation-states may be peaceful when they are conducted through diplomacy, or they may be violent, which is described as war. States that are able to exert strong international influence are referred to as superpowers, whereas less-powerful ones may be called regional or middle powers. The international system of power is called the *world order*, which is affected by the balance of power that defines the degree of polarity in the system. Emerging powers are potentially destabilizing to it, especially if they display revanchism or irredentism. Politics inside the limits of political systems, which in contemporary context correspond to national borders, are referred to as domestic politics. This includes most forms of public policy, such as social policy, economic policy, or law enforcement, which are executed by the state bureaucracy. ### Mesopolitics Mesopolitics describes the politics of intermediary structures within a political system, such as national political parties or movements. A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in political campaigns, educational outreach, or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or vision, bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among disparate interests. Political parties within a particular political system together form the party system, which can be either multiparty, two-party, dominant-party, or one-party, depending on the level of pluralism. This is affected by characteristics of the political system, including its electoral system. According to Duverger's law, first-past-the-post systems are likely to lead to two-party systems, while proportional representation systems are more likely to create a multiparty system. ### Micropolitics Micropolitics describes the actions of individual actors within the political system. This is often described as political participation. Political participation may take many forms, including: * Activism * Boycott * Civil disobedience * Demonstration * Petition * Picketing * Strike action * Tax resistance * Voting (or its opposite, abstentionism) Political values ---------------- ### Democracy Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes. The uncertainty of outcomes is inherent in democracy. Democracy makes all forces struggle repeatedly to realize their interests and devolves power from groups of people to sets of rules. Among modern political theorists, there are three contending conceptions of democracy: *aggregative*, *deliberative*, and *radical*. #### Aggregative The theory of *aggregative democracy* claims that the aim of the democratic processes is to solicit the preferences of citizens, and aggregate them together to determine what social policies the society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented. Different variants of aggregative democracy exist. Under *minimalism*, democracy is a system of government in which citizens have given teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not "rule" because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book *Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy*. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner. According to the theory of *direct democracy*, on the other hand, citizens should vote directly, not through their representatives, on legislative proposals. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies. Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter—with half to their left and the other half to their right. This is not a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes. Anthony Downs suggests that ideological political parties are necessary to act as a mediating broker between individual and governments. Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book *An Economic Theory of Democracy*. Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation. Similarly, Ronald Dworkin argues that "democracy is a substantive, not a merely procedural, ideal." #### Deliberative *Deliberative democracy* is based on the notion that democracy is government by deliberation. Unlike aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy holds that, for a democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by authentic deliberation, not merely the aggregation of preferences that occurs in voting. *Authentic deliberation* is deliberation among decision-makers that is free from distortions of unequal political power, such as power a decision-maker obtained through economic wealth or the support of interest groups. If the decision-makers cannot reach consensus after authentically deliberating on a proposal, then they vote on the proposal using a form of majority rule. #### Radical *Radical democracy* is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision-making processes. ### Equality Equality is a state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same social status, especially socioeconomic status, including protection of human rights and dignity, and equal access to certain social goods and social services. Furthermore, it may also include health equality, economic equality and other social securities. Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of a person's identity. To this end there must be equal justice under law, and equal opportunity regardless of, for example, sex, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health or disability. #### Left–right spectrum A common way of understanding politics is through the left–right political spectrum, which ranges from left-wing politics via centrism to right-wing politics. This classification is comparatively recent and dates from the French Revolution, when those members of the National Assembly who supported the republic, the common people and a secular society sat on the left and supporters of the monarchy, aristocratic privilege and the Church sat on the right. Today, the left is generally progressivist, seeking social progress in society. The more extreme elements of the left, named the far-left, tend to support revolutionary means for achieving this. This includes ideologies such as Communism and Marxism. The center-left, on the other hand, advocate for more reformist approaches, for example that of social democracy. In contrast, the right is generally motivated by conservatism, which seeks to conserve what it sees as the important elements of society such as law and order, limited federal government and preserving individual freedoms. The far-right goes beyond this, and often represents a reactionary turn against progress, seeking to undo it. Examples of such ideologies have included Fascism and Nazism. The center-right may be less clear-cut and more mixed in this regard, with neoconservatives supporting the spread of free markets and capitalism, and one-nation conservatives more open to social welfare programs. According to Norberto Bobbio, one of the major exponents of this distinction, the left believes in attempting to eradicate social inequality—believing it to be unethical or unnatural, while the right regards most social inequality as the result of ineradicable natural inequalities, and sees attempts to enforce social equality as utopian or authoritarian. Some ideologies, notably Christian Democracy, claim to combine left and right-wing politics; according to Geoffrey K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood, "In terms of ideology, Christian Democracy has incorporated many of the views held by liberals, conservatives and socialists within a wider framework of moral and Christian principles." Movements which claim or formerly claimed to be above the left-right divide include Fascist Terza Posizione economic politics in Italy and Peronism in Argentina. ### Freedom Political freedom (also known as **political liberty** or **autonomy**) is a central concept in political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies. Negative liberty has been described as freedom from oppression or coercion and unreasonable external constraints on action, often enacted through civil and political rights, while positive liberty is the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfillment of enabling conditions, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society. This capability approach to freedom requires economic, social and cultural rights in order to be realized. #### Authoritarianism and libertarianism Authoritarianism and libertarianism disagree the amount of individual freedom each person possesses in that society relative to the state. One author describes authoritarian political systems as those where "individual rights and goals are subjugated to group goals, expectations and conformities," while libertarians generally oppose the state and hold the individual as sovereign. In their purest form, libertarians are anarchists, who argue for the total abolition of the state, of political parties and of other political entities, while the purest authoritarians are, by definition, totalitarians who support state control over all aspects of society. For instance, classical liberalism (also known as *laissez-faire liberalism*) is a doctrine stressing individual freedom and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, free markets, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitation of government, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, David Ricardo, Voltaire, Montesquieu and others. According to the libertarian Institute for Humane Studies, "the libertarian, or 'classical liberal,' perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by 'as much liberty as possible' and 'as little government as necessary.'" For anarchist political philosopher L. Susan Brown (1993), "liberalism and anarchism are two political philosophies that are fundamentally concerned with individual freedom yet differ from one another in very distinct ways. Anarchism shares with liberalism a radical commitment to individual freedom while rejecting liberalism's competitive property relations." See also -------- * Political history of the world * Horseshoe theory * Index of law articles * Index of politics articles – alphabetical list of political subjects * List of politics awards * List of years in politics * Outline of law * Outline of political science – structured list of political topics, arranged by subject area * Political polarization * Political lists – lists of political topics * Politics of present-day states * List of political ideologies References ---------- ### Bibliography * Atkinson, Sam (2013). *The politics book*. DK. pp. 1–5. ISBN 978-1-4093-6445-0. OCLC 868135821. * Béteille, André (2002). "Inequality and Equality". In Ingold, Tim (ed.). *Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology*. Taylor & Francis. pp. 1042–1043. ISBN 978-0-415-28604-6. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020 – via Google Books. * Blanton, Shannon L.; Kegley, Charles W. (2016). *World Politics: Trend and Transformation, 2016–2017*. Cengage Learning. 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OCLC 1124515503. * Nelson, B.; Nelson, Brian R. (2006). *The Making of the Modern State: A Theoretical Evolution*. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-7189-0. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020. * Osiander, Andreas (2001). "Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth". *International Organization*. **55** (2): 251–287. doi:10.1162/00208180151140577. S2CID 145407931. * Petrik, Andreas (3 December 2010). "Core Concept 'Political Compass'. How Kitschelt's Model of Liberal, Socialist, Libertarian and Conservative Orientations Can Fill the Ideology Gap in Civic Education". *JSSE – Journal of Social Science Education*: 4. doi:10.4119/jsse-541. Archived from the original on 22 June 2019. * Pettitt, Robin T. (2014). *Contemporary Party Politics*. London: Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-137-41264-5. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019 – via Google Books. * Roberts and Hogwood, *European Politics Today*, Manchester University Press, 1997. * Sznajd-Weron, Katarzyna; Sznajd, Józef (June 2005). "Who is left, who is right?". *Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications*. **351** (2–4): 593–604. Bibcode:2005PhyA..351..593S. doi:10.1016/j.physa.2004.12.038. * Taylor, Steven L. (2012). *30-Second Politics: The 50 most thought-provoking ideas in politics, each explained in half a minute*. Icon Books Limited. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-84831-427-6. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2018. * Tore, Bjorgo (2014). *Terror from the Extreme Right*. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-20930-8. OCLC 871861016. * van der Eijk, Cees (2018). "What Is Politics?". *The Essence of Politics*. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 9–24. doi:10.2307/j.ctvf3w22g.4. JSTOR j.ctvf3w22g. S2CID 157611448. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021. Further reading --------------- * Adcock, Robert. 2014. *Liberalism and the Emergence of American Political Science: A Transatlantic Tale*. New York: Oxford University Press. * Adcock, Robert, Mark Bevir, and Shannon Stimson (eds.). 2007. *Modern Political Science: Anglo-American Exchanges Since 1870*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. * Almond, Gabriel A. 1996. "Political Science: The History of the Discipline", pp. 50–96, in Robert E. Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds.), *The New Handbook of Political Science*. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. * Connolly, William (1981). *Appearance and Reality in Politics*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * James, Raul; Soguk, Nevzat (2014). *Globalization and Politics, Vol. 1: Global Political and Legal Governance*. London: Sage Publications. Retrieved 19 February 2016. * Mount, Ferdinand, "Ruthless and Truthless" (review of Peter Oborne, *The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism*, Simon and Schuster, 2021, ISBN 978-1-3985-0100-3, 192 pp.; and Colin Kidd and Jacqueline Rose, eds., *Political Advice: Past, Present and Future*, I.B. Tauris, February 2021, ISBN 978-1-83860-004-4, 240 pp.), *London Review of Books*, vol. 43, no. 9 (6 May 2021), pp. 3, 5–8. * Munck, Gerardo L., and Richard Snyder (eds.). *Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics.* Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. * Ross, Dorothy. 1991. *The Origins of American Social Science*. New York: Cambridge University Press. * Ryan, Alan (2012). *On Politics: A History of Political Thought from Herodotus to the Present*. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9364-6.

Politics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics

**Aluminium** (**aluminum** in North American English) is a chemical element with the symbol **Al** and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals; about one-third that of steel. It has a great affinity towards oxygen, forming a protective layer of oxide on the surface when exposed to air. Aluminium visually resembles silver, both in its color and in its great ability to reflect light. It is soft, nonmagnetic and ductile. It has one stable isotope: 27Al, which is highly abundant, making aluminium the twelfth-most common element in the universe. The radioactivity of 26Al is used in radiometric dating. Chemically, aluminium is a post-transition metal in the boron group; as is common for the group, aluminium forms compounds primarily in the +3 oxidation state. The aluminium cation Al3+ is small and highly charged; as such, it is polarizing, and bonds aluminium forms tend towards covalency. The strong affinity towards oxygen leads to aluminium's common association with oxygen in nature in the form of oxides; for this reason, aluminium is found on Earth primarily in rocks in the crust, where it is the third-most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon, rather than in the mantle, and virtually never as the free metal. It is obtained industrially by mining bauxite, a sedimentary rock rich in aluminium minerals. The discovery of aluminium was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. The first industrial production of aluminium was initiated by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. Aluminium became much more available to the public with the Hall–Héroult process developed independently by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886, and the mass production of aluminium led to its extensive use in industry and everyday life. In World Wars I and II, aluminium was a crucial strategic resource for aviation. In 1954, aluminium became the most produced non-ferrous metal, surpassing copper. In the 21st century, most aluminium was consumed in transportation, engineering, construction, and packaging in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. Despite its prevalence in the environment, no living organism is known to use aluminium salts for metabolism, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of the abundance of these salts, the potential for a biological role for them is of interest, and studies continue. Physical characteristics ------------------------ ### Isotopes Of aluminium isotopes, only 27 Al is stable. This situation is common for elements with an odd atomic number. It is the only primordial aluminium isotope, i.e. the only one that has existed on Earth in its current form since the formation of the planet. Nearly all aluminium on Earth is present as this isotope, which makes it a mononuclidic element and means that its standard atomic weight is virtually the same as that of the isotope. This makes aluminium very useful in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as its single stable isotope has a high NMR sensitivity. The standard atomic weight of aluminium is low in comparison with many other metals. All other isotopes of aluminium are radioactive. The most stable of these is 26Al: while it was present along with stable 27Al in the interstellar medium from which the Solar System formed, having been produced by stellar nucleosynthesis as well, its half-life is only 717,000 years and therefore a detectable amount has not survived since the formation of the planet. However, minute traces of 26Al are produced from argon in the atmosphere by spallation caused by cosmic ray protons. The ratio of 26Al to 10Be has been used for radiodating of geological processes over 105 to 106 year time scales, in particular transport, deposition, sediment storage, burial times, and erosion. Most meteorite scientists believe that the energy released by the decay of 26Al was responsible for the melting and differentiation of some asteroids after their formation 4.55 billion years ago. The remaining isotopes of aluminium, with mass numbers ranging from 22 to 43, all have half-lives well under an hour. Three metastable states are known, all with half-lives under a minute. ### Electron shell An aluminium atom has 13 electrons, arranged in an electron configuration of [Ne] 3s2 3p1, with three electrons beyond a stable noble gas configuration. Accordingly, the combined first three ionization energies of aluminium are far lower than the fourth ionization energy alone. Such an electron configuration is shared with the other well-characterized members of its group, boron, gallium, indium, and thallium; it is also expected for nihonium. Aluminium can surrender its three outermost electrons in many chemical reactions (see below). The electronegativity of aluminium is 1.61 (Pauling scale). A free aluminium atom has a radius of 143 pm. With the three outermost electrons removed, the radius shrinks to 39 pm for a 4-coordinated atom or 53.5 pm for a 6-coordinated atom. At standard temperature and pressure, aluminium atoms (when not affected by atoms of other elements) form a face-centered cubic crystal system bound by metallic bonding provided by atoms' outermost electrons; hence aluminium (at these conditions) is a metal. This crystal system is shared by many other metals, such as lead and copper; the size of a unit cell of aluminium is comparable to that of those other metals. The system, however, is not shared by the other members of its group; boron has ionization energies too high to allow metallization, thallium has a hexagonal close-packed structure, and gallium and indium have unusual structures that are not close-packed like those of aluminium and thallium. The few electrons that are available for metallic bonding in aluminium metal are a probable cause for it being soft with a low melting point and low electrical resistivity. ### Bulk Aluminium metal has an appearance ranging from silvery white to dull gray, depending on the surface roughness. Aluminium mirrors are the most reflective of all metal mirrors for the near ultraviolet and far infrared light, and one of the most reflective in the visible spectrum, nearly on par with silver, and the two therefore look similar. Aluminium is also good at reflecting solar radiation, although prolonged exposure to sunlight in air adds wear to the surface of the metal; this may be prevented if aluminium is anodized, which adds a protective layer of oxide on the surface. The density of aluminium is 2.70 g/cm3, about 1/3 that of steel, much lower than other commonly encountered metals, making aluminium parts easily identifiable through their lightness. Aluminium's low density compared to most other metals arises from the fact that its nuclei are much lighter, while difference in the unit cell size does not compensate for this difference. The only lighter metals are the metals of groups 1 and 2, which apart from beryllium and magnesium are too reactive for structural use (and beryllium is very toxic). Aluminium is not as strong or stiff as steel, but the low density makes up for this in the aerospace industry and for many other applications where light weight and relatively high strength are crucial. Pure aluminium is quite soft and lacking in strength. In most applications various aluminium alloys are used instead because of their higher strength and hardness. The yield strength of pure aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa. Aluminium is ductile, with a percent elongation of 50-70%, and malleable allowing it to be easily drawn and extruded. It is also easily machined and cast. Aluminium is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor, having around 60% the conductivity of copper, both thermal and electrical, while having only 30% of copper's density. Aluminium is capable of superconductivity, with a superconducting critical temperature of 1.2 kelvin and a critical magnetic field of about 100 gauss (10 milliteslas). It is paramagnetic and thus essentially unaffected by static magnetic fields. The high electrical conductivity, however, means that it is strongly affected by alternating magnetic fields through the induction of eddy currents. Chemistry --------- Aluminium combines characteristics of pre- and post-transition metals. Since it has few available electrons for metallic bonding, like its heavier group 13 congeners, it has the characteristic physical properties of a post-transition metal, with longer-than-expected interatomic distances. Furthermore, as Al3+ is a small and highly charged cation, it is strongly polarizing and bonding in aluminium compounds tends towards covalency; this behavior is similar to that of beryllium (Be2+), and the two display an example of a diagonal relationship. The underlying core under aluminium's valence shell is that of the preceding noble gas, whereas those of its heavier congeners gallium, indium, thallium, and nihonium also include a filled d-subshell and in some cases a filled f-subshell. Hence, the inner electrons of aluminium shield the valence electrons almost completely, unlike those of aluminium's heavier congeners. As such, aluminium is the most electropositive metal in its group, and its hydroxide is in fact more basic than that of gallium. Aluminium also bears minor similarities to the metalloid boron in the same group: AlX3 compounds are valence isoelectronic to BX3 compounds (they have the same valence electronic structure), and both behave as Lewis acids and readily form adducts. Additionally, one of the main motifs of boron chemistry is regular icosahedral structures, and aluminium forms an important part of many icosahedral quasicrystal alloys, including the Al–Zn–Mg class. Aluminium has a high chemical affinity to oxygen, which renders it suitable for use as a reducing agent in the thermite reaction. A fine powder of aluminium metal reacts explosively on contact with liquid oxygen; under normal conditions, however, aluminium forms a thin oxide layer (~5 nm at room temperature) that protects the metal from further corrosion by oxygen, water, or dilute acid, a process termed passivation. Because of its general resistance to corrosion, aluminium is one of the few metals that retains silvery reflectance in finely powdered form, making it an important component of silver-colored paints. Aluminium is not attacked by oxidizing acids because of its passivation. This allows aluminium to be used to store reagents such as nitric acid, concentrated sulfuric acid, and some organic acids. In hot concentrated hydrochloric acid, aluminium reacts with water with evolution of hydrogen, and in aqueous sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide at room temperature to form aluminates—protective passivation under these conditions is negligible. Aqua regia also dissolves aluminium. Aluminium is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, which is why household plumbing is never made from aluminium. The oxide layer on aluminium is also destroyed by contact with mercury due to amalgamation or with salts of some electropositive metals. As such, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion-resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper, and aluminium's corrosion resistance is greatly reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals. Aluminium reacts with most nonmetals upon heating, forming compounds such as aluminium nitride (AlN), aluminium sulfide (Al2S3), and the aluminium halides (AlX3). It also forms a wide range of intermetallic compounds involving metals from every group on the periodic table. ### Inorganic compounds The vast majority of compounds, including all aluminium-containing minerals and all commercially significant aluminium compounds, feature aluminium in the oxidation state 3+. The coordination number of such compounds varies, but generally Al3+ is either six- or four-coordinate. Almost all compounds of aluminium(III) are colorless. In aqueous solution, Al3+ exists as the hexaaqua cation [Al(H2O)6]3+, which has an approximate Ka of 10−5. Such solutions are acidic as this cation can act as a proton donor and progressively hydrolyze until a precipitate of aluminium hydroxide, Al(OH)3, forms. This is useful for clarification of water, as the precipitate nucleates on suspended particles in the water, hence removing them. Increasing the pH even further leads to the hydroxide dissolving again as aluminate, [Al(H2O)2(OH)4]−, is formed. Aluminium hydroxide forms both salts and aluminates and dissolves in acid and alkali, as well as on fusion with acidic and basic oxides. This behavior of Al(OH)3 is termed amphoterism and is characteristic of weakly basic cations that form insoluble hydroxides and whose hydrated species can also donate their protons. One effect of this is that aluminium salts with weak acids are hydrolyzed in water to the aquated hydroxide and the corresponding nonmetal hydride: for example, aluminium sulfide yields hydrogen sulfide. However, some salts like aluminium carbonate exist in aqueous solution but are unstable as such; and only incomplete hydrolysis takes place for salts with strong acids, such as the halides, nitrate, and sulfate. For similar reasons, anhydrous aluminium salts cannot be made by heating their "hydrates": hydrated aluminium chloride is in fact not AlCl3·6H2O but [Al(H2O)6]Cl3, and the Al–O bonds are so strong that heating is not sufficient to break them and form Al–Cl bonds instead: 2[Al(H2O)6]Cl3 heat→  Al2O3 + 6 HCl + 9 H2O All four trihalides are well known. Unlike the structures of the three heavier trihalides, aluminium fluoride (AlF3) features six-coordinate aluminium, which explains its involatility and insolubility as well as high heat of formation. Each aluminium atom is surrounded by six fluorine atoms in a distorted octahedral arrangement, with each fluorine atom being shared between the corners of two octahedra. Such {AlF6} units also exist in complex fluorides such as cryolite, Na3AlF6. AlF3 melts at 1,290 °C (2,354 °F) and is made by reaction of aluminium oxide with hydrogen fluoride gas at 700 °C (1,300 °F). With heavier halides, the coordination numbers are lower. The other trihalides are dimeric or polymeric with tetrahedral four-coordinate aluminium centers. Aluminium trichloride (AlCl3) has a layered polymeric structure below its melting point of 192.4 °C (378 °F) but transforms on melting to Al2Cl6 dimers. At higher temperatures those increasingly dissociate into trigonal planar AlCl3 monomers similar to the structure of BCl3. Aluminium tribromide and aluminium triiodide form Al2X6 dimers in all three phases and hence do not show such significant changes of properties upon phase change. These materials are prepared by treating aluminium metal with the halogen. The aluminium trihalides form many addition compounds or complexes; their Lewis acidic nature makes them useful as catalysts for the Friedel–Crafts reactions. Aluminium trichloride has major industrial uses involving this reaction, such as in the manufacture of anthraquinones and styrene; it is also often used as the precursor for many other aluminium compounds and as a reagent for converting nonmetal fluorides into the corresponding chlorides (a transhalogenation reaction). Aluminium forms one stable oxide with the chemical formula Al2O3, commonly called alumina. It can be found in nature in the mineral corundum, α-alumina; there is also a γ-alumina phase. Its crystalline form, corundum, is very hard (Mohs hardness 9), has a high melting point of 2,045 °C (3,713 °F), has very low volatility, is chemically inert, and a good electrical insulator, it is often used in abrasives (such as toothpaste), as a refractory material, and in ceramics, as well as being the starting material for the electrolytic production of aluminium metal. Sapphire and ruby are impure corundum contaminated with trace amounts of other metals. The two main oxide-hydroxides, AlO(OH), are boehmite and diaspore. There are three main trihydroxides: bayerite, gibbsite, and nordstrandite, which differ in their crystalline structure (polymorphs). Many other intermediate and related structures are also known. Most are produced from ores by a variety of wet processes using acid and base. Heating the hydroxides leads to formation of corundum. These materials are of central importance to the production of aluminium and are themselves extremely useful. Some mixed oxide phases are also very useful, such as spinel (MgAl2O4), Na-β-alumina (NaAl11O17), and tricalcium aluminate (Ca3Al2O6, an important mineral phase in Portland cement). The only stable chalcogenides under normal conditions are aluminium sulfide (Al2S3), selenide (Al2Se3), and telluride (Al2Te3). All three are prepared by direct reaction of their elements at about 1,000 °C (1,800 °F) and quickly hydrolyze completely in water to yield aluminium hydroxide and the respective hydrogen chalcogenide. As aluminium is a small atom relative to these chalcogens, these have four-coordinate tetrahedral aluminium with various polymorphs having structures related to wurtzite, with two-thirds of the possible metal sites occupied either in an orderly (α) or random (β) fashion; the sulfide also has a γ form related to γ-alumina, and an unusual high-temperature hexagonal form where half the aluminium atoms have tetrahedral four-coordination and the other half have trigonal bipyramidal five-coordination. Four pnictides – aluminium nitride (AlN), aluminium phosphide (AlP), aluminium arsenide (AlAs), and aluminium antimonide (AlSb) – are known. They are all III-V semiconductors isoelectronic to silicon and germanium, all of which but AlN have the zinc blende structure. All four can be made by high-temperature (and possibly high-pressure) direct reaction of their component elements. Aluminium alloys well with most other metals (with the exception of most alkali metals and group 13 metals) and over 150 intermetallics with other metals are known. Preparation involves heating fixed metals together in certain proportion, followed by gradual cooling and annealing. Bonding in them is predominantly metallic and the crystal structure primarily depends on efficiency of packing. There are few compounds with lower oxidation states. A few aluminium(I) compounds exist: AlF, AlCl, AlBr, and AlI exist in the gaseous phase when the respective trihalide is heated with aluminium, and at cryogenic temperatures. A stable derivative of aluminium monoiodide is the cyclic adduct formed with triethylamine, Al4I4(NEt3)4. Al2O and Al2S also exist but are very unstable. Very simple aluminium(II) compounds are invoked or observed in the reactions of Al metal with oxidants. For example, aluminium monoxide, AlO, has been detected in the gas phase after explosion and in stellar absorption spectra. More thoroughly investigated are compounds of the formula R4Al2 which contain an Al–Al bond and where R is a large organic ligand. ### Organoaluminium compounds and related hydrides A variety of compounds of empirical formula AlR3 and AlR1.5Cl1.5 exist. The aluminium trialkyls and triaryls are reactive, volatile, and colorless liquids or low-melting solids. They catch fire spontaneously in air and react with water, thus necessitating precautions when handling them. They often form dimers, unlike their boron analogues, but this tendency diminishes for branched-chain alkyls (e.g. Pr*i*, Bu*i*, Me3CCH2); for example, triisobutylaluminium exists as an equilibrium mixture of the monomer and dimer. These dimers, such as trimethylaluminium (Al2Me6), usually feature tetrahedral Al centers formed by dimerization with some alkyl group bridging between both aluminium atoms. They are hard acids and react readily with ligands, forming adducts. In industry, they are mostly used in alkene insertion reactions, as discovered by Karl Ziegler, most importantly in "growth reactions" that form long-chain unbranched primary alkenes and alcohols, and in the low-pressure polymerization of ethene and propene. There are also some heterocyclic and cluster organoaluminium compounds involving Al–N bonds. The industrially most important aluminium hydride is lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4), which is used in as a reducing agent in organic chemistry. It can be produced from lithium hydride and aluminium trichloride. The simplest hydride, aluminium hydride or alane, is not as important. It is a polymer with the formula (AlH3)*n*, in contrast to the corresponding boron hydride that is a dimer with the formula (BH3)2. Natural occurrence ------------------ ### Space Aluminium's per-particle abundance in the Solar System is 3.15 ppm (parts per million). It is the twelfth most abundant of all elements and third most abundant among the elements that have odd atomic numbers, after hydrogen and nitrogen. The only stable isotope of aluminium, 27Al, is the eighteenth most abundant nucleus in the Universe. It is created almost entirely after fusion of carbon in massive stars that will later become Type II supernovas: this fusion creates 26Mg, which, upon capturing free protons and neutrons becomes aluminium. Some smaller quantities of 27Al are created in hydrogen burning shells of evolved stars, where 26Mg can capture free protons. Essentially all aluminium now in existence is 27Al. 26Al was present in the early Solar System with abundance of 0.005% relative to 27Al but its half-life of 728,000 years is too short for any original nuclei to survive; 26Al is therefore extinct. Unlike for 27Al, hydrogen burning is the primary source of 26Al, with the nuclide emerging after a nucleus of 25Mg catches a free proton. However, the trace quantities of 26Al that do exist are the most common gamma ray emitter in the interstellar gas; if the original 26Al were still present, gamma ray maps of the Milky Way would be brighter. ### Earth Overall, the Earth is about 1.59% aluminium by mass (seventh in abundance by mass). Aluminium occurs in greater proportion in the Earth's crust than in the Universe at large, because aluminium easily forms the oxide and becomes bound into rocks and stays in the Earth's crust, while less reactive metals sink to the core. In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant metallic element (8.23% by mass) and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon). A large number of silicates in the Earth's crust contain aluminium. In contrast, the Earth's mantle is only 2.38% aluminium by mass. Aluminium also occurs in seawater at a concentration of 2 μg/kg. Because of its strong affinity for oxygen, aluminium is almost never found in the elemental state; instead it is found in oxides or silicates. Feldspars, the most common group of minerals in the Earth's crust, are aluminosilicates. Aluminium also occurs in the minerals beryl, cryolite, garnet, spinel, and turquoise. Impurities in Al2O3, such as chromium and iron, yield the gemstones ruby and sapphire, respectively. Native aluminium metal is extremely rare and can only be found as a minor phase in low oxygen fugacity environments, such as the interiors of certain volcanoes. Native aluminium has been reported in cold seeps in the northeastern continental slope of the South China Sea. It is possible that these deposits resulted from bacterial reduction of tetrahydroxoaluminate Al(OH)4−. Although aluminium is a common and widespread element, not all aluminium minerals are economically viable sources of the metal. Almost all metallic aluminium is produced from the ore bauxite (AlO*x*(OH)3–2*x*). Bauxite occurs as a weathering product of low iron and silica bedrock in tropical climatic conditions. In 2017, most bauxite was mined in Australia, China, Guinea, and India. History ------- The history of aluminium has been shaped by usage of alum. The first written record of alum, made by Greek historian Herodotus, dates back to the 5th century BCE. The ancients are known to have used alum as a dyeing mordant and for city defense. After the Crusades, alum, an indispensable good in the European fabric industry, was a subject of international commerce; it was imported to Europe from the eastern Mediterranean until the mid-15th century. The nature of alum remained unknown. Around 1530, Swiss physician Paracelsus suggested alum was a salt of an earth of alum. In 1595, German doctor and chemist Andreas Libavius experimentally confirmed this. In 1722, German chemist Friedrich Hoffmann announced his belief that the base of alum was a distinct earth. In 1754, German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf synthesized alumina by boiling clay in sulfuric acid and subsequently adding potash. Attempts to produce aluminium metal date back to 1760. The first successful attempt, however, was completed in 1824 by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. He reacted anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam, yielding a lump of metal looking similar to tin. He presented his results and demonstrated a sample of the new metal in 1825. In 1827, German chemist Friedrich Wöhler repeated Ørsted's experiments but did not identify any aluminium. (The reason for this inconsistency was only discovered in 1921.) He conducted a similar experiment in the same year by mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium and produced a powder of aluminium. In 1845, he was able to produce small pieces of the metal and described some physical properties of this metal. For many years thereafter, Wöhler was credited as the discoverer of aluminium. As Wöhler's method could not yield great quantities of aluminium, the metal remained rare; its cost exceeded that of gold. The first industrial production of aluminium was established in 1856 by French chemist Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville and companions. Deville had discovered that aluminium trichloride could be reduced by sodium, which was more convenient and less expensive than potassium, which Wöhler had used. Even then, aluminium was still not of great purity and produced aluminium differed in properties by sample. Because of its electricity-conducting capacity, aluminium was used as the cap of the Washington Monument, completed in 1885. The tallest building in the world at the time, the non-corroding metal cap was intended to serve as a lightning rod peak. The first industrial large-scale production method was independently developed in 1886 by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall; it is now known as the Hall–Héroult process. The Hall–Héroult process converts alumina into metal. Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer discovered a way of purifying bauxite to yield alumina, now known as the Bayer process, in 1889. Modern production of the aluminium metal is based on the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes. Prices of aluminium dropped and aluminium became widely used in jewelry, everyday items, eyeglass frames, optical instruments, tableware, and foil in the 1890s and early 20th century. Aluminium's ability to form hard yet light alloys with other metals provided the metal with many uses at the time. During World War I, major governments demanded large shipments of aluminium for light strong airframes; during World War II, demand by major governments for aviation was even higher. By the mid-20th century, aluminium had become a part of everyday life and an essential component of housewares. In 1954, production of aluminium surpassed that of copper, historically second in production only to iron, making it the most produced non-ferrous metal. During the mid-20th century, aluminium emerged as a civil engineering material, with building applications in both basic construction and interior finish work, and increasingly being used in military engineering, for both airplanes and land armor vehicle engines. Earth's first artificial satellite, launched in 1957, consisted of two separate aluminium semi-spheres joined and all subsequent space vehicles have used aluminium to some extent. The aluminium can was invented in 1956 and employed as a storage for drinks in 1958. Throughout the 20th century, the production of aluminium rose rapidly: while the world production of aluminium in 1900 was 6,800 metric tons, the annual production first exceeded 100,000 metric tons in 1916; 1,000,000 tons in 1941; 10,000,000 tons in 1971. In the 1970s, the increased demand for aluminium made it an exchange commodity; it entered the London Metal Exchange, the oldest industrial metal exchange in the world, in 1978. The output continued to grow: the annual production of aluminium exceeded 50,000,000 metric tons in 2013. The real price for aluminium declined from $14,000 per metric ton in 1900 to $2,340 in 1948 (in 1998 United States dollars). Extraction and processing costs were lowered over technological progress and the scale of the economies. However, the need to exploit lower-grade poorer quality deposits and the use of fast increasing input costs (above all, energy) increased the net cost of aluminium; the real price began to grow in the 1970s with the rise of energy cost. Production moved from the industrialized countries to countries where production was cheaper. Production costs in the late 20th century changed because of advances in technology, lower energy prices, exchange rates of the United States dollar, and alumina prices. The BRIC countries' combined share in primary production and primary consumption grew substantially in the first decade of the 21st century. China is accumulating an especially large share of the world's production thanks to an abundance of resources, cheap energy, and governmental stimuli; it also increased its consumption share from 2% in 1972 to 40% in 2010. In the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, most aluminium was consumed in transportation, engineering, construction, and packaging. In 2021, prices for industrial metals such as aluminium have soared to near-record levels as energy shortages in China drive up costs for electricity. Etymology --------- The names *aluminium* and *aluminum* are derived from the word *alumine*, an obsolete term for *alumina*, a naturally occurring oxide of aluminium. *Alumine* was borrowed from French, which in turn derived it from *alumen*, the classical Latin name for alum, the mineral from which it was collected. The Latin word *alumen* stems from the Proto-Indo-European root *\*alu-* meaning "bitter" or "beer". ### Origins British chemist Humphry Davy, who performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal, is credited as the person who named the element. The first name proposed for the metal to be isolated from alum was *alumium*, which Davy suggested in an 1808 article on his electrochemical research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. It appeared that the name was created from the English word *alum* and the Latin suffix *-ium*; but it was customary then to give elements names originating in Latin, so this name was not adopted universally. This name was criticized by contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted the metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be isolated. The English name *alum* does not come directly from Latin, whereas *alumine*/*alumina* obviously comes from the Latin word *alumen* (upon declension, *alumen* changes to *alumin-*). One example was *Essai sur la Nomenclature chimique* (July 1811), written in French by a Swedish chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, in which the name *aluminium* is given to the element that would be synthesized from alum. (Another article in the same journal issue also gives the name *aluminium* to the metal whose oxide is the basis of sapphire.) A January 1811 summary of one of Davy's lectures at the Royal Society mentioned the name *aluminium* as a possibility. The next year, Davy published a chemistry textbook in which he used the spelling *aluminum*. Both spellings have coexisted since. Their usage is regional: *aluminum* dominates in the United States and Canada; *aluminium*, in the rest of the English-speaking world. ### Spelling In 1812, a British scientist, Thomas Young, wrote an anonymous review of Davy's book, in which he proposed the name *aluminium* instead of *aluminum*, which he thought had a "less classical sound". This name did catch on: although the *-um* spelling was occasionally used in Britain, the American scientific language used *-ium* from the start. Most scientists throughout the world used *-ium* in the 19th century; and it was entrenched in many other European languages, such as French, German, and Dutch. In 1828, an American lexicographer, Noah Webster, entered only the *aluminum* spelling in his *American Dictionary of the English Language*. In the 1830s, the *-um* spelling gained usage in the United States; by the 1860s, it had become the more common spelling there outside science. In 1892, Hall used the *-um* spelling in his advertising handbill for his new electrolytic method of producing the metal, despite his constant use of the *-ium* spelling in all the patents he filed between 1886 and 1903: it is unknown whether this spelling was introduced by mistake or intentionally; but Hall preferred *aluminum* since its introduction because it resembled *platinum*, the name of a prestigious metal. By 1890, both spellings had been common in the United States, the *-ium* spelling being slightly more common; by 1895, the situation had reversed; by 1900, *aluminum* had become twice as common as *aluminium*; in the next decade, the *-um* spelling dominated American usage. In 1925, the American Chemical Society adopted this spelling. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted *aluminium* as the standard international name for the element in 1990. In 1993, they recognized *aluminum* as an acceptable variant; the most recent 2005 edition of the IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry also acknowledges this spelling. IUPAC official publications use the *-ium* spelling as primary, and they list both where it is appropriate. Production and refinement ------------------------- The production of aluminium starts with the extraction of bauxite rock from the ground. The bauxite is processed and transformed using the Bayer process into alumina, which is then processed using the Hall–Héroult process, resulting in the final aluminium metal. Aluminium production is highly energy-consuming, and so the producers tend to locate smelters in places where electric power is both plentiful and inexpensive. As of 2019, the world's largest smelters of aluminium are located in China, India, Russia, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates, while China is by far the top producer of aluminium with a world share of fifty-five percent. According to the International Resource Panel's Metal Stocks in Society report, the global per capita stock of aluminium in use in society (i.e. in cars, buildings, electronics, etc.) is 80 kg (180 lb). Much of this is in more-developed countries (350–500 kg (770–1,100 lb) per capita) rather than less-developed countries (35 kg (77 lb) per capita). ### Bayer process Bauxite is converted to alumina by the Bayer process. Bauxite is blended for uniform composition and then is ground. The resulting slurry is mixed with a hot solution of sodium hydroxide; the mixture is then treated in a digester vessel at a pressure well above atmospheric, dissolving the aluminium hydroxide in bauxite while converting impurities into relatively insoluble compounds: Al(OH)3 + Na+ + OH− → Na+ + [Al(OH)4]− After this reaction, the slurry is at a temperature above its atmospheric boiling point. It is cooled by removing steam as pressure is reduced. The bauxite residue is separated from the solution and discarded. The solution, free of solids, is seeded with small crystals of aluminium hydroxide; this causes decomposition of the [Al(OH)4]− ions to aluminium hydroxide. After about half of aluminium has precipitated, the mixture is sent to classifiers. Small crystals of aluminium hydroxide are collected to serve as seeding agents; coarse particles are converted to alumina by heating; the excess solution is removed by evaporation, (if needed) purified, and recycled. ### Hall–Héroult process The conversion of alumina to aluminium metal is achieved by the Hall–Héroult process. In this energy-intensive process, a solution of alumina in a molten (950 and 980 °C (1,740 and 1,800 °F)) mixture of cryolite (Na3AlF6) with calcium fluoride is electrolyzed to produce metallic aluminium. The liquid aluminium metal sinks to the bottom of the solution and is tapped off, and usually cast into large blocks called aluminium billets for further processing. Anodes of the electrolysis cell are made of carbon—the most resistant material against fluoride corrosion—and either bake at the process or are prebaked. The former, also called Söderberg anodes, are less power-efficient and fumes released during baking are costly to collect, which is why they are being replaced by prebaked anodes even though they save the power, energy, and labor to prebake the cathodes. Carbon for anodes should be preferably pure so that neither aluminium nor the electrolyte is contaminated with ash. Despite carbon's resistivity against corrosion, it is still consumed at a rate of 0.4–0.5 kg per each kilogram of produced aluminium. Cathodes are made of anthracite; high purity for them is not required because impurities leach only very slowly. The cathode is consumed at a rate of 0.02–0.04 kg per each kilogram of produced aluminium. A cell is usually terminated after 2–6 years following a failure of the cathode. The Hall–Heroult process produces aluminium with a purity of above 99%. Further purification can be done by the Hoopes process. This process involves the electrolysis of molten aluminium with a sodium, barium, and aluminium fluoride electrolyte. The resulting aluminium has a purity of 99.99%. Electric power represents about 20 to 40% of the cost of producing aluminium, depending on the location of the smelter. Aluminium production consumes roughly 5% of electricity generated in the United States. Because of this, alternatives to the Hall–Héroult process have been researched, but none has turned out to be economically feasible. ### Recycling Recovery of the metal through recycling has become an important task of the aluminium industry. Recycling was a low-profile activity until the late 1960s, when the growing use of aluminium beverage cans brought it to public awareness. Recycling involves melting the scrap, a process that requires only 5% of the energy used to produce aluminium from ore, though a significant part (up to 15% of the input material) is lost as dross (ash-like oxide). An aluminium stack melter produces significantly less dross, with values reported below 1%. White dross from primary aluminium production and from secondary recycling operations still contains useful quantities of aluminium that can be extracted industrially. The process produces aluminium billets, together with a highly complex waste material. This waste is difficult to manage. It reacts with water, releasing a mixture of gases (including, among others, hydrogen, acetylene, and ammonia), which spontaneously ignites on contact with air; contact with damp air results in the release of copious quantities of ammonia gas. Despite these difficulties, the waste is used as a filler in asphalt and concrete. Applications ------------ ### Metal The global production of aluminium in 2016 was 58.8 million metric tons. It exceeded that of any other metal except iron (1,231 million metric tons). Aluminium is almost always alloyed, which markedly improves its mechanical properties, especially when tempered. For example, the common aluminium foils and beverage cans are alloys of 92% to 99% aluminium. The main alloying agents are copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and silicon (e.g., duralumin) with the levels of other metals in a few percent by weight. Aluminium, both wrought and cast, has been alloyed with: manganese, silicon, magnesium, copper and zinc among others. For example, the Kynal family of alloys was developed by the British chemical manufacturer Imperial Chemical Industries. The major uses for aluminium metal are in: * Transportation (automobiles, aircraft, trucks, railway cars, marine vessels, bicycles, spacecraft, *etc.*). Aluminium is used because of its low density; * Packaging (cans, foil, frame, *etc.*). Aluminium is used because it is non-toxic (see below), non-adsorptive, and splinter-proof; * Building and construction (windows, doors, siding, building wire, sheathing, roofing, *etc.*). Since steel is cheaper, aluminium is used when lightness, corrosion resistance, or engineering features are important; * Electricity-related uses (conductor alloys, motors, and generators, transformers, capacitors, *etc.*). Aluminium is used because it is relatively cheap, highly conductive, has adequate mechanical strength and low density, and resists corrosion; * A wide range of household items, from cooking utensils to furniture. Low density, good appearance, ease of fabrication, and durability are the key factors of aluminium usage; * Machinery and equipment (processing equipment, pipes, tools). Aluminium is used because of its corrosion resistance, non-pyrophoricity, and mechanical strength. * Portable computer cases. Currently rarely used without alloying, but aluminium can be recycled and clean aluminium has residual market value: for example, the used beverage can (UBC) material was used to encase the electronic components of MacBook Air laptop, Pixel 5 smartphone or Summit Lite smartwatch. ### Compounds The great majority (about 90%) of aluminium oxide is converted to metallic aluminium. Being a very hard material (Mohs hardness 9), alumina is widely used as an abrasive; being extraordinarily chemically inert, it is useful in highly reactive environments such as high pressure sodium lamps. Aluminium oxide is commonly used as a catalyst for industrial processes; e.g. the Claus process to convert hydrogen sulfide to sulfur in refineries and to alkylate amines. Many industrial catalysts are supported by alumina, meaning that the expensive catalyst material is dispersed over a surface of the inert alumina. Another principal use is as a drying agent or absorbent. Several sulfates of aluminium have industrial and commercial application. Aluminium sulfate (in its hydrate form) is produced on the annual scale of several millions of metric tons. About two-thirds is consumed in water treatment. The next major application is in the manufacture of paper. It is also used as a mordant in dyeing, in pickling seeds, deodorizing of mineral oils, in leather tanning, and in production of other aluminium compounds. Two kinds of alum, ammonium alum and potassium alum, were formerly used as mordants and in leather tanning, but their use has significantly declined following availability of high-purity aluminium sulfate. Anhydrous aluminium chloride is used as a catalyst in chemical and petrochemical industries, the dyeing industry, and in synthesis of various inorganic and organic compounds. Aluminium hydroxychlorides are used in purifying water, in the paper industry, and as antiperspirants. Sodium aluminate is used in treating water and as an accelerator of solidification of cement. Many aluminium compounds have niche applications, for example: * Aluminium acetate in solution is used as an astringent. * Aluminium phosphate is used in the manufacture of glass, ceramic, pulp and paper products, cosmetics, paints, varnishes, and in dental cement. * Aluminium hydroxide is used as an antacid, and mordant; it is used also in water purification, the manufacture of glass and ceramics, and in the waterproofing of fabrics. * Lithium aluminium hydride is a powerful reducing agent used in organic chemistry. * Organoaluminiums are used as Lewis acids and co-catalysts. * Methylaluminoxane is a co-catalyst for Ziegler–Natta olefin polymerization to produce vinyl polymers such as polyethene. * Aqueous aluminium ions (such as aqueous aluminium sulfate) are used to treat against fish parasites such as *Gyrodactylus salaris*. * In many vaccines, certain aluminium salts serve as an immune adjuvant (immune response booster) to allow the protein in the vaccine to achieve sufficient potency as an immune stimulant. Until 2004, most of the adjuvants used in vaccines were aluminium-adjuvanted. Aluminized substrates --------------------- Aluminizing is the process of coating a structure or material with a thin layer of aluminium. It is done to impart specific traits that the underlying substrate lacks, such as a certain chemical or physical property. *Aluminized* materials include: * Aluminized steel, for corrosion resistance and other properties * Aluminized screen, for display devices * Aluminized cloth, to reflect heat * Aluminized mylar, to reflect heat Biology ------- Despite its widespread occurrence in the Earth's crust, aluminium has no known function in biology. At pH 6–9 (relevant for most natural waters), aluminium precipitates out of water as the hydroxide and is hence not available; most elements behaving this way have no biological role or are toxic. Aluminium sulfate has an LD50 of 6207 mg/kg (oral, mouse), which corresponds to 435 grams (about one pound) for a 70 kg (150 lb) person. ### Toxicity Aluminium is classified as a non-carcinogen by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. A review published in 1988 said that there was little evidence that normal exposure to aluminium presents a risk to healthy adult, and a 2014 multi-element toxicology review was unable to find deleterious effects of aluminium consumed in amounts not greater than 40 mg/day per kg of body mass. Most aluminium consumed will leave the body in feces; most of the small part of it that enters the bloodstream, will be excreted via urine; nevertheless some aluminium does pass the blood-brain barrier and is lodged preferentially in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Evidence published in 1989 indicates that, for Alzheimer's patients, aluminium may act by electrostatically crosslinking proteins, thus down-regulating genes in the superior temporal gyrus. ### Effects Aluminium, although rarely, can cause vitamin D-resistant osteomalacia, erythropoietin-resistant microcytic anemia, and central nervous system alterations. People with kidney insufficiency are especially at a risk. Chronic ingestion of hydrated aluminium silicates (for excess gastric acidity control) may result in aluminium binding to intestinal contents and increased elimination of other metals, such as iron or zinc; sufficiently high doses (>50 g/day) can cause anemia. During the 1988 Camelford water pollution incident people in Camelford had their drinking water contaminated with aluminium sulfate for several weeks. A final report into the incident in 2013 concluded it was unlikely that this had caused long-term health problems. Aluminium has been suspected of being a possible cause of Alzheimer's disease, but research into this for over 40 years has found, as of 2018[update], no good evidence of causal effect. Aluminium increases estrogen-related gene expression in human breast cancer cells cultured in the laboratory. In very high doses, aluminium is associated with altered function of the blood–brain barrier. A small percentage of people have contact allergies to aluminium and experience itchy red rashes, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, poor memory, insomnia, depression, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, or other symptoms upon contact with products containing aluminium. Exposure to powdered aluminium or aluminium welding fumes can cause pulmonary fibrosis. Fine aluminium powder can ignite or explode, posing another workplace hazard. ### Exposure routes Food is the main source of aluminium. Drinking water contains more aluminium than solid food; however, aluminium in food may be absorbed more than aluminium from water. Major sources of human oral exposure to aluminium include food (due to its use in food additives, food and beverage packaging, and cooking utensils), drinking water (due to its use in municipal water treatment), and aluminium-containing medications (particularly antacid/antiulcer and buffered aspirin formulations). Dietary exposure in Europeans averages to 0.2–1.5 mg/kg/week but can be as high as 2.3 mg/kg/week. Higher exposure levels of aluminium are mostly limited to miners, aluminium production workers, and dialysis patients. Consumption of antacids, antiperspirants, vaccines, and cosmetics provide possible routes of exposure. Consumption of acidic foods or liquids with aluminium enhances aluminium absorption, and maltol has been shown to increase the accumulation of aluminium in nerve and bone tissues. ### Treatment In case of suspected sudden intake of a large amount of aluminium, the only treatment is deferoxamine mesylate which may be given to help eliminate aluminium from the body by chelation. However, this should be applied with caution as this reduces not only aluminium body levels, but also those of other metals such as copper or iron. Environmental effects --------------------- High levels of aluminium occur near mining sites; small amounts of aluminium are released to the environment at the coal-fired power plants or incinerators. Aluminium in the air is washed out by the rain or normally settles down but small particles of aluminium remain in the air for a long time. Acidic precipitation is the main natural factor to mobilize aluminium from natural sources and the main reason for the environmental effects of aluminium; however, the main factor of presence of aluminium in salt and freshwater are the industrial processes that also release aluminium into air. In water, aluminium acts as a toxiс agent on gill-breathing animals such as fish when the water is acidic, in which aluminium may precipitate on gills, which causes loss of plasma- and hemolymph ions leading to osmoregulatory failure. Organic complexes of aluminium may be easily absorbed and interfere with metabolism in mammals and birds, even though this rarely happens in practice. Aluminium is primary among the factors that reduce plant growth on acidic soils. Although it is generally harmless to plant growth in pH-neutral soils, in acid soils the concentration of toxic Al3+ cations increases and disturbs root growth and function. Wheat has developed a tolerance to aluminium, releasing organic compounds that bind to harmful aluminium cations. Sorghum is believed to have the same tolerance mechanism. Aluminium production possesses its own challenges to the environment on each step of the production process. The major challenge is the greenhouse gas emissions. These gases result from electrical consumption of the smelters and the byproducts of processing. The most potent of these gases are perfluorocarbons from the smelting process. Released sulfur dioxide is one of the primary precursors of acid rain. Biodegradation of metallic aluminium is extremely rare; most aluminium-corroding organisms do not directly attack or consume the aluminium, but instead produce corrosive wastes. The fungus *Geotrichum candidum* can consume the aluminium in compact discs. The bacterium *Pseudomonas aeruginosa* and the fungus *Cladosporium resinae* are commonly detected in aircraft fuel tanks that use kerosene-based fuels (not avgas), and laboratory cultures can degrade aluminium. See also -------- * Aluminium granules * Aluminium joining * Aluminium–air battery * Panel edge staining * Quantum clock Further reading --------------- * Mimi Sheller, *Aluminum Dream: The Making of Light Modernity*. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2014.

Aluminium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium

The **crucifixion of Jesus** occurred in 1st-century Judaea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and is considered an established historical event. There is no consensus among historians on the details. In the canonical gospels, Jesus is arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin, and then by Pontius Pilate, who sentences him to flagellation and then hands him over to soldiers for crucifixion. Jesus was stripped off his clothing and offered vinegar mixed with myrrh or gall (likely posca), to drink. He was then hung between two convicted thieves and, according to the Gospel of Mark, died by the 9th hour of the day (at around 3:00 p.m.). During this time, the soldiers affixed a sign to the top of the cross stating "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" which, according to the Gospel of John (John 19:20), was written in three languages (Hebrew, Latin, and Greek). They then divided his garments among themselves and cast lots for his seamless robe, according to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John also states that, after Jesus' death, one soldier (named in extra-Biblical tradition as Longinus) pierced his side with a spear to be certain that he had died, then blood and water gushed from the wound. The Bible describes seven statements that Jesus made while he was on the cross, as well as several supernatural events that occurred. Among the eyewitnesses named in the gospels are Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary of Clopas, and Salome, often identified as the wife of Zebedee. Collectively referred to as the Passion, Jesus' suffering and redemptive death by crucifixion are the central aspects of Christian theology concerning the doctrines of salvation and atonement. New Testament narratives ------------------------ The earliest detailed accounts of the death of Jesus are contained in the four canonical gospels. There are other, more implicit references in the New Testament epistles. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus predicts his death in three separate places. All four Gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesus' arrest, initial trial at the Sanhedrin and final trial at Pilate's court, where Jesus is flogged, condemned to death, is led to the place of crucifixion initially carrying his cross before Roman soldiers induce Simon of Cyrene to carry it, and then Jesus is crucified, entombed, and resurrected from the dead. In each Gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more intense detail than any other portion of that Gospel's narrative. Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening. After arriving at Golgotha, Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh or gall to drink. Both the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew record that he refused this. He was then crucified and hung between two convicted thieves. According to some translations of the original Greek, the thieves may have been bandits or Jewish rebels. According to the Gospel of Mark, he endured the torment of crucifixion from the third hour (between approximately 9 a.m. and noon), until his death at the ninth hour, corresponding to about 3 p.m. The soldiers affixed a sign above his head stating "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" which, according to the Gospel of John, was in three languages (Hebrew, Latin, and Greek), and then divided his garments and cast lots for his seamless robe. According to the Gospel of John, the Roman soldiers did not break Jesus' legs, as they did to the two crucified thieves (breaking the legs hastened the onset of death), as Jesus was dead already. Each gospel has its own account of Jesus' last words, seven statements altogether. In the Synoptic Gospels, various supernatural events accompany the crucifixion, including darkness, an earthquake, and (in Matthew) the resurrection of saints. Following Jesus' death, his body was removed from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a rock-hewn tomb, with Nicodemus assisting. According to all four gospels, Jesus was brought to the "Place of a Skull" and crucified with two thieves, with the charge of claiming to be "King of the Jews", and the soldiers divided his clothes before he bowed his head and died. Following his death, Joseph of Arimathea requested the body from Pilate, which Joseph then placed in a new garden tomb. The three Synoptic gospels also describe Simon of Cyrene bearing the cross, a crowd of people mocking Jesus along with the thieves/robbers/rebels, darkness from the 6th to the 9th hour, and the temple veil being torn from top to bottom. The Synoptic Gospels also mention several witnesses, including a centurion, and several women who watched from a distance, two of whom were present during the burial. The Gospel of Luke is the only gospel to omit the detail of the sour wine mix that was offered to Jesus on a reed, while only Mark and John describe Joseph actually taking the body down off the cross. There are several details that are only mentioned in a single gospel account. For instance, only the Gospel of Matthew mentions an earthquake, resurrected saints who went to the city and that Roman soldiers were assigned to guard the tomb, while Mark is the only one to state the time of the crucifixion (the third hour, or 9 a.m. – although it was probably as late as noon) and the centurion's report of Jesus' death. The Gospel of Luke's unique contributions to the narrative include Jesus' words to the women who were mourning, one criminal's rebuke of the other, the reaction of the multitudes who left "beating their breasts", and the women preparing spices and ointments before resting on the Sabbath. John is also the only one to refer to the request that the legs be broken and the soldier's subsequent piercing of Jesus' side (as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy), as well as that Nicodemus assisted Joseph with burial. According to the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:4), Jesus was raised from the dead ("on the third day" counting the day of crucifixion as the first) and according to the canonical gospels, appeared to his disciples on different occasions before ascending to heaven. The account given in Acts of the Apostles says that Jesus remained with the apostles for 40 days, whereas the account in the Gospel of Luke makes no clear distinction between the events of Easter Sunday and the Ascension. Most biblical scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a follow-up volume to the Gospel of Luke account, and the two works must be considered as a whole. In Mark, Jesus is crucified along with two rebels, and the sun goes dark or is obscured for three hours. Jesus calls out to God, then gives a shout and dies. The curtain of the Temple is torn in two. Matthew follows Mark, but mentions an earthquake and the resurrection of saints. Luke also follows Mark, although he describes the rebels as common criminals, one of whom defends Jesus, who in turn promises that he (Jesus) and the criminal will be together in paradise. Luke portrays Jesus as impassive in the face of his crucifixion. John includes several of the same elements as those found in Mark, though they are treated differently. ### Textual comparison The comparison below is based on the *New International Version*. | | Matthew | Mark | Luke | John | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | *Way of the Cross* | Matthew 27:32–33 * Soldiers had Simon of Cyrene carry Jesus' cross. | Mark 15:21–22 * Soldiers had Simon of Cyrene carry Jesus' cross. | Luke 23:26–32 * Soldiers had Simon of Cyrene carry Jesus' cross. * Jesus said to wailing women: "Don't weep for me, but for yourselves and your children." | John 19:17 * "They" had Jesus carry the cross. | | *Crucifixion* | Matthew 27:34–36 * Jesus tasted wine mixed with gall, refused to drink more. * Soldiers crucified Jesus, cast lots for his clothes and kept watch. * [No time indicated] | Mark 15:23–25 * Jesus refused to drink wine mixed with myrrh. * Soldiers crucified Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. * This happened at nine in the morning on the day of Passover (14:12, 15:25). | Luke 23:33–34 * [No drink mentioned] * Soldiers crucified Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. * Jesus: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." * [No time indicated] | John 19:18, 23–24 * [No drink mentioned] * "They" crucified Jesus and four soldiers each took a garment, casting lots over the undergarment (this fulfilled a prophecy). * This happened after noon on the Day of Preparation before Passover (19:14, 31) | | *Mocking* | Matthew 27:37–44 * Sign: "This is Jesus, the king of the Jews". * Passersby, high priests, teachers of the law, elders and both rebels mocked Jesus. | Mark 15:26–32 * Sign: "The king of the Jews". * Passersby, high priests, teachers of the law and both rebels mocked Jesus. | Luke 23:35–43 * Sign: "This is the king of the Jews". * The people's rulers, soldiers (offered wine vinegar) and one criminal mocked Jesus. * The other criminal defended him, and asked Jesus to remember him. * Jesus: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." | John 19:19–22, 25–27 * Sign: "Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews". * High priests complained to Pilate: "Don't write "King of the Jews", but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." Pilate: "Quod scripsi, scripsi." * [No mockery mentioned] * Jesus' mother Mary, Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene stood near the cross. * Jesus told Mary: "That is your son", and told the beloved disciple: "That is your mother." | | *Death* | Matthew 27:45–56 * At noon, a three-hour-long darkness came across the land. * About three, Jesus cried out loud: "Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?" * Bystander offered Jesus wine vinegar, others said: "Now let's see if Elijah saves him." * Jesus cried out again and died. * Temple curtain ripped, earthquake. * Tombs broke open, many dead came back to life and appeared to many people in Jerusalem. * Centurion and soldiers terrified: "Surely he was the Son of God." * Many women from Galilee looked on from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and Joseph and the mother of Zebedee's sons. | Mark 15:33–41 * At noon, a three-hour-long darkness came across the land. * At three, Jesus cried out loud: "Eloï, Eloï, lema sabachtani?" * Bystander offered Jesus wine vinegar and said: "Now let's see if Elijah comes to take him down." * Jesus cried out loud and died. * Temple curtain ripped. * Centurion: "Surely this man was the Son of God." * From a distance, the women from Galilee looked on, including Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and Joses and Salome. | Luke 23:44–49 * About noon, a three-hour-long darkness came across the land. * Temple curtain ripped. * Jesus called out loud: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," and died. * Centurion: "Surely this was a righteous man." * Bystanders beat their chest and went away. * Those who know him, including the Galilean women, stood at a distance. | John 19:28–37 * [No darkness mentioned, no time indicated] * To fulfill Scripture, Jesus said: "I am thirsty." * "They" let Jesus drink wine vinegar. * Jesus said: "It is finished," and died. * [No mention of reaction from bystanders or effect on temple curtain] * Soldiers broke the legs of the other two crucified men, but not Jesus' legs (this fulfilled a prophecy), but did pierce his side with a spear (this fulfilled another prophecy). | Other accounts and references ----------------------------- An early non-Christian reference to the crucifixion of Jesus is likely to be Mara Bar-Serapion's letter to his son, written some time after AD 73 but before the 3rd century AD. The letter includes no Christian themes and the author is presumed to be neither Jewish nor Christian. The letter refers to the retributions that followed the unjust treatment of three wise men: Socrates, Pythagoras, and "the wise king" of the Jews. Some scholars see little doubt that the reference to the execution of the "king of the Jews" is about the crucifixion of Jesus, while others place less value in the letter, given the ambiguity in the reference. In the *Antiquities of the Jews* (written about 93 AD) Jewish historian Josephus stated (Ant 18.3) that Jesus was crucified by Pilate, writing that: > Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, ... He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles ... And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross ... > > Most modern scholars agree that while this Josephus passage (called the *Testimonium Flavianum*) includes some later interpolations, it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus with a reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate. James Dunn states that there is "broad consensus" among scholars regarding the nature of an authentic reference to the crucifixion of Jesus in the *Testimonium*. Early in the second century another reference to the crucifixion of Jesus was made by Tacitus, generally considered one of the greatest Roman historians. Writing in *The Annals* (c. 116 AD), Tacitus described the persecution of Christians by Nero and stated (Annals 15.44) that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus: > Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. > > Scholars generally consider the Tacitus reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate to be genuine, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. Eddy and Boyd state that it is now "firmly established" that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Another possible reference to the crucifixion ("hanging", cf. Luke 23:39; Galatians 3:13) is found in the Babylonian Talmud: > On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover. > > — Sanhedrin 43a, *Babylonian Talmud* (Soncino Edition) Although the question of the equivalence of the identities of Yeshu and Jesus has at times been debated, many historians agree that the above 2nd-century passage is likely to be about Jesus, Peter Schäfer stating that there can be no doubt that this narrative of the execution in the Talmud refers to Jesus of Nazareth. Robert Van Voorst states that the Sanhedrin 43a reference to Jesus can be confirmed not only from the reference itself, but from the context that surrounds it. Sanhedrin 43a relates that Yeshu had been condemned to death by the royal government of Judaea – this lineage was stripped of all legal authority upon Herod the Great's ascension to the throne in 37 BC, meaning the execution had to have taken place close to 40 years before Jesus was even born. According to another account, he was executed on request of the Pharisees leaders. Muslims maintain that Jesus was not crucified and that those who thought they had killed him had mistakenly killed Judas Iscariot, Simon of Cyrene, or someone else in his place. They hold this belief based on various interpretations of Quran 4:157–158, which states: "they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them [or it appeared so unto them], ... Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself". Some early Christian Gnostic sects, believing Jesus did not have a physical substance, denied that he was crucified. In response, Ignatius of Antioch insisted that Jesus was truly born and was truly crucified and wrote that those who held that Jesus only seemed to suffer only seemed to be Christians. Historicity ----------- The baptism of Jesus and his crucifixion are considered to be two historically certain facts about Jesus. James Dunn states that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus. Bart Ehrman states that the crucifixion of Jesus on the orders of Pontius Pilate is the most certain element about him. John Dominic Crossan states that the crucifixion of Jesus is as certain as any historical fact can be. Eddy and Boyd state that it is now "firmly established" that there is non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Craig Blomberg states that most scholars in the third quest for the historical Jesus consider the crucifixion indisputable. Christopher M. Tuckett states that, although the exact reasons for the death of Jesus are hard to determine, one of the indisputable facts about him is that he was crucified. John P. Meier views the crucifixion of Jesus as historical fact and states that Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader, invoking the criterion of embarrassment principle in historical research. Meier states that a number of other criteria, e.g., the criterion of multiple attestation (i.e., confirmation by more than one source) and the criterion of coherence (i.e., that it fits with other historical elements) help establish the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event. While scholars agree on the historicity of the crucifixion, they differ on the reason and context for it. For example, both E. P. Sanders and Paula Fredriksen support the historicity of the crucifixion but contend that Jesus did not foretell his own crucifixion and that his prediction of the crucifixion is a "church creation". Geza Vermes also views the crucifixion as a historical event but provides his own explanation and background for it. Although almost all ancient sources relating to crucifixion are literary, in 1968, an archeological discovery just northeast of Jerusalem uncovered the body of a crucified man dated to the 1st century, which provided good confirmatory evidence that crucifixions occurred during the Roman period roughly according to the manner in which the crucifixion of Jesus is described in the gospels. The crucified man was identified as Yehohanan ben Hagkol and probably died about AD 70, around the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The analyses at the Hadassah Medical School estimated that he died in his late 20s. Another relevant archaeological find, which also dates to the 1st century AD, is an unidentified heel bone with a spike discovered in a Jerusalem gravesite, now held by the Israel Antiquities Authority and displayed in the Israel Museum. Details ------- ### Chronology There is no consensus regarding the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus, although it is generally agreed by biblical scholars that it was on a Friday on or near Passover (Nisan 14), during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (who ruled AD 26–36). Various approaches have been used to estimate the year of the crucifixion, including the canonical Gospels, the chronology of the life of Paul, as well as different astronomical models. Scholars have provided estimates in the range 30–33 AD, with Rainer Riesner stating that "the fourteenth of Nisan (7 April) of the year 30 AD is, apparently in the opinion of the majority of contemporary scholars as well, far and away the most likely date of the crucifixion of Jesus." Another preferred date among scholars is Friday, 3 April 33 AD. The consensus of scholarship is that the New Testament accounts represent a crucifixion occurring on a Friday, but a Thursday or Wednesday crucifixion have also been proposed. Some scholars explain a Thursday crucifixion based on a "double sabbath" caused by an extra Passover sabbath falling on Thursday dusk to Friday afternoon, ahead of the normal weekly Sabbath. Some have argued that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday, on the grounds of the mention of "three days and three nights" in Matthew 12:40 before his resurrection, celebrated on Sunday. Others have countered by saying that this ignores the Jewish idiom by which a "day and night" may refer to any part of a 24-hour period, that the expression in Matthew is idiomatic, not a statement that Jesus was 72 hours in the tomb, and that the many references to a resurrection on the third day do not require three literal nights. In Mark 15:25 crucifixion takes place at the third hour (9 a.m.) and Jesus' death at the ninth hour (3 p.m.). In John 19:14 Jesus is still before Pilate at the sixth hour. Scholars have presented a number of arguments to deal with the issue, some suggesting a reconciliation, e.g., based on the use of Roman timekeeping in John, since Roman timekeeping began at midnight and this would mean being before Pilate at the 6th hour was 6 a.m., yet others have rejected the arguments. Several scholars have argued that the modern precision of marking the time of day should not be read back into the gospel accounts, written at a time when no standardization of timepieces, or exact recording of hours and minutes was available, and time was often approximated to the closest three-hour period. ### Path The three Synoptic Gospels refer to a man called Simon of Cyrene whom the Roman soldiers order to carry the cross after Jesus initially carries it but then collapses, while the Gospel of John just says that Jesus "bears" his own cross. Luke's gospel also describes an interaction between Jesus and the women among the crowd of mourners following him, quoting Jesus as saying "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" The Gospel of Luke has Jesus address these women as "daughters of Jerusalem", thus distinguishing them from the women whom the same gospel describes as "the women who had followed him from Galilee" and who were present at his crucifixion. Traditionally, the path that Jesus took is called Via Dolorosa (Latin for "Way of Grief" or "Way of Suffering") and is a street in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is marked by nine of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. It passes the Ecce Homo Church and the last five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is no reference to a woman named Veronica in the Gospels, but sources such as *Acta Sanctorum* describe her as a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. ### Location The precise location of the crucifixion remains a matter of conjecture, but the biblical accounts indicate that it was outside the city walls of Jerusalem, accessible to passers-by and observable from some distance away. Eusebius identified its location only as being north of Mount Zion, which is consistent with the two most popularly suggested sites of modern times. Calvary as an English name for the place is derived from the Latin word for skull (*calvaria*), which is used in the Vulgate translation of "place of a skull", the explanation given in all four Gospels of the Aramaic word *Gûlgaltâ* (transliterated into the Greek as Γολγοθᾶ (Golgotha)), which was the name of the place where Jesus was crucified. The text does not indicate why it was so designated, but several theories have been put forward. One is that as a place of public execution, Calvary may have been strewn with the skulls of abandoned victims (which would be contrary to Jewish burial traditions, but not Roman). Another is that Calvary is named after a nearby cemetery (which is consistent with both of the proposed modern sites). A third is that the name was derived from the physical contour, which would be more consistent with the singular use of the word, i.e., the place of "a skull". While often referred to as "Mount Calvary", it was more likely a small hill or rocky knoll. The traditional site, inside what is now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, has been attested since the 4th century. A second site (commonly referred to as Gordon's Calvary), located further north of the Old City near a place popularly called the Garden Tomb, has been promoted since the 19th century. ### People present The Gospels describe various women at the crucifixion, some of whom are named. According to Mark, many women are present, among them Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and Mary of Clopas, commonly known as "the Three Marys". The Gospel of Matthew also mentions several women being present, among them Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and the mother of Zebedee's children. Although a group of women is mentioned in Luke, neither is named. The Gospel of John speaks of women present, among them the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Clopas. Aside from these women, the three Synoptic Gospels speak of the presence of others: "the chief priests, with the scribes and elders", two robbers crucified, one on Jesus' right and one on his left, whom the Gospel of Luke presents as the penitent thief and the impenitent thief, "the soldiers", "the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus", passers-by, "bystanders", "the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle", and "his acquaintances". The Gospel of John mentions the soldiers and "the disciple whom Jesus loved", who is with the women. The Gospels also tell of the arrival, after the death of Jesus, of Joseph of Arimathea (in the four Gospels) and of Nicodemus (only in John). ### Method and manner Whereas most Christians believe the gibbet on which Jesus was executed was the traditional two-beamed cross, the Jehovah's Witnesses hold the view that a single upright stake was used. The Greek and Latin words used in the earliest Christian writings are ambiguous. The Koine Greek terms used in the New Testament are *stauros* (σταυρός) and *xylon* (ξύλον). The latter means wood (a live tree, timber or an object constructed of wood); in earlier forms of Greek, the former term meant an upright stake or pole, but in Koine Greek it was used also to mean a cross. The Latin word *crux* was also applied to objects other than a cross. Early Christian writers who speak of the shape of the particular gibbet on which Jesus died invariably describe it as having a cross-beam. For instance, the Epistle of Barnabas, which was certainly earlier than 135, and may have been of the 1st century AD, the time when the gospel accounts of the death of Jesus were written, likened it to the letter T (the Greek letter tau, which had the numeric value of 300), and to the position assumed by Moses in Exodus 17:11–12. Justin Martyr (100–165) explicitly says the cross of Christ was of two-beam shape: "That lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb." Irenaeus, who died around the end of the 2nd century, speaks of the cross as having "five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails." The assumption of the use of a two-beamed cross does not determine the number of nails used in the crucifixion and some theories suggest three nails while others suggest four nails. Throughout history, larger numbers of nails have been hypothesized, at times as high as 14 nails. These variations are also present in the artistic depictions of the crucifixion. In the Western Church, before the Renaissance usually four nails would be depicted, with the feet side by side. After the Renaissance most depictions use three nails, with one foot placed on the other. Nails are almost always depicted in art, although Romans sometimes just tied the victims to the cross. The tradition also carries to Christian emblems, e.g. the Jesuits use three nails under the IHS monogram and a cross to symbolize the crucifixion. The placing of the nails in the hands, or the wrists is also uncertain. Some theories suggest that the Greek word *cheir* (χείρ) for hand includes the wrist and that the Romans were generally trained to place nails through Destot's space (between the capitate and lunate bones) without fracturing any bones. Another theory suggests that the Greek word for hand also includes the forearm and that the nails were placed near the radius and ulna of the forearm. Ropes may have also been used to fasten the hands in addition to the use of nails. Another issue of debate has been the use of a hypopodium as a standing platform to support the feet, given that the hands may not have been able to support the weight. In the 17th century Rasmus Bartholin considered a number of analytical scenarios of that topic. In the 20th century, forensic pathologist Frederick Zugibe performed a number of crucifixion experiments by using ropes to hang human subjects at various angles and hand positions. His experiments support an angled suspension, and a two-beamed cross, and perhaps some form of foot support, given that in an *Aufbinden* form of suspension from a straight stake (as used by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp during World War II), death comes rather quickly. ### Words of Jesus spoken from the cross The Gospels describe various last words that Jesus said while on the cross, as follows: #### Mark / Matthew * *E′li, E′li, la′ma sa‧bach‧tha′ni?* (Aramaic for "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"). Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso said Jesus most likely spoke Galilean Aramaic, which would render the pronunciation of these words: *əlahí əlahí ləmáh šəvaqtáni*. The only words of Jesus on the cross mentioned in the Mark and Matthew accounts, this is a quotation of Psalm 22. Since other verses of the same Psalm are cited in the crucifixion accounts, some commentators consider it a literary and theological creation. Geza Vermes noted the verse is cited in Aramaic rather than the usual Hebrew, and that by the time of Jesus, this phrase had become a proverbial saying in common usage. Compared to the accounts in the other Gospels, which he describes as "theologically correct and reassuring", he considers this phrase "unexpected, disquieting and in consequence more probable". He describes it as bearing "all the appearances of a genuine cry". Raymond Brown likewise comments that he finds "no persuasive argument against attributing to the Jesus of Mark/Matt the literal sentiment of feeling forsaken expressed in the Psalm quote". #### Luke * "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." [Some early manuscripts do not have this] * "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." * "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." The Gospel of Luke does not include the aforementioned exclamation of Jesus mentioned in Matthew and Mark. #### John * "Woman, here is your son." * "I am thirsty." * "It is finished." The words of Jesus on the cross, especially his last words, have been the subject of a wide range of Christian teachings and sermons, and a number of authors have written books specifically devoted to the last sayings of Christ. ### Reported extraordinary occurrences The synoptics report various miraculous events during the crucifixion. Mark mentions a period of darkness in the daytime during Jesus' crucifixion, and the Temple veil being torn in two when Jesus dies. Luke follows Mark; as does Matthew, additionally mentioning an earthquake and the resurrection of dead saints. No mention of any of these appears in John. #### Darkness In the synoptic narrative, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the sky over Judaea (or the whole world) is "darkened for three hours," from the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to mid-afternoon). There is no reference to darkness in the Gospel of John account, in which the crucifixion does not take place until after noon. Some ancient Christian writers considered the possibility that pagan commentators may have mentioned this event and mistook it for a solar eclipse, pointing out that an eclipse could not occur during the Passover, which takes place during the full moon when the moon is opposite the sun rather than in front of it. Christian traveler and historian Sextus Julius Africanus and Christian theologian Origen refer to Greek historian Phlegon, who lived in the 2nd century AD, as having written "with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place". Sextus Julius Africanus further refers to the writings of historian Thallus: "This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun." Christian apologist Tertullian believed the event was documented in the Roman archives. Colin Humphreys and W. G. Waddington of Oxford University considered the possibility that a lunar, rather than solar, eclipse might have taken place. They concluded that such an eclipse would have been visible for 30 minutes in Jerusalem and suggested the gospel reference to a solar eclipse was the result of a scribe wrongly amending a text. Historian David Henige dismisses this explanation as "indefensible", and astronomer Bradley Schaefer points out that the lunar eclipse would not have been visible during daylight hours. In an edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time entitled Eclipses, Frank Close, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, stated that certain historical sources say that on the night of the Crucifixion "the moon had risen blood red," which indicates a lunar eclipse. He went on to confirm that as Passover takes place on the full moon calculating back shows that a lunar eclipse did in fact take place on the night of Passover on Friday, 3 April 33 AD which would have been visible in the area of modern Israel, ancient Judaea, just after sunset. Modern biblical scholarship treats the account in the synoptic gospels as a literary creation by the author of the Mark Gospel, amended in the Luke and Matthew accounts, intended to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event, and not intended to be taken literally. This image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures by writers such as Philo, Dio Cassius, Virgil, Plutarch and Josephus. Géza Vermes describes the darkness account as typical of "Jewish eschatological imagery of the day of the Lord", and says that those interpreting it as a datable eclipse are "barking up the wrong tree". #### Temple veil, earthquake and resurrection of dead saints The synoptic gospels state that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. The Gospel of Matthew mentions an account of earthquakes, rocks splitting, and the opening of the graves of dead saints, and describes how these resurrected saints went into the holy city and appeared to many people. In the Mark and Matthew accounts, the centurion in charge comments on the events: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" or "Truly this was the Son of God!". The Gospel of Luke quotes him as saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" The historian Sextus Julius Africanus in the early third century wrote, describing the day of the crucifixion, "A most terrible darkness fell over all the world, the rocks were torn apart by an earthquake, and many places both in Judaea and the rest of the world were thrown down. In the third book of his Histories, Thallos dismisses this darkness as a solar eclipse. ..." A widespread 5.5 magnitude earthquake has been hypothesized to have taken place between 26 and 36 AD. This earthquake was dated by counting varves (annual layers of sediment) between the disruptions in a core of sediment from En Gedi caused by it and by an earlier known quake in 31 BC. Although other earthquakes may have been responsible, the authors concluded that either this was the earthquake in Matthew and it occurred more or less as reported, or else Matthew "borrowed" this earthquake which actually occurred at another time or simply inserted an "allegorical fiction". Medical aspects --------------- A number of theories to explain the circumstances of the death of Jesus on the cross have been proposed by physicians and Biblical scholars. In 2006, Matthew W. Maslen and Piers D. Mitchell reviewed over 40 publications on the subject with theories ranging from cardiac rupture to pulmonary embolism. In 1847, based on the reference in the Gospel of John (John 19:34) to blood and water coming out when Jesus' side was pierced with a spear, physician William Stroud proposed the ruptured heart theory of the cause of Christ's death which influenced a number of other people. The cardiovascular collapse theory is a prevalent modern explanation and suggests that Jesus died of profound shock. According to this theory, the scourging, the beatings, and the fixing to the cross left Jesus dehydrated, weak, and critically ill and that this led to cardiovascular collapse. Writing in the *Journal of the American Medical Association*, physician William Edwards and his colleagues supported the combined cardiovascular collapse (via hypovolemic shock) and exhaustion asphyxia theories, assuming that the flow of water from the side of Jesus described in the Gospel of John was pericardial fluid. In his book *The Crucifixion of Jesus*, physician and forensic pathologist Frederick Zugibe studied the likely circumstances of the death of Jesus in great detail. Zugibe carried out a number of experiments over several years to test his theories while he was a medical examiner. These studies included experiments in which volunteers with specific weights were hanging at specific angles and the amount of pull on each hand was measured, in cases where the feet were also secured or not. In these cases the amount of pull and the corresponding pain was found to be significant. Pierre Barbet, a French physician, and the chief surgeon at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paris, hypothesized that Jesus relaxed his muscles to obtain enough air to utter his last words, in the face of exhaustion asphyxia. Some of Barbet's theories, such as the location of nails, are disputed by Zugibe. Orthopedic surgeon Keith Maxwell not only analyzed the medical aspects of the crucifixion, but also looked back at how Jesus could have carried the cross all the way along Via Dolorosa. In 2003, historians F. P. Retief and L. Cilliers reviewed the history and pathology of crucifixion as performed by the Romans and suggested that the cause of death was often a combination of factors. They also state that Roman guards were prohibited from leaving the scene until death had occurred. Theological significance ------------------------ Christians believe that Jesus' death was instrumental in restoring humankind to relationship with God. Christians believe that through Jesus' death and resurrection people are reunited with God and receive new joy and power in this life as well as eternal life. Thus the crucifixion of Jesus along with his resurrection restores access to a vibrant experience of God's presence, love and grace as well as the confidence of eternal life. ### Christology The accounts of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus provide a rich background for Christological analysis, from the canonical Gospels to the Pauline epistles. Christians believe Jesus' suffering was foretold in the Old Testament, such as in Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53 prophecy of the suffering servant. In Johannine "agent Christology" the submission of Jesus to crucifixion is a sacrifice made as an agent of God or servant of God, for the sake of eventual victory. This builds on the salvific theme of the Gospel of John which begins in John 1:29 with John the Baptist's proclamation: "The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world". A central element in the Christology presented in the Acts of the Apostles is the affirmation of the belief that the death of Jesus by crucifixion happened "with the foreknowledge of God, according to a definite plan". In this view, as in Acts 2:23, the cross is not viewed as a scandal, for the crucifixion of Jesus "at the hands of the lawless" is viewed as the fulfillment of the plan of God. Paul's Christology has a specific focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus. For Paul, the crucifixion of Jesus is directly related to his resurrection and the term "the cross of Christ" used in Galatians 6:12 may be viewed as his abbreviation of the message of the gospels. For Paul, the crucifixion of Jesus was not an isolated event in history, but a cosmic event with significant eschatological consequences, as in 1 Corinthians 2:8. In the Pauline view, Jesus, obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8) died "at the right time" (Romans 4:25) based on the plan of God. For Paul the "power of the cross" is not separable from the resurrection of Jesus. Furthermore, Paul highlighted the idea that Jesus on the cross defeated the spiritual forces of evil "*Kosmokrator*", literally 'the rulers of this world' (used in plural in Ephesians 6:12), thus highlighting the idea of victory of light over darkness, or good over evil, through Christ. Belief in the redemptive nature of Jesus' death predates the Pauline letters, to the earliest days of Christianity and the Jerusalem church. The Nicene Creed's statement that "for our sake he was crucified" is a reflection of this core belief's formalization in the fourth century. John Calvin supported the "agent of God" Christology and argued that in his trial in Pilate's Court Jesus could have successfully argued for his innocence, but instead submitted to crucifixion in obedience to the Father. This Christological theme continued into the 20th century, both in the Eastern and Western Churches. In the Eastern Church Sergei Bulgakov argued that the crucifixion of Jesus was "pre-eternally" determined by the Father before the creation of the world, to redeem humanity from the disgrace caused by the fall of Adam. In the Western Church, Karl Rahner elaborated on the analogy that the blood of the Lamb of God (and the water from the side of Jesus) shed at the crucifixion had a cleansing nature, similar to baptismal water. ### Atonement Jesus' death and resurrection underpin a variety of theological interpretations as to how salvation is granted to humanity. These interpretations vary widely in how much emphasis they place on the death and resurrection as compared to Jesus' words. According to the substitutionary atonement view, Jesus' death is of central importance, and Jesus willingly sacrificed himself after his resurrection as an act of perfect obedience as a sacrifice of love which pleased God. By contrast the moral influence theory of atonement focuses much more on the moral content of Jesus' teaching, and sees Jesus' death as a martyrdom. Since the Middle Ages there has been conflict between these two views within Western Christianity. Evangelical Protestants typically hold a substitutionary view and in particular hold to the theory of penal substitution. Liberal Protestants typically reject substitutionary atonement and hold to the moral influence theory of atonement. Both views are popular within the Roman Catholic Church, with the satisfaction doctrine incorporated into the idea of penance. In the Roman Catholic tradition this view of atonement is balanced by the duty of Roman Catholics to perform Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ which in the encyclical *Miserentissimus Redemptor* of Pope Pius XI were defined as "some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury" with respect to the sufferings of Jesus. Pope John Paul II referred to these acts of reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified." Among Eastern Orthodox Christians, another common view is Christus Victor. This holds that Jesus was sent by God to defeat death and Satan. Because of his perfection, voluntary death, and resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan and death, and arose victorious. Therefore, humanity was no longer bound in sin, but was free to rejoin God through the repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the crucifixion of Jesus was part of the atonement and a "redeeming ransom" both for the effect of the fall of Adam upon all humankind and "for the personal sins of all who repent, from Adam to the end of the world." ### Deicide The Catholic Church denounces the idea of Jewish deicide, believing that all sinners are the authors and ministers of Jesus' crucifixion, and admonishes Christians that their own guilt is greater when they sin with knowledge of Jesus, than when others sin without it. Denial ------ ### Docetism In Christianity, docetism is the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Docetists denied that Jesus could have truly suffered and died, as his physical body was illusory, and instead saw the crucifixion as something that only appeared to happen. ### Nag Hammadi manuscripts According to the First Revelation of James in the Nag Hammadi library, Jesus appeared to James after apparently being crucified and stated that another person had been inflicted in his place: > "The master appeared to him. He stopped praying, embraced him, and kissed him, saying, “Rabbi, I’ve found you. I heard of the sufferings you endured, and I was greatly troubled. You know my compassion. Because of this I wished, as I reflected upon it, that I would never see these people again. They must be judged for what they have done, for what they have done is not right.” > The master said, “James, do not be concerned for me or these people. I am the one who was within me. Never did I suffer at all, and I was not distressed. These people did not harm me. Rather, all this was inflicted upon a figure of the rulers, and it was fitting that this figure should be [destroyed] by them." > > ### Islam All Islamic traditions categorically deny that Jesus physically died, either on a cross or another manner. The below Quranic verse says Jesus was neither killed nor crucified: > And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but rather, it was made to appear to them so. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. (157) Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. (158) > > — Quran 4:157–158 Islamic traditions teach that Jesus ascended to Heaven without being put on the cross, but that God transformed another person to appear exactly like him and to be then crucified instead of him. This view is attested in an account by Irenaeus of the doctrine of the 2nd-century Alexandrian Gnostic Basilides in which Irenaeus refutes what he believes to be a heresy denying the death. ### Gnosticism Some scriptures identified as Gnostic reject the atonement of Jesus' death by distinguishing the earthly body of Jesus and his divine and immaterial essence. According to the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, Yaldabaoth (the Creator of the material universe) and his Archons tried to kill Jesus by crucifixion, but only killed *their own man* (that is the body). While Jesus ascended from his body, Yaldabaoth and his followers thought Jesus to be dead. In Apocalypse of Peter, Peter talks with the savior whom the "priests and people" believed to have killed. Manichaeism, which was influenced by Gnostic ideas, adhered to the idea that not Jesus, but somebody else was crucified instead. Jesus suffering on the cross is depicted as the state of *light particles* (spirit) within matter instead. According to Bogomilism, the crucifixion was an attempt by Lucifer to destroy Jesus, while the earthly Jesus was regarded as a prophet, Jesus himself was an immaterial being that can not be killed. Accordingly, Lucifer failed and Jesus' sufferings on the cross were only an illusion. ### Others According to some Christian sects in Japan, Jesus Christ did not die on the cross at Golgotha. Instead his younger brother, Isukiri, took his place on the cross, while Jesus fled across Siberia to Mutsu Province, in northern Japan. Once in Japan, he became a rice farmer, married, and raised a family with three daughters near what is now Shingō. While in Japan, it is asserted that he traveled, learned, and eventually died at the age of 106. His body was exposed on a hilltop for four years. According to the customs of the time, Jesus' bones were collected, bundled, and buried in a mound. There is also a museum in Japan which claims to have evidence of these claims. In Yazidism, Jesus is thought of as a "figure of light" who could not be crucified. This interpretation could be taken from the Quran or Gnostics. In art, symbolism and devotions ------------------------------- Since the crucifixion of Jesus, the cross has become a key element of Christian symbolism, and the crucifixion scene has been a key element of Christian art, giving rise to specific artistic themes such as Christ Carrying the Cross, raising of the Cross, Stabat Mater, Descent from the Cross and Lamentation of Christ. The symbolism of the cross which is today one of the most widely recognized Christian symbols was used from the earliest Christian times. Justin Martyr, who died in 165, describes it in a way that already implies its use as a symbol, although the crucifix appeared later. Devotions based on the process of crucifixion, and the sufferings of Jesus are followed by various Christians. The Stations of the Cross follows a number of stages based on the stages involved in the crucifixion of Jesus, while the Rosary of the Holy Wounds is used to meditate on the wounds of Jesus as part of the crucifixion. Masters such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Raphael, Botticelli, van Dyck, Titian, Caravaggio, El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Rubens and Rembrandt have all depicted the crucifixion scene in their works. The *Crucifixion, seen from the Cross* by Tissot presented a novel approach at the end of the 19th century, in which the crucifixion scene was portrayed from the perspective of Jesus. The presence of the Virgin Mary under the cross, mentioned in the Gospel of John, has in itself been the subject of Marian art, and well known Catholic symbolism such as the Miraculous Medal and Pope John Paul II's Coat of Arms bearing a Marian Cross. And a number of Marian devotions also involve the presence of the Virgin Mary in Calvary, e.g., Pope John Paul II stated that "Mary was united to Jesus on the Cross". Well known works of Christian art by masters such as Raphael (the *Mond Crucifixion*), and Caravaggio (*The Entombment of Christ*) depict the Virgin Mary as part of the crucifixion scene. * Carrying the Cross fresco, Decani monastery, Kosovo, 14th century*Carrying the Cross* fresco, Decani monastery, Kosovo, 14th century * Orthodox Crucifixion icon, Athens, GreeceOrthodox Crucifixion icon, Athens, Greece * Crucifixion of Christ, Michelangelo, 1540 *Crucifixion of Christ*, Michelangelo, 1540 * Print of the Crucifixion, made at the end of the 16th centuryPrint of Albrecht Dürer's *Die Kreuzigung* (1508), printed at the end of the 16th century * Calvary by Paolo Veronese, 16th century*Calvary* by Paolo Veronese, 16th century * From a 14th–15th century Welsh ManuscriptFrom a 14th–15th century Welsh Manuscript * Descent from the Cross, Rubens (1616–17)*Descent from the Cross*, Rubens (1616–17) * Descent from the Cross, Raphael, 1507*Descent from the Cross*, Raphael, 1507 * Crucified Jesus at the Ytterselö church [sv], Sweden. Ca. 1500Crucified Jesus at the Ytterselö church [sv], Sweden. Ca. 1500 * Cristo de La Laguna, Flemish-Brabanzon origin, 1510–14. San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain*Cristo de La Laguna*, Flemish-Brabanzon origin, 1510–14. San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain See also -------- * The penitent thief and impenitent thief, crucified alongside Jesus * Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross * Feast of the Cross * Life of Jesus in the New Testament * Seven Sorrows of Mary * Swoon hypothesis * Depictions of Jesus * Calvary * Stations of the Cross Further reading --------------- * Brox, Norbert (1984). "'Doketismus' – eine Problemanzeige". *Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte*. Kohlhammer Verlag. **95**: 301–314. ISSN 0044-2925. * Cousar, Charles B. (1990). *A Theology of the Cross: The Death of Jesus in the Pauline Letters*. Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-1558-1. * Dennis, John (2006). "Jesus' Death in John's Gospel: A Survey of Research from Bultmann to the Present with Special Reference to the Johannine Hyper-Texts". *Currents in Biblical Research*. **4** (3): 331–363. doi:10.1177/1476993X06064628. S2CID 170326371. * Dilasser, Maurice (1999). *The Symbols of the Church*. ISBN 978-0-8146-2538-5. * Green, Joel B. (1988). *The Death of Jesus: Tradition and Interpretation in the Passion Narrative*. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 3-16-145349-2. * Humphreys, Colin J.; W. G. Waddington (December 1983). "Dating the Crucifixion". *Nature*. **306** (5945): 743–746. Bibcode:1983Natur.306..743H. doi:10.1038/306743a0. S2CID 4360560. * Rosenblatt, Samuel (December 1956). "The Crucifixion of Jesus from the Standpoint of Pharisaic Law". *Journal of Biblical Literature*. The Society of Biblical Literature. **75** (4): 315–321. doi:10.2307/3261265. JSTOR 3261265. * McRay, John (1991). *Archaeology and the New Testament*. Baker Books. ISBN 0-8010-6267-5. * Samuelsson, Gunnar. (2011). *Crucifixion in Antiquity*. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-150694-9. * Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Maurer, Christian (1994) [1991]. "The Gospel of Peter". In Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, McLachlan (eds.). *New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and related writings*. New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 1. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 216–227. ISBN 978-0-664-22721-0. Retrieved April 25, 2012. * Sloyan, Gerard S. (1995). *The Crucifixion of Jesus*. Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-2886-1. External links --------------

Crucifixion of Jesus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus

**Birmingham** (/ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/ () *BUR-ming-əm*) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately 100 miles (160 km) from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midlands Enlightenment and during the Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791, it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation; this provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham. The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which, under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain, was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city's infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive urban regeneration in subsequent decades. Birmingham's economy is now dominated by the service sector. The city is a major international commercial centre and an important transport, retail, events and conference hub. Its metropolitan economy is the second-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1bn (2014[update]). Its five universities, including the University of Birmingham, make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham's major cultural institutions – the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Library of Birmingham and Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art, music, literary and culinary scenes. The city also successfully hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games. In 2021, Birmingham was the third most visited city in the UK by people from foreign nations. Toponymy -------- The name *Birmingham* comes from the Old English *Beormingahām*, meaning the home or settlement of the *Beormingas* – a tribe or clan whose name literally means 'Beorma's people' and which may have formed an early unit of Anglo-Saxon administration. Beorma, after whom the tribe was named, could have been its leader at the time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, a shared ancestor, or a mythical tribal figurehead. Place names ending in *-ingahām* are characteristic of primary settlements established during the early phases of Anglo-Saxon colonisation of an area, suggesting that Birmingham was probably in existence by the early 7th century at the latest. Surrounding settlements with names ending in *-tūn* ('farm'), *-lēah* ('woodland clearing'), *-worð* ('enclosure') and *-field* ('open ground') are likely to be secondary settlements created by the later expansion of the Anglo-Saxon population, in some cases possibly on earlier British sites. History ------- ### Pre-history and medieval There is evidence of early human activity in the Birmingham area dating back to around 8000 BC, with Stone Age artefacts suggesting seasonal settlements, overnight hunting parties and woodland activities such as tree felling. The many burnt mounds that can still be seen around the city indicate that modern humans first intensively settled and cultivated the area during the Bronze Age, when a substantial but short-lived influx of population occurred between 1700 BC and 1000 BC, possibly caused by conflict or immigration in the surrounding area. During the 1st-century Roman conquest of Britain, the forested country of the Birmingham Plateau formed a barrier to the advancing Roman legions, who built the large Metchley Fort in the area of modern-day Edgbaston in AD 48, and made it the focus of a network of Roman roads. Birmingham was then later established by the *Beormingas* around the 6th or 7th century as a small settlement in the then heavily forested Arden region in Mercia. The development of Birmingham into a significant urban and commercial centre began in 1166, when the Lord of the Manor Peter de Bermingham obtained a charter to hold a market at his castle, and followed this with the creation of a planned market town and seigneurial borough within his *demesne* or manorial estate, around the site that became the Bull Ring. This established Birmingham as the primary commercial centre for the Birmingham Plateau at a time when the area's economy was expanding rapidly, with population growth nationally leading to the clearance, cultivation and settlement of previously marginal land. Within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years. ### Early modern The principal governing institutions of medieval Birmingham – including the Guild of the Holy Cross and the lordship of the de Birmingham family – collapsed between 1536 and 1547, leaving the town with an unusually high degree of social and economic freedom and initiating a period of transition and growth. By 1700 Birmingham's population had increased fifteen-fold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of iron goods to Birmingham's economy was recognised as early as 1538, and grew rapidly as the century progressed. Equally significant was the town's emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials and traded and marketed the industry's products. By the 1600s Birmingham formed the commercial hub of a network of forges and furnaces stretching from South Wales to Cheshire and its merchants were selling finished manufactured goods as far afield as the West Indies. These trading links gave Birmingham's metalworkers access to much wider markets, allowing them to diversify away from lower-skilled trades producing basic goods for local sale, towards a broader range of specialist, higher-skilled and more lucrative activities. By the time of the English Civil War Birmingham's booming economy, its expanding population, and its resulting high levels of social mobility and cultural pluralism, had seen it develop new social structures very different from those of more established areas. Relationships were built around pragmatic commercial linkages rather than the rigid paternalism and deference of feudal society, and loyalties to the traditional hierarchies of the established church and aristocracy were weak. The town's reputation for political radicalism and its strongly Parliamentarian sympathies saw it attacked by Royalist forces in the Battle of Birmingham in 1643, and it developed into a centre of Puritanism in the 1630s and as a haven for Nonconformists from the 1660s. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the cultural phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment. The town developed into a notable centre of literary, musical, artistic and theatrical activity; and its leading citizens – particularly the members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham – became influential participants in the circulation of philosophical and scientific ideas among Europe's intellectual elite. The close relationship between Enlightenment Birmingham's leading thinkers and its major manufacturers – in men like Matthew Boulton and James Keir they were often in fact the same people – made it particularly important for the exchange of knowledge between pure science and the practical world of manufacturing and technology. This created a "chain reaction of innovation", forming a pivotal link between the earlier scientific revolution and the Industrial Revolution that would follow. ### Industrial Revolution Birmingham's explosive industrial expansion started earlier than that of the textile-manufacturing towns of the North of England, and was driven by different factors. Instead of the economies of scale of a low-paid, unskilled workforce producing a single bulk commodity such as cotton or wool in large, mechanised units of production, Birmingham's industrial development was built on the adaptability and creativity of a highly paid workforce with a strong division of labour, practising a broad variety of skilled specialist trades and producing a constantly diversifying range of products, in a highly entrepreneurial economy of small, often self-owned workshops. This led to exceptional levels of inventiveness: between 1760 and 1850 – the core years of the Industrial Revolution – Birmingham residents registered over three times as many patents as those of any other British town or city. The demand for capital to feed rapid economic expansion also saw Birmingham grow into a major financial centre with extensive international connections. Lloyds Bank was founded in the town in 1765, and Ketley's Building Society, the world's first building society, in 1775. By 1800 the West Midlands had more banking offices per head than any other region in Britain, including London. Innovation in 18th-century Birmingham often took the form of incremental series of small-scale improvements to existing products or processes, but also included major developments that lay at the heart of the emergence of industrial society. In 1709 the Birmingham-trained Abraham Darby I moved to Coalbrookdale in Shropshire and built the first blast furnace to successfully smelt iron ore with coke, transforming the quality, volume and scale on which it was possible to produce cast iron. In 1732 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt invented roller spinning, the "one novel idea of the first importance" in the development of the mechanised cotton industry. In 1741 they opened the world's first cotton mill in Birmingham's Upper Priory. In 1746 John Roebuck invented the lead chamber process, enabling the large-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid, and in 1780 James Keir developed a process for the bulk manufacture of alkali, together marking the birth of the modern chemical industry. In 1765 Matthew Boulton opened the Soho Manufactory, pioneering the combination and mechanisation under one roof of previously separate manufacturing activities through a system known as "rational manufacture". As the largest manufacturing unit in Europe, this came to symbolise the emergence of the factory system. Most significant, however, was the development in 1776 of the industrial steam engine by James Watt and Matthew Boulton. Freeing for the first time the manufacturing capacity of human society from the limited availability of hand, water and animal power, this was arguably the pivotal moment of the entire industrial revolution and a key factor in the worldwide increases in productivity over the following century. ### Regency and Victorian Birmingham rose to national political prominence in the campaign for political reform in the early 19th century, with Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union bringing the country to the brink of civil war during the Days of May that preceded the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. The Union's meetings on Newhall Hill in 1831 and 1832 were the largest political assemblies Britain had ever seen. Lord Durham, who drafted the Act, wrote that "the country owed Reform to Birmingham, and its salvation from revolution". This reputation for having "shaken the fabric of privilege to its base" in 1832 led John Bright to make Birmingham the platform for his successful campaign for the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended voting rights to the urban working class. The original Charter of Incorporation, dated 31 October 1838, was received in Birmingham on 1 November, then read in the Town Hall on 5 November with elections for the first Birmingham Town Council being held on 26 December. Sixteen Aldermen and 48 Councillors were elected and the Borough was divided into 13 wards. William Scholefield became the first Mayor and William Redfern was appointed as Town Clerk. Birmingham Town Police were established the following year. Birmingham's tradition of innovation continued into the 19th century. Birmingham was the terminus for both of the world's first two long-distance railway lines: the 82-mile (132 km) Grand Junction Railway of 1837 and the 112-mile (180 km) London and Birmingham Railway of 1838. Birmingham schoolteacher Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp and created the first modern universal postal system in 1839. Alexander Parkes invented the first human-made plastic in the Jewellery Quarter in 1855. By the 1820s, the country's extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources and fuel for industries. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria. Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham and later an MP, and his son Neville Chamberlain, who was Lord Mayor of Birmingham and later the British Prime Minister, are two of the most well-known political figures who have lived in Birmingham. The city established its own university in 1900. ### 20th century and contemporary The city suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II's "Birmingham Blitz". The city was also the scene of two scientific discoveries that were to prove critical to the outcome of the war. Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls first described how a practical nuclear weapon could be constructed in the Frisch–Peierls memorandum of 1940, the same year that the cavity magnetron, the key component of radar and later of microwave ovens, was invented by John Randall and Henry Boot. Details of these two discoveries, together with an outline of the first jet engine invented by Frank Whittle in nearby Rugby, were taken to the United States by the Tizard Mission in September 1940, in a single black box later described by an official American historian as "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores". The city was extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s. This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale. The Bull Ring was reconstructed and New Street station was redeveloped. In the decades following World War II, the ethnic makeup of Birmingham changed significantly, as it received waves of immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond. The city's population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents. 21 people were killed and 182 were injured in a series of bomb attacks in 1974, thought to be carried out by the Provisional IRA. The bombings were the worst terror attacks in England up until the 2005 London bombings and consisted of bombs being planted in two pubs in central Birmingham. Six men were convicted, who became known later as the Birmingham Six and sentenced to life imprisonment, who were acquitted after 16 years by the Court of Appeal. The convictions are now considered one of the worst British miscarriages of justice in recent times. The true perpetrators of the attacks are yet to be arrested. Birmingham remained by far Britain's most prosperous provincial city as late as the 1970s, with household incomes exceeding even those of London and the South East, but its economic diversity and capacity for regeneration declined in the decades that followed World War II as Central Government sought to restrict the city's growth and disperse industry and population to the stagnating areas of Wales and Northern England. These measures hindered "the natural self-regeneration of businesses in Birmingham, leaving it top-heavy with the old and infirm", and the city became increasingly dependent on the motor industry. The recession of the early 1980s saw Birmingham's economy collapse, with unprecedented levels of unemployment and outbreaks of social unrest in inner-city districts. Since the turn of the 21st century, many parts of Birmingham have been transformed, with the redevelopment of the Bullring Shopping Centre, the construction of the new Library of Birmingham (the largest public library in Europe) and the regeneration of old industrial areas such as Brindleyplace, The Mailbox and the International Convention Centre, as well as the rationalisation of the Inner Ring Road. In 1998 Birmingham hosted the 24th G8 summit. The city successfully hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Government ---------- Birmingham City Council is the second largest local authority in Europe (after Kent County Council) in terms of the population it covers, with 101 councillors representing 77 wards as of 2018. Its headquarters are at the Council House in Victoria Square. As of 2023[update], the council has a Labour Party majority and is led by John Cotton. Labour replaced the previous no overall control status at the May 2012 elections. The honour and dignity of a Lord Mayoralty was conferred on Birmingham by Letters Patent on 3 June 1896. Birmingham's ten parliamentary constituencies are represented in the House of Commons as of 2020[update] by two Conservative and eight Labour MPs. Originally part of Warwickshire, Birmingham expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974 and became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county. A top-level government body, the West Midlands Combined Authority, was formed in April 2016. The WMCA holds devolved powers in transport, development planning, and economic growth. The authority is governed by a directly elected mayor, similar to the Mayor of London. Geography --------- Birmingham is located in the centre of the West Midlands region of England on the Birmingham Plateau – an area of relatively high ground, ranging between 500 and 1,000 feet (150 and 300 metres) above sea level and crossed by Britain's main north–south watershed between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. To the south west of the city lie the Lickey Hills, Clent Hills and Walton Hill, which reach 1,033 feet (315 m) and have extensive views over the city. Birmingham is drained only by minor rivers and brooks, primarily the River Tame and its tributaries the Cole and the Rea. The City of Birmingham forms a conurbation with the largely residential borough of Solihull to the south east, and with the city of Wolverhampton and the industrial towns of the Black Country to the north west, which form the West Midlands Built-up Area covering 59,972 ha (600 km2; 232 sq mi). Surrounding this is Birmingham's metropolitan area – the area to which it is closely economically tied through commuting – which includes the former Mercian capital of Tamworth and the cathedral city of Lichfield in Staffordshire to the north; the industrial city of Coventry and the Warwickshire towns of Nuneaton, Warwick and Leamington Spa to the east; and the Worcestershire towns of Redditch and Bromsgrove to the south west. Much of the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach of the ancient Forest of Arden, whose former presence can still be felt in the city's dense oak tree-cover and in the large number of districts such as Moseley, Saltley, Yardley, Stirchley and Hockley with names ending in "-ley": the Old English *-*lēah** meaning "woodland clearing". ### Geology Birmingham is dominated by the Birmingham Fault, which runs diagonally through the city from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston and the Bull Ring, to Erdington and Sutton Coldfield in the north east. To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Mercia Mudstone, interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole and their tributaries. To the north and west of the fault, between 150 and 600 feet (46 and 183 metres) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder Keuper Sandstone. The bedrock underlying Birmingham was mostly laid down during the Permian and Triassic periods. The area has evidence of glacial deposits, with prominent erratic boulders becoming a tourist attraction in the early 1900s. ### Climate Birmingham has a temperate maritime climate (*Cfb* according to the Köppen climate classification), like much of the British Isles, with average maximum temperatures in summer (July) being around 21.3 °C (70.3 °F); and in winter (January) around 6.7 °C (44.1 °F). Between 1971 and 2000 the warmest day of the year on average was 28.8 °C (83.8 °F) and the coldest night typically fell to −9.0 °C (15.8 °F). Some 11.2 days each year rose to a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above and 51.6 nights reported an air frost. The highest recorded temperature recorded at the Edgbaston Campus was 37.4 °C (99.3 °F), whilst a temperature of 37.0 °C (98.6 °F) was recorded at Birmingham Airport on the city's eastern edge, both recorded on 19 July 2022. Like most other large cities, Birmingham has a considerable urban heat island effect. During the coldest night recorded, 14 January 1982, the temperature fell to −20.8 °C (−5.4 °F) at Birmingham Airport, but just −14.3 °C (6.3 °F) at Edgbaston, near the city centre. Birmingham is a snowy city relative to other large UK conurbations, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation. Between 1961 and 1990 Birmingham Airport averaged 13.0 days of snow lying annually, compared to 5.33 at London Heathrow. Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap on north westerly airstreams, but can also come off the North Sea from north easterly airstreams. Extreme weather is rare, but the city has been known to experience tornadoes. On 23 November 1981, during a record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak, two tornadoes touched down within the Birmingham city limits – in Erdington and Selly Oak – with six tornadoes touching down within the boundaries of the wider West Midlands county. More recently, a destructive tornado occurred in July 2005 in the south of the city, damaging homes and businesses in the area. | Climate data for Birmingham (Winterbourne), elevation: 140 m (459 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1959–present | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 14.6(58.3) | 18.8(65.8) | 22.8(73.0) | 25.8(78.4) | 26.5(79.7) | 31.7(89.1) | 37.4(99.3) | 34.8(94.6) | 29.4(84.9) | 28.0(82.4) | 17.7(63.9) | 16.2(61.2) | 37.4(99.3) | | Average high °C (°F) | 7.1(44.8) | 7.7(45.9) | 10.3(50.5) | 13.4(56.1) | 16.5(61.7) | 19.3(66.7) | 21.5(70.7) | 21.0(69.8) | 18.1(64.6) | 13.9(57.0) | 9.9(49.8) | 7.3(45.1) | 13.9(57.0) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.3(39.7) | 4.7(40.5) | 6.6(43.9) | 9.0(48.2) | 11.9(53.4) | 14.8(58.6) | 16.8(62.2) | 16.5(61.7) | 13.9(57.0) | 10.5(50.9) | 6.9(44.4) | 4.6(40.3) | 10.0(50.0) | | Average low °C (°F) | 1.6(34.9) | 1.6(34.9) | 2.9(37.2) | 4.6(40.3) | 7.3(45.1) | 10.2(50.4) | 12.1(53.8) | 12.0(53.6) | 9.7(49.5) | 7.1(44.8) | 4.0(39.2) | 1.9(35.4) | 6.3(43.3) | | Record low °C (°F) | −14.3(6.3) | −9.4(15.1) | −8.3(17.1) | −4.3(24.3) | −1.6(29.1) | 0.5(32.9) | 4.0(39.2) | 4.0(39.2) | 1.1(34.0) | −5.0(23.0) | −9.0(15.8) | −13.4(7.9) | −14.3(6.3) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 72.0(2.83) | 55.1(2.17) | 50.9(2.00) | 56.5(2.22) | 61.0(2.40) | 68.4(2.69) | 65.8(2.59) | 67.5(2.66) | 68.2(2.69) | 81.4(3.20) | 78.7(3.10) | 83.9(3.30) | 809.3(31.86) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 12.8 | 10.6 | 10.0 | 10.6 | 10.2 | 10.0 | 9.7 | 10.5 | 10.0 | 12.3 | 13.3 | 12.7 | 132.5 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 52.9 | 76.5 | 117.6 | 157.0 | 187.0 | 180.6 | 193.5 | 175.0 | 140.0 | 102.5 | 63.1 | 55.6 | 1,501.3 | | Source 1: Met Office | | Source 2: Starlings Roost Weather | | Climate data for Birmingham (BHX), elevation: 99 m (325 ft), 1971–2000 normals, extremes 1878–present | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 15.0(59.0) | 18.1(64.6) | 23.7(74.7) | 25.5(77.9) | 27.8(82.0) | 31.6(88.9) | 37.0(98.6) | 34.9(94.8) | 29.0(84.2) | 28.0(82.4) | 18.1(64.6) | 15.7(60.3) | 37.0(98.6) | | Average high °C (°F) | 6.6(43.9) | 7.0(44.6) | 9.7(49.5) | 12.1(53.8) | 15.8(60.4) | 18.6(65.5) | 21.4(70.5) | 21.0(69.8) | 17.8(64.0) | 13.7(56.7) | 9.5(49.1) | 7.3(45.1) | 13.4(56.1) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 3.9(39.0) | 4.0(39.2) | 6.1(43.0) | 7.8(46.0) | 11.0(51.8) | 13.9(57.0) | 16.5(61.7) | 16.1(61.0) | 13.5(56.3) | 10.0(50.0) | 6.5(43.7) | 4.7(40.5) | 9.5(49.1) | | Average low °C (°F) | 1.1(34.0) | 0.9(33.6) | 2.4(36.3) | 3.5(38.3) | 6.2(43.2) | 9.2(48.6) | 11.5(52.7) | 11.2(52.2) | 9.1(48.4) | 6.3(43.3) | 3.4(38.1) | 2.0(35.6) | 5.5(41.9) | | Record low °C (°F) | −20.8(−5.4) | −15.0(5.0) | −11.6(11.1) | −6.6(20.1) | −3.8(25.2) | −0.8(30.6) | 1.2(34.2) | 2.2(36.0) | −1.8(28.8) | −6.8(19.8) | −10.0(14.0) | −18.5(−1.3) | −20.8(−5.4) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 64.2(2.53) | 48.4(1.91) | 49.8(1.96) | 44.3(1.74) | 50.3(1.98) | 59.9(2.36) | 46.4(1.83) | 60.2(2.37) | 56.0(2.20) | 54.8(2.16) | 58.9(2.32) | 67.0(2.64) | 662.7(26.09) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 12.0 | 9.7 | 11.1 | 8.4 | 9.3 | 9.0 | 7.4 | 8.9 | 8.6 | 10.1 | 10.3 | 10.8 | 115.9 | | Average snowy days | 6 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 24 | | Average relative humidity (%) | 85 | 84 | 80 | 76 | 76 | 75 | 75 | 78 | 80 | 83 | 84 | 86 | 80 | | Average dew point °C (°F) | 2(36) | 2(36) | 3(37) | 4(39) | 7(45) | 10(50) | 11(52) | 11(52) | 10(50) | 8(46) | 5(41) | 3(37) | 6(43) | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 49.7 | 60.0 | 101.5 | 129.2 | 178.0 | 186.2 | 181.0 | 166.8 | 134.3 | 97.2 | 64.2 | 46.9 | 1,395 | | Source 1: KNMI NOAA (Relative humidity, snow days and sun 1961–1990) | | Source 2: Starlings Roost Weather Meteo Climat Time and Date: Dewpoints (1985–2015) | | Climate data for Birmingham | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Mean daily daylight hours | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.9 | 14.0 | 15.8 | 16.7 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.8 | 12.3 | | Average ultraviolet index | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | | Source: Weather Atlas | ### Environment There are 571 parks within Birmingham – more than any other European city – totalling over 3,500 hectares (14 sq mi) of public open space. The city has over six million trees, and 250 miles (400 kilometres) of urban brooks and streams. Sutton Park, which covers 2,400 acres (971 ha) in the north of the city, is the largest urban park in Europe and a national nature reserve. Birmingham Botanical Gardens, located close to the city centre, retains the regency landscape of its original design by J. C. Loudon in 1829, while the Winterbourne Botanic Garden in Edgbaston reflects the more informal Arts and Crafts tastes of its Edwardian origins. Several green spaces within the borough are designated as green belt, as a portion of the wider West Midlands Green Belt. This is a strategic local government policy used to prevent urban sprawl and preserve greenfield land. Areas included are the aforementioned Sutton Park; land along the borough boundary by the Sutton Coldfield, Walmley and Minworth suburbs; Kingfisher, Sheldon, Woodgate Valley country parks; grounds by the Wake Green football club; Bartley and Frankley reservoirs; and Handsworth cemetery with surrounding golf courses. Birmingham has many areas of wildlife that lie in both informal settings such as the Project Kingfisher and Woodgate Valley Country Park and in a selection of parks such as Lickey Hills Country Park, Pype Hayes Park & Newhall Valley, Handsworth Park, Kings Heath Park, and Cannon Hill Park, the latter also housing the mini zoo, Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. Demographics ------------ The 2021 census recorded 1,144,900 people living in Birmingham, an increase of around 6.7% from 2011 when 1,073,045 were recorded living in the city. Of that around 305,688 or 26.7% were foreign-born, making it the city with one of the largest migrant populations in Europe. Birmingham is the largest local Authority area and city in the UK outside of London. Increasing industrialisation swelled Birmingham's population. In the 1520s the town was the third largest in Warwickshire with a population of about 1,000 – a situation little changed from that two centuries earlier. By 1700 Birmingham's population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. Birmingham's population quadrupled between 1700 and 1750. – Birmingham was already the third most-populous town in England, smaller only than the older southern ports of London and Bristol and growing faster than any of its rivals. The city's population initially peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents, before being surpassed in 2021. The Birmingham Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, has a population of 2,357,100 in 2004. In addition to Birmingham itself, the LUZ includes the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall, along with the districts of Lichfield, Tamworth, North Warwickshire and Bromsgrove. ### Ethnic groups | Ethnicity of Birmingham residents, 2021 | | --- | | | | | | White |   | 48.7% | | Asian |   | 31% | | Black |   | 10.9% | | Mixed |   | 4.8% | | Other |   | 4.6% | | Arab |   | 1.7% | | Source: 2021 census | According to figures from the 2021 census, 48.7% of the population was White (42.9% White British, 1.5% White Irish, 4.0% Other White, 0.2% Roma, 0.1% Irish Traveller), 31% were Asian (17.0% Pakistani, 5.8% Indian, 4.2% Bangladeshi, 1.1% Chinese, 2.9% Other Asian), 10.9% were Black (5.8% African, 3.9% Caribbean, 1.2% Other Black), 4.8% of Mixed race (2.2% White and Black Caribbean, 0.4% White and Black African, 1.1% White and Asian, 1.1% Other Mixed), 1.7% Arab and 4.6% of Other ethnic heritage. The 2021 census showed 26.7% of the population were born outside the UK, an increase of 4.5% percentage points from 2011. Figures showed that the five largest foreign-born groups living in Birmingham were born in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Romania and Jamaica. In 2011, 57% of primary and 52% of secondary pupils were from non-White British families. As of 2021, 31.6% of school pupils in Birmingham were White, 37.7% were Asian, 12.6% were Black, 9.7% were Mixed race and 8.4% were Other. ### Age structure and median age In Birmingham, 65.9% of the population were aged between 15 and 64, higher than when compared to the national average of 64.1% in England and Wales. Furthermore, 20.9% of the population were aged over 15, higher than the national average of 17.4% while the population aged over 65 was 13.1%, which was lower than the national average of 18.6% respectively. Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe with 40% of its population below the age of 25 and the median age being 34 years of age, below the national average of 40. ### Religion | Religion of Birmingham residents, 2021 | | --- | | | | | | Christian |   | 34% | | Muslim |   | 29.9% | | No religion |   | 24.1% | | Religion not stated |   | 6.1% | | Sikh |   | 2.9% | | Hindu |   | 1.9% | | Other religion |   | 0.6% | | Buddhist |   | 0.4% | | Jewish |   | 0.1% | | Source: 2021 census | Christianity is the largest religion within Birmingham, with 34% of residents identifying as Christians in the 2021 Census. The city's religious profile is highly diverse: outside London, Birmingham has the United Kingdom's largest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities; its second largest Hindu community; and its seventh largest Jewish community. Between the 2001, 2011, and 2021 censuses, the proportion of Christians in Birmingham decreased from 59.1% to 46.1% to 34%, while the proportion of Muslims increased from 14.3% to 21.8% to 29.9% and the proportion of people with no religious affiliation increased from 12.4% to 19.3% to 24.1%. All other religions remained proportionately similar. St Philip's Cathedral was upgraded from church status when the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham was created in 1905. There are two other cathedrals: St Chad's, seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and St Andrew. The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Midlands is also based at Birmingham, with a cathedral under construction. The original parish church of Birmingham, St Martin in the Bull Ring, is Grade II\* listed. A short distance from Five Ways the Birmingham Oratory was completed in 1910 on the site of Cardinal Newman's original foundation. There are several Christadelphian meeting halls in the city and the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Group has its headquarters in Hall Green. The oldest surviving synagogue in Birmingham is the 1825 Greek Revival Severn Street Synagogue, now a Freemasons' Lodge hall. It was replaced in 1856 by the Grade II\* listed Singers Hill Synagogue. Birmingham Central Mosque, one of the largest in Europe, was constructed in the 1960s. During the late 1990s Ghamkol Shariff Masjid was built in Small Heath. The Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Sikh Gurdwara was built on Soho Road in Handsworth in the late 1970s and the Theravada Buddhist Dhamma Talaka Peace Pagoda near Edgbaston Reservoir in the 1990s. Winners' Chapel also maintains physical presence in Digbeth. Economy ------- Birmingham grew to prominence as a centre of manufacturing and engineering. The Gun Quarter is a district of the city that was, for many years, a centre of the world's gun-manufacturing industry. The first recorded gun maker in Birmingham was in 1630, and locally made muskets were used in the English Civil War. The Gun Quarter is an industrial area to the north of the city centre, bounded by Steelhouse Lane, Shadwell Street, and Loveday Street, specialising in the production of military firearms and sporting guns. Many buildings in the area are disused but plans are in place for redevelopment including in Shadwell Street and Vesey Street. The economy of Birmingham is dominated by the service sector, which accounted for 88% of the city's employment in 2012. Birmingham is the largest centre in Great Britain for employment in public administration, education and health; and after Leeds the second-largest centre outside London for employment in financial and other business services. The wider metropolitan economy is the second-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1 billion (2014 estimate, PPP). Major companies headquartered in Birmingham include the engineering company IMI plc, National Express, Patisserie Valerie, Claire's, and Mitchells & Butlers; including the wider metropolitan area, the city has the largest concentration of major companies outside London and the South East. hosting headquarters for Gymshark and Severn Trent Water. With major facilities such as the National Exhibition Centre and International Convention Centre, Birmingham attracts 42% of the UK's total conference and exhibition trade. In 2012, manufacturing accounted for 8% of the employment in Birmingham, a figure below the average for the UK as a whole. Major industrial plants in the city include Jaguar Land Rover in Castle Bromwich and Cadbury in Bournville, with large local producers also supporting a supply chain of precision-based small manufacturers and craft industries. More traditional industries also remain: 40% of the jewellery made in the UK is still produced by the 300 independent manufacturers of the city's Jewellery Quarter, continuing a trade first recorded in Birmingham in 1308. *Nominal GVA for Birmingham 2010–2015. Note 2015 is provisional*| Year | GVA (£ million) | Growth (%) | | --- | --- | --- | | | 2010 | 20,795 | Increase02.1% | | 2011 | 21,424 | Increase03.0% | | 2012 | 21,762 | Increase01.6% | | 2013 | 22,644 | Increase04.1% | | 2014 | 23,583 | Increase04.2% | | 2015 | 24,790 | Increase05.2% | Birmingham's GVA was estimated to be £24.8 billion in 2015, economic growth accelerated each successive year between 2013 and 2015, and with an annual growth of 4.2% in 2015, GVA per head grew at the second-fastest rate of England's eight "Core Cities". The value of manufacturing output in the city declined by 21% in real terms between 1997 and 2010, but the value of financial and insurance activities more than doubled. With 16,281 start-ups registered during 2013, Birmingham has the highest level of entrepreneurial activity outside London, while the number of registered businesses in the city grew by 8.1% during 2016. Birmingham was behind only London and Edinburgh for private sector job creation between 2010 and 2013. Economic inequality in Birmingham is greater than in any other major English city, exceeded only by Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Levels of unemployment are among the highest in the country, with 10% of the economically active population unemployed (June 2016). In the inner-city wards of Aston and Washwood Heath, the figure is higher than 30%. Two-fifths of Birmingham's population live in areas classified as in the 10% most deprived parts of England, and overall Birmingham is the most deprived local authority in England in terms of income and employment deprivation. The city's infant mortality rate is high, around 60% worse than the national average. Meanwhile, just 49% of women have jobs, compared to 65% nationally, and only 28% of the working-age population in Birmingham have degree level qualifications in contrast to the average of 34% across other Core Cities. According to the 2014 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, Birmingham was placed 51st in the world, which was the second-highest rating in the UK. The city's quality of life rating has continued to improve over the years and Birmingham was ranked 49th in the world in the 2019 survey. This is the first time it has featured in the top 50. The Big City Plan of 2008 aims to move the city into the index's top 20 by 2026. An area of the city has been designated an enterprise zone, with tax relief and simplified planning to lure investment. According to 2019 property investment research, Birmingham is rated as the number one location for "The Best Places To Invest in Property in the UK". This was attributed to a 5% increase in house prices and local investment into infrastructure. Culture ------- ### Music The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's home venue is Symphony Hall. Other notable professional orchestras based in the city include the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Ex Cathedra, a Baroque chamber choir and period instrument orchestra. The Orchestra of the Swan is the resident chamber orchestra at Birmingham Town Hall, where weekly recitals have also been given by the City Organist since 1834. The Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals took place from 1784 to 1912. Music was specially composed, conducted or performed by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvořák, Bantock and Edward Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham. Elgar's *The Dream of Gerontius* had its début performance there in 1900. Composers born in the city include Albert William Ketèlbey and Andrew Glover. Jazz has been popular in the city since the 1920s, and there are many regular festivals such as the Harmonic Festival, the Mostly Jazz Festival and the annual International Jazz Festival. Birmingham's other city-centre music venues include Arena Birmingham (previously known as the National Indoor Arena and the Barclaycard Arena), which was opened in 1991, O2 Academy on Bristol Street, which opened in September 2009 replacing the O2 Academy in Dale End, the CBSO Centre, opened in 1997, HMV Institute in Digbeth and the Bradshaw Hall at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. During the 1960s, Birmingham was the home of a music scene comparable to that of Liverpool. It was "a seething cauldron of musical activity", and the international success of groups such as The Move, The Spencer Davis Group, The Moody Blues, Traffic and the Electric Light Orchestra had a collective influence that stretched into the 1970s and beyond. The city was a centre for early heavy metal music, with pioneering metal bands from the late 1960s and 1970s such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and half of Led Zeppelin having come from Birmingham. The next decade saw the influential metal bands Napalm Death and Godflesh emerge from the city. Birmingham was the birthplace of modern bhangra in the 1960s, and by the 1980s had established itself as the global centre of bhangra culture, which has grown into a global phenomenon embraced by members of the Indian diaspora worldwide from Los Angeles to Singapore. The 1970s also saw the rise of reggae and ska in the city with such bands as Steel Pulse, UB40, Musical Youth, The Beat and Beshara, expounding racial unity with politically leftist lyrics and multiracial line-ups, mirroring social currents in Birmingham at that time. Other popular bands from Birmingham include Duran Duran, Johnny Foreigner, Fine Young Cannibals, Felt, Broadcast, Ocean Colour Scene, The Streets, The Twang, King Adora, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Magnum. Musicians Jeff Lynne, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, John Lodge, Roy Wood, Joan Armatrading, Toyah Willcox, Denny Laine, Sukshinder Shinda, Apache Indian, Steve Winwood, Jamelia, Oceans Ate Alaska, Fyfe Dangerfield and Laura Mvula all grew up in the city. Since 2012 the Digbeth-based B-Town indie music scene has attracted widespread attention, led by bands such as Peace and Swim Deep, with the *NME* comparing Digbeth to London's Shoreditch, and *The Independent* writing in 2012 that "Birmingham is fast becoming the best place in the UK to look to for the most exciting new music." ### Theatre and performing arts Birmingham Repertory Theatre is Britain's longest-established producing theatre, presenting a wide variety of work in its three auditoria on Centenary Square and touring nationally and internationally. Other producing theatres in the city include the Blue Orange Theatre in the Jewellery Quarter; the Old Rep, home stage of the Birmingham Stage Company; and @ A. E. Harris, the base of the experimental Stan's Cafe theatre company, located within a working metal fabricators' factory. Touring theatre companies include the politically radical Banner Theatre, the Maverick Theatre Company and Kindle Theatre. The Alexandra Theatre and the Birmingham Hippodrome host large-scale touring productions, while professional drama is performed on a wide range of stages across the city, including the Crescent Theatre, the Custard Factory, the Old Joint Stock Theatre, the Drum in Aston and the *mac* in Cannon Hill Park. The Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the United Kingdom's five major ballet companies and one of three based outside London. It is resident at the Birmingham Hippodrome and tours extensively nationally and internationally. The company's associated ballet school – Elmhurst School for Dance in Edgbaston – is the oldest vocational dance school in the country. The Birmingham Opera Company under artistic director Graham Vick has developed an international reputation for its avant-garde productions, which often take place in factories, abandoned buildings and other found spaces around the city. More conventional seasons by Welsh National Opera and other visiting opera companies take place regularly at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The first dedicated comedy club outside of London, The Glee Club, was opened in The Arcadian Centre, city centre, in 1994, and continues to host performances by leading regional, national and international acts. ### Literature Literary figures associated with Birmingham include Samuel Johnson who stayed in Birmingham for a short period and was born in nearby Lichfield. Arthur Conan Doyle worked in the Aston area of Birmingham whilst poet Louis MacNeice lived in Birmingham for six years. It was whilst staying in Birmingham that American author Washington Irving produced several of his most famous literary works, such as *Bracebridge Hall* and *The Humorists, A Medley* which are based on Aston Hall, as well as *The Legend of Sleepy Hollow* and *Rip Van Winkle* . The poet W. H. Auden grew up in the Harborne area of the city and during the 1930s formed the core of the Auden Group with Birmingham University lecturer Louis MacNeice. Other influential poets associated with Birmingham include Roi Kwabena, who was the city's sixth poet laureate, and Benjamin Zephaniah, who was born in the city. The author J. R. R. Tolkien was brought up in the Kings Heath area of Birmingham. The award-winning political playwright David Edgar was born in Birmingham, and the science fiction author John Wyndham spent his early childhood in the Edgbaston area of the city. Birmingham has a vibrant contemporary literary scene, with local authors including David Lodge, Jim Crace, Jonathan Coe, Joel Lane and Judith Cutler. The city's leading contemporary literary publisher is the Tindal Street Press, whose authors include prize-winning novelists Catherine O'Flynn, Clare Morrall and Austin Clarke. ### Art and design The Birmingham School of landscape artists emerged with Daniel Bond in the 1760s and was to last into the mid 19th century. Its most important figure was David Cox, whose later works make him an important precursor of impressionism. The influence of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and the Birmingham School of Art made Birmingham an important centre of Victorian art, particularly within the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements. Major figures included the Pre-Raphaelite and symbolist Edward Burne-Jones; Walter Langley, the first of the Newlyn School painters; and Joseph Southall, leader of the group of artists and craftsmen known as the Birmingham Group. The Birmingham Surrealists were among the "harbingers of surrealism" in Britain in the 1930s and the movement's most active members in the 1940s, while more abstract artists associated with the city included Lee Bank-born David Bomberg and CoBrA member William Gear. Birmingham artists were prominent in several post-war developments in art: Peter Phillips was among the central figures in the birth of Pop Art; John Salt was the only major European figure among the pioneers of photo-realism; and the BLK Art Group used painting, collage and multimedia to examine the politics and culture of Black British identity. Contemporary artists from the city include the Turner Prize winner Gillian Wearing and the Turner Prize shortlisted artists Richard Billingham, John Walker, Roger Hiorns, and conceptual artist Pogus Caesar whose work has been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Birmingham's role as a manufacturing and printing centre has supported strong local traditions of graphic design and product design. Iconic works by Birmingham designers include the Baskerville font, Ruskin Pottery, the Acme Thunderer whistle, the Art Deco branding of the Odeon Cinemas and the Mini. ### Museums and galleries Birmingham has two major public art collections. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is best known for its works by the Pre-Raphaelites, a collection "of outstanding importance". It also holds a significant selection of old masters – including major works by Bellini, Rubens, Canaletto and Claude – and particularly strong collections of 17th-century Italian Baroque painting and English watercolours. Its design holdings include Europe's pre-eminent collections of ceramics and fine metalwork. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Edgbaston is one of the finest small art galleries in the world, with a collection of exceptional quality representing Western art from the 13th century to the present day. Birmingham Museums Trust runs other museums in the city including Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Soho House and Sarehole Mill. The Birmingham Back to Backs are the last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city. Cadbury World is a museum showing visitors the stages and steps of chocolate production and the history of chocolate and the company. The Ikon Gallery hosts displays of contemporary art, as does Eastside Projects. Thinktank is Birmingham's main science museum, with a giant screen cinema, a planetarium and a collection that includes the *Smethwick Engine*, the world's oldest working steam engine. Other science-based museums include the National Sea Life Centre in Brindleyplace, the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham and the Centre of the Earth environmental education centre in Winson Green. ### Nightlife Nightlife in Birmingham is mainly concentrated along Broad Street and into Brindleyplace. Although in more recent years, Broad Street has lost its popularity due to the closing of several clubs; the Arcadian now has more popularity in terms of nightlife. Outside the Broad Street area are many stylish and underground venues. The Medicine Bar in the Custard Factory, hmv Institute, Rainbow Pub and Air are large clubs and bars in Digbeth. Around the Chinese Quarter are areas such as the Arcadian and Hurst Street Gay Village, that abound with bars and clubs. Summer Row, The Mailbox, O2 Academy in Bristol Street, Snobs Nightclub, St Philips/Colmore Row, St Paul's Square and the Jewellery Quarter all have a vibrant night life. There are a number of late night pubs in the Irish Quarter. Outside the city centre is Star City entertainment complex on the former site of Nechells Power Station. ### Festivals Birmingham is home to many national, religious and cultural festivals, including a St. George's Day party. The city's largest single-day event is its St. Patrick's Day parade (Europe's second largest, after Dublin). The Nowka Bais is a Bengali boat racing festival which takes place annually in Birmingham. It is a leading cultural event in the West Midlands, United Kingdom attracting not only the Bangladeshi diaspora but a variety of cultures. It is also the largest kind of boat race in the United Kingdom. Other multicultural events include the Bangla Mela and the Vaisakhi Mela. The Birmingham Heritage Festival is a Mardi Gras style event in August. Caribbean and African culture are celebrated with parades and street performances by buskers. The Caribbean-style Birmingham International Carnival takes place in odd-numbered years. The UK's largest two-day Gay Pride is Birmingham Pride (LGBT festival), which is typically held over the spring bank holiday weekend in May. The streets of Birmingham's gay district pulsate with a carnival parade, live music, a dance arena with DJs, cabaret stage, women's arena and a community village. Birmingham Pride takes place in the gay village. From 1997 until December 2006, the city hosted an annual arts festival, ArtsFest, the largest free arts festival in the UK at the time. The Birmingham Tattoo is a long-standing military show held annually at the National Indoor Arena. The Birmingham Comedy Festival (since 2001; 10 days in October), has been headlined by such acts as Peter Kay, The Fast Show, Jimmy Carr, Lee Evans and Lenny Henry. Since 2001, Birmingham has been host to the Frankfurt Christmas Market. Modelled on its German counterpart, it has grown to become the UK's largest outdoor Christmas market and is the largest German market outside of Germany and Austria, attracting over 3.1 million visitors in 2010 and over 5 million visitors in 2011. The biennial **Birmingham International Dance Festival** (BIDF) started in 2008, organised by DanceXchange and involving indoor and outdoor venues across the city. Other festivals in the city include the Birmingham International Jazz Festival, and "Party in the Park", originally a festival hosted by local and regional radio stations which died down in 2007 and has now been brought back to life as an unsigned festival for regional unsigned acts to showcase themselves in a one-day music festival for the whole family. ### Food and drink Birmingham's development as a commercial town was originally based around its market for agricultural produce, established by royal charter in 1166. Despite the industrialisation of subsequent centuries this role has been retained and the Birmingham Wholesale Markets remain the largest combined wholesale food markets in the country, selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and flowers and supplying fresh produce to restaurateurs and independent retailers from as far as 100 miles (161 km) away. Birmingham is the only city outside London to have five Michelin starred restaurants: Simpson's in Edgbaston, Carters of Moseley, and Purnell's, Opheem and Adam's in the city centre. Birmingham based breweries included Ansells, Davenport's and Mitchells & Butlers. Aston Manor Brewery is currently the only brewery of any significant size. Many fine Victorian pubs and bars can still be found across the city, whilst there is also a plethora of more modern nightclubs and bars, notably along Broad Street. The Wing Yip food empire first began in the city and now has its headquarters in Nechells. The Balti, a type of curry, was invented in the city, which has received much acclaim for the 'Balti Belt' or 'Balti Triangle'. Famous food brands that originated in Birmingham include Typhoo tea, Bird's Custard, Cadbury's chocolate and HP Sauce. There is also a thriving independent and artisan food sector in Birmingham, encompassing microbreweries like Two Towers, and collective bakeries such as Loaf. Recent years have seen these businesses increasingly showcased at farmers markets, popular street food events and food festivals including Birmingham Independent Food Fair. ### Entertainment and leisure Birmingham is home to many entertainment and leisure venues, including Europe's largest leisure and entertainment complex Star City as well as Europe's first out-of-city-centre entertainment and leisure complex Resorts World Birmingham owned by the Genting Group. The Mailbox which caters for more affluent clients is based within the city. ### Architecture Birmingham is chiefly a product of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; its growth began during the Industrial Revolution. Consequently, relatively few buildings survive from its earlier history and those that do are protected. There are 1,946 listed buildings in Birmingham and thirteen scheduled ancient monuments. Birmingham City Council also operate a locally listing scheme for buildings that do not fully meet the criteria for statutorily listed status. Traces of medieval Birmingham can be seen in the oldest churches, notably the original parish church, St Martin in the Bull Ring. A few other buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods survive, among them the *Lad in the Lane* and *The Old Crown*, the 15th century *Saracen's Head* public house and Old Grammar School in Kings Norton and Blakesley Hall. A number of Georgian buildings survive, including St Philip's Cathedral, Soho House, Perrott's Folly, the Town Hall and much of St Paul's Square. The Victorian era saw extensive building across the city. Major civic buildings such as the Victoria Law Courts (in characteristic red brick and terracotta), the Council House and the Museum & Art Gallery were constructed. St Chad's Cathedral was the first Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in the UK since the Reformation. Across the city, the need to house the industrial workers gave rise to miles of redbrick streets and terraces, many of back-to-back houses, some of which were later to become inner-city slums. Postwar redevelopment and anti-Victorianism resulted in the loss of dozens of Victorian buildings like New Street station and the old Central Library, often replaced by brutalist architecture. Sir Herbert Manzoni, City Engineer and Surveyor of Birmingham from 1935 until 1963, believed conservation of old buildings was sentimental and that the city did not have any of worth anyway. In inner-city areas too, much Victorian housing was demolished and redeveloped. Existing communities were relocated to tower block estates like Castle Vale. In a partial reaction against the Manzoni years, Birmingham City Council is demolishing some of the brutalist buildings like the Central Library and has an extensive tower block demolition and renovation programme. There has been much redevelopment in the city centre in recent years, including the award-winning Future Systems' Selfridges building in the Bullring Shopping Centre, the Brindleyplace regeneration project, the Millennium Point science and technology centre, and the refurbishment of the iconic Rotunda building. Funding for many of these projects has come from the European Union; the Town Hall for example received £3 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Highrise development has slowed since the 1970s and mainly in recent years because of enforcements imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority on the heights of buildings as they could affect aircraft from the Airport (e.g. Beetham Tower). ### Demonymy and identity People from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the city's nickname of "Brum", which originates from the city's old name, Brummagem. The Brummie accent and dialect are particularly distinctive. Transport --------- Partly due to its central location, Birmingham is a major transport hub on the motorway, railway and canal networks. ### Roads The city is served by the M5, M6, M40 and M42 motorways, and possibly the most well known motorway junction in the United Kingdom: Spaghetti Junction, a colloquial name for the Gravelly Hill Interchange. The M6 passes through the city on the Bromford Viaduct, which at 3.5 miles (5.6 km) is the longest bridge in the UK. The Middleway (A4540) is a ring road that runs around the city centre. In the past there used to be a smaller ring road in the core of the city named Inner Ring Road. Birmingham introduced a Clean Air Zone from 1 June 2021, which charges polluting vehicles to travel into the city centre. ### Air Birmingham Airport, located 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the city centre in the neighbouring borough of Solihull, is the seventh busiest airport by passenger traffic in the UK and the third busiest outside the London area, after Manchester and Edinburgh. It is a major base for Jet2, Ryanair and TUI Airways. Airline services operate from Birmingham to many destinations in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Middle East, Asia and Oceania. ### Public transport Birmingham's local public transport network is co-ordinated by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) which is a branch of the West Midlands Combined Authority. Birmingham has a high level of public transport usage; in 2015, 63% of morning peak trips into Birmingham were made by public transport, with the remaining 37% made by private car. Rail was the most popular public transport mode, accounting for 36.4% of journeys, followed by buses at 26.3% and the Metro at 0.3%. There is currently no underground system in Birmingham; it is the largest city in Europe not to have one. In recent years, ideas of an underground system have started to appear, but none so far have been planned in earnest primarily due to the ongoing expansion of the West Midlands Metro tram network being viewed as a higher priority. #### Railway The main railway station in the city is Birmingham New Street, which is the busiest railway station in the UK outside London, both for passenger entries/exits and for passenger interchanges. It is the national hub for CrossCountry, the most extensive long-distance train network in Britain, and a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from London Euston, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley. Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill form the northern termini for Chiltern Railways express trains running from London Marylebone. Curzon Street railway station, currently under construction, will be the terminus for trains to the city on High Speed 2, the first phase of which will open around 2030. Birmingham and the surrounding region have a network of local and suburban railways, mostly operated by West Midlands Trains. There are a total of 70 railway stations within the West Midlands county, 34 of which are within Birmingham's city boundaries. Suburban railway lines in Birmingham include the Cross-City Line, the Chase Line, the Snow Hill Lines and the Birmingham loop. In 2016/17, there were nearly 55 million rail passenger journeys within the TfWM area, a big increase over the 23 million back in 2000/01. #### Tram Historically, Birmingham had a substantial tram system operated by Birmingham Corporation Tramways which was closed in 1953. In 1999, trams returned to the city with the West Midlands Metro (formerly known as the *Midland Metro*) which operates services to the city of Wolverhampton. Since 2015–2016, after extension work, the tram network runs in the streets of central Birmingham, for the first time since 1953; further expansions of the West Midlands Metro system are underway with extensions and new lines being constructed. #### Bus 261 million bus journeys were made in the TfWM area in 2016/17, a decrease from 319 million in 2009/10. Bus routes are mainly operated commercially by private companies, although TfWM subsidises some socially necessary services. National Express West Midlands, accounts for nearly 80% of all bus journeys in Birmingham, though there are around 40 other, smaller registered bus companies. The number 11 outer circle bus route, which operates in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions around the outskirts of the city, is the longest urban bus route in Europe, being over 26 miles (42 km) long with 272 bus stops. The National Express headquarters are located in Digbeth, in offices above Birmingham Coach Station, which forms the national hub of the company's coach network. The bus division is based in Bordesley Green, just outside of the city centre. Until 1974, the other major bus operator in Birmingham was Midland Red who had a number of bus depots both in Birmingham and the wider metropolitan area. After selling the West Midlands-based operations to WMPTE, the company and its successors continued to serve Birmingham on many routes from outside the West Midlands County. However, by April 2022, only two routes remain which are the 110 from Tamworth which is operated by Arriva Midlands and the 144 from Worcester operated by First Worcestershire. ### Canals An extensive canal system still remains in Birmingham from the Industrial Revolution. The city has more miles of canal than Venice, though the canals in Birmingham are a less prominent and essential feature due to the larger size of the city and the fact that few of its buildings are accessed by canal. The canals are mainly used today for leisure purposes; canalside regeneration schemes such as Brindleyplace have turned the canals into a tourist attraction. Education --------- ### Further and higher education Birmingham is home to five universities: Aston University, University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University College Birmingham and Newman University. The city also hosts major campuses of the University of Law and BPP University, as well as the Open University's West Midlands regional base. In 2011 Birmingham had 78,259 full-time students from all over the world aged 18–74 resident in the city during term time, more than any other city in the United Kingdom outside London. Birmingham has 32,690 research students, also the highest number of any major city outside London. The Birmingham Business School, established by Sir William Ashley in 1902, is the oldest graduate-level business school in the United Kingdom. Another top business school in the city includes Aston Business School, one of fewer than 1% of business schools globally to be granted triple accreditation, and Birmingham City Business School. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, offers professional training in music and acting. Birmingham is an important centre for religious education. St Mary's College, Oscott is one of the three seminaries of the Catholic Church in England and Wales; Woodbrooke is the only Quaker study centre in Europe; and Queen's College, Edgbaston is an ecumenical theological college serving the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. Birmingham Metropolitan College is one of the largest further education colleges in the country, with fourteen campuses spread across Birmingham and into the Black Country and Worcestershire. South & City College Birmingham has nine campuses spread throughout the city. Bournville College is based in a £66 million, 4.2 acre campus in Longbridge that opened in 2011. Fircroft College is a residential college based in a former Edwardian mansion in Selly Oak, founded in 1909 around a strong commitment to social justice, with many courses aimed at students with few prior formal qualifications. Queen Alexandra College is a specialist college based in Harborne offering further education to visually impaired or disabled students from all over the United Kingdom. ### Primary and secondary education Birmingham City Council is England's largest local education authority, directly or indirectly responsible for 25 nursery schools, 328 primary schools, 77 secondary schools and 29 special schools. and providing around 3,500 adult education courses throughout the year. Most of Birmingham's state schools are community schools run directly by Birmingham City Council in its role as local education authority (LEA), although there are also voluntary aided schools within the state system. Since the 1970s, most secondary schools in Birmingham have been 11-–-16/18 comprehensive schools, while post GCSE students have the choice of continuing their education in either a school's sixth form or at a further education college. King Edward's School, Birmingham, founded in 1552 by King Edward VI, is one of the oldest schools in the city, teaching GCSE and IB, with alumni including J R R Tolkien, author of the *Lord of the Rings* books and *The Hobbit*. Independent schools in the city include the Birmingham Blue Coat School, King Edward VI High School for Girls and Edgbaston High School for Girls. Bishop Vesey's Grammar School was founded by Bishop Vesey in 1527. Public services --------------- In Birmingham libraries, leisure centres, parks, play areas, transport, street cleaning and waste collection face cuts among other services. Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham City Council called on the government to change radically how local services are funded and provided. It is claimed government cuts to local authorities have hit Birmingham disproportionately. Child protection services within Birmingham were rated "inadequate" by OFSTED for four years running between 2009 and 2013, with 20 child deaths since 2007 being investigated. In March 2014 the government announced that independent commissioner would be appointed to oversee improvements to children's services within the city. ### Library services The former Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was considered to be the largest municipal library in Europe. Six of its collections were designated by the Arts Council England as being "pre-eminent collections of national and international importance", out of only eight collections to be so recognised in local authority libraries nationwide. A new Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square, replacing Central Library, was opened on 3 September 2013. It was designed by the Dutch architects Mecanoo and has been described as "a kind of public forum ... a memorial, a shrine, to the book and to literature". This library faces cuts, due to reduced funding from Central government. There are 41 local libraries in Birmingham, plus a regular mobile library service. The library service has 4 million visitors annually. Due to budget cuts, four of the branch libraries risk closure whilst services may be reduced elsewhere. ### Emergency services Law enforcement in Birmingham is carried out by West Midlands Police, whose headquarters are at Lloyd House in the city centre. With 87.92 recorded offences per 1000 population in 2009–10, Birmingham's crime rate is above the average for England and Wales, but lower than any of England's other major core cities and lower than many smaller cities such as Oxford, Cambridge or Brighton. Fire and rescue services in Birmingham are provided by West Midlands Fire Service and emergency medical care by West Midlands Ambulance Service. ### Healthcare There are several major National Health Service hospitals in Birmingham. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, adjacent to the Birmingham Medical School in Edgbaston, is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the United Kingdom with over 1,200 beds. It is a major trauma centre offering services to the extended West Midlands region and houses the largest single-floor critical care unit in the world, with 100 beds. The hospital has the largest solid organ transplantation programme in Europe as well as the largest renal transplant programme in the United Kingdom and it is a national specialist centre for liver, heart and lung transplantation, as well as cancer studies. It is the home of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine for military personnel injured in conflict zones. Other general hospitals in the city include Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and City Hospital in Winson Green. There are also many specialist hospitals, such as Birmingham Children's Hospital, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Birmingham Dental Hospital, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Birmingham saw the first ever use of radiography in an operation, and the UK's first ever hole-in-the-heart operation was performed at Birmingham Children's Hospital. ### Water supply The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was set up in 1876 to supply water to Birmingham, up until 1974 when its responsibilities were transferred to Severn Trent Water. Most of Birmingham's water is supplied by the Elan aqueduct, opened in 1904; water is fed by gravity to Frankley Reservoir, Frankley, and Bartley Reservoir, Bartley Green, from reservoirs in the Elan Valley, Wales. ### Energy from waste Within Birmingham the Tyseley Energy from Waste Plant, a large incineration plant built in 1996 for Veolia, burns some 366,414 tonnes of household waste annually and produces 166,230 MWh of electricity for the National Grid along with 282,013 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Sport ----- Birmingham has played an important part in the history of modern sport. The Football League – the world's first league football competition – was founded by Birmingham resident and Aston Villa director William McGregor, who wrote to fellow club directors in 1888 proposing "that ten or twelve of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home-and-away fixtures each season". The modern game of tennis was developed between 1859 and 1865 by Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera at Perera's house in Edgbaston, with the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society remaining the oldest tennis club in the world. The Birmingham and District Cricket League is the oldest cricket league in the world, and Birmingham was the host for the first ever Cricket World Cup, a Women's Cricket World Cup in 1973. Birmingham was the first city to be named National City of Sport by the Sports Council. Birmingham was selected ahead of London and Manchester to bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics, but was unsuccessful in the final selection process, which was won by Barcelona. Today, the city is home of two of the country's oldest professional football teams: Aston Villa F.C., which was founded in 1874 and plays at Villa Park; and Birmingham City F.C., which was founded in 1875 and plays at St Andrew's. Rivalry between the clubs is fierce and the fixture between the two is called the Second City derby. Aston Villa currently play in the Premier League while Birmingham City currently play in the Championship. West Bromwich Albion also draw support within the Birmingham area, being located at The Hawthorns just outside the city boundaries in Sandwell. Rival football team Coventry City also played briefly at St Andrew's for two seasons between 2019 and 2021 due to an ongoing dispute with their landlords over use of the Coventry Building Society Arena. Warwickshire County Cricket Club play at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, which also hosts test cricket and one day internationals and is the largest cricket ground in the United Kingdom after Lord's. Edgbaston was the scene of the highest ever score by a batsman in first-class cricket, when Brian Lara scored 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994. Birmingham is also home to professional Rugby Union clubs such as Birmingham Moseley and Birmingham & Solihull. The city also has a semiprofessional Rugby League club, the Midlands Hurricanes as well as an amateur club the Birmingham Bulldogs. The city is also home to one of the oldest American football teams in the BAFA National Leagues, the Birmingham Bulls. Two major championship golf courses lie on the city's outskirts. The Belfry near Sutton Coldfield is the headquarters of the Professional Golfers' Association and has hosted the Ryder Cup more times than any other venue. The Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club near Birmingham Airport is also a regular host of tournaments on the PGA European Tour, including the British Masters and the English Open. The AEGON Classic is, alongside Wimbledon and Eastbourne, one of only three UK tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour. It is played annually at the Edgbaston Priory Club, which in 2010 announced plans for a multimillion-pound redevelopment, including a new showcase centre court and a museum celebrating the game's Birmingham origins. The Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr is the headquarters of UK Athletics, and one of only two British venues to host fixtures in the elite international IAAF Diamond League. It is also the home of Birchfield Harriers, which has many international athletes among its members. The National Indoor Arena hosted the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships and the 2003 and 2018 World Indoor Championships, as well as hosting the annual Aviva Indoor Grand Prix – the only British indoor athletics fixture to qualify as an IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting – and a wide variety of other sporting events. Professional boxing, hockey, skateboarding, stock-car racing, greyhound racing and speedway also take place within the city. Since 1994 Birmingham has hosted the All England Open Badminton Championships at Arena Birmingham. ### Commonwealth Games Birmingham hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which took place between 28 July and 8 August 2022. This was the first time that Birmingham has hosted the Commonwealth games and the 22nd Commonwealth games to take place. Birmingham has a wealth of existing sports venues, arenas and conference halls that proved ideal for hosting sport during the Games. Alexander Stadium, which hosted the ceremonies and athletics was renovated, and the capacity was increased to 40,000 seats. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham were expected to generate a £526 million boost to the West Midlands regional economy. The official handover to Birmingham took place at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony on 15 April 2018. Media ----- Birmingham has several major local newspapers – the daily *Birmingham Mail* and the weekly *Birmingham Post* and *Sunday Mercury*, all owned by Reach plc. *Forward* is a freesheet produced by Birmingham City Council, which is distributed to homes in the city. Birmingham is also the hub for various national ethnic media, lifestyle magazines, digital news platforms, and the base for two regional Metro editions (East and West Midlands). Birmingham has three mainstream digital-only news publishers, *I Am Birmingham*, *Birmingham Updates* and *Second City*. Birmingham has a long cinematic history; The Electric on Station Street is the oldest working cinema in the UK. Birmingham is the location for several British and international film productions including *Felicia's Journey* of 1999, which used locations in Birmingham that were used in *Take Me High* of 1973 to contrast the changes in the city. The BBC has two facilities in the city. The Mailbox, in the city centre, is the national headquarters of BBC English Regions and the headquarters of BBC West Midlands and the BBC Birmingham network production centre. These were previously located at the Pebble Mill Studios in Edgbaston. The BBC Drama Village, based in Selly Oak, is a production facility specialising in television drama. Central/ATV studios in Birmingham was the location for the recording of various programmes for ITV, including *Tiswas* and *Crossroads*, until the complex was closed in 1997, and Central moved to its current Gas Street studios. Central's output from Birmingham now consists of only the *West* and *East* editions of the regional news programme *ITV News Central*. The city is served by numerous national and regional radio stations, as well as hyperlocal radio stations. These include Free Radio Birmingham and Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands, Capital Midlands, Heart West Midlands, Absolute Radio, and Smooth West Midlands. The city has a community radio scene, with stations including Big City Radio, New Style Radio, Brum Radio, Switch Radio, Scratch Radio, Raaj FM, and Unity FM. *The Archers*, the world's longest running radio soap, is recorded in Birmingham for BBC Radio 4. BBC Birmingham studios additionally produce shows for BBC Radio WM and BBC Asian Network in the city. Notable people -------------- International relations ----------------------- Birmingham has ten sister cities: * France Lyon, France (since 1951) * Germany Frankfurt am Main, Germany (since 1966) * Italy Milan, Italy (since 1974) * China Changchun, China (since 1983) * Germany Leipzig, Germany (since 1992) * United States Chicago, United States (since 1993) * South Africa Johannesburg, South Africa (since 1997) * China Guangzhou, China (since 2006) * China Nanjing, China (since 2007) * Australia Melbourne, Australia Birmingham was twinned with Zaporizhzhia, in Ukraine, in the late Soviet Union period. This is noted in Ukrainian, in Birmingham public records, and in a written answer from the Minister of State for Local Government. See also -------- * List of freemen of the City of Birmingham References ---------- ### Sources * Bassett, Steven (2000), "Anglo-Saxon Birmingham" (PDF), *Midland History*, University of Birmingham, **25** (25): 1–27, doi:10.1179/mdh.2000.25.1.1, ISSN 0047-729X, S2CID 161966142, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2009, retrieved 11 August 2009 * Berg, Maxine (1991). "Commerce and Creativity in Eighteenth-Century Birmingham". In Berg, Maxine (ed.). *Markets and Manufacture in Early Industrial Europe*. London: Routledge. pp. 173–202. ISBN 0-415-03720-4. Retrieved 27 November 2011. * Briggs, Asa (1965) [1963]. "Birmingham: The making of a Civic Gospel". *Victorian Cities*. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07922-1. Retrieved 17 December 2011. * Gelling, Margaret (1956), "Some notes on the place-names of Birmingham and the surrounding district", *Transactions & Proceedings, Birmingham Archaeological Society* (72): 14–17, ISSN 0140-4202 * Gelling, Margaret (1992), *The West Midlands in the early Middle Ages*, Studies in the early history of Britain, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7185-1170-8 * Hodder, Mike (2004). *Birmingham: the hidden history*. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-3135-8. * Holt, Richard (1986). *The early history of the town of Birmingham, 1166–1600*. Dugdale Society Occasional Papers. Oxford: Printed for the Dugdale Society by D. Stanford, Printer to the University. ISBN 0-85220-062-5. * Hopkins, Eric (1989). *Birmingham: The First Manufacturing Town in the World, 1760–1840*. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-79473-6. * Jones, Peter M. (2008). *Industrial Enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1820*. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7770-8. * Leather, Peter (2001). *A brief history of Birmingham*. Studley: Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-187-7. * Thorpe, H. (1950), "The Growth of Settlement before the Norman Conquest", in Kinvig, R. H.; Smith, J. G.; Wise, M. J. (eds.), *Birmingham and its Regional Setting: A Scientific Survey*, S. R. Publishers Limited (published 1970), pp. 87–97, ISBN 978-0-85409-607-7 * Uglow, Jenny (2011) [2002]. *The Lunar Men: The Inventors of the Modern World 1730–1810*. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-26667-8. Retrieved 27 April 2014. * Upton, Chris (1993). *A History of Birmingham*. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 0-85033-870-0. * Ward, Roger (2005). *City-state and nation: Birmingham's political history, 1830–1940*. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-320-6.

Birmingham

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham

**South America** is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southern subregion of a single continent called America. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent generally includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one internal territory: French Guiana. In addition, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ascension Island (dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory), Bouvet Island (dependency of Norway), Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered parts of South America. South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi). Its population as of 2021[update] has been estimated at more than 434 million. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the continent's population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru. In recent decades, Brazil has also generated half of the continent's GDP and has become the continent's first regional power. Most of the population lives near the continent's western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains; in contrast, the eastern part contains both highland regions and vast lowlands where rivers such as the Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná flow. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of the Southern Cone located in the middle latitudes. The continent's cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the overwhelming majority of South Americans speak Spanish or Portuguese, and societies and states are rich in Western traditions. Relative to Europe, Asia and Africa, post-1900 South America has been a peaceful continent with few wars. Geography --------- South America occupies the southern portion of the Americas. The continent is generally delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border, although some may consider the border instead to be the Panama Canal. Geopolitically and geographically, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is typically included in North America alone and among the countries of Central America. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. South America is home to the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela; the highest single drop waterfall Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; the largest river by volume, the Amazon River; the longest mountain range, the Andes (whose highest mountain is Aconcagua at 6,962 m or 22,841 ft); the driest non-polar place on earth, the Atacama Desert; the wettest place on earth, López de Micay in Colombia; the largest rainforest, the Amazon rainforest; the highest capital city, La Paz, Bolivia; the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca; and, excluding research stations in Antarctica, the world's southernmost permanently inhabited community, Puerto Toro, Chile. South America's major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid economic growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies. The fluctuation in the price of commodities in the international markets has led historically to major highs and lows in the economies of South American states, often causing extreme political instability. This is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. Brazil is the largest country in South America, covering a little less than half of the continent's land area and encompassing around half of the continent's population. The remaining countries and territories are divided among four subregions: the Andean states, Caribbean South America, The Guianas, and the Southern Cone. ### Outlying islands Physiographically, South America also includes some of the nearby islands. The Dutch ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), the islands of Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad Island and Tobago Island etc.), the State of Nueva Esparta, and the Federal Dependencies of Venezuela sit on the northern portion of the South American continental shelf and are sometimes considered parts of the continent. Geopolitically, all the island countries and territories in the Caribbean have generally been grouped as a subregion of North America instead. By contrast, Aves Island (administered by Venezuela) and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (San Andrés Island, Providencia Island, and Santa Catalina Island etc., which are administered by Colombia) are politically parts of South American countries but physiographically parts of North America. Other islands often associated with geopolitical South America are the Chiloé Archipelago and Robinson Crusoe Island (both administered by Chile), Easter Island (culturally a part of Oceania, also administered by Chile), the Galápagos Islands (administered by Ecuador, sometimes considered part of Oceania), and Tierra del Fuego (split between Argentina and Chile). In the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil administers Fernando de Noronha, Trindade and Martim Vaz, and the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, while the Falkland Islands (Spanish: *Islas Malvinas*) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (biogeographically and hydrologically associated with Antarctica) have been administered as two British Overseas Territories under the Crown, whose sovereignty over the islands is disputed by Argentina. #### Special cases An isolated volcanic island on the South American Plate, Ascension Island is geologically a part of South America. Administered as a dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, the island is geopolitically a part of Africa. An uninhabited sub-Antarctic volcanic island located in the South Atlantic Ocean, Bouvet Island (administered by Norway) is geographically, geologically, biogeographically, and hydrologically associated with Antarctica, but the United Nations geoscheme has included the territory in South America instead. ### Climate All of the world's major climate zones are present in South America. The distribution of the average temperatures in the region presents a constant regularity from the 30° of latitude south, when the isotherms tend, more and more, to be confused with the degrees of latitude. In temperate latitudes, winters and summers are milder than in North America. This is because the most extensive part of the continent is in the equatorial zone (the region has more areas of equatorial plains than any other region), therefore giving the Southern Cone more oceanic influence, which moderates year round temperatures. The average annual temperatures in the Amazon basin oscillate around 27 °C (81 °F), with low thermal amplitudes and high rainfall indices. Between the Maracaibo Lake and the mouth of the Orinoco, predominates an equatorial climate of the type Congolese, that also includes parts of the Brazilian territory. The east-central Brazilian plateau has a humid and warm tropical climate. The northern and eastern parts of the Argentine pampas have a humid subtropical climate with dry winters and humid summers of the Chinese type, while the western and eastern ranges have a subtropical climate of the dinaric type. At the highest points of the Andean region, climates are colder than the ones occurring at the highest point of the Norwegian fjords. In the Andean plateaus, the warm climate prevails, although it is tempered by the altitude, while in the coastal strip, there is an equatorial climate of the Guinean type. From this point until the north of the Chilean coast appear, successively, Mediterranean oceanic climate, temperate of the Breton type and, already in Tierra del Fuego, cold climate of the Siberian type. The distribution of rainfall is related to the regime of winds and air masses. In most of the tropical region east of the Andes, winds blowing from the northeast, east and southeast carry moisture from the Atlantic, causing abundant rainfall. However, due to a consistently strong wind shear and a weak Intertropical Convergence Zone, South Atlantic tropical cyclones are rare. In the Orinoco Llanos and in the Guianas Plateau, the precipitation levels go from moderate to high. The Pacific coast of Colombia and northern Ecuador are rainy regions, with Chocó in Colombia being the rainiest place in the world along with the northern slopes of Indian Himalayas. The Atacama Desert, along this stretch of coast, is one of the driest regions in the world. The central and southern parts of Chile are subject to extratropical cyclones, and most of the Argentine Patagonia is desert. In the Pampas of Argentina, Uruguay and South of Brazil the rainfall is moderate, with rains well distributed during the year. The moderately dry conditions of the Chaco oppose the intense rainfall of the eastern region of Paraguay. In the semiarid coast of the Brazilian Northeast the rains are linked to a monsoon regime. Important factors in the determination of climates are sea currents, such as the current Humboldt and Falklands. The equatorial current of the South Atlantic strikes the coast of the Northeast and there is divided into two others: the current of Brazil and a coastal current that flows to the northwest towards the Antilles, where there it moves towards northeast course thus forming the most Important and famous ocean current in the world, the Gulf Stream. ### Fauna South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on Earth. South America is home to many unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a major proportion of Earth's species. 83% of South America's large mammals (megafauna) became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene around 11,000 years ago as part of the Quaternary extinction event, among the highest of any continent, with the casualties including saber-toothed cats, ground sloths, glyptodonts, gomphotheres, the equines *Hippidion* and *Equus neogeus*, and all remaining South American native ungulates. History ------- ### Prehistory South America is thought to have been first inhabited by humans when people were crossing the Bering Land Bridge (now the Bering Strait) at least 15,000 years ago from the territory that is present-day Russia. They migrated south through North America, and eventually reached South America through the Isthmus of Panama. Amongst the oldest evidence for human presence in South America is the Monte Verde II site in Chile, suggested to date to around 14,500 years ago. From around 13,000 years ago, the Fishtail projectile point style became widespread across South America, with its disppearance around 11,000 years ago coincident with the disappearance of South America's megafauna. Maize was present in northern South America by around 6,000 years ago. By 2000 BC, many agrarian communities had been settled throughout the Andes and the surrounding regions. Fishing became a widespread practice along the coast, helping establish fish as a primary source of food. Irrigation systems were also developed at this time, which aided in the rise of an agrarian society. South American cultures began domesticating llamas, vicuñas, guanacos, and alpacas in the highlands of the Andes circa 3500 BC. Besides their use as sources of meat and wool, these animals were used for transportation of goods. ### Pre-Columbian civilizations The rise of plant growing and the subsequent appearance of permanent human settlements allowed for the multiple and overlapping beginnings of civilizations in South America. One of the earliest known South American civilizations was at Norte Chico, on the central Peruvian coast. Though a pre-ceramic culture, the monumental architecture of Norte Chico is contemporaneous with the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Norte Chico governing class established a trade network and developed agriculture then followed by Chavín by 900 BC, according to some estimates and archaeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín de Huantar in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters (10,423 ft). Chavín civilization spanned 900 BC to 300 BC. In the central coast of Peru, around the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, Moche (100 BC – 700 AD, at the northern coast of Peru), Paracas and Nazca (400 BC – 800 AD, Peru) cultures flourished with centralized states with permanent militia improving agriculture through irrigation and new styles of ceramic art. At the Altiplano, Tiahuanaco or Tiwanaku (100 BC – 1200 AD, Bolivia) managed a large commercial network based on religion. Around the 7th century, both Tiahuanaco and Wari or Huari Empire (600–1200, Central and northern Peru) expanded its influence to all the Andean region, imposing the Huari urbanism and Tiahuanaco religious iconography. The Muisca were the main indigenous civilization in what is now Colombia. They established the Muisca Confederation of many clans, or *cacicazgos*, that had a free trade network among themselves. They were goldsmiths and farmers. Other important Pre-Columbian cultures include: the Cañaris (in south central Ecuador), Chimú Empire (1300–1470, Peruvian northern coast), Chachapoyas, and the Aymaran kingdoms (1000–1450, Western Bolivia and southern Peru). Holding their capital at the great city of Cusco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as *Tawantin suyu*, and "the land of the four regions," in Quechua, the Inca Empire was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some nine to fourteen million people connected by a 25,000 kilometer road system. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. The Mapuche in Central and Southern Chile resisted the European and Chilean settlers, waging the Arauco War for more than 300 years. ### European colonization In 1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime European powers of that time, on the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which they agreed, with the support of the Pope, that all the land outside Europe should be an exclusive duopoly between the two countries. The treaty established an imaginary line along a north–south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (known to comprise most of the South American soil) would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. As accurate measurements of longitude were impossible at that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian. Beginning in the 1530s, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign conquistadors, first from Spain and later from Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies. European infectious diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) – to which the native populations had no immune resistance – caused large-scale depopulation of the native population under Spanish control. Systems of forced labor, such as the haciendas and mining industry's mit'a also contributed to the depopulation. After this, enslaved Africans, who had developed immunities to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them. The Spaniards were committed to converting their native subjects to Christianity and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end; however, many initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as native groups simply blended Catholicism with their established beliefs and practices. Furthermore, the Spaniards brought their language to the degree they did with their religion, although the Roman Catholic Church's evangelization in Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní actually contributed to the continuous use of these native languages albeit only in the oral form. Eventually, the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a mestizo class. At the beginning, many mestizos of the Andean region were offspring of Amerindian mothers and Spanish fathers. After independence, most mestizos had native fathers and European or mestizo mothers. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers; this included many gold and silver sculptures and other artifacts found in South America, which were melted down before their transport to Spain or Portugal. Spaniards and Portuguese brought the western European architectural style to the continent, and helped to improve infrastructures like bridges, roads, and the sewer system of the cities they discovered or conquered. They also significantly increased economic and trade relations, not just between the old and new world but between the different South American regions and peoples. Finally, with the expansion of the Portuguese and Spanish languages, many cultures that were previously separated became united through that of Latin American. Guyana was initially colonized by the Dutch before coming under British control, though there was a brief period during the Napoleonic Wars when it was occupied by the French. The region was initially partitioned between the Dutch, French and British before fully coming under the control of Britain. Suriname was first explored by the Spanish in the 16th century and then settled by the English in the mid-17th century. It became a Dutch colony in 1667. ### Slavery in South America The indigenous peoples of the Americas in various European colonies were forced to work in European plantations and mines; along with enslaved Africans who were also introduced in the proceeding centuries via the slave trade. European colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were often captured by expeditions. The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries. The Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans primarily to South American colonies, beginning with the Portuguese since 1502. The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean colonies and Brazil, as European nations built up economically slave-dependent colonies in the New World. Nearly 40% of all African slaves trafficked to the Americas went to Brazil. An estimated 4.9 million slaves from Africa came to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866. In contrast to other European colonies in the Americas which mainly used the labor of African slaves, Spanish colonists mainly enslaved indigenous Americans. In 1750, the Portuguese Crown abolished the enslavement of indigenous peoples in colonial Brazil, under the belief that they were unfit for labor and less effective than enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas on slave ships, under inhuman conditions and ill-treatment, and those who survived were sold in slave markets. After independence, all South American countries maintained slavery for some time. The first South American country to abolish slavery was Chile in 1823, Uruguay in 1830, Bolivia in 1831, Colombia and Ecuador in 1851, Argentina in 1853, Peru and Venezuela in 1854, Suriname in 1863, Paraguay in 1869, and in 1888 Brazil was the last South American nation and the last country in western world to abolish slavery. ### Independence from Spain and Portugal The European Peninsular War (1807–1814), a theater of the Napoleonic Wars, changed the political situation of both the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. First, Napoleon invaded Portugal, but the House of Braganza avoided capture by escaping to Brazil. Napoleon also captured King Ferdinand VII of Spain, and appointed his own brother instead. This appointment provoked severe popular resistance, which created Juntas to rule in the name of the captured king. Many cities in the Spanish colonies, however, considered themselves equally authorized to appoint local Juntas like those of Spain. This began the Spanish American wars of independence between the patriots, who promoted such autonomy, and the royalists, who supported Spanish authority over the Americas. The Juntas, in both Spain and the Americas, promoted the ideas of the Enlightenment. Five years after the beginning of the war, Ferdinand VII returned to the throne and began the Absolutist Restoration as the royalists got the upper hand in the conflict. The independence of South America was secured by Simón Bolívar (Venezuela) and José de San Martín (Argentina), the two most important *Libertadores*. Bolívar led a great uprising in the north, then led his army southward towards Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Meanwhile, San Martín led an army across the Andes Mountains, along with Chilean expatriates, and liberated Chile. He organized a fleet to reach Peru by sea, and sought the military support of various rebels from the Viceroyalty of Peru. The two armies finally met in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where they cornered the Royal Army of the Spanish Crown and forced its surrender. In the Portuguese Kingdom of Brazil, Dom Pedro I (also Pedro IV of Portugal), son of the Portuguese King Dom João VI, proclaimed the independent Kingdom of Brazil in 1822, which later became the Empire of Brazil. Despite the Portuguese loyalties of garrisons in Bahia, Cisplatina and Pará, independence was diplomatically accepted by the crown in Portugal in 1825, on condition of a high compensation paid by Brazil mediatized by the United Kingdom. ### Nation-building and fragmentation The newly independent nations began a process of fragmentation, with several civil and international wars. However, it was not as strong as in Central America. Some countries created from provinces of larger countries stayed as such up to modern times (such as Paraguay or Uruguay), while others were reconquered and reincorporated into their former countries (such as the Republic of Entre Ríos and the Riograndense Republic). The first separatist attempt was in 1820 by the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, led by a caudillo. In spite of the "Republic" in its title, General Ramírez, its caudillo, never really intended to declare an independent Entre Rios. Rather, he was making a political statement in opposition to the monarchist and centralist ideas that back then permeated Buenos Aires politics. The "country" was reincorporated at the United Provinces in 1821. In 1825 the Cisplatine Province declared its independence from the Empire of Brazil, which led to the Cisplatine War between the imperials and the Argentine from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata to control the region. Three years later, the United Kingdom intervened in the question by proclaiming a tie and creating in the former Cisplatina a new independent country: The Oriental Republic of Uruguay. Later in 1836, while Brazil was experiencing the chaos of the regency, Rio Grande do Sul proclaimed its independence motivated by a tax crisis. With the anticipation of the coronation of Pedro II to the throne of Brazil, the country could stabilize and fight the separatists, which the province of Santa Catarina had joined in 1839. The Conflict came to an end by a process of compromise by which both Riograndense Republic and Juliana Republic were reincorporated as provinces in 1845. The Peru–Bolivian Confederation, a short-lived union of Peru and Bolivia, was blocked by Chile in the War of the Confederation (1836–1839) and again during the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). Paraguay was virtually destroyed by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in the Paraguayan War. ### Wars and conflicts Despite the Spanish American wars of independence and the Brazilian War of Independence, the new nations quickly began to suffer with internal conflicts and wars among themselves. Most of the 1810 borders countries had initially accepted on the *uti possidetis iuris* principle had by 1848 either been altered by war or were contested. In 1825 the proclamation of independence of Cisplatina led to the Cisplatine War between historical rivals the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Argentina's predecessor. The result was a stalemate, ending with the British government arranging for the independence of Uruguay. Soon after, another Brazilian province proclaimed its independence leading to the Ragamuffin War which Brazil won. Between 1836 and 1839 the War of the Confederation broke out between the short-lived Peru-Bolivian Confederation and Chile, with the support of the Argentine Confederation. The war was fought mostly in the actual territory of Peru and ended with a Confederate defeat and the dissolution of the Confederacy and annexation of many territories by Argentina. Meanwhile, the Argentine Civil Wars plagued Argentina since its independence. The conflict was mainly between those who defended the centralization of power in Buenos Aires and those who defended a confederation. During this period it can be said that "there were two Argentines": the Argentine Confederation and the Argentine Republic. At the same time, the political instability in Uruguay led to the Uruguayan Civil War among the main political factions of the country. All this instability in the platine region interfered with the goals of other countries such as Brazil, which was soon forced to take sides. In 1851 the Brazilian Empire, supporting the centralizing unitarians, and the Uruguayan government invaded Argentina and deposed the caudillo, Juan Manuel Rosas, who ruled the confederation with an iron hand. Although the Platine War did not put an end to the political chaos and civil war in Argentina, it brought temporary peace to Uruguay where the Colorados faction won, supported by Brazil, Britain, France and the Unitarian Party of Argentina. Peace lasted only a short time: in 1864 the Uruguayan factions faced each other again in the Uruguayan War. The Blancos supported by Paraguay started to attack Brazilian and Argentine farmers near the borders. The Empire made an initial attempt to settle the dispute between Blancos and Colorados without success. In 1864, after a Brazilian ultimatum was refused, the imperial government declared that Brazil's military would begin reprisals. Brazil declined to acknowledge a formal state of war, and, for most of its duration, the Uruguayan–Brazilian armed conflict was an undeclared war which led to the deposition of the *Blancos* and the rise of the pro-Brazilian *Colorados* to power again. This angered the Paraguayan government, which even before the end of the war invaded Brazil, beginning the biggest and deadliest war in both South American and Latin American histories: the Paraguayan War. The Paraguayan War began when the Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano López ordered the invasion of the Brazilian provinces of Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul. His attempt to cross Argentinian territory without Argentinian approval led the pro-Brazilian Argentine government into the war. The pro-Brazilian Uruguayan government showed its support by sending troops. In 1865 the three countries signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. At the beginning of the war, the Paraguayans took the lead with several victories, until the Triple Alliance organized to repel the invaders and fight effectively. This was the second total war experience in the world after the American Civil War. It was deemed the greatest war effort in the history of all participating countries, taking almost 6 years and ending with the complete devastation of Paraguay. The country lost 40% of its territory to Brazil and Argentina and lost 60% of its population, including 90% of the men. The dictator Lopez was killed in battle and a new government was instituted in alliance with Brazil, which maintained occupation forces in the country until 1876. The last South American war in the 19th century was the War of the Pacific with Bolivia and Peru on one side and Chile on the other. In 1879 the war began with Chilean troops occupying Bolivian ports, followed by Bolivia declaring war on Chile which activated an alliance treaty with Peru. The Bolivians were completely defeated in 1880 and Lima was occupied in 1881. Peace was signed with Peru in 1883 while a truce was signed with Bolivia in 1884. Chile annexed territories of both countries leaving Bolivia landlocked. In the new century, as wars became less violent and less frequent, Brazil entered into a small conflict with Bolivia for the possession of the Acre, which was acquired by Brazil in 1902. In 1917 Brazil declared war on the Central Powers, joined the allied side in the First World War and sent a small fleet to the Mediterranean Sea and some troops to be integrated with the British and French forces in the region. Brazil was the only South American country that participated in the First World War. Later in 1932 Colombia and Peru entered a short armed conflict for territory in the Amazon. In the same year Paraguay declared war on Bolivia for possession of the Chaco, in a conflict that ended three years later with Paraguay's victory. Between 1941 and 1942 Peru and Ecuador fought for territories claimed by both that were annexed by Peru, usurping Ecuador's frontier with Brazil. Also in this period, the first major naval battle of World War II took place in the South Atlantic close to the continental mainland: the Battle of the River Plate, between a British cruiser squadron and a German pocket battleship. The Germans still made numerous attacks on Brazilian ships on the coast, causing Brazil to declare war on the Axis powers in 1942, being the only South American country to fight in this war (and in both World Wars). Brazil sent naval and air forces to combat German and Italian submarines off the continent and throughout the South Atlantic, in addition to sending an expeditionary force to fight in the Italian Campaign. A brief war was fought between Argentina and the UK in 1982, following an Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, which ended with an Argentine defeat. The last international war to be fought on South American soil was the 1995 Cenepa War between Ecuador and the Peru along their mutual border. ### Rise and fall of military dictatorships Wars became less frequent in the 20th century, with Bolivia-Paraguay and Peru-Ecuador fighting the last inter-state wars. Early in the 20th century, the three wealthiest South American countries engaged in a vastly expensive naval arms race which began after the introduction of a new warship type, the "dreadnought". At one point, the Argentine government was spending a fifth of its entire yearly budget for just two dreadnoughts, a price that did not include later in-service costs, which for the Brazilian dreadnoughts was sixty percent of the initial purchase. The continent became a battlefield of the Cold War in the late 20th century. Some democratically elected governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay were overthrown or displaced by military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. To curtail opposition, their governments detained tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured or killed on inter-state collaboration. Economically, they began a transition to neoliberal economic policies. They placed their own actions within the US Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from an internal conflict. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British dependent territory. The Falklands War began and 74 days later Argentine forces surrendered. Colombia has had an ongoing, though diminished internal conflict, which started in 1964 with the creation of Marxist guerrillas (FARC-EP) and then involved several illegal armed groups of leftist-leaning ideology as well as the private armies of powerful drug lords. Many of these are now defunct, and only a small portion of the ELN remains, along with the stronger, though also greatly reduced, FARC. Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships became common after World War II, but since the 1980s, a wave of democratization passed through the continent, and democratic rule is widespread now. Nonetheless, allegations of corruption are still very common, and several countries have developed crises which have forced the resignation of their governments, although, on most occasions, regular civilian succession has continued. International indebtedness turned into a severe problem in the late 1980s, and some countries, despite having strong democracies, have not yet developed political institutions capable of handling such crises without resorting to unorthodox economic policies, as most recently illustrated by Argentina's default in the early 21st century.[*neutrality is disputed*] The last twenty years have seen an increased push towards regional integration, with the creation of uniquely South American institutions such as the Andean Community, Mercosur and Unasur. Notably, starting with the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, the region experienced what has been termed a pink tide – the election of several leftist and center-left administrations to most countries of the area, except for the Guianas and Colombia. ### Contemporary issues South America's political geography since the 1990s has been characterized by a desire to reduce foreign influence. The nationalization of industries, by which the state controls entire economic sectors (as opposed of private companies doing it), has become a prominent political issues in the region. Some South American nations have nationalized their electricity industries. Countries and territories ------------------------- | Flag | Country / Territory | Area | Population(2021) | Populationdensity | Capital | Name(s) in official language(s) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Argentina | 2,766,890 km2(1,068,300 sq mi) | 45,276,780 | 14.3/km2(37/sq mi) | Buenos Aires | Argentina | | | Bolivia | 1,098,580 km2(424,160 sq mi) | 12,079,472 | 8.4/km2(22/sq mi) | La Paz,Sucre | Bolivia/Mborivia/Wuliwya/Puliwya | | | Bouvet Island(Norway) | 49 km2(19 sq mi) | 0 | 0/km2(0/sq mi) | – | Bouvetøya | | | Brazil | 8,514,877 km2(3,287,612 sq mi) | 214,326,223 | 22/km2(57/sq mi) | Brasília | Brasil | | | Chile | 756,950 km2(292,260 sq mi) | 19,493,184 | 22/km2(57/sq mi) | Santiago | Chile | | | Colombia | 1,141,748 km2(440,831 sq mi) | 51,516,562 | 40/km2(100/sq mi) | Bogotá | Colombia | | | Ecuador | 283,560 km2(109,480 sq mi) | 17,797,737 | 53.8/km2(139/sq mi) | Quito | Ecuador/Ikwayur/Ekuatur | | | Falkland Islands(United Kingdom) | 12,173 km2(4,700 sq mi) | 3,764 | 0.26/km2(0.67/sq mi) | Stanley | Falkland Islands | | | French Guiana(France) | 91,000 km2(35,000 sq mi) | 297,449 | 2.1/km2(5.4/sq mi) | Cayenne(Préfecture) | Guyane | | | Guyana | 214,999 km2(83,012 sq mi) | 804,567 | 3.5/km2(9.1/sq mi) | Georgetown | Guyana | | | Paraguay | 406,750 km2(157,050 sq mi) | 6,703,799 | 15.6/km2(40/sq mi) | Asunción | Paraguay/Paraguái | | | Peru | 1,285,220 km2(496,230 sq mi) | 33,715,471 | 22/km2(57/sq mi) | Lima | Perú/Piruw/Piruw | | | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands(United Kingdom) | 3,093 km2(1,194 sq mi) | 20 | 0/km2(0/sq mi) | King Edward Point | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | | | Suriname | 163,270 km2(63,040 sq mi) | 612,985 | 3/km2(7.8/sq mi) | Paramaribo | Suriname | | | Uruguay | 176,220 km2(68,040 sq mi) | 3,426,260 | 19.4/km2(50/sq mi) | Montevideo | Uruguay/Uruguai | | | Venezuela | 916,445 km2(353,841 sq mi) | 28,199,867 | 27.8/km2(72/sq mi) | Caracas | Venezuela | | Total | 17,824,513 km2(6,882,083 sq mi) | 434,254,119 | 21.5/km2(56/sq mi) | | Government and politics ----------------------- Historically, the Hispanic countries were founded as Republican dictatorships led by caudillos. Brazil was the only exception, being a constitutional monarchy for its first 67 years of independence, until a coup d'état proclaimed a republic. In the late 19th century, the most democratic countries were Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. All South American countries are presidential republics with the exception of Suriname, a parliamentary republic. French Guiana is a French overseas department, while the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are British overseas territories. It is currently the only inhabited continent in the world without monarchies; the Empire of Brazil existed during the 19th century and there was an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia in southern Argentina and Chile. Also in the twentieth century, Suriname was established as a constituent kingdom of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Guyana retained the British monarch as head of state for 4 years after its independence. Recently, an intergovernmental entity has been formed which aims to merge the two existing customs unions: Mercosur and the Andean Community, thus forming the third-largest trade bloc in the world. This new political organization, known as Union of South American Nations, seeks to establish free movement of people, economic development, a common defense policy and the elimination of tariffs. Demographics ------------ South America has a population of over 428 million people. They are distributed as to form a "hollow continent" with most of the population concentrated around the margins of the continent. On one hand, there are several sparsely populated areas such as tropical forests, the Atacama Desert and the icy portions of Patagonia. On the other hand, the continent presents regions of high population density, such as the great urban centers. The population is formed by descendants of Europeans (mainly Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians), Africans and Amerindians. There is a high percentage of Mestizos that vary greatly in composition by place. There is also a minor population of Asians,[*further explanation needed*] especially in Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. The two main languages are by far Spanish and Portuguese, followed by English, French and Dutch in smaller numbers. ### Language Spanish and Portuguese are the most spoken languages in South America, with approximately 200 million speakers each. Spanish is the official language of most countries, along with other native languages in some countries. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. Dutch is the official language of Suriname; English is the official language of Guyana, although there are at least twelve other languages spoken in the country, including Portuguese, Chinese, Hindustani and several native languages. English is also spoken in the Falkland Islands. French is the official language of French Guiana and the second language in Amapá, Brazil. Indigenous languages of South America include Quechua in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia; Wayuunaiki in northern Colombia (La Guajira) and northwestern Venezuela (Zulia); Guaraní in Paraguay and, to a much lesser extent, in Bolivia; Aymara in Bolivia, Peru, and less often in Chile; and Mapudungun is spoken in certain pockets of southern Chile. At least three South American indigenous languages (Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani) are recognized along with Spanish as national languages. Other languages found in South America include Hindustani and Javanese in Suriname; Italian in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela; and German in certain pockets of Argentina and Brazil. German is also spoken in many regions of the southern states of Brazil, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch being the most widely spoken German dialect in the country; among other Germanic dialects, a Brazilian form of East Pomeranian is also well represented and is experiencing a revival. Welsh remains spoken and written in the historic towns of Trelew and Rawson in the Argentine Patagonia. Arabic speakers, often of Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian descent, can be found in Arab communities in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and in Paraguay. ### Religion An estimated 90% of South Americans are Christians (82% Roman Catholic, 8% other Christian denominations mainly traditional Protestants and Evangelicals but also Orthodox), accounting for 19% of Christians worldwide. African descendent religions and Indigenous religions are also common throughout all South America; some examples of are Santo Daime, Candomblé, and Umbanda. Crypto-Jews or Marranos, conversos, and Anusim were an important part of colonial life in Latin America. Both Buenos Aires, Argentina and São Paulo, Brazil figure among the largest Jewish populations by urban area. East Asian religions such as Japanese Buddhism, Shintoism, and Shinto-derived Japanese New Religions are common in Brazil and Peru. Korean Confucianism is especially found in Brazil while Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Confucianism have spread throughout the continent. Kardecist Spiritism can be found in several countries. Hindus form 25% of the Guyanese population and 22% of Suriname's. Muslims account for 6.8% of the Guyanese population and 13.9 of the Surinamese population. Almost all Muslims in Suriname are either Indonesian or Indians and in Guyana, most are Indian. **Part of Religions in South America (2013):** Religion in South America| Countries | Christians | *Roman Catholics* | *Other Christians* | No religion (atheists and agnostics) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Argentina | 88% | 77% | 11% | 11% | | Bolivia | 96% | 74% | 22% | 4% | | Brazil | 88% | 64% | 22% | 8% | | Chile | 70% | 57% | 13% | 25% | | Colombia | 92% | 80% | 12% | 7% | | Paraguay | 96% | 87% | 9% | 2% | | Peru | 94% | 81% | 13% | 3% | | Suriname | 51% | 29% | 22% | 5% | | Uruguay | 58% | 47% | 11% | 41% | | Venezuela | 88% | 71% | 17% | 8% | ### Ethnic demographics Genetic admixture occurs at very high levels in South America. In Argentina, the European influence accounts for 65–79% of the genetic background, Amerindian for 17–31% and sub-Saharan African for 2–4%. In Colombia, the sub-Saharan African genetic background varied from 1% to 89%, while the European genetic background varied from 20% to 79%, depending on the region. In Peru, European ancestries ranged from 1% to 31%, while the African contribution was only 1% to 3%. The Genographic Project determined the average Peruvian from Lima had about 28% European ancestry, 68% Native American, 2% Asian ancestry and 2% sub-Saharan African. Descendants of indigenous peoples, such as the Quechua and Aymara, or the Urarina of Amazonia make up the majority of the population in Bolivia (56%) and Peru (44%). In Ecuador, Amerindians are a large minority that comprises two-fifths of the population. The native European population is also a significant element in most other former Portuguese colonies. People who identify as of primarily or totally European descent, or identify their phenotype as corresponding to such group, are a majority in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile (64.7%), and are 48.4% of the population in Brazil. In Venezuela, according to the national census, 42% of the population is primarily native Spanish, Italian and Portuguese descendants. In Colombia, people who identify as European descendants are about 37%. In Peru, European descendants are the third group in number (15%). Mestizos (mixed European and Amerindian) are the largest ethnic group in Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador and the second group in Peru and Chile. South America is also home to one of the largest populations of Africans. This group is significantly present in Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela and Ecuador. Brazil followed by Peru have the largest Japanese, Korean and Chinese communities in South America, Lima has the largest ethnic Chinese community in Latin America. Guyana and Suriname have the largest ethnic East Indian community. Ethnic distribution in South America| Country | Amerindians | White people | Mestizos / Pardos | Mulatos | Black people | Zambos | Asian people | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Argentina | 1% | **85**% | 14% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | | Bolivia | **48**% | 12% | 37% | 2% | 0% | <1% | 0% | | Brazil | <1% | **48**% | 43% | 0% | 8% | 0% | 2% | | Chile | 6% | **57**% | 37% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | | Colombia | 2% | 37% | **50**% | 8% | 2% | 0% | <1% | | Ecuador | 39% | 10% | **41**% | 5% | 5% | 0% | 0% | | Paraguay | 3% | 20% | **75**% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | | Peru | **45**% | 15% | 35% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 3% | | Suriname | 3.8% | 1% | 13.4%\* noted in Suriname as mixed, regardless of race combination | \*see Pardo | 37.4% | \*see Pardo | **48.3**% | | Uruguay | 0% | **88**% | 8% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | | Venezuela | 2.7% | 43.6% | **51.6%** | 0.7% | 2.8% | 0.6% | 0.6% | | Guyana | 10.5% | 0.36% | 19.9%\* noted in Guyana as mixed regardless of race combination | \*see Pardo | 29.2% | \*see Pardo | **39.98%** | #### Indigenous people In many places indigenous people still practice a traditional lifestyle based on subsistence agriculture or as hunter-gatherers. There are still some uncontacted tribes residing in the Amazon Rainforest. * Aguarunas * Alacalufe * Arawaks * Ashanincas * Atacameños * Awá * Aymara – live in the Altiplano of Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Their language is co-official in Bolivia and Peru. Traditional lifestyle includes llama herding. * Banawa * Cañaris * Caiapos * Chibcha * Cocama * Chayahuita * Diaguita * Enxet * Gê, * Guaraní – live in Paraguay where the Guarani language is co-official with Spanish. The ethnic group is also found in Bolivia. * Juris * Kuna live on the Colombia–Panama border. * Mapuche – live mainly in southern Chile and southwestern Argentina (see Araucanian). * Matsés * Pehuenche – a branch of Mapuches that lived in the Andean valleys of southern (see Araucanian). * Quechuas – make up a large part of the population of Peru and Bolivia. Are diverse as an ethnic group. The Incas spoke Southern Quechua. * Selknam * Shipibo * Shuar (see Jívaro). * Tupi * Urarina * Wai-Wai * Wayuu * Xucuru * Yaghan * Yagua * Yąnomamö * Zaparos ### Populace South American citiesSão PauloBuenos AiresRio de JaneiroSantiago The most populous country in South America is Brazil with 214.3 million people. The second largest country is Colombia with a population of 51,516,562. Argentina is the third most populous country with 45,276,780. While Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia maintain the largest populations, large city populations are not restricted to those nations. The largest cities in South America, by far, are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, and Bogotá. These cities are the only cities on the continent whose metropolitan areas' population exceed eight million. Next in size are Caracas, Belo Horizonte, and Medellin. Five of the top ten metropolitan areas are in Brazil. These metropolitan areas all have a population of above 4 million and include the São Paulo metropolitan area, Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, and Belo Horizonte metropolitan area. Whilst the majority of the largest metropolitan areas are within Brazil, Argentina is host to the second largest metropolitan area by population in South America: the Buenos Aires metropolitan region is above 13 million inhabitants. South America has also been witness to the growth of megapolitan areas. In Brazil four megaregions exist including the Expanded Metropolitan Complex of São Paulo with more than 32 million inhabitants. The others are the Greater Rio, Greater Belo Horizonte and Greater Porto Alegre. Colombia also has four megaregions which comprise 72% of its population, followed by Venezuela, Argentina and Peru which are also homes of megaregions. The top ten largest South American metropolitan areas by population as of 2015, based on national census numbers from each country: | Metro Area | Population | Area | Country | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | São Paulo | 21,090,792 | 7,947 km2 (3,068 sq mi) | Brazil | | Buenos Aires | 13,693,657 | 3,830 km2 (1,480 sq mi) | Argentina | | Rio de Janeiro | 13,131,431 | 6,744 km2 (2,604 sq mi) | Brazil | | Lima | 9,904,727 | 2,819 km2 (1,088 sq mi) | Peru | | Bogotá | 9,800,225 | 4,200 km2 (1,600 sq mi) | Colombia | | Santiago | 6,683,852 | 15,403 km2 (5,947 sq mi) | Chile | | Belo Horizonte | 5,829,923 | 9,467 km2 (3,655 sq mi) | Brazil | | Caracas | 5,322,310 | 4,715 km2 (1,820 sq mi) | Venezuela | | Porto Alegre | 4,258,926 | 10,232 km2 (3,951 sq mi) | Brazil | | Brasilia | 4,201,737 | 56,433 km2 (21,789 sq mi) | Brazil | 2015 Census figures. Economy ------- South America relies less on the export of both manufactured goods and natural resources than the world average; merchandise exports from the continent were 16% of GDP on an exchange rate basis, compared to 25% for the world as a whole. Brazil (the seventh largest economy in the world and the largest in South America) leads in terms of merchandise exports at $251 billion, followed by Venezuela at $93 billion, Chile at $86 billion, and Argentina at $84 billion. Since 1930, the continent has experienced remarkable growth and diversification in most economic sectors. Most agricultural and livestock products are destined for the domestic market and local consumption. However, the export of agricultural products is essential for the balance of trade in most countries. The main agrarian crops are export crops, such as soy and wheat. The production of staple foods such as vegetables, corn or beans is large, but focused on domestic consumption. Livestock raising for meat exports is important in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Colombia. In tropical regions the most important crops are coffee, cocoa and bananas, mainly in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. Traditionally, the countries producing sugar for export are Peru, Guyana and Suriname, and in Brazil, sugar cane is also used to make ethanol. On the coast of Peru, northeast and south of Brazil, cotton is grown. 50.5% of the South America's land surface is covered by forest, but timber industries are small and directed to domestic markets. In recent years, however, transnational companies have been settling in the Amazon to exploit noble timber destined for export. The Pacific coastal waters of South America are the most important for commercial fishing. The anchovy catch reaches thousands of tonnes, and tuna is also abundant (Peru is a major exporter). The capture of crustaceans is remarkable, particularly in northeastern Brazil and Chile. Only Brazil and Argentina are part of the G20 (industrial countries), while only Brazil is part of the G8+5 (the most powerful and influential nations in the world). In the tourism sector, a series of negotiations began in 2005 to promote tourism and increase air connections within the region. Punta del Este, Florianópolis and Mar del Plata are among the most important resorts in South America. The most industrialized countries in South America are Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay respectively. These countries alone account for more than 75 percent of the region's economy and add up to a GDP of more than US$3.0 trillion. Industries in South America began to take on the economies of the region from the 1930s when the Great Depression in the United States and other countries of the world boosted industrial production in the continent. From that period the region left the agricultural side behind and began to achieve high rates of economic growth that remained until the early 1990s when they slowed due to political instabilities, economic crises and neoliberal policies. Since the end of the economic crisis in Brazil and Argentina that occurred in the period from 1998 to 2002, which has led to economic recession, rising unemployment and falling population income, the industrial and service sectors have been recovering rapidly. Chile, Argentina and Brazil have recovered fastest, growing at an average of 5% per year. All of South America after this period has been recovering and showing good signs of economic stability, with controlled inflation and exchange rates, continuous growth, a decrease in social inequality and unemployment – factors that favor industry. The main industries are: electronics, textiles, food, automotive, metallurgy, aviation, naval, clothing, beverage, steel, tobacco, timber, chemical, among others. Exports reach almost US$400 billion annually, with Brazil accounting for half of this. The economic gap between the rich and poor in most South American nations is larger than on most other continents. The richest 10% receive over 40% of the nation's income in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Paraguay, while the poorest 20% receive 4% or less in Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia. This wide gap can be seen in many large South American cities where makeshift shacks and slums lie in the vicinity of skyscrapers and upper-class luxury apartments; nearly one in nine South Americans live on less than $2 per day (on a purchasing power parity basis). | Country | GDP (nominal) in 2017 (in millions of dollars) | GDP (PPP) in 2017 (in millions of dollars) | GDP (PPP) per capita in 2017 | Merchandise exports($bn), 2011 | HDI in 2017 (rank) | Percent with less than $2 (PPP)per person per day | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Argentina | 628,935 | 912,816 | 20,707 | 83.7 | 0.825 | 2.6 | | Bolivia | 39,267 | 83,608 | 7,552 | 9.1 | 0.693 | 24.9 | | Brazil | 2,140,940 | 3,216,031 | 15,485 | 250.8 | 0.759 | 10.8 | | Chile | 251,220 | 455,941 | 24,796 | 86.1 | 0.845 | 2.7 | | Colombia | 306,439 | 720,151 | 14,609 | 56.5 | 0.747 | 15.8 | | Ecuador | 97,362 | 184,629 | 11,004 | 22.3 | 0.752 | 10.6 | | Falkland Islands (UK) | 206.4 | 206.4 | 70,800 | 0.26 | | | | French Guiana (France) | 4,456 | 4,456 | 19,728 | 1.3 | | | | Guyana | 3,591 | 6,398 | 8,306 | 0.9 | 0.654 | 18.0 | | Paraguay | 28,743 | 68,005 | 9,779 | 9.8 | 0.702 | 13.2 | | Peru | 207,072 | 429,711 | 13,501 | 46.3 | 0.750 | 12.7 | | Suriname | 3,641 | 7,961 | 13,934 | 1.6 | 0.720 | 27.2 | | Uruguay | 58,123 | 77,800 | 22,271 | 8.0 | 0.804 | 2.2 | | Venezuela | 251,589 | 404,109 | 12,856 | 92.6 | 0.761 | 12.9 | | Total | 3,836,569 | 6,642,623 | 17,852 | 669.1 | 0.772 | 11.3 | ### Economically largest cities as of 2014 | Rank | City | Country | GDP in Int$ bn | Population (mil) | GDP per capita | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | São Paulo | Brazil | $430 | 20,847,500 | $20,650 | | 2 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | $315 | 13,381,800 | $23,606 | | 3 | Lima | Peru | $176 | 10,674,100 | $16,530 | | 4 | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | $176 | 12,460,200 | $14,176 | | 5 | Santiago | Chile | $171 | 7,164,400 | $32,929 | | 6 | Bogotá | Colombia | $160 | 9,135,800 | $17,497 | | 7 | Brasília | Brazil | $141 | 3,976,500 | $35,689 | | 8 | Belo Horizonte | Brazil | $84 | 5,595,800 | $15,134 | | 9 | Porto Alegre | Brazil | $62 | 4,120,900 | $15,078 | | 10 | Campinas | Brazil | $59 | 2,854,200 | $20,759 | The four countries with the strongest agriculture are Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Currently: * Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soy, coffee, orange, guaraná, açaí and Brazil nut; is one of the top 5 producers of maize, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon, lemon and yerba mate; is one of the top 10 world producers of cocoa, cashew, avocado, tangerine, persimmon, mango, guava, rice, oat, sorghum and tomato; and is one of the top 15 world producers of grape, apple, melon, peanut, fig, peach, onion, palm oil and natural rubber; * Argentina is the world's largest producer of yerba mate; is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of soy, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, oat, chickpea, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit; * Chile is one of the 5 largest world producers of cherry and cranberry, and one of the 10 largest world producers of grape, apple, kiwi, peach, plum and hazelnut, focusing on exporting high-value fruits; * Colombia is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa; * Peru is the world's largest producer of quinoa; is one of the 5 largest producers of avocado, blueberry, artichoke and asparagus; one of the 10 largest producers in the world of coffee and cocoa; one of the 15 largest producers in the world of potato and pineapple, and also has a considerable production of grape, sugarcane, rice, banana, maize and cassava; its agriculture is considerably diversified; * Paraguay's agriculture is currently developing, being currently the 6th largest producer of soy in the world and entering the list of the 20 largest producers of maize and sugarcane. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat: 3.77 million tonnes in 2019. The country is the holder of the second largest herd of cattle in the world, 22.2% of the world herd. The country was the second largest producer of beef in 2019, responsible for 15.4% of global production. It was also the 3rd largest world producer of milk in 2018. This year, the country produced 35.1 billion liters. In 2019, Brazil was the 4th largest pork producer in the world, with almost 4 million tonnes. In 2018, Argentina was the 4th largest producer of beef in the world, with a production of 3 million tonnes (behind only the United States, Brazil and China). Uruguay is also a major meat producer. In 2018, it produced 589 thousand tonnes of beef. In chicken meat production, Argentina ranks among the 15 largest producers in the world, and Peru and Colombia among the 20 biggest producers. In beef production, Colombia is one of the 20 largest producers in the world. In honey production, Argentina ranks among the 5 largest producers in the world, and Brazil among the 15 largest. In terms of production of cow's milk, Argentina ranks among the 20 largest producers in the world. The World Bank annually lists the top manufacturing countries by total manufacturing value. According to the 2019 list, Brazil has the thirteenth most valuable industry in the world (US$173.6 billion), Venezuela the thirtieth largest (US$58.2 billion, however, it depends on oil to obtain this value), Argentina the 31st largest (US$57.7 billion), Colombia the 46th largest (US$35.4 billion), Peru the 50th largest (US$28.7 billion) and Chile the 51st largest (US$28.3 billion). Brazil has the third-largest manufacturing sector in the Americas. Accounting for 28.5 percent of GDP, Brazil's industries range from automobiles, steel, and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft (Embraer), food, pharmaceutical, footwear, metallurgy and consumer durables. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd largest producer of pulp in the world and the 8th producer of paper. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th producer of vehicles and the 9th producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry of Brazil was the 8th in the world. In textile industry, Brazil, although it was among the 5 largest world producers in 2013, is very little integrated in world trade. Mining is one of the most important economic sectors in South America, especially for Chile, Peru and Bolivia, whose economies are highly dependent on this sector. The continent has large productions of gold (mainly in Peru, Brazil and Argentina); silver (mainly in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina); copper (mainly in Chile, Peru and Brazil); iron ore (Brazil, Peru and Chile); zinc (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); molybdenum (Chile and Peru); lithium (Chile, Argentina and Brazil); lead (Peru and Bolivia); bauxite (Brazil); tin (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); manganese (Brazil); antimony (Bolivia and Ecuador); nickel (Brazil); niobium (Brazil); rhenium (Chile); iodine (Chile), among others. Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (where it is the 2nd largest producer and exporter in the world – iron ore is usually one of the 3 export products that generate the greatest value in the country's trade balance), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of reserves known to the world) and nickel. In terms of gemstones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet and opal. Chile contributes about a third of the world copper production. In addition to copper, Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the thirteenth producer of iron ore in the world. In 2019, Peru was the 2nd largest world producer of copper and silver, 8th largest world producer of gold, 3rd largest world producer of lead, 2nd largest world producer of zinc, 4th largest world producer of tin, 5th largest world producer of boron and 4th largest world producer of molybdenum. In 2019, Bolivia was the 8th largest world producer of silver; 4th largest world producer of boron; 5th largest world producer of antimony; 5th largest world producer of tin; 6th largest world producer of tungsten; 7th largest producer of zinc, and the 8th largest producer of lead. In 2019, Argentina was the 4th largest world producer of lithium, the 9th largest world producer of silver, the 17th largest world producer of gold and the 7th largest world producer of boron. Colombia is the world's largest producer of emeralds. In the production of gold, among 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, breaking a record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. The country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world. In the production of silver, in 2017 the country extracted 15,5 tons. In the production of oil, Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Venezuela was the 21st largest, with 877 thousand barrels / day, Colombia in 22nd with 886 thousand barrels / day, Ecuador in 28th with 531 thousand barrels / day and Argentina 29th with 507 thousand barrels / day. As Venezuela and Ecuador consume little oil and export most of their production, they are part of OPEC. Venezuela had a big drop in production after 2015 (where it produced 2.5 million barrels / day), falling in 2016 to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, due to lack of investments. In the production of natural gas, in 2018, Argentina produced 1524 bcf (billion cubic feet), Venezuela 946, Brazil 877, Bolivia 617, Peru 451, Colombia 379. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, Brazil exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January 2021, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted. In the production of coal, the continent had 2 of the 30 largest world producers in 2018: Colombia (12th) and Brazil (27th). Gallery ------- * Grape plantation in Argentina. Argentina and Chile are among the 10 largest grape and wine producers in the world and Brazil among the 20 largest.Grape plantation in Argentina. Argentina and Chile are among the 10 largest grape and wine producers in the world and Brazil among the 20 largest. * Maize in Dourados. Brazil and Argentina are among the 5 largest world producers.Maize in Dourados. Brazil and Argentina are among the 5 largest world producers. * Salmon farming in Chile. One third of all salmon sold in the world comes from the country.Salmon farming in Chile. One third of all salmon sold in the world comes from the country. * Neugebauer Chocolate Factory in Arroio do Meio. South America specializes in food processing.Neugebauer Chocolate Factory in Arroio do Meio. South America specializes in food processing. * Steel-maker CSN, in Volta Redonda. Brazil is one of the 10 largest steel producers in the world, and Argentina is one of the 30 largest.Steel-maker CSN, in Volta Redonda. Brazil is one of the 10 largest steel producers in the world, and Argentina is one of the 30 largest. * Klabin industrial complex, in Ortigueira. Brazil is the second largest pulp producer and the eighth largest paper producer in the world.Klabin industrial complex, in Ortigueira. Brazil is the second largest pulp producer and the eighth largest paper producer in the world. * Portico of the Democrata men's shoe factory, in Franca. Brazil is the fourth largest shoe manufacturer in the world.Portico of the Democrata men's shoe factory, in Franca. Brazil is the fourth largest shoe manufacturer in the world. * Hering, in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The country has one of the 5 largest textile industries in the world.Hering, in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The country has one of the 5 largest textile industries in the world. * Mercedes-Benz plant in São Paulo. Brazil is among the 10 largest vehicle manufacturers in the world and Argentina among the 30 largest.Mercedes-Benz plant in São Paulo. Brazil is among the 10 largest vehicle manufacturers in the world and Argentina among the 30 largest. * Copper mine in Chile. Latin America produces more than half of the world's copper.Copper mine in Chile. Latin America produces more than half of the world's copper. * Colombian emerald. The country is the largest producer of emeralds in the world, and Brazil is one of the largest producers.Colombian emerald. The country is the largest producer of emeralds in the world, and Brazil is one of the largest producers. * Copacabana Palace, the best hotel in South America, in Rio de Janeiro. Tourism brings important currencies to the continent.Copacabana Palace, the best hotel in South America, in Rio de Janeiro. Tourism brings important currencies to the continent. * Honey production in Argentina. The country is the third largest producer of honey in the world.Honey production in Argentina. The country is the third largest producer of honey in the world. * Sunflower plantation in Argentina. The country is the world's third largest producer of sunflower seed.Sunflower plantation in Argentina. The country is the world's third largest producer of sunflower seed. * Chilean cherries. Chile is one of the top 5 producers of sweet cherries in the world.Chilean cherries. Chile is one of the top 5 producers of sweet cherries in the world. * Chilean kiwi. The country is one of the 10 largest kiwi producers in the world.Chilean kiwi. The country is one of the 10 largest kiwi producers in the world. * Palm plantation in Magdalena. Colombia is one of the top 5 palm oil producers in the world.Palm plantation in Magdalena. Colombia is one of the top 5 palm oil producers in the world. * Pineapple in Brazil. The country is the 3rd largest producer in the world. South America produces close to 20% of the world's pineapple.Pineapple in Brazil. The country is the 3rd largest producer in the world. South America produces close to 20% of the world's pineapple. * Oil refinery in Amuay. Venezuela is one of the largest oil producers in the world.Oil refinery in Amuay. Venezuela is one of the largest oil producers in the world. ### Tourism Tourism has increasingly become a significant source of income for many South American countries. Historical relics, architectural and natural wonders, a diverse range of foods and culture, vibrant and colorful cities, and stunning landscapes attract millions of tourists every year to South America. Some of the most visited places in the region are Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Iguazu Falls, São Paulo, Armação dos Búzios, Salvador, Bombinhas, Angra dos Reis, Balneário Camboriú, Paraty, Ipojuca, Natal, Cairu, Fortaleza and Itapema in Brazil; Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Salta, Jujuy, Perito Moreno Glacier, Valdes Peninsula, Guarani Jesuit Missions in the cities of Misiones and Corrientes, Ischigualasto Provincial Park, Ushuaia and Patagonia in Argentina; Isla Margarita, Angel Falls, Los Roques archipelago, Gran Sabana in Venezuela; Machu Picchu, Lima, Nazca Lines, Cuzco in Peru; Lake Titicaca, Salar de Uyuni, La Paz, Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos in Bolivia; Tayrona National Natural Park, Santa Marta, Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Cartagena in Colombia, and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. In 2016 Brazil hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics. Panorama of Cartagena (2008), a major port on the northern coast of Colombia and one of the country's main tourist destinations Culture ------- Teatro Solis, UruguayNational Library, BrazilArya Diwaker Hindu temple, Paramaribo, Suriname South Americans are culturally influenced by their indigenous peoples, the historic connection with the Iberian Peninsula and Africa, and waves of immigrants from around the globe. South American nations have a rich variety of music. Some of the most famous genres include vallenato and cumbia from Colombia, pasillo from Colombia and Ecuador, samba, bossa nova and música sertaneja from Brazil, joropo from Venezuela and tango from Argentina and Uruguay. Also well known is the non-commercial folk genre Nueva Canción movement which was founded in Argentina and Chile and quickly spread to the rest of the Latin America. Tango show in Buenos Aires, typical Argentine danceCarmen Miranda, Portuguese Brazilian singer helped popularize samba internationally. People on the Peruvian coast created the fine guitar and cajon duos or trios in the most mestizo (mixed) of South American rhythms such as the Marinera (from Lima), the Tondero (from Piura), the 19th-century popular Creole Valse or Peruvian Valse, the soulful Arequipan Yaravi, and the early-20th-century Paraguayan Guarania. In the late 20th century, Spanish rock emerged by young hipsters influenced by British pop and American rock. Brazil has a Portuguese-language pop rock industry as well a great variety of other music genres. In the central and western regions of Bolivia, Andean and folklore music like Diablada, Caporales and Morenada are the most representative of the country, which were originated by European, Aymara and Quechua influences. The literature of South America has attracted considerable critical and popular acclaim, especially with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez in novels and Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda in other genres. The Brazilians Machado de Assis and João Guimarães Rosa are widely regarded as the greatest Brazilian writers. ### Food and drink Because of South America's broad ethnic mix, South American cuisine has African, Mestizo, South Asian, East Asian, and European influences. Bahia, Brazil, is especially well known for its West African–influenced cuisine. Argentines, Chileans, Uruguayans, Brazilians, Bolivians, and Venezuelans regularly consume wine. People in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Chile, Bolivia and Southern Brazil drink mate, an herb which is brewed. The Paraguayan version, terere, differs from other forms of mate in that it is served cold. Pisco is a liquor distilled from grapes in Peru and Chile. Peruvian cuisine mixes elements from Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, African, Arab, Andean, and Amazonic food. ### Plastic arts The artist Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919–1999) from Ecuador, represented with his painting style the feeling of the peoples of Latin America highlighting social injustices in various parts of the world. The Colombian Fernando Botero (1932) is one of the greatest exponents of painting and sculpture that continues still active and has been able to develop a recognizable style of his own. For his part, the Venezuelan Carlos Cruz-Diez has contributed significantly to contemporary art, with the presence of works around the world. Currently several emerging South American artists are recognized by international art critics: Guillermo Lorca – Chilean painter, Teddy Cobeña – Ecuadorian sculptor and recipient of international sculpture award in France) and Argentine artist Adrián Villar Rojas – winner of the Zurich Museum Art Award among many others. ### Sport A wide range of sports are played in the continent of South America, with football being the most popular overall, while baseball is the most popular in Venezuela. Other sports include basketball, cycling, polo, volleyball, futsal, motorsports, rugby (mostly in Argentina and Uruguay), handball, tennis, golf, field hockey, boxing, and cricket. South America hosted its first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and has hosted the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018. South America shares with Europe supremacy over the sport of football as all winners in FIFA World Cup history and all winning teams in the FIFA Club World Cup have come from these two continents. Brazil holds the record for most times winning the FIFA World Cup with five titles. Argentina has three titles and Uruguay two. So far five South American nations have hosted the tournament including the first edition in Uruguay (1930). Two were from Brazil (1950, 2014), Chile (1962), and Argentina (1978). South America is home to the longest-running international football tournament, the Copa América, which has been contested since 1916. Argentina and Uruguay have won the Copa América 15 times each, the most among all countries. Also, in South America, a multi-sport event, the South American Games, are held every four years. The first edition was held in La Paz in 1978 and the most recent took place in Santiago in 2014. South American Cricket Championship is an international one-day cricket tournament played since 1995 featuring national teams from South America and certain other invited sides including teams from North America, currently played annually but until 2013 was usually played every two seasons. Infrastructure -------------- ### Energy Due to the diversity of topography and pluviometric precipitation conditions, the region's water resources vary enormously in different areas. In the Andes, navigation possibilities are limited, except for the Magdalena River, Lake Titicaca and the lakes of the southern regions of Chile and Argentina. Irrigation is an important factor for agriculture from northwestern Peru to Patagonia. Less than 10% of the known electrical potential of the Andes had been used until the mid-1960s. The Brazilian Highlands have a much higher hydroelectric potential than the Andean region and its possibilities of exploitation are greater due to the existence of several large rivers with high margins and the occurrence of great differences forming huge cataracts, such as those of Paulo Afonso, Iguaçu and others. The Amazon River system has about 13,000 km of waterways, but its possibilities for hydroelectric use are still unknown. Most of the continent's energy is generated through hydroelectric power plants, but there is also an important share of thermoelectric and wind energy. Brazil and Argentina are the only South American countries that generate nuclear power, each with two nuclear power plants. In 1991 these countries signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement. Panoramic view of the Itaipu Dam, the second largest of the world in energy production The Brazilian government has undertaken an ambitious program to reduce dependence on imported petroleum. Imports previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs but Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels / day. Production manages to supply the country's demand. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January this year, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted. Brazil is one of the main world producers of hydroelectric power. In 2019, Brazil had 217 hydroelectric plants in operation, with an installed capacity of 98,581 MW, 60.16% of the country's energy generation. In the total generation of electricity, in 2019 Brazil reached 170,000 megawatts of installed capacity, more than 75% from renewable sources (the majority, hydroelectric). In 2013, the Southeast Region used about 50% of the load of the National Integrated System (SIN), being the main energy consuming region in the country. The region's installed electricity generation capacity totaled almost 42,500 MW, which represented about a third of Brazil's generation capacity. The hydroelectric generation represented 58% of the region's installed capacity, with the remaining 42% corresponding basically to the thermoelectric generation. São Paulo accounted for 40% of this capacity; Minas Gerais by about 25%; Rio de Janeiro by 13.3%; and Espírito Santo accounted for the rest. The South Region owns the Itaipu Dam, which was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world for several years, until the inauguration of Three Gorges Dam in China. It remains the second largest operating hydroelectric in the world. Brazil is the co-owner of the Itaipu Plant with Paraguay: the dam is located on the Paraná River, located on the border between countries. It has an installed generation capacity of 14 GW for 20 generating units of 700 MW each. North Region has large hydroelectric plants, such as Belo Monte Dam and Tucuruí Dam, which produce much of the national energy. Brazil's hydroelectric potential has not yet been fully exploited, so the country still has the capacity to build several renewable energy plants in its territory. As of July 2022,[ref] according to ONS, total installed capacity of wind power was 22 GW, with average capacity factor of 58%. While the world average wind production capacity factors is 24.7%, there are areas in Northern Brazil, specially in Bahia State, where some wind farms record with average capacity factors over 60%; the average capacity factor in the Northeast Region is 45% in the coast and 49% in the interior. In 2019, wind energy represented 9% of the energy generated in the country. In 2019, it was estimated that the country had an estimated wind power generation potential of around 522 GW (this, only onshore), enough energy to meet three times the country's current demand. In 2021 Brazil was the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21 GW), and the 4th largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, US and Germany. Nuclear energy accounts for about 4% of Brazil's electricity. The nuclear power generation monopoly is owned by Eletronuclear (Eletrobrás Eletronuclear S/A), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eletrobrás. Nuclear energy is produced by two reactors at Angra. It is located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto (CNAAA) on the Praia de Itaorna in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. It consists of two pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with capacity of 657 MW, connected to the power grid in 1982, and Angra II, with capacity of 1,350 MW, connected in 2000. A third reactor, Angra III, with a projected output of 1,350 MW, is planned to be finished. As of October 2022,[ref] according to ONS, total installed capacity of photovoltaic solar was 21 GW, with average capacity factor of 23%. Some of the most irradiated Brazilian States are MG ("Minas Gerais"), BA ("Bahia") and GO (Goiás), which have indeed world irradiation level records. In 2019, solar power represented 1.27% of the energy generated in the country. In 2021, Brazil was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13 GW), and the 11th largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh). In 2020, Brazil was the 2nd largest country in the world in the production of energy through biomass (energy production from solid biofuels and renewable waste), with 15,2 GW installed. After Brazil, Colombia is the country in South America that most stands out in energy production. In 2020, the country was the 20th largest petroleum producer in the world, and in 2015 it was the 19th largest exporter. In natural gas, the country was, in 2015, the 40th largest producer in the world. Colombia's biggest highlight is in coal, where the country was, in 2018, the world's 12th largest producer and the 5th largest exporter. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 45th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (0.5 GW), 76th in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.1 GW) and 20th in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (12.6 GW). Venezuela, which was one of the world's largest oil producers (about 2.5 million barrels/day in 2015) and one of the largest exporters, due to its political problems, has had its production drastically reduced in recent years: in 2016, it dropped to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million and in 2019 to 877 thousand, reaching only 300,000 barrels/day at a given point. The country also stands out in hydroelectricity, where it was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed capacity in 2020 (16,5 GW). Argentina was, in 2017, the 18th largest producer in the world, and the largest producer in Latin America, of natural gas, in addition to being the 28th largest oil producer; although the country has the Vaca Muerta field, which holds close to 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil, and is the second largest shale natural gas deposit in the world, the country lacks the capacity to exploit the deposit: it is necessary capital, technology and knowledge that can only come from offshore energy companies, who view Argentina and its erratic economic policies with considerable suspicion, not wanting to invest in the country. In renewable energies, in 2020, the country ranked 27th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (2.6 GW), 42nd in the world in terms of installed solar energy (0.7 GW) and 21st in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (11.3 GW). The country has great future potential for the production of wind energy in the Patagonia region. Chile, although currently not a major energy producer, has great future potential for solar energy production in the Atacama Desert region. Paraguay stands out today in hydroelectric production thanks to the Itaipu Power Plant. Bolivia stand out in the production of natural gas, where it was the 31st largest in the world in 2015. Ecuador, because it consumes little energy, is part of OPEC and was the 27th largest oil producer in the world in 2020, being the 22nd largest exporter in 2014. ### Transport Transport in South America is basically carried out using the road mode, the most developed in the region. There is also a considerable infrastructure of ports and airports. The railway and fluvial sector, although it has potential, is usually treated in a secondary way. Brazil has more than 1.7 million km of roads, of which 215,000 km are paved, and about 14,000 km are divided highways. The two most important highways in the country are BR-101 and BR-116. Argentina has more than 600,000 km of roads, of which about 70,000 km are paved, and about 2,500 km are divided highways. The three most important highways in the country are Route 9, Route 7 and Route 14. Colombia has about 210,000 km of roads, and about 2,300 km are divided highways. Chile has about 82,000 km of roads, 20,000 km of which are paved, and about 2,000 km are divided highways. The most important highway in the country is the Route 5 (Pan-American Highway) These 4 countries are the ones with the best road infrastructure and with the largest number of double-lane highways. Due to the Andes Mountains, Amazon River and Amazon Forest, there have always been difficulties in implementing transcontinental or bioceanic highways. Practically the only route that existed was the one that connected Brazil to Buenos Aires, in Argentina and later to Santiago, in Chile. However, in recent years, with the combined effort of countries, new routes have started to emerge, such as Brazil-Peru (Interoceanic Highway), and a new highway between Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile (Bioceanic Corridor). There are more than 2,000 airports in Brazil. The country has the second largest number of airports in the world, behind only the United States. São Paulo International Airport, located in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, is the largest and busiest in the country – the airport connects São Paulo to practically all major cities around the world. Brazil has 44 international airports, such as those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Cuiabá, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém and Manaus, among others. Argentina has important international airports such as Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta, Puerto Iguazú, Neuquén and Usuhaia, among others. Chile has important international airports such as Santiago, Antofagasta, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Iquique, among others. Colombia has important international airports such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Cali and Barranquilla, among others. Other important airports are those in the capitals of Uruguay (Montevideo), Paraguay (Asunción), Peru (Lima), Bolivia (La Paz) and Ecuador (Quito). The 10 busiest airports in South America in 2017 were: São Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), São Paulo-Congonhas (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Brasília (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires-Aeroparque (Argentina), Buenos Aires-Ezeiza (Argentina), and Minas Gerais (Brazil). About ports, Brazil has some of the busiest ports in South America, such as Port of Santos, Port of Rio de Janeiro, Port of Paranaguá, Port of Itajaí, Port of Rio Grande, Port of São Francisco do Sul and Suape Port. Argentina has ports such as Port of Buenos Aires and Port of Rosario. Chile has important ports in Valparaíso, Caldera, Mejillones, Antofagasta, Iquique, Arica and Puerto Montt. Colombia has important ports such as Buenaventura, Cartagena Container Terminal and Puerto Bolivar. Peru has important ports in Callao, Ilo and Matarani. The 15 busiest ports in South America are: Port of Santos (Brazil), Port of Bahia de Cartagena (Colombia), Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Antonio (Chile), Buenaventura (Colombia), Itajaí (Brazil), Valparaíso (Chile), Montevideo (Uruguay), Paranaguá (Brazil), Rio Grande (Brazil), São Francisco do Sul (Brazil), Manaus (Brazil) and Coronel (Chile). The Brazilian railway network has an extension of about 30,000 kilometers. It's basically used for transporting ores. The Argentine rail network, with 47,000 km of tracks, was one of the largest in the world and continues to be the most extensive in Latin America. It came to have about 100,000 km of rails, but the lifting of tracks and the emphasis placed on motor transport gradually reduced it. It has four different trails and international connections with Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. Chile has almost 7,000 km of railways, with connections to Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Colombia has only about 3,500 km of railways. Among the main Brazilian waterways, two stand out: Hidrovia Tietê-Paraná (which has a length of 2,400 km, 1,600 on the Paraná River and 800 km on the Tietê River, draining agricultural production from the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and part of Rondônia, Tocantins and Minas Gerais) and Hidrovia do Solimões-Amazonas (it has two sections: Solimões, which extends from Tabatinga to Manaus, with approximately 1600 km, and Amazonas, which extends from Manaus to Belém, with 1650 km. Almost entirely passenger transport from the Amazon plain is done by this waterway, in addition to practically all cargo transportation that is directed to the major regional centers of Belém and Manaus). In Brazil, this transport is still underused: the most important waterway stretches, from an economic point of view, are found in the Southeast and South of the country. Its full use still depends on the construction of locks, major dredging works and, mainly, of ports that allow intermodal integration. In Argentina, the waterway network is made up of the La Plata, Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers. The main river ports are Zárate and Campana. The port of Buenos Aires is historically the first in individual importance, but the area known as Up-River, which stretches along 67 km of the Santa Fé portion of the Paraná River, brings together 17 ports that concentrate 50% of the total exports of the country. Only two railroads are continental: the Transandina, which connects Buenos Aires, in Argentina to Valparaíso, in Chile, and the Brazil–Bolivia Railroad, which makes it the connection between the port of Santos in Brazil and the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia. In addition, there is the Pan-American Highway, which crosses Argentina and the Andean countries from north to south, although some stretches are unfinished. Two areas of greater density occur in the railway sector: the platinum network, which develops around the Platine region, largely belonging to Argentina, with more than 45,000 km in length; And the Southeast Brazil network, which mainly serves the state of São Paulo, state of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Brazil and Argentina also stand out in the road sector. In addition to the modern roads that extend through northern Argentina and south-east and south of Brazil, a vast road complex aims to link Brasília, the federal capital, to the South, Southeast, Northeast and Northern regions of Brazil. South America has one of the largest bays of navigable inland waterways in the world, represented mainly by the Amazon basin, the Platine basin, the São Francisco and the Orinoco basins, Brazil having about 54,000 km navigable, while Argentina has 6,500 km and Venezuela, 1,200 km. The two main merchant fleets also belong to Brazil and Argentina. The following are those of Chile, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia. The largest ports in commercial movement are those of Buenos Aires, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Bahía Blanca, Rosario, Valparaíso, Recife, Salvador, Montevideo, Paranaguá, Rio Grande, Fortaleza, Belém and Maracaibo. In South America, commercial aviation has a magnificent expansion field, which has one of the largest traffic density lines in the world, Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo, and large airports, such as Congonhas, São Paulo–Guarulhos International and Viracopos (São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro International and Santos Dumont (Rio de Janeiro), El Dorado (Bogotá), Ezeiza (Buenos Aires), Tancredo Neves International Airport (Belo Horizonte), Curitiba International Airport (Curitiba), Brasilia, Caracas, Montevideo, Lima, Viru Viru International Airport (Santa Cruz de la Sierra), Recife, Salvador, Salgado Filho International Airport (Porto Alegre), Fortaleza, Manaus and Belém. The main public transport in major cities is the bus. Many cities also have a diverse system of metro and subway trains, the first of which was the Buenos Aires subte, opened 1913. The Santiago subway is the largest network in South America, with 103 km, while the São Paulo subway is the largest in transportation, with more than 4.6 million passengers per day and was voted the best in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro installed the first railroad of the continent in 1854. Today the city has a vast and diversified system of metropolitan trains, integrated with buses and subway. Recently it was also inaugurated in the city a Light Rail System called VLT, a small electrical trams at low speed, while São Paulo inaugurated its monorail, the first of South America. In Brazil, an express bus system called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which operates in several cities, has also been developed. Mi Teleférico, also known as Teleférico La Paz–El Alto (La Paz–El Alto Cable Car), is an aerial cable car urban transit system serving the La Paz–El Alto metropolitan area in Bolivia. See also -------- * Flags of South America * List of World Heritage Sites in South America * Outline of South America – Hierarchical outline list of articles related to South America * South American Games 1. ↑ Sometimes included. Depending on the definition of North America–South America boundary, Panama could be classified as a transcontinental country. Panama is a member state of ODESUR and CONSUDATLE. 2. 1 2 3 Sometimes included. Physiographically a part of South America, but geopolitically a part of North America. 3. ↑ Sometimes included. Physiographically a part of South America, but geopolitically a part of North America. Aruba is a member nation of ODESUR. 4. ↑ Occasionally included. An isolated volcanic island near the boundary between the African Plate and the Antarctic Plate, Bouvet Island is biogeographically and geologically associated with Antarctica. Despite being closer to Antarctica and Africa geographically, the United Nations geoscheme has included Bouvet Island in South America instead. 5. ↑ Geologically, South Georgia Island and the southernmost portion of mainland South America are both on the Scotia Plate while the South Sandwich Islands is on the nearby Sandwich Plate. Biogeographically and hydrologically, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is associated with Antarctica. The United Nations geoscheme has included the disputed territory in South America. 6. ↑ Occasionally included. An isolated volcanic island on the South American Plate, Ascension Island is geologically a part of South America, but geopolitically a part of Africa. 7. ↑ In some parts of the world, for example, Latin America, Latin Europe, and Iran, South America is viewed as a subcontinent of the Americas (a single continent named America). In most of the countries with English as an official language, however, it is considered a continent; see Americas (terminology). 8. ↑ Except Bouvet Island, which has occasionally been included as a part of South America. 9. ↑ Both administered as British Overseas Territories under The Crown, claimed by Argentina. 10. ↑ An overseas department and region of France. 11. ↑ Despite relative peace some international tensions persists and intra-state levels of violence are high. 12. ↑ Land areas and population estimates are taken from *The 2008 World Factbook* which currently uses July 2007 data, unless otherwise noted. 13. ↑ La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia; Sucre is the constitutional and judicial capital of Bolivia. 14. ↑ Bouvet Island is commonly associated with Antarctica (due to proximity), but the United Nations geoscheme has included the territory in South America instead. 15. ↑ Includes Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, a Chilean territory frequently reckoned in Oceania. Santiago is the administrative capital of Chile; Valparaíso is the site of legislative meetings. 16. ↑ South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean has no permanent population, only hosting a periodic contingent of about 100 researchers and visitors. References ---------- ### Sources * "South America". *The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online*. New York: Columbia University Press. 2005. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2023. * "Latin American Network Information Database". Archived from the original on 10 December 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2023. * Holsti, Kalevi J. (1996). *The State, War and the State of War*. Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511628306. ISBN 978-0511628306. S2CID 150457372.

South America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America

**Bronchitis** is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. Symptoms include coughing up sputum, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Bronchitis can be acute or chronic. Acute bronchitis usually has a cough that lasts around three weeks, and is also known as a chest cold. In more than 90% of cases the cause is a viral infection. These viruses may be spread through the air when people cough or by direct contact. A small number of cases are caused by a bacterial infection such as *Mycoplasma pneumoniae* or *Bordetella pertussis*. Risk factors include exposure to tobacco smoke, dust, and other air pollution. Treatment of acute bronchitis typically involves rest, paracetamol (acetaminophen), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to help with the fever. Chronic bronchitis is defined as a productive cough – one that produces sputum – that lasts for three months or more per year for at least two years. Many people with chronic bronchitis also have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Tobacco smoking is the most common cause, with a number of other factors such as air pollution and genetics playing a smaller role. Treatments include quitting smoking, vaccinations, rehabilitation, and often inhaled bronchodilators and steroids. Some people may benefit from long-term oxygen therapy. Acute bronchitis is one of the more common diseases. About 5% of adults and 6% of children have at least one episode a year. Acute bronchitis is the most common type of bronchitis. By contrast in the United States, in 2018, 9.3 million people were diagnosed with the less common chronic bronchitis. Acute bronchitis ---------------- Acute bronchitis, also known as a chest cold, is short term inflammation of the bronchi of the lungs. The most common symptom is a cough, that may or may not produce sputum. Other symptoms may include coughing up mucus, wheezing, shortness of breath, fever, and chest discomfort. Fever when present is mild. The infection may last from a few to ten days. The cough may persist for several weeks afterwards, with the total duration of symptoms usually around three weeks. Symptoms may last for up to six weeks. ### Cause In more than 90% of cases, the cause is a viral infection. These viruses may spread through the air when people cough or by direct contact. Risk factors include exposure to tobacco smoke, dust, and other air pollutants. A small number of cases are due to bacteria such as *Mycoplasma pneumoniae* or *Bordetella pertussis*. ### Diagnosis Diagnosis is typically based on a person's signs and symptoms. The color of the sputum does not indicate if the infection is viral or bacterial. Determining the underlying organism is usually not required. Other causes of similar symptoms include asthma, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, bronchiectasis, and COPD. A chest X-ray may be useful to detect pneumonia. Another common sign of bronchitis is a cough which lasts ten days to three weeks. If the cough lasts for longer than a month, it may become chronic bronchitis. In addition, a fever may be present. Acute bronchitis is normally caused by a viral infection. Typically, these infections are rhinovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza, or influenza. No specific testing is normally needed in order to diagnose acute bronchitis. ### Treatment One form of prevention is to avoid smoking and other lung irritants. Frequent hand washing may also be protective. Treatment for acute bronchitis usually involves rest, paracetamol (acetaminophen), and NSAIDs to help with the fever. Cough medicine has little support for its use, and is not recommended in children under the age of six. There is tentative evidence that salbutamol may be useful in treating wheezing; however, it may result in nervousness and tremors. Antibiotics should generally not be used. An exception is when acute bronchitis is due to pertussis. Tentative evidence supports honey and pelargonium to help with symptoms. Getting plenty of rest and drinking enough fluids are often recommended as well. Chinese medicinal herbs are of unclear effect. ### Epidemiology Acute bronchitis is one of the most common diseases. About 5% of adults are affected, and about 6% of children have at least one episode a year. It occurs more often in the winter. More than 10 million people in the US visit a doctor each year for this condition, with about 70% receiving antibiotics which are mostly not needed. There are efforts to decrease the use of antibiotics in acute bronchitis. Acute bronchitis is the most common type of bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis ------------------ Chronic bronchitis is a lower respiratory tract disease, defined by a productive cough that lasts for three months or more per year for at least two years. The cough is sometimes referred to as a *smoker's cough* since it often results from smoking. When chronic bronchitis occurs together with decreased airflow it is known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Many people with chronic bronchitis have COPD however, most people with COPD do not also have chronic bronchitis. Estimates of the number of people with COPD who have chronic bronchitis are 7 to 40%. Estimates of the number of people who smoke and have chronic bronchitis who also have COPD is 60%. The term "chronic bronchitis" was used in previous definitions of COPD but is no longer included in the definition. The term is still used clinically. While both chronic bronchitis and emphysema are often associated with COPD, neither is needed to make the diagnosis. A Chinese consensus commented on symptomatic types of COPD that include chronic bronchitis with frequent exacerbations. Chronic bronchitis is marked by mucus hypersecretion and mucins. The excess mucus is produced by an increased number of goblet cells, and enlarged submucosal glands in response to long-term irritation. The mucous glands in the submucosa secrete more than the goblet cells. Mucins thicken mucus, and their concentration has been found to be high in cases of chronic bronchitis, and also to correlate with the severity of the disease. Excess mucus can narrow the airways, thereby limiting airflow and accelerating the decline in lung function, and result in COPD. Excess mucus shows itself as a chronic productive cough and its severity and volume of sputum can fluctuate in periods of acute exacerbations. In COPD, those with the chronic bronchitic phenotype with associated chronic excess mucus, experience a worse quality of life than those without. The increased secretions are initially cleared by coughing. The cough is often worse soon after awakening, and the sputum produced may have a yellow or green color and may be streaked with specks of blood. In the early stages, a cough can maintain mucus clearance. However, with continued excessive secretion mucus clearance is impaired, and when the airways become obstructed a cough becomes ineffective. Effective mucociliary clearance depends on airway hydration, ciliary beating, and the rates of mucin secretion. Each of these factors is impaired in chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis can lead to a higher number of exacerbations and a faster decline in lung function. The ICD-11 lists chronic bronchitis with emphysema (emphysematous bronchitis) as a "certain specified COPD". ### Cause Most cases of chronic bronchitis are caused by tobacco smoking. Chronic bronchitis in young adults who smoke is associated with a greater chance of developing COPD. There is an association between smoking cannabis and chronic bronchitis. In addition, chronic inhalation of air pollution, or irritating fumes or dust from hazardous exposures in occupations such as coal mining, grain handling, textile manufacturing, livestock farming, and metal moulding may also be a risk factor for the development of chronic bronchitis. Bronchitis caused in this way is often referred to as **industrial bronchitis**, or occupational bronchitis. Rarely genetic factors also play a role. Air quality can also affect the respiratory system with higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide contributing to bronchial symptoms. Sulfur dioxide can cause inflammation which can aggravate chronic bronchitis and make infections more likely. Air pollution in the workplace is the cause of several non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including chronic bronchitis. ### Treatment Decline in lung function in chronic bronchitis may be slowed by stopping smoking. Chronic bronchitis may be treated with a number of medications and occasionally oxygen therapy. Pulmonary rehabilitation may also be used. A distinction has been made between exacerbations (sudden worsenings) of chronic bronchitis, and otherwise stable chronic bronchitis. Stable chronic bronchitis can be defined as the normal definition of chronic bronchitis, plus the absence of an acute exacerbation in the previous four weeks. A Cochrane review found that mucolytics in chronic bronchitis may slightly decrease the chance of developing an exacerbation. The mucolytic guaifenesin is a safe and effective treatment for stable chronic bronchitis. This has an advantage in that it is available as an extended use tablet which lasts for twelve hours. Erdosteine is a mucolytic recommended by NICE. GOLD also supports the use of some mucolytics that are advised against when inhaled corticosteroids are being used, and singles out erdosteine as having good effects regardless of corticosteroid use. Erdosteine also has antioxidant properties. Erdosteine has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of exacerbations, shorten their duration, and hospital stays. In those with the chronic bronchitic phenotype of COPD, the phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor roflumilast may decrease significant exacerbations. ### Epidemiology Chronic bronchitis affects about 3.4% to 22% of the general population. Individuals over 45 years of age, smokers, those that live or work in areas with high air pollution, and anybody with asthma all have a higher risk of developing chronic bronchitis. This wide range is due to the different definitions of chronic bronchitis that can be diagnosed based on signs and symptoms or the clinical diagnosis of the disorder. Chronic bronchitis tends to affect men more often than women. While the primary risk factor for chronic bronchitis is smoking, there is still a 4%-22% chance that non smokers can get chronic bronchitis. This might suggest other risk factors such as the inhalation of fuels, dusts, fumes and genetic factor. In the United States, in 2016, 8.6 million people were diagnosed with chronic bronchitis, and there were 518 reported deaths. Per 100,000 of population the death rate of chronic bronchitis was 0.2. History ------- The condition of bronchitis has been recognised for many centuries, in several different cultures including the Ancient Greek, Chinese, and Indian, with the presence of excess phlegm and cough noted in recognition of the same condition. Early treatments of chronic bronchitis included garlic, cinnamon and ipecac, among others. Modern treatments were developed during the second half of the 20th century. In Britain in 1808, a physician Charles Badham was the first person to describe the condition and name the acute form as *acute bronchitis*. This was written of in a book entitled *Inflammatory conditions of the bronchia*. In this book Badham distinguished three forms of bronchitis including acute and chronic. A second edition of this book was renamed *An Essay on Bronchitis* and published in 1814. Badham used the term catarrh to refer to the cardinal symptoms of chronic cough and mucus hypersecretion of chronic bronchitis, and described chronic bronchitis as a disabling disorder. In 1901 an article was published on the treatment of chronic bronchitis in the elderly. The symptoms described have remained unchanged. The cause was thought to be brought on by dampness, cold weather, and foggy conditions, and treatments were aimed towards various cough mixtures, respiratory stimulants, and tonics. It was noted that something other than the weather was thought to be at play. Exacerbations of the condition were also described at this time. Another physician Harry Campbell was referred to who had written in the *British Medical Journal* a week before. Campbell had suggested that the cause of chronic bronchitis was due to toxic substances, and recommended pure air, simple food, and exercise to remove them from the body. A joint research programme was undertaken in Chicago and London from 1951 to 1953 in which the clinical features of one thousand cases of chronic bronchitis were detailed. The findings were published in the Lancet in 1953. It was stated that since its introduction by Badham, chronic bronchitis had become an increasingly popular diagnosis. The study had looked at various associations such as the weather, conditions at home, and at work, age of onset, childhood illnesses, smoking habits, and breathlessness. It was concluded that chronic bronchitis invariably led to emphysema, particularly when the bronchitis had persisted for a long time. In 1957 it was noted that at the time there were many investigations being carried out into chronic bronchitis and emphysema in general, and among industrial workers exposed to dust. Excerpts were published dating from 1864 in which Charles Parsons had noted the occurring consequence of the development of emphysema from bronchitis. This was seen to be not always applicable. His findings were in association with his studies on chronic bronchitis among pottery workers. A CIBA (now Novartis) meeting in 1959, and a meeting of the American Thoracic Society in 1962, defined chronic bronchitis as a component of COPD, in the terms that have not changed. Eosinophilic bronchitis ----------------------- Eosinophilic bronchitis is a chronic dry cough, defined by the presence of an increased number of a type of white blood cell known as eosinophils. It has a normal finding on X-ray and has no airflow limitation. Protracted bacterial bronchitis ------------------------------- **Protracted bacterial bronchitis** in children, is defined as a chronic productive cough with a positive bronchoalveolar lavage that resolves with antibiotics. Protracted bacterial bronchitis is usually caused by *Streptococcus pneumoniae*, non-typable *Haemophilus influenzae*, or *Moraxella catarrhalis*. Protracted bacterial bronchitis (lasting more than 4 weeks) in children may be helped by antibiotics. Plastic bronchitis ------------------ Plastic bronchitis is a rarely found condition in which thickened secretions plug the bronchi. The plugs are rubbery or plastic-feeling (thus the name). The light-colored plugs take the branching shape of the bronchi that they fill, and are known as *bronchial casts*. When these casts are coughed up, they are firmer in texture from typical phlegm or the short, softer mucus plugs seen in some people with asthma. However, some people with asthma have larger, firmer, and more complex plugs. These differ from the casts seen in people whose plastic bronchitis is associated with congenital heart disease or lymphatic vessel abnormalities mainly because eosinophils and Charcot–Leyden crystals are present in the asthma-associated casts but not in the others. Casts obstruct the airflow, and can result in the overinflation of the opposite lung. Plastic bronchitis usually occurs in children. Some cases may result from abnormalities in the lymphatic vessels. Advanced cases may show imaging similarities to bronchiectasis. Aspergillus bronchitis ---------------------- Aspergillus bronchitis is one of the *Aspergillosis* spectrum of diseases, in which the bronchi are specifically subject to a fungal infection. This differs from the other pulmonary aspergillosis conditions, in that it need not affect just the immunocompromised.

Bronchitis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronchitis

**Thucydides** (/θ(j)uːˈsɪdɪˌdiːz/; Ancient Greek: Θουκυδίδης, romanized: **Thoukudídēs**; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His *History of the Peloponnesian War* recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work. He also has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by, and constructed upon, fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal work of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics. More generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behavior in such crises as plagues, massacres, and civil war. Life ---- In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about Thucydides's life. The most reliable information comes from his own *History of the Peloponnesian War*, in which he mentions his nationality, paternity, and birthplace. Thucydides says that he fought in the war, contracted the plague, and was exiled by the democracy. He may have also been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. ### Evidence from the classical period Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his father's name was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous. A somewhat doubtful anecdote of his early life still exists. While still a youth of 10–12 years, he and his father were supposed to have gone to the agora of Athens where the young Thucydides heard a lecture by the historian Herodotus. According to some accounts, the young Thucydides wept with joy after hearing the lecture, deciding that writing history would be his life's calling. The same account also claims that after the lecture, Herodotus spoke with the youth and his father, stating: *Oloros your son yearns for knowledge*. In all essence, the episode is most likely from a later Greek or Roman account of his life. He survived the Plague of Athens, which killed Pericles and many other Athenians. There is a first observation of acquired immunity. He also records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle (literally "Dug Woodland"), a coastal area in Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos. Because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos (general) to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, a half-day's sail west from Thasos on the Thracian coast, sparking the Battle of Amphipolis. Eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help. Brasidas, aware of the presence of Thucydides on Thasos and his influence with the people of Amphipolis, and afraid of help arriving by sea, acted quickly to offer moderate terms to the Amphipolitans for their surrender, which they accepted. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control. Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens. It was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault and that he had simply been unable to reach it in time. Because of his failure to save Amphipolis, he was exiled: > I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat particularly. > > Using his status as an exile from Athens to travel freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. Thucydides claimed that he began writing his history as soon as the war broke out, because he thought it would be one of the greatest wars waged among the Greeks in terms of scale: > Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it. > > This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few other facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydides's father's name, was connected with Thrace and Thracian royalty. Thucydides was probably connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimon's maternal grandfather's name also was Olorus, making the connection quite likely. Another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well. Combining all the fragmentary evidence available, it seems that his family had owned a large estate in Thrace, one that even contained gold mines, and which allowed the family considerable and lasting affluence. The security and continued prosperity of the wealthy estate must have necessitated formal ties with local kings or chieftains, which explains the adoption of the distinctly Thracian royal name *Óloros* into the family. Once exiled, Thucydides took permanent residence in the estate and, given his ample income from the gold mines, he was able to dedicate himself to full-time history writing and research, including many fact-finding trips. In essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, after involuntarily retiring from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical investigations. ### Later sources The remaining evidence for Thucydides' life comes from later and rather less reliable ancient sources; Marcellinus wrote Thucydides' biography about a thousand years after his death. According to Pausanias, someone named Oenobius had a law passed allowing Thucydides to return to Athens, presumably shortly after the city's surrender and the end of the war in 404 BC. Pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens, placing his tomb near the Melite gate. Many doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC, or perhaps slightly later. Plutarch preserves a tradition that he was murdered in *Skaptē Hulē* and that his remains were returned to Athens, where a monument to him was erected in Cimon's family plot. There are problems with this, since this was outside Thucydides' deme and the tradition goes back to Polemon, who asserted he had discovered just such a memorial. Didymus mentions another tomb in Thrace. Thucydides' narrative breaks off in the middle of the year 411 BC, and this abrupt end has traditionally been explained as due to his death while writing the book, although other explanations have been put forward. Inferences about Thucydides' character can be drawn (with due caution) only from his book. His sardonic sense of humor is evident throughout, as when, during his description of the Athenian plague, he remarks that old Athenians seemed to remember a rhyme which said that with the Dorian War would come a "great death". Some claimed that the rhyme originally mentioned a [death by] "famine" or "starvation" (λιμός, **limos**) and was remembered only later as [death by] "pestilence" (λοιμός, **loimos**) due to the current plague. Thucydides then remarks that should another Dorian War come, this time attended with a great famine (λιμός), the rhyme will be remembered as "famine", and any mention of "plague" (λοιμός) forgotten. Thucydides admired Pericles, approving of his power over the people and showing a marked distaste for the demagogues who followed him. He did not approve of the democratic commoners nor of the radical democracy that Pericles ushered in, but considered democracy acceptable when guided by a good leader. Thucydides' presentation of events is generally even-handed; for example, he does not minimize the negative effect of his own failure at Amphipolis. Occasionally, however, strong passions break through, as in his scathing appraisals of the democratic leaders Cleon and Hyperbolus. Sometimes, Cleon has been connected with Thucydides' exile. It has been argued that Thucydides was moved by the suffering inherent in war and concerned about the excesses to which human nature is prone in such circumstances, as in his analysis of the atrocities committed during the civil conflict on Corcyra, which includes the phrase "war is a violent teacher" (πόλεμος βίαιος διδάσκαλος). The *History of the Peloponnesian War* -------------------------------------- Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War represented an event of unmatched importance. As such, he began to write the *History* at the onset of the war in 431 BC. He declared his intention was to write an account which would serve as "a possession for all time". The *History* breaks off near the end of the twenty-first year of the war (411 BC), in the wake of the Athenian defeat at Syracuse, and so does not elaborate on the final seven years of the conflict. The *History of the Peloponnesian War* continued to be modified well beyond the end of the war in 404 BC, as exemplified by a reference at Book I.1.13 to the conclusion of the war. After his death, Thucydides's *History* was subdivided into eight books: its modern title is the *History of the Peloponnesian War*. This subdivision was most likely made by librarians and archivists, themselves being historians and scholars, most likely working in the Library of Alexandria. Thucydides is generally regarded as one of the first true historians. Like his predecessor Herodotus, known as "the father of history", Thucydides places a high value on eyewitness testimony and writes about events in which he probably took part. He also assiduously consulted written documents and interviewed participants about the events that he recorded. Unlike Herodotus, whose stories often teach that a hubris invites the wrath of the deities, Thucydides does not acknowledge divine intervention in human affairs. Thucydides exerted wide historiographical influence on subsequent Hellenistic and Roman historians, although the exact description of his style in relation to many successive historians remains unclear. Readers in antiquity often placed the continuation of the stylistic legacy of the *History* in the writings of Thucydides' putative intellectual successor Xenophon. Such readings often described Xenophon's treatises as attempts to "finish" Thucydides's *History*. Many of these interpretations, however, have garnered significant scepticism among modern scholars, such as Dillery, who spurn the view of interpreting Xenophon *qua* Thucydides, arguing that the latter's "modern" history (defined as constructed based on literary and historical themes) is antithetical to the former's account in the *Hellenica*, which diverges from the Hellenic historiographical tradition in its absence of a preface or introduction to the text and the associated lack of an "overarching concept" unifying the history. A noteworthy difference between Thucydides's method of writing history and that of modern historians is Thucydides's inclusion of lengthy formal speeches that, as he states, were literary reconstructions rather than quotations of what was said—or, perhaps, what he believed *ought* to have been said. Arguably, had he not done this, the gist of what was said would not otherwise be known at all—whereas today there is a plethora of documentation—written records, archives, and recording technology for historians to consult. Therefore, Thucydides's method served to *rescue* his mostly oral sources from oblivion. We do not know how these historical figures spoke. Thucydides's recreation uses a heroic stylistic register. A celebrated example is Pericles' funeral oration, which heaps honour on the dead and includes a defence of democracy: > The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men; they are honoured not only by columns and inscriptions in their own land, but in foreign nations on memorials graven not on stone but in the hearts and minds of men. (2:43) > > Stylistically, the placement of this passage also serves to heighten the contrast with the description of the plague in Athens immediately following it, which graphically emphasizes the horror of human mortality, thereby conveying a powerful sense of verisimilitude: > Though many lay unburied, birds and beasts would not touch them, or died after tasting them [...]. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons who had died there, just as they were; for, as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became equally contemptuous of the property of and the dues to the deities. All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the stranger's pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off. (2:52) > > Thucydides omits discussion of the arts, literature, or the social milieu in which the events in his book take place and in which he grew up. He saw himself as recording an event, not a period, and went to considerable lengths to exclude what he deemed frivolous or extraneous. Philosophical outlook and influences ------------------------------------ Paul Shorey calls Thucydides "a cynic devoid of moral sensibility". In addition, he notes that Thucydides conceived of human nature as strictly determined by one's physical and social environments, alongside basic desires. Francis Cornford was more nuanced: Thucydides' political vision was informed by a tragic ethical vision, in which: > Man, isolated from, and opposed to, Nature, moves along a narrow path, unrelated to what lies beyond and lighted only by a few dim rays of human 'foresight'(γνώμη/*gnome*), or by the false, wandering fires of Hope. He bears within him, self-contained, his destiny in his own character: and this, with the purposes which arise out of it, shapes his course. That is all, in Thucydides' view, that we can say: except that, now and again, out of the surrounding darkness comes the blinding strokes of Fortune, unaccountable and unforeseen.' > > Thucydides' work indicates an influence from the teachings of the Sophists that contributes substantially to the thinking and character of his *History*. Possible evidence includes his skeptical ideas concerning justice and morality. There are also elements within the *History*—such as his views on nature revolving around the factual, empirical, and the non-anthropomorphic—which suggest that he was at least aware of the views of philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Democritus. There is also evidence of his knowledge concerning some of the corpus of Hippocratic medical writings. Thucydides was especially interested in the relationship between human intelligence and judgment, Fortune and Necessity, and the idea that history is too irrational and incalculable to predict. Critical interpretation ----------------------- Scholars traditionally viewed Thucydides as recognizing and teaching the lesson that democracies need leadership but that leadership can be dangerous to democracy. Leo Strauss (in *The City and Man*) locates the problem in the nature of Athenian democracy, about which, he argued, Thucydides was ambivalent. Thucydides's "wisdom was made possible" by the Periclean democracy, which had the effect of liberating individual daring, enterprise and questioning spirit; this liberation, by permitting the growth of limitless political ambition, led to imperialism and eventually, to civic strife. For Canadian historian Charles Norris Cochrane (1889–1945), Thucydides's fastidious devotion to observable phenomena, focus on cause and effect and strict exclusion of other factors anticipates twentieth-century scientific positivism. Cochrane, the son of a physician, speculated that Thucydides generally (and especially in describing the plague in Athens) was influenced by the methods and thinking of early medical writers such as Hippocrates of Kos. After World War II, classical scholar Jacqueline de Romilly pointed out that the problem of Athenian imperialism was one of Thucydides's preoccupations and situated his history in the context of Greek thinking about international politics. Since the appearance of her study, other scholars further examined Thucydides's treatment of *realpolitik*. Other scholars have brought to the fore the literary qualities of the *History*, which they see in the narrative tradition of Homer and Hesiod and as concerned with the concepts of justice and suffering found in Plato and Aristotle and questioned in Aeschylus and Sophocles. Richard Ned Lebow terms Thucydides "the last of the tragedians", stating that "Thucydides drew heavily on epic poetry and tragedy to construct his history, which not surprisingly is also constructed as a narrative". In this view, the blind and immoderate behaviour of the Athenians (and indeed of all the other actors)—although perhaps intrinsic to human nature—leads to their downfall. Thus his *History* could serve as a warning to leaders to be more prudent, by putting them on notice that someone would be scrutinizing their actions with a historian's objectivity rather than a chronicler's flattery. The historian J. B. Bury writes that the work of Thucydides "marks the longest and most decisive step that has ever been taken by a single man towards making history what it is today". Historian H. D. Kitto feels that Thucydides wrote about the Peloponnesian War, not because it was the most significant war in antiquity but because it caused the most suffering. Several passages of Thucydides's book are written "with an intensity of feeling hardly exceeded by Sappho herself". In his book *The Open Society and Its Enemies*, Karl Popper writes that Thucydides was the "greatest historian, perhaps, who ever lived". Thucydides's work, Popper goes on to say, represents "an interpretation, a point of view; and in this we need not agree with him". In the war between Athenian democracy and the "arrested oligarchic tribalism of Sparta", we must never forget Thucydides's "involuntary bias", and that "his heart was not with Athens, his native city." > Although he apparently did not belong to the extreme wing of the Athenian oligarchic clubs who conspired throughout the war with the enemy, he was certainly a member of the oligarchic party, and a friend neither of the Athenian people, the demos, who had exiled him, nor of its imperialist policy. > > Comparison with Herodotus ------------------------- Thucydides and his immediate predecessor, Herodotus, both exerted a significant influence on Western historiography. Thucydides does not mention his counterpart by name, but his famous introductory statement is thought to refer to him: > To hear this history rehearsed, for that there be inserted in it no fables, shall be perhaps not delightful. But he that desires to look into the truth of things done, and which (according to the condition of humanity) may be done again, or at least their like, shall find enough herein to make him think it profitable. And it is compiled rather for an everlasting possession than to be rehearsed for a prize. (1:22) > > Herodotus records in his *Histories* not only the events of the Persian Wars, but also geographical and ethnographical information, as well as the fables related to him during his extensive travels. Typically, he passes no definitive judgment on what he has heard. In the case of conflicting or unlikely accounts, he presents both sides, says what he believes and then invites readers to decide for themselves. Of course, modern historians would generally leave out their personal beliefs, which is a form of passing judgment upon the events and people about which the historian is reporting. The work of Herodotus is reported to have been recited at festivals, where prizes were awarded, as for example, during the games at Olympia. Herodotus views history as a source of moral lessons, with conflicts and wars as misfortunes flowing from initial acts of injustice perpetuated through cycles of revenge. In contrast, Thucydides claims to confine himself to factual reports of contemporary political and military events, based on unambiguous, first-hand, eye-witness accounts, although, unlike Herodotus, he does not reveal his sources. Thucydides views life exclusively as *political* life, and history in terms of *political* history. Conventional moral considerations play no role in his analysis of political events while geographic and ethnographic aspects are omitted or, at best, of secondary importance. Subsequent Greek historians—such as Ctesias, Diodorus, Strabo, Polybius and Plutarch—held up Thucydides's writings as a model of truthful history. Lucian refers to Thucydides as having given Greek historians their *law*, requiring them to say *what had been done* (ὡς ἐπράχθη). Greek historians of the fourth century BC accepted that history was political and that contemporary history was the proper domain of a historian. Cicero calls Herodotus the "father of history"; yet the Greek writer Plutarch, in his *Moralia* (*Ethics*) denigrated Herodotus, notably calling him a *philobarbaros*, a "barbarian lover", to the detriment of the Greeks. Unlike Thucydides, however, these authors all continued to view history as a source of moral lessons, thereby infusing their works with personal biases generally missing from Thucydides' clear-eyed, non-judgmental writings focused on reporting events in a non-biased manner. Due to the loss of the ability to read Greek, Thucydides and Herodotus were largely forgotten during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, although their influence continued in the Byzantine world. In Europe, Herodotus become known and highly respected only in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century as an ethnographer, in part due to the discovery of America, where customs and animals were encountered that were even more surprising than what he had related. During the Reformation, moreover, information about Middle Eastern countries in the *Histories* provided a basis for establishing Biblical chronology as advocated by Isaac Newton. The first European translation of Thucydides (into Latin) was made by the humanist Lorenzo Valla between 1448 and 1452, and the first Greek edition was published by Aldo Manuzio in 1502. During the Renaissance, however, Thucydides attracted less interest among Western European historians as a political philosopher than his successor, Polybius, although Poggio Bracciolini claimed to have been influenced by him. There is not much evidence of Thucydides's influence in Niccolò Machiavelli's *The Prince* (1513), which held that the chief aim of a new prince must be to "maintain his state" [i.e., his power] and that in so doing he is often compelled to act against faith, humanity, and religion. Later historians, such as J. B. Bury, however, have noted parallels between them: > If, instead of a history, Thucydides had written an analytical treatise on politics, with particular reference to the Athenian empire, it is probable that ... he could have forestalled Machiavelli ... [since] the whole innuendo of the Thucydidean treatment of history agrees with the fundamental postulate of Machiavelli, the supremacy of reason of state. To maintain a state, said the Florentine thinker, "a statesman is often compelled to act against faith, humanity and religion". ... But ... the true Machiavelli, not the Machiavelli of fable ... entertained an ideal: Italy for the Italians, Italy freed from the stranger: and in the service of this ideal he desired to see his speculative science of politics applied. Thucydides has no political aim in view: he was purely a historian. But it was part of the method of both alike to eliminate conventional sentiment and morality. > > In the seventeenth century, the English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, whose *Leviathan* advocated absolute monarchy, admired Thucydides and in 1628 was the first to translate his writings into English directly from Greek. Thucydides, Hobbes, and Machiavelli are together considered the founding fathers of western political realism, according to which, state policy must primarily or solely focus on the need to maintain military and economic power rather than on ideals or ethics. Nineteenth-century positivist historians stressed what they saw as Thucydides's seriousness, his scientific objectivity and his advanced handling of evidence. A virtual cult following developed among such German philosophers as Friedrich Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche, who claimed that, "[in Thucydides], the portrayer of Man, that culture of the most impartial knowledge of the world finds its last glorious flower." The late-eighteenth-century Swiss historian Johannes von Müller described Thucydides as "the favourite author of the greatest and noblest men, and one of the best teachers of the wisdom of human life". For Eduard Meyer, Thomas Babington Macaulay and Leopold von Ranke, who initiated modern source-based history writing, Thucydides was again the model historian. > Generals and statesmen loved him: the world he drew was theirs, an exclusive power-brokers' club. It is no accident that even today Thucydides turns up as a guiding spirit in military academies, neocon think tanks and the writings of men like Henry Kissinger; whereas Herodotus has been the choice of imaginative novelists (Michael Ondaatje's novel *The English Patient* and the film based on it boosted the sale of the *Histories* to a wholly unforeseen degree) and—as food for a starved soul—of an equally imaginative foreign correspondent from Iron Curtain Poland, Ryszard Kapuscinski. > > These historians also admired Herodotus, however, as social and ethnographic history increasingly came to be recognized as complementary to political history. In the twentieth century, this trend gave rise to the works of Johan Huizinga, Marc Bloch, and Fernand Braudel, who pioneered the study of long-term cultural and economic developments and the patterns of everyday life. The Annales School, which exemplifies this direction, has been viewed as extending the tradition of Herodotus. At the same time, Thucydides's influence was increasingly important in the area of international relations during the Cold War, through the work of Hans Morgenthau, Leo Strauss, and Edward Carr. The tension between the Thucydidean and Herodotean traditions extends beyond historical research. According to Irving Kristol, self-described founder of American neoconservatism, Thucydides wrote "the favorite neoconservative text on foreign affairs"; and Thucydides is a required text at the Naval War College, an American institution located in Rhode Island. On the other hand, Daniel Mendelsohn, in a review of a recent edition of Herodotus, suggests that, at least in his graduate school days during the Cold War, professing admiration of Thucydides served as a form of self-presentation: > To be an admirer of Thucydides' *History*, with its deep cynicism about political, rhetorical and ideological hypocrisy, with its all too recognizable protagonists—a liberal yet imperialistic democracy and an authoritarian oligarchy, engaged in a war of attrition fought by proxy at the remote fringes of empire—was to advertise yourself as a hardheaded connoisseur of global Realpolitik. > > Another contemporary historian believes that, while it is true that critical history "began with Thucydides, one may also argue that Herodotus' looking at the past as a reason why the present is the way it is, and to search for causality for events beyond the realms of Tyche and the Gods, was a much larger step." See also -------- * Speech of Hermocrates at Gela * Thucydides Trap References and further reading ------------------------------ ### Primary sources * Herodot iz Halikarnasa. *Zgodbe*. Ljubljana: Slovenska Matica v Ljubljani (2003). * Thucydides, *The Peloponnesian War*. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton (1910).. The classic translation by Richard Crawley. Reissued by the Echo Library in 2006. ISBN 1-4068-0984-5 OCLC 173484508 * Thucydides, *The Peloponnesian War.* Indianapolis, Hackett (1998); translation by Steven Lattimore. ISBN 978-0-87220-394-5. * Herodotus, *Histories*, A. D. Godley (translator), Cambridge: Harvard University Press (1920). ISBN 0-674-99133-8 perseus.tufts.edu. * Pausanias, *Description of Greece*, Books I-II, (Loeb Classical Library) translated by W. H. S. Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918). ISBN 0-674-99104-4.perseus.tufts.edu. * Plutarch, *Lives*, Bernadotte Perrin (translator), Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. (1914). ISBN 0-674-99053-6 perseus.tufts.edu. * *The Landmark Thucydides*, Edited by Robert B. Strassler, Richard Crawley translation, Annotated, Indexed and Illustrated, A Touchstone Book, New York, 1996 ISBN 0-684-82815-4 * \* *Thucydidis Historiae*, 3 vols., ed. Ioannes Baptista Alberti, Rome, Typis Officinae polygraphicae, 1972-2000 (a standard text edition). ### Secondary sources * Cornelius Castoriadis, "The Greek *Polis* and the Creation of Democracy" in *The Castoriadis Reader*. Translated and edited by David Ames Curtis, Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997, pp. 267–289 [Cornelius Castoriadis, "La *polis* grecque et la création de la démocratie" in *Domaines de l’homme. Les Carrefours du labyrinthe II*. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1986, pp. 261–306]. * Cornelius Castoriadis, *Thucydide, la force et le droit. Ce qui fait la Grèce*. Tome 3, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2011. * Connor, W. Robert, *Thucydides*. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-691-03569-5. * Dewald, Carolyn, *Thucydides' War Narrative: A Structural Study*. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-520-24127-4). * Finley, John Huston, Jr., *Thucydides*. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1947. * Forde, Steven, *The ambition to rule: Alcibiades and the politics of imperialism in Thucydides*. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8014-2138-1. * Hanson, Victor Davis, *A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War*. New York: Random House, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-6095-8. * Hornblower, Simon, *A Commentary on Thucydides*. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991–1996. ISBN 0-19-815099-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-19-927625-0 (vol. 2). * Hornblower, Simon, *Thucydides*. London: Duckworth, 1987. ISBN 0-7156-2156-4. * Kagan, Donald, *The Archidamian War*. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974. ISBN 0-8014-0889-X OCLC 1129967. * Kagan, Donald, *The Peloponnesian War*. New York: Viking Press, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03211-5. * Kelly, Paul, "Thucydides: The naturalness of war" in *Conflict, War and Revolution: The problem of politics in international political thought.* London: LSE Press, 2022. ISBN 978-1-909890-73-2 * Luce, T.J., *The Greek Historians*. London: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-415-10593-5. * Luginbill, R.D., *Thucydides on War and National Character*. Boulder: Westview, 1999. ISBN 0-8133-3644-9. * Momigliano, Arnaldo, *The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography* (= *Sather Classical Lectures* 54). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. * Novo, Andrew and Jay Parker, *Restoring Thucydides*. New York: Cambria Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1621964742. * Orwin, Clifford, *The Humanity of Thucydides*. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-691-03449-4. * Podoksik, Efraim, "Justice, Power, and Athenian Imperialism: An Ideological Moment in Thucydides' History" in *History of Political Thought* 26(1): 21–42, 2005. * Romilly, Jacqueline de, *Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism*. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1963. ISBN 0-88143-072-2. * Rood, Tim, *Thucydides: Narrative and Explanation*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-927585-8. * Russett, Bruce (1993). *Grasping the Democratic Peace*. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03346-3. * de Sainte Croix, *The origins of the Peloponnesian War*. London: Duckworth, 1972. pp. xii, 444. * Strassler, Robert B, ed, *The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War*. New York: Free Press, 1996. ISBN 0-684-82815-4. * Strauss, Leo, *The City and Man* Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964. * Zagorin, Perez, *Thucydides: an Introduction for the Common Reader*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-691-13880-X OCLC 57010364.

Thucydides

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides

The **Old City of Jerusalem** (Hebrew: הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, romanized: *ha-ir ha-atiqah*; Arabic: البلدة القديمة, romanized: *al-Balda al-Qadimah*; *lit.* 'the Old City') is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is today divided into four uneven quarters, in a tradition which may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city; these are the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter. A fifth area, the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the *Haram al-Sharif*, is home to the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque and was once the site of two Jewish Temples. The current designations were introduced in the 19th century. The Old City's current walls and city gates were built by the Ottoman Empire from 1535 to 1542 under Suleiman the Magnificent. The Old City is home to several sites of key importance and holiness to the three major Abrahamic religions: the Temple Mount and Western Wall for Judaism, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christianity, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Islam. The Old City, along with its walls, was added to the World Heritage Site list of UNESCO in 1981. In spite of its name, the Old City of Jerusalem's current layout is different from that of ancient times. Most archeologists believe that the City of David, an archaeological site on a rocky spur south of the Temple Mount, was the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages. At times, the ancient city spread to the east and north, covering Mount Zion and the Temple Mount. The Old City as defined by the walls of Suleiman is thus shifted a bit northwards compared to earlier periods of the city's history, and smaller than it had been in its peak, during the late Second Temple period. The Old City's current layout has been documented in significant detail, notably in old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years. Until the mid-19th century, the entire city of Jerusalem (with the exception of David's Tomb complex) was enclosed within the Old City walls. The departure from the walls began in the 19th century, when the city's municipal borders were expanded to include Arab villages such as Silwan and new Jewish neighborhoods such as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. The Old City came under Jordanian control following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied East Jerusalem; since then, the entire city has been under Israeli control. Israel unilaterally asserted in its 1980 Jerusalem Law that the whole of Jerusalem was Israel's capital. In international law East Jerusalem is defined as territory occupied by Israel. Population ---------- In 1967 the Old City contained 17,000 Muslims, 6,000 Christians (including Armenians) and no Jews, as the latter had been expelled from the city in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The current population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim and Christian quarters. In 2007, the total population was 36,965; there were 27,500 Muslims (growing to over 30,000 by 2013); 5,681 non-Armenian Christians, 790 Armenians (who decreased in number to about 500 by 2013); and 3,089 Jews (with almost 3,000 plus some 1,500 yeshiva students by 2013). Political status ---------------- During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Old City was captured by Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six-Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem, subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city. Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However, the Jerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void by United Nations Security Council Resolution 478. East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. History ------- ### Israelite period According to the Hebrew Bible, before King David's conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites. The Bible describes the city as heavily fortified with a strong city wall, a fact confirmed by archaeology. The Bible names the city ruled by King David as the City of David, in Hebrew Ir David, which was identified southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate. In the Bible, David's son, King Solomon, extended the city walls to include the Temple and Temple Mount. After the partition of the United Kingdom of Israel, the southern tribes remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was largely extended westwards after the Neo-Assyrian destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel and the resulting influx of refugees. King Hezekiah had been preparing for an Assyrian invasion by fortifying the walls of the capital, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to the city from a spring outside its walls. He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of the Siloam Tunnel, and construction of the Broad Wall. The First Temple period ended around 586 BCE, as Nebuchadnezzar's Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and laid waste to Solomon's Temple and the city. ### Second Temple period In 538 BCE, the Persian King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple. The city was rebuilt on a smaller scale in about 440 BCE, during the Persian period, when, according to the Bible, Nehemiah led the Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile. An additional, so-called Second Wall, was built by King Herod the Great, who also expanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the Temple. In 41–44 CE, Agrippa, king of Judea, started building the so-called "Third Wall" around the northern suburbs. The entire city was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. ### Late Roman, Byzantine, and Early Muslim periods The northern part of the city was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian around 130, under the name Aelia Capitolina. In the Byzantine period Jerusalem was extended southwards and again enclosed by city walls. Muslims occupied Byzantine Jerusalem in the 7th century (637 CE) under the second caliph, `Umar Ibn al-Khattab who annexed it to the Islamic Arab Empire. He granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. After the siege of Jerusalem, Sophronius welcomed `Umar, allegedly because, according to biblical prophecies known to the Church in Jerusalem, "a poor, but just and powerful man" would rise to be a protector and ally to the Christians of Jerusalem. Sophronius believed that `Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria, Eutychius, it is said that `Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. When the time for prayer arrived, however, he left the church and prayed outside the compound, in order to avoid having future generations of Muslims use his prayer there as a pretext for converting the church into a mosque. Eutychius adds that `Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site. ### Crusader & Ayyubid periods In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Western Christian army of the First Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims, led by Saladin, on October 2, 1187. He summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Sultan Al-Mu'azzam of Damascus; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany. In 1239 he began to rebuild the walls, but they were demolished again by Da'ud, the emir of Kerak. In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Khwarazmian Turks took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muazzam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status. ### Ottoman period Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem (1865)Survey of Palestine (1936)The cartography of the Old City of Jerusalem culminated in these two detailed British maps, showing the city as it stood in the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. The current walls of the Old City were built in 1535–42 by the Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles), and rise to a height of between 5 and 15 metres (16.4–49 ft), with a thickness of 3 metres (10 feet) at the base of the wall. Altogether, the Old City walls contain 35 towers, of which 15 are concentrated in the more exposed northern wall. Suleiman's wall had six gates, to which a seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887; several other, older gates, have been walled up over the centuries. The Golden Gate was at first rebuilt and left open by Suleiman's architects, only to be walled up a short while later. The New Gate was opened in the wall surrounding the Christian Quarter during the 19th century. Two secondary gates were reopened in recent times on the southeastern side of the city walls as a result of archaeological work. UNESCO status ------------- In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was added to the List in 1981. In 1982, Jordan requested that it be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger. The United States government opposed the request, noting that the Jordanian government had no standing to make such a nomination and that the consent of the Israeli government would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem. In 2011, UNESCO issued a statement reiterating its view that East Jerusalem is "part of the occupied Palestinian territory, and that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations." Archaeology ----------- ### Israelite period Among the Israelite period finds in the Old City are two portions of the 8th and 7th century BCE city walls, in the area of the Israelite Tower, probably including parts of a gate where numerous projectiles were found, attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Another part of the late 8th-century BCE fortification discovered was dubbed the "broad wall", after the way it was described in the *Book of Nehemiah*, built to defend Jerusalem against the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem of 701 BCE. ### Hellenistic period In 2015, archaeologists uncovered the remnants of an impressive fort, built by Greeks in the center of old Jerusalem. It is believed that it is the remnants of the Acra fortress. The team also found coins that date from the time of Antiochus IV to the time of Antiochus VII. In addition, they found Greek arrowheads, slingshots, ballistic stones and amphorae. In 2018, archaeologists discovered a 4-centimeter-long filigree gold earring with a ram's head around 200 meters south of the Temple Mount. The Israel Antiquities Authority said it was consistent with jewelry from the early Hellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century BCE). Adding that it was the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem. ### Herodian period Many structures dated to the Herodian period were discovered in the Jewish Quarter during archaeological excavations carried out between 1967 and 1983. Among them was unearthed a palatial mansion from the Herodian period, believed to be the residence of Annas the High Priest. In its vicinity, a depiction of the Temple menorah was discovered, carved while its model still stood in the Temple, engraved in a plastered wall. The palace has been destroyed during the final days of the Roman siege of 70 CE, suffering the same fate as the so-called Burnt House, a building belonging to the Kathros priestly family, which was found nearby. In 1968, the Trumpeting Place inscription was found at the southwest corner of Temple Mount, and is believed to mark the site where the priests used to declare the advent of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays. ### Byzantine period In the 1970s, while excavating the remains of the Nea Church (the New Church of the Theotokos), a Greek inscription was found. It reads: "This work too was donated by our most pious Emperor Flavius Justinian, through the provision and care of Constantine, most saintly priest and abbot, in the 13th year of the indiction." A second dedicatory inscription bearing the names of Emperor Justinian and of the same abbot of the Nea Church was discovered in 2017 among the ruins of a pilgrim hostel about a kilometre north of Damascus Gate, which proves the importance of the Nea complex at the time. Quarters -------- The Old City is today divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter. Matthew Teller writes that this four-quarter convention may have originated in the 1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem, or at least Reverend George Williams' subsequent labelling of it. This 19th-century cartographic partition into four quarters represented the historical development of the city that had previously been divided into many more *harat* (Arabic: حارَة, romanized: *Hārat*: "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", see wikt:حارة); the Christian and Jewish areas of the city had grown considerably over the preceding centuries. Despite the names, there was no governing principle of ethnic segregation: 30 percent of the houses in the Muslim quarter were rented out to Jews, and 70 percent of the Armenian quarter.[*when?*] Below is a table of the historically recorded quarters of the city, from 1495 up until the modern system: | | Local divisions | Western divisions | | --- | --- | --- | | Date | 1495 | 1500s | 1800s | 1900 | 1840s onwards | | Source | Mujir al-Din | Ottoman Census | Traditional system | Ottoman Census | Modern maps | | Quarters | Ghuriyya (Turiyya) | | Bab el-Asbat | | Muslim Quarter (north) | *North-east* | | Bab Hutta | Bab Hutta | Bab Hutta | Bab Hutta | | Masharqa | | | Bani Zayd | Bani Zayd | Sa'diyya | Sa'diyya | *North-west* | | Bab el-'Amud | Bab el-'Amud | Bab el-'Amud | Bab el-'Amud | | Bani Murra | | Zara'na | Dara'na | Haddadin | Nasara | Christian Quarter | *North* | | | Khan ez-Zeyt | *East* | | Nasara ("Christian") | | Nasara | *Middle and south* | | Mawarna | | Jawalda | | Jawalda | *West* | | Bani Harith | Bani Harith | Jawa'na | Sharaf | Armenian Quarter | *West* | | Dawiyya | *North* | | Arman ("Armenian") | Sihyun | Arman | *South* | | Yahud ("Jewish") | Yahud | | | *East* | | Risha | Silsila | Jewish Quarter | *South* | | Maslakh | | Saltin | Khawaldi | | Sharaf | Sharaf (Alam) | | 'Alam | *North* | | Magharba ("Moroccan / Maghrebi") | Magharba | Magharba | *East* | | Marzaban | Bab el-Qattanin | Bab es-Silsila | Wad | Muslim Quarter (south) | *South* | | Qattanin | | Aqabet es-Sitta | Wad | | 'Aqabet et-Takiya | | (Outside the city walls) | | | Nebi Daud | | Mount Zion | ### Muslim Quarter The Muslim Quarter (Arabic: حارَة المُسلِمين, Hārat al-Muslimīn) is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions' Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple Mount in the south, to the Western Wall – Damascus Gate route in the west. During the British Mandate, Sir Ronald Storrs embarked on a project to rehabilitate the Cotton Market, which was badly neglected under the Turks. He describes it as a public latrine with piles of debris up to five feet high. With the help of the Pro-Jerusalem Society, vaults, roofing and walls were restored, and looms were brought in to provide employment. Like the other three quarters of the Old City, until the riots of 1929 the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and also Jews. Today, there are "many Israeli settler homes" and "several yeshivas", including Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, in the Muslim Quarter. Its population was 22,000 in 2005. ### Christian Quarter The Christian Quarter (Arabic: حارة النصارى, Ḩārat an-Naşāra) is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate, along the Jaffa Gate – Western Wall route in the south, bordering the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as the Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders the Muslim Quarter. The quarter contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, viewed by many as Christianity's holiest place. ### Armenian Quarter The Armenian Quarter (Armenian: Հայկական Թաղամաս, Haygagan T'aġamas, Arabic: حارة الأرمن, Ḩārat al-Arman) is the smallest of the four quarters of the Old City. Although the Armenians are Christian, the Armenian Quarter is distinct from the Christian Quarter. Despite the small size and population of this quarter, the Armenians and their Patriarchate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the four quarters of the city came under Jordanian control. Jordanian law required Armenians and other Christians to "give equal time to the Bible and Qur'an" in private Christian schools, and restricted the expansion of church assets. The 1967 war is remembered by residents of the quarter as a miracle, after two unexploded bombs were found inside the Armenian monastery. Today, more than 3,000 Armenians live in Jerusalem, 500 of them in the Armenian Quarter. Some are temporary residents studying at the seminary or working as church functionaries. The Patriarchate owns the land in this quarter as well as valuable property in West Jerusalem and elsewhere. In 1975, a theological seminary was established in the Armenian Quarter. After the 1967 war, the Israeli government gave compensation for repairing any churches or holy sites damaged in the fighting, regardless of who caused the damage. ### Jewish Quarter The Jewish Quarter (Hebrew: הרובע היהודי, *HaRova HaYehudi*, known colloquially to residents as *HaRova*, Arabic: حارة اليهود, *Ḩārat al-Yahūd*) lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, bordering the Armenian Quarter on the west, along the Cardo to Chain Street in the north and extends east to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The quarter has a rich history, with several long periods of Jewish presence covering much of the time[*dubious – discuss*] since the eighth century BCE. In 1948, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse. The quarter was completely sacked by Arab forces during the Battle for Jerusalem and ancient synagogues were destroyed. The Jewish quarter remained under Jordanian control until its recapture by Israeli paratroopers in the Six-Day War of 1967. A few days later, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of the adjacent Moroccan Quarter, forcibly relocating all of its inhabitants, in order to facilitate public access to the Western Wall. 195 properties -synagogues, yeshivas, and apartments - were registered as Jewish and fell under the control of Jordan's *Custodian of Enemy Property*. Most were occupied by Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli forces from West Jerusalem and its contiguous villages until UNWRA and Jordan constructed the Shuafat Refugee Camp, where many were shifted, leaving most of the properties empty of inhabitants. In 1968, after the Six Day War, Israel confiscated 12%, including the Jewish quarter and contiguous areas, of the Old City for public use. Some 80% of this confiscated infrastructure consisted of properties not owned by Jews. After reconstruction the parts of the quarter destroyed prior to 1967, these properties were then offered for sale exclusively to the Israeli and Jewish public. The prior owners mostly refused because their properties were part of Islamic family waqfs, which cannot be put up for sale. As of 2005[update], the population stood at 2,348. Many large educational institutions have taken up residence. Before being rebuilt, the quarter was carefully excavated under the supervision of Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad. The archaeological remains are on display in a series of museums and outdoor parks, which tourists can visit by descending two or three stories beneath the level of the current city. The former Chief Rabbi is Avigdor Nebenzahl, and the current Chief Rabbi is his son Chizkiyahu Nebenzahl, who is on the faculty of Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, a school situated directly across from the Western Wall. The quarter includes the "Karaites' street" (Hebrew: רחוב הקראים, Rehov Ha'Karaim), on which the old Anan ben David Kenesa is located. ### Moroccan Quarter There was previously a small Moroccan quarter in the Old City. Within a week of the Six-Day War's end, the Moroccan quarter was largely destroyed in order to give visitors better access to the Western Wall by creating the Western Wall Plaza. The parts of the Moroccan Quarter that were not destroyed are now part of the Jewish Quarter. Simultaneously with the demolition, a new regulation was set into place by which the only access point for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount is through the Gate of the Moors, which is reached via the so-called Mughrabi Bridge. Gates ----- During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During the era of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem for instance, Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side. The current walls were built by Suleiman the Magnificent, who provided them with six gates; several older gates, which had been walled up before the arrival of the Ottomans, were left as they were. As to the previously sealed Golden Gate, Suleiman at first opened and rebuilt it, but then walled it up again as well. The number of operational gates was brought back to seven after the addition of the New Gate in 1887; a smaller one, popularly known as the Tanners' Gate, has been opened for visitors after being discovered and unsealed during excavations in the 1990s. The sealed historic gates comprise four that are at least partially preserved (the double Golden Gate in the eastern wall, and the Single, Triple, and Double Gates in the southern wall), with several other gates discovered by archaeologists of which only traces remain (the Gate of the Essenes on Mount Zion, the gate of Herod's royal palace south of the citadel, and the vague remains of what 19th-century explorers identified as the Gate of the Funerals (Bab al-Jana'iz) or of al-Buraq (Bab al-Buraq) south of the Golden Gate). Until 1887, each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise. These gates have been known by a variety of names used in different historical periods and by different communities. Gallery ------- * Jewish Quarter Jewish Quarter * Street bazaar (souq), Christian Quarter Road (2006)Street bazaar (*souq*), Christian Quarter Road (2006) * Entrance to the citadel, popularly known as the Tower of DavidEntrance to the citadel, popularly known as the Tower of David See also -------- * Bezetha * Demographic history of Jerusalem * Gates of the Temple Mount * History of Jerusalem * List of cities with defensive walls * List of places in Jerusalem * Walls of Jerusalem * Zedekiah's Cave 31°46′36″N 35°14′03″E / 31.77667°N 35.23417°E / 31.77667; 35.23417

Old City of Jerusalem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_of_Jerusalem

The **axolotl** (/ˈæksəlɒtəl/; from Classical Nahuatl: *āxōlōtl* [aːˈʃoːloːtɬ] ()) (***Ambystoma mexicanum***) is a paedomorphic salamander closely related to the tiger salamander. It is unusual among amphibians in that it reaches adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of taking to the land, adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species was originally found in several lakes underlying what is now Mexico City, such as Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco. These lakes were drained by Spanish settlers after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, leading to the destruction of much of the axolotl’s natural habitat. As of 2020[update], the axolotl was near extinction due to urbanization in Mexico City and consequent water pollution, as well as the introduction of invasive species such as tilapia and perch. It is listed as critically endangered in the wild, with a decreasing population of around 50 to 1,000 adult individuals, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Axolotls are used extensively in scientific research due to their ability to regenerate limbs, gills and parts of their eyes and brains. Further research has been conducted to examine their heart as a model of human single ventricle and excessive trabeculation. Axolotls were also sold as food in Mexican markets and were a staple in the Aztec diet. Axolotls should not be confused with the larval stage of the closely related tiger salamander (*A. tigrinum*), which are widespread in much of North America and occasionally become paedomorphic. Neither should they be confused with mudpuppies (*Necturus* spp.), fully aquatic salamanders from a different family that are not closely related to the axolotl but bear a superficial resemblance. Description ----------- A sexually mature adult axolotl, at age 18–27 months, ranges in length from 15 to 45 cm (6 to 18 in), although a size close to 23 cm (9 in) is most common and greater than 30 cm (12 in) is rare. Axolotls possess features typical of salamander larvae, including external gills and a caudal fin extending from behind the head to the vent. External gills are usually lost when salamander species mature into adulthood, although the axolotl maintains this feature. This is due to their neoteny evolution, where axolotls are much more aquatic than other salamander species. Their heads are wide, and their eyes are lidless. Their limbs are underdeveloped and possess long, thin digits. Males are identified by their swollen cloacae lined with papillae, while females are noticeable for their wider bodies full of eggs. Three pairs of external gill stalks (rami) originate behind their heads and are used to move oxygenated water. The external gill rami are lined with filaments (fimbriae) to increase surface area for gas exchange. Four-gill slits lined with gill rakers are hidden underneath the external gills, which prevent food from entering and allow particles to filter through. Axolotls have barely visible vestigial teeth, which develop during metamorphosis. The primary method of feeding is by suction, during which their rakers interlock to close the gill slits. External gills are used for respiration, although buccal pumping (gulping air from the surface) may also be used to provide oxygen to their lungs. Buccal pumping can occur in a two-stroke manner that pumps air from the mouth to the lungs, and with four-stroke that reverses this pathway with compression forces. Axolotls have four pigmentation genes; when mutated they create different color variants. The normal wild-type animal is brown/tan with gold speckles and an olive undertone. The five more common mutant colors are leucistic (pale pink with black eyes), golden albino (golden with gold eyes), xanthic (grey with black eyes), albino (pale pink/white with red eyes) which is more common in axolotls than some other creatures, and melanoid (all black/dark blue with no gold speckling or olive tone). In addition, there is wide individual variability in the size, frequency, and intensity of the gold speckling and at least one variant that develops a black and white piebald appearance on reaching maturity. Because pet breeders frequently cross the variant colors, double homozygous mutants are common in the pet trade, especially white/pink animals with pink eyes that are double homozygous mutants for both the albino and leucistic trait. Axolotls also have some limited ability to alter their color to provide better camouflage by changing the relative size and thickness of their melanophores. Habitat and ecology ------------------- The axolotl is native only to the freshwater of Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco in the Valley of Mexico. Lake Chalco no longer exists, having been drained as a flood control measure, and Lake Xochimilco remains a remnant of its former self, existing mainly as canals. The water temperature in Xochimilco rarely rises above 20 °C (68 °F), although it may fall to 6–7 °C (43–45 °F) in the winter, and perhaps lower. Surveys in 1998, 2003, and 2008 found 6,000, 1,000, and 100 axolotls per square kilometer in its Lake Xochimilco habitat, respectively. A four-month-long search in 2013, however, turned up no surviving individuals in the wild. Just a month later, two wild ones were spotted in a network of canals leading from Xochimilco. The wild population has been put under heavy pressure by the growth of Mexico City. The axolotl is currently on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's annual Red List of threatened species. Non-native fish, such as African tilapia and Asian carp, have also recently been introduced to the waters. These new fish have been eating the axolotls' young, as well as their primary source of food. Axolotls are members of the tiger salamander, or *Ambystoma tigrinum*, species complex, along with all other Mexican species of *Ambystoma*. Their habitat is like that of most neotenic species—a high-altitude body of water surrounded by a risky terrestrial environment. These conditions are thought to favor neoteny. However, a terrestrial population of Mexican tiger salamanders occupies and breeds in the axolotl's habitat. ### Diet The axolotl is carnivorous, consuming small prey such as mollusks, worms, insects, other arthropods, and small fish in the wild. Axolotls locate food by smell, and will "snap" at any potential meal, sucking the food into their stomachs with vacuum force. Use as a model organism ----------------------- Today, the axolotl is still used in research as a model organism, and large numbers are bred in captivity. They are especially easy to breed compared to other salamanders in their family, which are rarely captive-bred due to the demands of terrestrial life. One attractive feature for research is the large and easily manipulated embryo, which allows viewing of the full development of a vertebrate. Axolotls are used in heart defect studies due to the presence of a mutant gene that causes heart failure in embryos. Since the embryos survive almost to hatching with no heart function, the defect is very observable. The axolotl is also considered an ideal animal model for the study of neural tube closure due to the similarities between human and axolotl neural plate and tube formation; the axolotl's neural tube, unlike the frog's, is not hidden under a layer of superficial epithelium. There are also mutations affecting other organ systems some of which are not well characterized and others that are. The genetics of the color variants of the axolotl have also been widely studied. ### Regeneration The feature of the axolotl that attracts most attention is its healing ability: the axolotl does not heal by scarring and is capable of the regeneration of entire lost appendages in a period of months, and, in certain cases, more vital structures, such as tail, limb, central nervous system, and tissues of the eye and heart. They can even restore less vital parts of their brains. They can also readily accept transplants from other individuals, including eyes and parts of the brain—restoring these alien organs to full functionality. In some cases, axolotls have been known to repair a damaged limb, as well as regenerating an additional one, ending up with an extra appendage that makes them attractive to pet owners as a novelty. In metamorphosed individuals, however, the ability to regenerate is greatly diminished. The axolotl is therefore used as a model for the development of limbs in vertebrates. There are three basic requirements for regeneration of the limb: the wound epithelium, nerve signaling, and the presence of cells from the different limb axes. A wound epidermis is quickly formed by the cells to cover up the site of the wound. In the following days, the cells of the wound epidermis divide and grow quickly forming a blastema, which means the wound is ready to heal and undergo patterning to form the new limb. It is believed that during limb generation, axolotls have a different system to regulate their internal macrophage level and suppress inflammation, as scarring prevents proper healing and regeneration. However, this belief has been questioned by other studies. The axolotl’s regenerative properties leave the species as the perfect model to study the process of stem cells and its own neoteny feature. Current research can record specific examples of these regenerative properties through tracking cell fates and behaviors, lineage tracing skin triploid cell grafts, pigmentation imaging, electroporation, tissue clearing and lineage tracing from dye labeling. The newer technologies of germline modification and transgenesis are better suited for live imaging the regenerative processes that occur for axolotls. ### Genome The 32 billion base pair long sequence of the axolotl's genome was published in 2018 and was the largest animal genome completed at the time. It revealed species-specific genetic pathways that may be responsible for limb regeneration. Although the axolotl genome is about 10 times as large as the human genome, it encodes a similar number of proteins, namely 23,251 (the human genome encodes about 20,000 proteins). The size difference is mostly explained by a large fraction of repetitive sequences, but such repeated elements also contribute to increased median intron sizes (22,759 bp) which are 13, 16 and 25 times that observed in human (1,750 bp), mouse (1,469 bp) and Tibetan frog (906 bp), respectively. ### Neoteny When most amphibians are young, they live in water, and they use gills that can breathe in the water. When they become adults, they go through a process called metamorphosis, in which they lose their gills and start living on land. However, the axolotl is unusual in that it has a lack of thyroid stimulating hormone, which is needed for the thyroid to produce thyroxine in order for the axolotl to go through metamorphosis; therefore, it keeps its gills and lives in water all its life, even after it becomes an adult and is able to reproduce. Its body has the capacity to go through metamorphosis if given the necessary hormone, but axolotls do not produce it, and must be exposed to it from an external source, after which an axolotl undergoes an artificially-induced metamorphosis and begins living on land. One method of artificial metamorphosis induction is through an injection of iodine, which is used in the production of thyroid hormones. An axolotl undergoing metamorphosis experiences a number of physiological changes that help them adapt to life on land. These include increased muscle tone in limbs, the absorption of gills and fins into the body, the development of eyelids, and a reduction in the skin's permeability to water, allowing the axolotl to stay more easily hydrated when on land. The lungs of an axolotl, though present alongside gills after reaching non-metamorphosed adulthood, develop further during metamorphosis. An axolotl that has gone through metamorphosis resembles an adult plateau tiger salamander, though the axolotl differs in its longer toes. The process of artificially inducing metamorphosis can often result in death during or even following a successful attempt, and so casual hobbyists are generally discouraged from attempting to induce metamorphosis in pet axolotls. Neoteny is the term for reaching sexual maturity without undergoing metamorphosis. Many other species within the axolotl's genus are also either entirely neotenic or have neotenic populations. Sirens and *Necturus* are other neotenic salamanders, although unlike axolotls, they cannot be induced to metamorphose by an injection of iodine or thyroxine hormone. The genes responsible for neoteny in laboratory animals may have been identified; however, they are not linked in wild populations, suggesting artificial selection is the cause of complete neoteny in laboratory and pet axolotls. Six adult axolotls (including a leucistic specimen) were shipped from Mexico City to the *Jardin des Plantes* in Paris in 1863. Unaware of their neoteny, Auguste Duméril was surprised when, instead of the axolotl, he found in the vivarium a new species, similar to the salamander.[*verification needed*] This discovery was the starting point of research about neoteny. It is not certain that *Ambystoma velasci* specimens were not included in the original shipment. Vilem Laufberger in Prague used thyroid hormone injections to induce an axolotl to grow into a terrestrial adult salamander. The experiment was repeated by Englishman Julian Huxley, who was unaware the experiment had already been done, using ground thyroids. Since then, experiments have been done often with injections of iodine or various thyroid hormones used to induce metamorphosis. Neoteny has been observed in all salamander families in which it seems to be a survival mechanism, in aquatic environments only of mountain and hill, with little food and, in particular, with little iodine. In this way, salamanders can reproduce and survive in the form of a smaller larval stage, which is aquatic and requires a lower quality and quantity of food compared to the big adult, which is terrestrial. If the salamander larvae ingest a sufficient amount of iodine, directly or indirectly through cannibalism, they quickly begin metamorphosis and transform into bigger terrestrial adults, with higher dietary requirements. In fact, in some high mountain lakes there live dwarf forms of salmonids that are caused by deficiencies in food and, in particular, iodine, which causes cretinism and dwarfism due to hypothyroidism, as it does in humans. Threats ------- Axolotls are only native to the Mexican Central Valley. Although the native axolotl population once extended through most of the lakes and wetlands that make up this region, the Native habitat is now limited to Lake Xochimilco as a result of the expansion of Mexico City. Lake Xochimilco is not a large body of water, but rather a small series of artificial channels, small lakes, and temporary wetlands. Lake Xochimilco has poor water quality, caused by the region’s aquaculture and agriculture demands. It is also maintained by inputs of only partially treated wastewater. Water quality tests reveal a low nitrogen-phosphorus ratio and a high concentration of chlorophyll a, which are indicative of an oxygen-poor environment that is not well-suited for axolotls. In addition, the intensive use of pesticides from agriculture around Lake Xochimilco causes run off into the lake and a reduction of habitat quality for axolotls. The pesticides used contain chemical compounds that studies show to sharply increase mortality in axolotl embryos and larvae. Of the surviving embryo and larvae, there is also an increase of morphological, behavior, and activity abnormalities. Another factor that threatens the native axolotl population is the introduction of invasive species such as the Nile tilapia and common carp. These invasive fish species threaten axolotl populations by eating their eggs or young and by out-competing them for natural resources. The presence of these species has also been shown to change the behavior of axolotls, causing them to be less active to avoid predation. This reduction in activity greatly impacts the axolotls foraging and mating opportunities. With such a small native population, there is a large loss of genetic diversity. This lack of genetic diversity can be dangerous for the remaining population, causing an increase in inbreeding and a decrease in general fitness and adaptive potential. It ultimately raises the axolotl’s risk for extinction, something that they are already in danger of. Studies have found indicators of a low interpopulation gene flow and higher rates of genetic drift. These are likely the result of multiple “bottleneck” incidents in which events that kill off several individuals of a population occur and sharply reduce the genetic diversity of the remaining population. The offspring produced after bottleneck events have a greater risk of showing decreased fitness and are often less capable of adaptation down the line. Multiple bottleneck events can have disastrous effects on a population. Studies have also found high rates of relatedness that are indicative of inbreeding. Inbreeding can be especially harmful as it can cause an increase in the presence of deleterious, or harmful, genes within a population. There has been little improvement in the conditions of the lake or the population of native axolotls. Many scientists are focusing their conservation efforts on translocation of captive-bred individuals into new habitats or reintroduction into Lake Xochimilco. The Laboratorio de Restauracion Ecologica (LRE) in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) has built up a population of more than 100 captive-bred individuals. These axolotls are mostly used for research by the lab but plans of a semi-artificial wetland inside the university have been established and the goal is to establish a viable population of axolotls within it. Studies have shown that captive-bred axolotls that are raised in a semi-natural environment can catch prey, survive in the wild, and have moderate success in escaping predators. These captive-bred individuals can be introduced into unpolluted bodies of water or back into Lake Xochimilco to establish or re-establish a wild population. Captive care ------------ The axolotl is a popular exotic pet like its relative, the tiger salamander (*Ambystoma tigrinum*). As for all poikilothermic organisms, lower temperatures result in slower metabolism and a very unhealthily reduced appetite. Temperatures at approximately 16 °C (61 °F) to 18 °C (64 °F) are suggested for captive axolotls to ensure sufficient food intake; stress resulting from more than a day's exposure to lower temperatures may quickly lead to disease and death, and temperatures higher than 24 °C (75 °F) may lead to metabolic rate increase, also causing stress and eventually death. Chlorine, commonly added to tapwater, is harmful to axolotls. A single axolotl typically requires a 150-litre (40-US-gallon) tank. Axolotls spend the majority of the time at the bottom of the tank. Salts, such as Holtfreter's solution, are often added to the water to prevent infection. In captivity, axolotls eat a variety of readily available foods, including trout and salmon pellets, frozen or live bloodworms, earthworms, and waxworms. Axolotls can also eat feeder fish, but care should be taken as fish may contain parasites. Substrates are another important consideration for captive axolotls, as axolotls (like other amphibians and reptiles) tend to ingest bedding material together with food and are commonly prone to gastrointestinal obstruction and foreign body ingestion. Some common substrates used for animal enclosures can be harmful for amphibians and reptiles. Gravel (common in aquarium use) should not be used, and is recommended that any sand consists of smooth particles with a grain size of under 1mm. One guide to axolotl care for laboratories notes that bowel obstructions are a common cause of death, and recommends that no items with a diameter below 3 cm (or approximately the size of the animal's head) should be available to the animal. There is some evidence that axolotls might seek out appropriately-sized gravel for use as gastroliths based on experiments conducted at the University of Manitoba axolotl colony, but these studies are outdated and not conclusive. As there is no conclusive evidence pointing to gastrolith use, gravel should be avoided due to the high risk of impaction. Cultural significance --------------------- The species is named after the Aztec deity Xolotl, who transformed himself into an axolotl to avoid being sacrificed by fellow gods. They continue to play an outsized cultural role in Mexico. Axólotl also means water animal in the Nahuatl language. They appear in the works of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. In 2021 Mexico released a new design for its 50-peso banknote featuring an axolotl along with maize and chinampas on its back. It was recognized as "Bank Note of the Year" by the International Bank Note Society. HD 224693, a star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus was named Axólotl in 2019. Starting in the 2000s axolotls have also become increasingly popular internationally. The Pokémon Mudkip and it evolutions, added in *Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire* (2002), take some visual inspiration from axolotls. Additionally, the Pokemon Wooper, added in *Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal* (1999), is directly based on an axolotl. The looks of the dragons Toothless and The Light Fury in the *How to Train Your Dragon* movies are based on axolotls. They were also added to the video game *Minecraft* in 2020. It is following Mojang Studios' trend of adding endangered species to the game to raise awareness. They were also added to its spin-off *Minecraft: Dungeons* in 2022 and are available in *Lego Minecraft*. An anthropomorphic Axolotl named Axo was also added as a purchasable outfit in *Fortnite Battle Royale* on August 9th 2020. Axolot Games, the publisher of the video games *Raft* and *Scrap Mechanic* is also named after the animal. See also -------- * Mudpuppies * Olm * Texas salamander * Texas blind salamander * Lake Patzcuaro salamander * Barred tiger salamander * Amphibious fish * Handfish * Regenerative biomedicine

Axolotl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl

**Fomalhaut** (UK: /ˈfɒməloʊt/, US: /ˈfoʊməlhɔːt/) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation **Alpha Piscis Austrini**, which is Latinized from **α Piscis Austrini**, and is abbreviated **Alpha PsA** or **α PsA**. This is a class A star on the main sequence approximately 25 light-years (7.7 pc) from the Sun as measured by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. It is classified as a Vega-like star that emits excess infrared radiation, indicating it is surrounded by a circumstellar disk. Fomalhaut, K-type main-sequence star TW Piscis Austrini, and M-type, red dwarf star LP 876-10 constitute a triple system, even though the companions are separated by approximately 8 degrees. Fomalhaut was the first stellar system with an extrasolar planet candidate imaged at visible wavelengths, designated Fomalhaut b. However, 2019 and 2023 analyses of existing and new observations indicate that Fomalhaut b isn't a planet, rather an expanding blob of debris from a massive planetesimal collision. Nomenclature ------------ *α Piscis Austrini* (Latinised to *Alpha Piscis Austrini*) is the system's Bayer designation. It also bears the Flamsteed designation of *24 Piscis Austrini*. The classical astronomer Ptolemy put it in Aquarius, as well as Piscis Austrinus. In the 17th centrury, Johann Bayer firmly planted it in the primary position of Piscis Austrinus. Following Ptolemy, John Flamsteed in 1725 additionally denoted it *79 Aquarii*. The current designation reflects modern consensus on Bayer's decision, that the star belongs in Piscis Austrinus. Under the rules for naming objects in multiple star systems, the three components – Fomalhaut, TW Piscis Austrini and LP 876-10 – are designated A, B and C, respectively. The star's traditional name derives from *Fom al-Haut* from scientific Arabic فم الحوت **fam al-ḥūt (al-janūbī)** "the mouth of the [Southern] Fish" (literally, "mouth of the whale"), a translation of how Ptolemy labeled it. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included the name Fomalhaut for this star. In July 2014, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) launched NameExoWorlds, a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Dagon for Fomalhaut b. The winning name was proposed by Todd Vaccaro and forwarded by the St. Cloud State University Planetarium of St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States of America, to the IAU for consideration. Dagon was a Semitic deity, often represented as half-man, half-fish. Fomalhaut A ----------- At a declination of −29.6°, Fomalhaut is located south of the celestial equator, and hence is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere. However, its southerly declination is not as great as that of stars such as Acrux, Alpha Centauri and Canopus, meaning that, unlike them, Fomalhaut is visible from a large part of the Northern Hemisphere as well, being best seen in autumn. Its declination is greater than that of Sirius and similar to that of Antares. At 40°N, Fomalhaut rises above the horizon for eight hours and reaches only 20° above the horizon, while Capella, which rises at approximately the same time, will stay above the horizon for twenty hours. Fomalhaut can be located in northern latitudes by the fact that the western (right-hand) side of the Square of Pegasus points to it. Continuing the line from Beta to Alpha Pegasi towards the southern horizon, Fomalhaut is about 45˚ south of Alpha Pegasi, with no bright stars in between. ### Properties Fomalhaut is a young star, for many years thought to be only 100 to 300 million years old, with a potential lifespan of a billion years. A 2012 study gave a slightly higher age of 440±40 million years. The surface temperature of the star is around 8,590 K (8,320 °C). Fomalhaut's mass is about 1.92 times that of the Sun, its luminosity is about 16.6 times greater, and its diameter is roughly 1.84 times as large. Fomalhaut is slightly metal-deficient compared to the Sun, which means it is composed of a smaller percentage of elements other than hydrogen and helium. The metallicity is typically determined by measuring the abundance of iron in the photosphere relative to the abundance of hydrogen. A 1997 spectroscopic study measured a value equal to 93% of the Sun's abundance of iron. A second 1997 study deduced a value of 78%, by assuming Fomalhaut has the same metallicity as the neighboring star TW Piscis Austrini, which has since been argued to be a physical companion. In 2004, a stellar evolutionary model of Fomalhaut yielded a metallicity of 79%. Finally, in 2008, a spectroscopic measurement gave a significantly lower value of 46%. Fomalhaut has been claimed to be one of approximately 16 stars belonging to the Castor Moving Group. This is an association of stars which share a common motion through space, and have been claimed to be physically associated. Other members of this group include Castor and Vega. The moving group has an estimated age of 200±100 million years and originated from the same location. More recent work has found that purported members of the Castor Moving Group appear to not only have a wide range of ages, but their velocities are too different to have been possibly associated with one another in the distant past. Hence, "membership" in this dynamical group has no bearing on the age of the Fomalhaut system. ### Debris disks and suspected planets Fomalhaut is surrounded by several debris disks. The inner disk is a high-carbon small-grain (10–300 nm) ash disk, clustering at 0.1 AU from the star. Next is a disk of larger particles, with inner edge 0.4-1 AU of the star. The innermost disk is unexplained as yet. The outermost disk is at a radial distance of 133 AU (1.99×1010 km; 1.24×1010 mi), in a toroidal shape with a very sharp inner edge, all inclined 24 degrees from edge-on. The dust is distributed in a belt about 25 AU wide. The geometric center of the disk is offset by about 15 AU (2.2×109 km; 1.4×109 mi) from Fomalhaut. The disk is sometimes referred to as "Fomalhaut's Kuiper belt". Fomalhaut's dusty disk is believed to be protoplanetary, and emits considerable infrared radiation. Measurements of Fomalhaut's rotation indicate that the disk is located in the star's equatorial plane, as expected from theories of star and planet formation. Herschel Space Observatory images of Fomalhaut, analysed in 2012, reveal that a large amount of fluffy micrometer-sized dust is present in the outer dust belt. Because such dust is expected to be blown out of the system by stellar radiation pressure on short timescales, its presence indicates a constant replenishment by collisions of planetesimals. The fluffy morphology of the grains suggests a cometary origin. The collision rate is estimated to be approximately 2000 kilometre-sized comets per day. Observations of this outer dust ring by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array also suggested the possible existence of two planets in the system. If there are additional planets from 4 to 10 AU, they must be under 20 MJ; if from 2.5 outward, then 20 MJ. On November 13, 2008, astronomers announced an extrasolar planet candidate, orbiting just inside the outer debris ring. This was the first extrasolar orbiting object candidate to be directly imaged in visible light, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The mass of the tentative planet, Fomalhaut b, was estimated to be less than three times the mass of Jupiter, and at least the mass of Neptune. However, M-band images taken from the MMT Observatory put strong limits on the existence of gas giants within 40 AU of the star, and Spitzer Space Telescope imaging suggested that the object Fomalhaut b was more likely to be a dust cloud. A later 2019 synthesis of new and existing direct observations of the object confirmed that it is expanding, losing brightness, has not enough mass to detectably perturb the outer ring while crossing it, and is probably a dispersing cloud of debris from a massive planetesimal collision on a hyperbolic orbit destined to leave the Fomalhaut A system. Further 2022 observations with the James Webb Space Telescope in mid-infrared failed to resolve the object in the 25.5 μm MIRI wideband filter wavelength range, reported by the same team to be consistent with the previous result. The same 2022 JWST imaging data discovered another apparent feature in the outer disk, dubbed the “Great Dust Cloud”. However, another team's analysis, which included other existing data, preferred its interpretation as a coincident background object, not part of the outer ring. The Fomalhaut planetary system| Companion(in order from star) | Mass | Semimajor axis(AU) | Orbital period(days) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Inner hot disk** | 0.08–0.11 AU | — | — | | **Outer hot disk** | 0.21–0.62 AU *or* 0.88–1.08 AU | — | — | | **10 AU belt** | 8–12 AU | — | — | | **Interbelt dust disk** | 35–133 AU | — | — | | **Main belt** | 133–158 AU | −66.1° | — | | **Main belt outer halo** | 158–209 AU | — | — | Fomalhaut B (TW Piscis Austrini) -------------------------------- Fomalhaut forms a binary star with the K4-type star TW Piscis Austrini (TW PsA), which lies 0.28 parsecs (0.91 light-years) away from Fomalhaut, and its space velocity agrees with that of Fomalhaut within 0.1±0.5 km/s, consistent with being a bound companion. A recent age estimate for TW PsA (400±70 million years) agrees very well with the isochronal age for Fomalhaut (450±40 million years), further arguing for the two stars forming a physical binary. The designation TW Piscis Austrini is astronomical nomenclature for a variable star. Fomalhaut B is a flare star of the type known as a BY Draconis variable. It varies slightly in apparent magnitude, ranging from 6.44 to 6.49 over a 10.3 day period. While smaller than the Sun, it is relatively large for a flare star. Most flare stars are red M-type dwarfs. In 2019, a team of researchers analyzing the astrometry, radial velocity measurements, and images of Fomalhaut B suggested the existence of a planet orbiting the star with a mass of 1.2+0.7 −0.6 Jupiter masses, and a poorly defined orbital period with an estimate loosely centering around 25 years. Fomalhaut C (LP 876-10) ----------------------- LP 876-10 is also associated with the Fomalhaut system, making it a trinary star. In October 2013, Eric Mamajek and collaborators from the RECONS consortium announced that the previously known high-proper-motion star LP 876-10 had a distance, velocity, and color-magnitude position consistent with being another member of the Fomalhaut system. LP 876-10 was originally catalogued as a high-proper-motion star by Willem Luyten in his 1979 NLTT catalogue; however, a precise trigonometric parallax and radial velocity was only measured quite recently. LP 876-10 is a red dwarf of spectral type M4V, and located even farther from Fomalhaut A than TW PsA—about 5.7° away from Fomalhaut A in the sky, in the neighbouring constellation Aquarius, whereas both Fomalhaut A and TW PsA are located in constellation Piscis Austrinus. Its current separation from Fomalhaut A is about 0.77 parsecs (2.5 light-years), and it is currently located 0.987 parsecs (3.22 light-years) away from TW PsA (Fomalhaut B). LP 876-10 is located well within the tidal radius of the Fomalhaut system, which is 1.9 parsecs (6.2 light-years). Although LP 876-10 is itself catalogued as a binary star in the Washington Double Star Catalog (called "WSI 138"), there was no sign of a close-in stellar companion in the imaging, spectral, or astrometric data in the Mamajek et al. study. In December 2013, Kennedy et al. reported the discovery of a cold dusty debris disk associated with Fomalhaut C, using infrared images from the Herschel Space Observatory. Multiple-star systems hosting multiple debris disks are exceedingly rare. Etymology and cultural significance ----------------------------------- Fomalhaut has had various names ascribed to it through time, and has been recognized by many cultures of the northern hemisphere, including the Arabs, Persians, and Chinese. It marked the solstice in 2500 BC. It was also a marker for the worship of Demeter in Eleusis. * It was called *Hastorang* by the Persians, one of the four "royal stars". * The Latin names are **ōs piscis merīdiāni, ōs piscis merīdionālis, ōs piscis notii** "the mouth of the Southern Fish". * A folk name among the early Arabs was *Difdi‘ al Awwal* (الضفدع الأول **al-ḍifdiʿ al-awwal**) "the first frog" (the second frog is Beta Ceti). * The Chinese name 北落師門/北落师门 (Mandarin: Běiluòshīmén), meaning *North Gate of the Military Camp*, because this star is marking itself and stands alone in *North Gate of the Military Camp* asterism, Encampment mansion (see: Chinese constellations). 北落师门 (Běiluòshīmén), westernized into *Pi Lo Sze Mun* by R.H. Allen. * To the Moporr Aboriginal people of South Australia, it is a male being called *Buunjill*. The Wardaman people of the Northern Territory called Fomalhaut *Menggen* —white cockatoo. Fomalhaut-Earthwork B, in Mounds State Park near Anderson, Indiana, lines up with the rising of the star Fomalhaut in the fall months, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. In 1980, astronomer Jack Robinson proposed that the rising azimuth of Fomalhaut was marked by cairn placements at both the Bighorn medicine wheel in Wyoming, USA, and the Moose Mountain medicine wheel in Saskatchewan, Canada. The *New Scientist* magazine termed it the "Great Eye of Sauron", due to its shape and debris ring, when viewed from a distance, bearing similarity to the aforementioned "eye" in the Peter Jackson *Lord of the Rings* films. USS *Fomalhaut* (AK-22) was a United States navy amphibious cargo ship. See also -------- * 2M1207 * GJ 758 * HR 8799 * Direct imaging of extrasolar planets * Lists of exoplanets * List of star systems within 25–30 light-years

Fomalhaut

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomalhaut

**Computer engineering** (**CoE** or **CpE**) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers require training in electronic engineering, hardware-software integration, software design, and software engineering. It uses the techniques and principles of electrical engineering and computer science, and can encompass areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, computer networks, computer architecture and operating systems. Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects of computing, from the design of individual microcontrollers, microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design. This field of engineering not only focuses on how computer systems themselves work, but also on how to integrate them into the larger picture. Robots are one of the applications of computer engineering. Computer engineering usually deals with areas including writing software and firmware for embedded microcontrollers, designing VLSI chips, designing analog sensors, designing mixed signal circuit boards, and designing operating systems. Computer engineers are also suited for robotics research, which relies heavily on using digital systems to control and monitor electrical systems like motors, communications, and sensors. In many institutions of higher learning, computer engineering students are allowed to choose areas of in-depth study in their junior and senior year because the full breadth of knowledge used in the design and application of computers is beyond the scope of an undergraduate degree. Other institutions may require engineering students to complete one or two years of general engineering before declaring computer engineering as their primary focus. History ------- Computer engineering began in 1939 when John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry began developing the world's first electronic digital computer through physics, mathematics, and electrical engineering. John Vincent Atanasoff was once a physics and mathematics teacher for Iowa State University and Clifford Berry a former graduate under electrical engineering and physics. Together, they created the Atanasoff-Berry computer, also known as the ABC which took five years to complete. While the original ABC was dismantled and discarded in the 1940s a tribute was made to the late inventors, a replica of the ABC was made in 1997 where it took a team of researchers and engineers four years and $350,000 to build. The modern personal computer emerged in the 1970s, after several breakthroughs in semiconductor technology. These include the first working transistor by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947, planar process by Jean Hoerni, the monolithic integrated circuit chip by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, or MOS transistor) by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959, and the single-chip microprocessor (Intel 4004) by Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff, Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel in 1971. ### History of computer engineering education The first computer engineering degree program in the United States was established in 1971 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. As of 2015[update], there were 250 ABET-accredited computer engineering programs in the U.S. In Europe, accreditation of computer engineering schools is done by a variety of agencies part of the EQANIE network. Due to increasing job requirements for engineers who can concurrently design hardware, software, firmware, and manage all forms of computer systems used in industry, some tertiary institutions around the world offer a bachelor's degree generally called computer engineering. Both computer engineering and electronic engineering programs include analog and digital circuit design in their curriculum. As with most engineering disciplines, having a sound knowledge of mathematics and science is necessary for computer engineers. Education --------- Computer engineering is referred to as computer science and engineering at some universities. Most entry-level computer engineering jobs require at least a bachelor's degree in computer engineering (or computer science and engineering). Typically one must learn an array of mathematics such as calculus, algebra and trigonometry and some computer science classes. Degrees in electronic or electric engineering also suffice due to the similarity of the two fields. Because hardware engineers commonly work with computer software systems, a strong background in computer programming is necessary. According to BLS, "a computer engineering major is similar to electrical engineering but with some computer science courses added to the curriculum". Some large firms or specialized jobs require a master's degree. It is also important for computer engineers to keep up with rapid advances in technology. Therefore, many continue learning throughout their careers. This can be helpful, especially when it comes to learning new skills or improving existing ones. For example, as the relative cost of fixing a bug increases the further along it is in the software development cycle, there can be greater cost savings attributed to developing and testing for quality code as soon as possible in the process, particularly before release. Profession: Computer engineer ----------------------------- A person with a profession in computer engineering is called a computer engineer. | Title | Prefix | Suffix | Requirements | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Computer engineer | Engr. | CpE | Passed a degree in computer engineering Institution: Educational Institution (such as colleges, universities) | | Certified computer engineer | Engr. | CCpE | Passed a certification exam in computer engineering Institution: Private institution (such as computer engineering organizations and private companies) | | Registered computer engineer | Engr. | RCpE | Passed a licensure exam in computer engineering Institution: Public Institution (such as Country's Regulatory Board) | | Professional computer engineer | Engr. | PCpE | Passed a professional exam in computer engineering, or work experience Institution: Public or Private Institution | | *\*may vary on region and country.* | Applications and practice ------------------------- There are two major focuses in computer engineering: hardware and software. ### Computer hardware engineering According to the BLS, Job Outlook employment for computer hardware engineers, the expected ten-year growth from 2019 to 2029 for computer hardware engineering was an estimated 2% and a total of 71,100 jobs. ("Slower than average" in their own words when compared to other occupations)". This is a decrease from the 2014 to 2024 BLS computer hardware engineering estimate of 3% and a total of 77,700 jobs. " and is down from 7% for the 2012 to 2022 BLS estimate and is further down from 9% in the BLS 2010 to 2020 estimate." Today, computer hardware is somehow equal[*clarification needed*] to electronic and computer engineering (ECE) and has been divided into many subcategories; the most significant is embedded system design. ### Computer software engineering According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), "computer applications software engineers and computer systems software engineers are projected to be among the faster than average growing occupations" The expected ten-year growth as of 2014 for computer software engineering was an estimated seventeen percent and there was a total of 1,114,000 jobs that same year. This is down from the 2012 to 2022 BLS estimate of 22% for software developers. And, further down from the 30% 2010 to 2020 BLS estimate. In addition, growing concerns over cybersecurity add up to put computer software engineering high above the average rate of increase for all fields. However, some of the work will be outsourced in foreign countries. Due to this, job growth will not be as fast as during the last decade, as jobs that would have gone to computer software engineers in the United States would instead go to computer software engineers in countries such as India. In addition, the BLS Job Outlook for Computer Programmers, 2014–24 has an −8% (a decline, in their words), a Job Outlook, 2019-29 a -9% (Decline), and a 10% decline for 2021-2031 for those who program computers (i.e. embedded systems) who are not computer application developers. Furthermore, women in software fields has been declining over the years even faster than other engineering fields. ### Computer engineering licensing and practice Computer engineering is generally practiced within larger product development firms, and such practice may not be subject to licensing. However, independent consultants who advertise computer engineering, just like any form of engineering, may be subject to state laws which restrict professional engineer practice to only those who have received the appropriate License. National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) first offered a Principles and Practice of Engineering Examination for computer engineering in 2003. Specialty areas --------------- There are many specialty areas in the field of computer engineering. ### Processor design Processor design process involves choosing an instruction set and a certain execution paradigm (e.g. VLIW or RISC) and results in a microarchitecture, which might be described in e.g. VHDL or Verilog. CPU design is divided into design of the following components: datapaths (such as ALUs and pipelines), control unit: logic which controls the datapaths, memory components such as register files, caches, clock circuitry such as clock drivers, PLLs, clock distribution networks, pad transceiver circuitry, logic gate cell library which is used to implement the logic. ### Coding, cryptography, and information protection Computer engineers work in coding, cryptography, and information protection to develop new methods for protecting various information, such as digital images and music, fragmentation, copyright infringement and other forms of tampering. Examples include work on wireless communications, multi-antenna systems, optical transmission, and digital watermarking. ### Communications and wireless networks Those focusing on communications and wireless networks, work advancements in telecommunications systems and networks (especially wireless networks), modulation and error-control coding, and information theory. High-speed network design, interference suppression and modulation, design, and analysis of fault-tolerant system, and storage and transmission schemes are all a part of this specialty. ### Compilers and operating systems This specialty focuses on compilers and operating systems design and development. Engineers in this field develop new operating system architecture, program analysis techniques, and new techniques to assure quality. Examples of work in this field include post-link-time code transformation algorithm development and new operating system development. ### Computational science and engineering Computational science and engineering is a relatively new discipline. According to the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, individuals working in this area, "computational methods are applied to formulate and solve complex mathematical problems in engineering and the physical and the social sciences. Examples include aircraft design, the plasma processing of nanometer features on semiconductor wafers, VLSI circuit design, radar detection systems, ion transport through biological channels, and much more". ### Computer networks, mobile computing, and distributed systems In this specialty, engineers build integrated environments for computing, communications, and information access. Examples include shared-channel wireless networks, adaptive resource management in various systems, and improving the quality of service in mobile and ATM environments. Some other examples include work on wireless network systems and fast Ethernet cluster wired systems. ### Computer systems: architecture, parallel processing, and dependability Engineers working in computer systems work on research projects that allow for reliable, secure, and high-performance computer systems. Projects such as designing processors for multi-threading and parallel processing are included in this field. Other examples of work in this field include the development of new theories, algorithms, and other tools that add performance to computer systems. Computer architecture includes CPU design, cache hierarchy layout, memory organization, and load balancing. ### Computer vision and robotics In this specialty, computer engineers focus on developing visual sensing technology to sense an environment, representation of an environment, and manipulation of the environment. The gathered three-dimensional information is then implemented to perform a variety of tasks. These include improved human modeling, image communication, and human-computer interfaces, as well as devices such as special-purpose cameras with versatile vision sensors. ### Embedded systems Individuals working in this area design technology for enhancing the speed, reliability, and performance of systems. Embedded systems are found in many devices from a small FM radio to the space shuttle. According to the Sloan Cornerstone Career Center, ongoing developments in embedded systems include "automated vehicles and equipment to conduct search and rescue, automated transportation systems, and human-robot coordination to repair equipment in space." As of 2018[update], computer embedded systems specializations include system-on-chip design, architecture of edge computing and the Internet of things. ### Integrated circuits, VLSI design, testing and CAD This specialty of computer engineering requires adequate knowledge of electronics and electrical systems. Engineers working in this area work on enhancing the speed, reliability, and energy efficiency of next-generation very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and microsystems. An example of this specialty is work done on reducing the power consumption of VLSI algorithms and architecture. ### Signal, image and speech processing Computer engineers in this area develop improvements in human-computer interaction, including speech recognition and synthesis, medical and scientific imaging, or communications systems. Other work in this area includes computer vision development such as recognition of human facial features. ### Quantum computing This area integrates the quantum behaviour of small particles such as superposition, interference and entanglement, with classical computers to solve complex problems and formulate algorithms much efficiently. Individuals focus on fields like Quantum cryptography, physical simulations and quantum algorithms. See also -------- ### Related fields * Electrical engineering * Electronic engineering * Computer science * Computer programming * Software development * Computer network * Electrical and electronic engineering ### Associations * IEEE Computer Society * Association for Computing Machinery

Computer engineering

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_engineering

The **euro area**, commonly called the **eurozone** (**EZ**), is a currency union of 20 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies. The 20 eurozone members are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. The seven non-eurozone members of the EU are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. They continue to use their own national currencies, although all but Denmark are obliged to join once they meet the euro convergence criteria. Among non-EU member states, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City have formal agreements with the EU to use the euro as their official currency and issue their own coins. In addition, Kosovo and Montenegro have adopted the euro unilaterally. These six countries, however, have no representation in any eurozone institution. The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the Eurogroup is an informal body of finance ministers that makes fiscal policy for the currency union, and the European System of Central Banks is responsible for fiscal and monetary cooperation between eurozone and non-eurozone EU members. The European Central Bank (ECB) makes monetary policy for the eurozone, sets its base interest rate, and issues euro banknotes and coins. Since the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the eurozone has established and used provisions for granting emergency loans to member states in return for enacting economic reforms. The eurozone has also enacted some limited fiscal integration; for example, in peer review of each other's national budgets. The issue is political and in a state of flux in terms of what further provisions will be agreed for eurozone change. No eurozone member state has left, and there are no provisions to do so or to be expelled. Territory --------- ### Eurozone In 1998, eleven member states of the European Union had met the euro convergence criteria, and the eurozone came into existence with the official launch of the euro (alongside national currencies) on 1 January 1999 in those countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Greece qualified in 2000 and was admitted on 1 January 2001. These twelve founding members introduced physical euro banknotes and euro coins on 1 January 2002. After a short transition period, they took out of circulation and rendered invalid their pre-euro national coins and notes. Between 2007 and 2023, eight new states have acceded: Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia. | state | ISO code | adopted on 1 January of | population in 2021 | nominal GNI in 2021 in millions of USD | nominal GNI as fraction of eurozone total | nominal GNI per capita in 2021 in USD | pre-euro currency | conversion rate of euro to pre-euro currency | pre-euro currency was also used in | territories where euro is not used | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Austria | AT | 1999 | 8,932,664 | 472,474 | 3.27% | 52,893 | schilling | 13.7603 | | | | Belgium | BE | 1999 | 11,554,767 | 585,375 | 4.05% | 50,661 | franc | 40.3399 | Luxembourg | | | Croatia | HR | 2023 | 4,036,355 | 68,724 | 0.48% | 17,026 | kuna | 7.53450 | | | | Cyprus | CY | 2008 | 896,007 | 25,634 | 0.18% | 28,609 | pound | 0.585274 | | Northern Cyprus | | Estonia | EE | 2011 | 1,330,068 | 35,219 | 0.24% | 26,479 | kroon | 15.6466 | | | | Finland | FI | 1999 | 5,533,793 | 296,473 | 2.05% | 53,575 | markka | 5.94573 | | | | France | FR | 1999 | 67,656,682 | 2,991,553 | 20.69% | 44,217 | franc | 6.55957 | AndorraMonaco | New CaledoniaFrench PolynesiaWallis and Futuna | | Germany | DE | 1999 | 83,155,031 | 4,298,325 | 29.72% | 51,690 | Mark | 1.95583 | KosovoMontenegro | | | Greece | GR | 2001 | 10,678,632 | 212,807 | 1.47% | 19,928 | drachma | 340.750 | | | | Ireland | IE | 1999 | 5,006,324 | 383,084 | 2.65% | 76,520 | pound | 0.787564 | | | | Italy | IT | 1999 | 59,236,213 | 2,127,119 | 14.71% | 35,909 | lira | 1936.27 | San MarinoVatican City | | | Latvia | LV | 2014 | 1,893,223 | 37,295 | 0.26% | 19,699 | lats | 0.702804 | | | | Lithuania | LT | 2015 | 2,795,680 | 60,884 | 0.42% | 21,778 | litas | 3.45280 | | | | Luxembourg | LU | 1999 | 634,730 | 56,449 | 0.39% | 88,934 | franc | 40.3399 | Belgium | | | Malta | MT | 2008 | 516,100 | 15,948 | 0.11% | 30,901 | lira | 0.429300 | | | | Netherlands | NL | 1999 | 17,475,415 | 967,837 | 6.69% | 55,383 | guilder | 2.20371 | | ArubaCuraçaoSint MaartenCaribbean Netherlands | | Portugal | PT | 1999 | 10,298,252 | 246,714 | 1.71% | 23,957 | escudo | 200.482 | | | | Slovakia | SK | 2009 | 5,459,781 | 112,424 | 0.78% | 20,591 | koruna | 30.1260 | | | | Slovenia | SI | 2007 | 2,108,977 | 59,608 | 0.41% | 28,264 | tolar | 239.640 | | | | Spain | ES | 1999 | 47,398,695 | 1,407,936 | 9.74% | 29,704 | peseta | 166.386 | Andorra | | | eurozone | EZ | — | 346,597,389 | 14,461,883 | 100.00% | 41,725 | — | — | — | see above | ### Dependent territories of EU member states not part of the EU Three of the dependent territories of EU member states not part of the EU have adopted the euro: * Territorial collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented) * Overseas Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented) * French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented) ### Non-member usage **Eurozone participation** European Union member states   20 in the eurozone   1 in ERM II, without an opt-out (Bulgaria)   1 in ERM II, with an opt-out (Denmark)   5 not in ERM II, but obliged to join the eurozone on meeting the convergence criteria (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden) Non–EU member states   4 using the euro with a monetary agreement (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City)   2 using the euro unilaterally (Kosovo and Montenegro) #### With formal agreement The euro is also used in countries outside the EU. Four states (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City) have signed formal agreements with the EU to use the euro and issue their own coins. Nevertheless, they are not considered part of the eurozone by the ECB and do not have a seat in the ECB or Euro Group. Akrotiri and Dhekelia (located on the island of Cyprus) belong to the United Kingdom, but there are agreements between the UK and Cyprus and between UK and EU about their partial integration with Cyprus and partial adoption of Cypriot law, including the usage of euro in Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Several currencies are pegged to the euro, some of them with a fluctuation band and others with an exact rate. The Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark was once pegged to the Deutsche mark at par, and continues to be pegged to the euro today at the Deutsche mark's old rate (1.95583 per euro). The West African and Central African CFA francs are pegged exactly at 655.957 CFA to 1 EUR. In 1998, in anticipation of Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, the Council of the European Union addressed the monetary agreements France had with the CFA Zone and Comoros, and ruled that the ECB had no obligation towards the convertibility of the CFA and Comorian francs. The responsibility of the free convertibility remained in the French Treasury. #### Without formal agreement Kosovo and Montenegro officially adopted the euro as their sole currency without an agreement and, therefore, have no issuing rights. These states are not considered part of the eurozone by the ECB. However, sometimes the term *eurozone* is applied to all territories that have adopted the euro as their sole currency. Further unilateral adoption of the euro (euroisation), by both non-euro EU and non-EU members, is opposed by the ECB and EU. ### Historical eurozone enlargements and exchange-rate regimes for EU members The chart below provides a full summary of all applying exchange-rate regimes for EU members, since the birth, on 13 March 1979, of the European Monetary System with its Exchange Rate Mechanism and the related new common currency ECU. On 1 January 1999, the euro replaced the ECU 1:1 at the exchange rate markets. During 1979–1999, the D-Mark functioned as a de facto anchor for the ECU, meaning there was only a minor difference between pegging a currency against the ECU and pegging it against the D-Mark. **Sources:** *EC convergence reports 1996-2014, Italian lira, Spanish peseta, Portuguese escudo, Finnish markka, Greek drachma, Sterling* The eurozone was born with its first 11 member states on 1 January 1999. The first enlargement of the eurozone, to Greece, took place on 1 January 2001, one year before the euro physically entered into circulation. The next enlargements were to states which joined the EU in 2004, and then joined the eurozone on 1 January of the year noted: Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus in 2008, Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, and Lithuania in 2015. Croatia, which acceded to the EU in 2013, adopted the euro in 2023. All new EU members joining the bloc after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 are obliged to adopt the euro under the terms of their accession treaties. However, the last of the five economic convergence criteria which need first to be complied with in order to qualify for euro adoption, is the exchange rate stability criterion, which requires having been an ERM-member for a minimum of two years without the presence of "severe tensions" for the currency exchange rate. In September 2011, a diplomatic source close to the euro adoption preparation talks with the seven remaining new member states who had yet to adopt the euro at that time (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania), claimed that the monetary union (eurozone) they had thought they were going to join upon their signing of the accession treaty may very well end up being a very different union, entailing a much closer fiscal, economic, and political convergence than originally anticipated. This changed legal status of the eurozone could potentially cause them to conclude that the conditions for their promise to join were no longer valid, which "could force them to stage new referendums" on euro adoption. ### Future enlargement A clickable Euler diagram[file] showing the relationships between various multinational European organisations and agreements Seven countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden) are EU members but do not use the euro. Before joining the eurozone, a state must spend at least two years in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II). As of January 2023[update], the Danish central bank and the Bulgarian central bank participate in ERM II. Denmark obtained a special opt-out in the original Maastricht Treaty, and thus is legally exempt from joining the eurozone unless its government decides otherwise, either by parliamentary vote or referendum. The United Kingdom likewise had an opt-out prior to withdrawing from the EU in 2020. The remaining six countries are obliged to adopt the euro in future, although the EU has so far not tried to enforce any time plan. They should join as soon as they fulfill the convergence criteria, which include being part of ERM II for two years. Sweden, which joined the EU in 1995 after the Maastricht Treaty was signed, is required to join the eurozone. However, the Swedish people turned down euro adoption in a 2003 referendum and since then the country has intentionally avoided fulfilling the adoption requirements by not joining ERM II, which is voluntary. Bulgaria joined ERM II on 10 July 2020. Interest in joining the eurozone increased in Denmark, and initially in Poland, as a result of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. In Iceland, there was an increase in interest in joining the European Union, a pre-condition for adopting the euro. However, by 2010 the debt crisis in the eurozone caused interest from Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden to cool. ### Expulsion and withdrawal In the opinion of journalist Leigh Phillips and Locke Lord's Charles Proctor, there is no provision in any European Union treaty for an exit from the eurozone. In fact, they argued, the Treaties make it clear that the process of monetary union was intended to be "irreversible" and "irrevocable". However, in 2009, a European Central Bank legal study argued that, while voluntary withdrawal is legally not possible, expulsion remains "conceivable". Although an explicit provision for an exit option does not exist, many experts and politicians in Europe have suggested an option to leave the eurozone should be included in the relevant treaties. On the issue of leaving the eurozone, the European Commission has stated that "[t]he irrevocability of membership in the euro area is an integral part of the Treaty framework and the Commission, as a guardian of the EU Treaties, intends to fully respect [that irrevocability]." It added that it "does not intend to propose [any] amendment" to the relevant Treaties, the current status being "the best way going forward to increase the resilience of euro area Member States to potential economic and financial crises. The European Central Bank, responding to a question by a Member of the European Parliament, has stated that an exit is not allowed under the Treaties. Likewise there is no provision for a state to be expelled from the euro. Some, however, including the Dutch government, favour the creation of an expulsion provision for the case whereby a heavily indebted state in the eurozone refuses to comply with an EU economic reform policy. In a Texas law journal, University of Texas at Austin law professor Jens Dammann has argued that even now EU law contains an implicit right for member states to leave the eurozone if they no longer meet the criteria that they had to meet in order to join it. Furthermore, he has suggested that, under narrow circumstances, the European Union can expel member states from the eurozone. Administration and representation --------------------------------- The monetary policy of all countries in the eurozone is managed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurosystem which comprises the ECB and the central banks of the EU states who have joined the eurozone. Countries outside the eurozone are not represented in these institutions. Whereas all EU member states are part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), non EU member states have no say in all three institutions, even those with monetary agreements such as Monaco. The ECB is entitled to authorise the design and printing of euro banknotes and the volume of euro coins minted, and its president is currently Christine Lagarde. The eurozone is represented politically by its finance ministers, known collectively as the Eurogroup, and is presided over by a president, currently Paschal Donohoe. The finance ministers of the EU member states that use the euro meet a day before a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) of the Council of the European Union. The Group is not an official Council formation but when the full EcoFin council votes on matters only affecting the eurozone, only Euro Group members are permitted to vote on it. Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, the Euro Group has met irregularly not as finance ministers, but as heads of state and government (like the European Council). It is in this forum, the Euro summit, that many eurozone reforms have been decided upon. In 2011, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed for these summits to become regular and twice a year in order for it to be a 'true economic government'. ### Reform In April 2008 in Brussels, future European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested that the eurozone should be represented at the IMF as a bloc, rather than each member state separately: "It is absurd for those 15 countries not to agree to have a single representation at the IMF. It makes us look absolutely ridiculous. We are regarded as buffoons on the international scene". In 2017 Juncker stated that he aims to have this agreed by the end of his mandate in 2019. However, Finance Commissioner Joaquín Almunia stated that before there is common representation, a common political agenda should be agreed upon. Leading EU figures including the commission and national governments have proposed a variety of reforms to the eurozone's architecture; notably the creation of a Finance Minister, a larger eurozone budget, and reform of the current bailout mechanisms into either a "European Monetary Fund" or a eurozone Treasury. While many have similar themes, details vary greatly. Economy ------- ### Comparison table Comparison of the eurozone with US and China | | Population (2022) | GDP (nominal) (2022) | GDP (nominal) per capita (2022) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | |  China | 1412 million | US$18.3 trillion (CN¥123.2 trillion) | US$12,970 (CN¥87,217) | | Eurozone | 343 million | US$14.0 trillion (€13.4 trillion) | US$40,740 (€38,470) | |  United States | 333 million | US$25.0 trillion | US$75,180 | Comparison with economies of individual sovereign countries| Economy | Nominal GDP (billions in USD) – Peak year as of 2020 | | --- | --- | | (01) United States *(Peak in 2019)* | 21,439 | | (02) China *(Peak in 2020)* | 14,860 | | (03) Eurozone *(Peak in 2008)* | 14,188 | | (04) Japan *(Peak in 2012)* | 6,203 | | (05) United Kingdom *(Peak in 2007)* | 3,085 | | (06) India *(Peak in 2019)* | 2,868 | | (07) Brazil *(Peak in 2011)* | 2,614 | | (08) Russia *(Peak in 2013)* | 2,289 | | (09) Canada *(Peak in 2013)* | 1,847 | | (10) Korea *(Peak in 2018)* | 1,720 | | (11) Australia *(Peak in 2012)* | 1,569 | | (12) Mexico *(Peak in 2014)* | 1,315 | | (13) Indonesia *(Peak in 2019)* | 1,112 | | (14) Turkey *(Peak in 2013)* | 950 | | (15) Saudi Arabia *(Peak in 2018)* | 787 | | (16) Switzerland *(Peak in 2019)* | 715 | | (17) Argentina *(Peak in 2017)* | 643 | | (18) Taiwan *(Peak in 2020)* | 635 | | (19) Poland *(Peak in 2018)* | 585 | | (20) Sweden *(Peak in 2013)* | 579 | | The 20 largest economies in the world including eurozone as a single entity, by nominal GDP (2020) at their peak level of GDP in billions US$. The values for EU members that are not also eurozone members are listed both separately and as part of the EU. | ### Inflation HICP figures from the ECB, overall index: | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | * 2000: 2.1% * 2001: 2.3% * 2002: 2.3% * 2003: 2.1% * 2004: 2.1% | * 2005: 2.2% * 2006: 2.2% * 2007: 2.1% * 2008: 3.3% * 2009: 0.3% | * 2010: 1.6% * 2011: 2.7% * 2012: 2.5% * 2013: 1.4% * 2014: 0.4% | * 2015: 0.2% * 2016: 0.2% * 2017: 1.4% * 2018: 1.8% * 2019: 1.2% | * 2020: 0.3% * 2021: 2.6% | ### Interest rates Interest rates for the eurozone, set by the ECB since 1999. Levels are in percentages per annum. Between June 2000 and October 2008, the *main refinancing operations* were variable rate tenders, as opposed to fixed rate tenders. The figures indicated in the table from 2000 to 2008 refer to the minimum interest rate at which counterparties may place their bids. Eurozone interest rates | Date | Depositfacility | Mainrefinancingoperations | Marginallendingfacility | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1999-01-01 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.50 | | 1999-01-04 | 2.75 | 3.00 | 3.25 | | 1999-01-22 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.50 | | 1999-04-09 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | | 1999-11-05 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | | 2000-02-04 | 2.25 | 3.25 | 4.25 | | 2000-03-17 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 4.50 | | 2000-04-28 | 2.75 | 3.75 | 4.75 | | 2000-06-09 | 3.25 | 4.25 | 5.25 | | 2000-06-28 | 3.25 | 4.25 | 5.25 | | 2000-09-01 | 3.50 | 4.50 | 5.50 | | 2000-10-06 | 3.75 | 4.75 | 5.75 | | 2001-05-11 | 3.50 | 4.50 | 5.50 | | 2001-08-31 | 3.25 | 4.25 | 5.25 | | 2001-09-18 | 2.75 | 3.75 | 4.75 | | 2001-11-09 | 2.25 | 3.25 | 4.25 | | 2002-12-06 | 1.75 | 2.75 | 3.75 | | 2003-03-07 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | | 2003-06-06 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | | 2005-12-06 | 1.25 | 2.25 | 3.25 | | 2006-03-08 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | | 2006-06-15 | 1.75 | 2.75 | 3.75 | | 2006-08-09 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | | 2006-10-11 | 2.25 | 3.25 | 4.25 | | 2006-12-13 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 4.50 | | 2007-03-14 | 2.75 | 3.75 | 4.75 | | 2007-06-13 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 5.00 | | 2008-07-09 | 3.25 | 4.25 | 5.25 | | 2008-10-08 | 2.75 | | 4.75 | | 2008-10-09 | 3.25 | | 4.25 | | 2008-10-15 | 3.25 | 3.75 | 4.25 | | 2008-11-12 | 2.75 | 3.25 | 3.75 | | 2008-12-10 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | | 2009-01-21 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | | 2009-03-11 | 0.50 | 1.50 | 2.50 | | 2009-04-08 | 0.25 | 1.25 | 2.25 | | 2009-05-13 | 0.25 | 1.00 | 1.75 | | 2011-04-13 | 0.50 | 1.25 | 2.00 | | 2011-07-13 | 0.75 | 1.50 | 2.25 | | 2011-11-09 | 0.50 | 1.25 | 2.00 | | 2011-12-14 | 0.25 | 1.00 | 1.75 | | 2012-07-11 | 0.00 | 0.75 | 1.50 | | 2013-05-08 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | | 2013-11-13 | 0.00 | 0.25 | 0.75 | | 2014-06-11 | −0.10 | 0.15 | 0.40 | | 2014-09-10 | −0.20 | 0.05 | 0.30 | | 2015-12-09 | −0.30 | 0.05 | 0.30 | | 2016-03-16 | −0.40 | 0.00 | 0.25 | ### Public debt The following table states the ratio of public debt to GDP in percent for eurozone countries given by EuroStat. The euro convergence criterion is 60%. | Country | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Eurozone | 64.9 | 69.6 | 80.2 | 85.7 | 87.6 | 91.0 | 93.0 | 93.1 | 91.2 | 90.4 | 87.9 | 85.8 | 83.8 | 97.2 | 95.6 | 94.2 | | Austria | 64.7 | 68.7 | 79.7 | 82.7 | 82.4 | 81.9 | 81.3 | 84.0 | 84.9 | 82.8 | 78.5 | 74.1 | 70.6 | 83.3 | 82.8 | 82.7 | | Belgium | 87.0 | 93.2 | 99.6 | 100.3 | 103.5 | 104.8 | 105.5 | 107.0 | 105.2 | 105.0 | 102.0 | 99.8 | 97.7 | 112.8 | 108.2 | 108.3 | | Cyprus | 53.5 | 45.5 | 53.9 | 56.3 | 65.8 | 80.3 | 104.0 | 109.1 | 108.9 | 107.1 | 97.5 | 100.6 | 91.1 | 115.0 | 103.6 | 95.2 | | Croatia | 37.2 | 39.1 | 48.4 | 57.3 | 63.7 | 69.4 | 80.3 | 83.9 | 83.3 | 79.8 | 76.7 | 73.3 | 71.1 | 87.3 | 79.8 | 74.3 | | Estonia | 3.7 | 4.5 | 7.0 | 6.6 | 5.9 | 9.8 | 10.2 | 10.6 | 9.7 | 9.4 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 19.0 | 18.1 | 16.7 | | Finland | 34.0 | 32.6 | 41.7 | 47.1 | 48.5 | 53.6 | 56.2 | 59.8 | 63.1 | 63.1 | 61.4 | 59.0 | 59.5 | 69.0 | 65.8 | 72.1 | | France | 64.3 | 68.8 | 79.0 | 81.7 | 85.2 | 90.6 | 93.4 | 94.9 | 95.8 | 96.5 | 97.0 | 98.4 | 97.5 | 114.6 | 112.9 | 113.1 | | Germany | 63.7 | 65.5 | 72.4 | 81.0 | 78.3 | 81.1 | 78.7 | 75.6 | 71.2 | 68.1 | 64.1 | 61.9 | 58.9 | 68.7 | 69.3 | 67.2 | | Greece | 103.1 | 109.4 | 126.7 | 146.2 | 172.1 | 161.9 | 178.4 | 180.2 | 176.9 | 180.8 | 178.6 | 181.2 | 180.7 | 206.3 | 193.3 | 182.1 | | Ireland | 23.9 | 42.4 | 61.8 | 86.8 | 109.1 | 119.9 | 119.9 | 104.2 | 93.8 | 72.8 | 68.0 | 63.6 | 57.2 | 58.4 | 56.0 | 51.4 | | Italy | 99.8 | 106.2 | 112.5 | 115.4 | 116.5 | 126.5 | 132.5 | 135.4 | 132.7 | 132 | 131.8 | 134.8 | 134.3 | 155.3 | 150.8 | 150.2 | | Latvia | 8.0 | 18.6 | 36.6 | 47.5 | 42.8 | 42.2 | 40.0 | 41.6 | 36.4 | 40.6 | 40.1 | 36.4 | 36.7 | 43.3 | 44.8 | 41.6 | | Lithuania | 15.9 | 14.6 | 29.0 | 36.2 | 37.2 | 39.7 | 38.7 | 40.5 | 42.7 | 40.1 | 39.7 | 34.1 | 35.9 | 46.6 | 44.3 | 39.6 | | Luxembourg | 7.7 | 15.4 | 16.0 | 20.1 | 19.1 | 22.0 | 23.7 | 22.7 | 21.4 | 20.8 | 23.0 | 21.0 | 22.3 | 24.8 | 24.4 | 25.4 | | Malta | 62.3 | 61.8 | 67.8 | 67.6 | 69.9 | 65.9 | 65.8 | 61.6 | 63.9 | 57.6 | 50.8 | 45.8 | 40.7 | 53.4 | 57.0 | 55.1 | | Netherlands | 42.7 | 54.7 | 56.5 | 59.0 | 61.7 | 66.3 | 67.7 | 67.9 | 65.1 | 61.8 | 56.7 | 52.4 | 48.5 | 54.3 | 52.1 | 50.9 | | Portugal | 68.4 | 75.6 | 83.6 | 96.2 | 111.4 | 129.0 | 131.4 | 132.9 | 129.0 | 130.1 | 125.7 | 122.2 | 116.6 | 135.2 | 127.4 | 123.4 | | Slovakia | 30.1 | 28.6 | 41.0 | 43.3 | 43.3 | 51.8 | 54.7 | 53.6 | 52.9 | 51.8 | 50.9 | 49.4 | 48.1 | 59.7 | 63.1 | 60.3 | | Slovenia | 22.8 | 21.8 | 36.0 | 40.8 | 46.6 | 53.6 | 70.0 | 80.3 | 83.2 | 78.5 | 73.6 | 70.4 | 65.6 | 79.8 | 74.7 | 73.5 | | Spain | 35.6 | 39.7 | 52.7 | 60.1 | 69.5 | 86.3 | 95.8 | 100.7 | 99.2 | 99.0 | 98.3 | 97.6 | 95.5 | 120.0 | 118.4 | 116.1 | ### Fiscal policies The primary means for fiscal coordination within the EU lies in the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines which are written for every member state, but with particular reference to the 20 current members of the eurozone. These guidelines are not binding, but are intended to represent policy coordination among the EU member states, so as to take into account the linked structures of their economies. For their mutual assurance and stability of the currency, members of the eurozone have to respect the Stability and Growth Pact, which sets agreed limits on deficits and national debt, with associated sanctions for deviation. The Pact originally set a limit of 3% of GDP for the yearly deficit of all eurozone member states; with fines for any state which exceeded this amount. In 2005, Portugal, Germany, and France had all exceeded this amount, but the Council of Ministers had not voted to fine those states. Subsequently, reforms were adopted to provide more flexibility and ensure that the deficit criteria took into account the economic conditions of the member states, and additional factors. The Fiscal Compact (formally, the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union), is an intergovernmental treaty introduced as a new stricter version of the Stability and Growth Pact, signed on 2 March 2012 by all member states of the European Union (EU), except the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and Croatia (subsequently acceding the EU in July 2013). The treaty entered into force on 1 January 2013 for the 16 states which completed ratification prior of this date. As of 1 April 2014, it had been ratified and entered into force for all 25 signatories. Olivier Blanchard suggests that a fiscal union in the eurozone can mitigate devastating effects of the single currency on the eurozone peripheral countries. But he adds that the currency bloc will not work perfectly even if a fiscal transfer system is built, because, he argues, the fundamental issue about competitiveness adjustment is not tackled. The problem is, since the eurozone peripheral countries do not have their own currencies, they are forced to adjust their economies by decreasing their wages instead of devaluation. Bailout provisions ------------------ The financial crisis of 2007–2008 prompted a number of reforms in the eurozone. One was a U-turn on the eurozone's bailout policy that led to the creation of a specific fund to assist eurozone states in trouble. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) were created in 2010 to provide, alongside the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a system and fund to bail out members. However, the EFSF and EFSM were temporary, small and lacked a basis in the EU treaties. Therefore, it was agreed in 2011 to establish a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) which would be much larger, funded only by eurozone states (not the EU as a whole as the EFSF/EFSM were) and would have a permanent treaty basis. As a result of that its creation involved agreeing an amendment to TEFU Article 136 allowing for the ESM and a new ESM treaty to detail how the ESM would operate. If both are successfully ratified according to schedule, the ESM would be operational by the time the EFSF/EFSM expire in mid-2013. In February 2016, the UK secured further confirmation that countries that do not use the Euro would not be required to contribute to bailouts for eurozone countries. Peer review ----------- In June 2010, a broad agreement was finally reached on a controversial proposal for member states to peer review each other's budgets prior to their presentation to national parliaments. Although showing the entire budget to each other was opposed by Germany, Sweden and the UK, each government would present to their peers and the Commission their estimates for growth, inflation, revenue and expenditure levels six months before they go to national parliaments. If a country was to run a deficit, they would have to justify it to the rest of the EU while countries with a debt more than 60% of GDP would face greater scrutiny. The plans would apply to all EU members, not just the eurozone, and have to be approved by EU leaders along with proposals for states to face sanctions before they reach the 3% limit in the Stability and Growth Pact. Poland has criticised the idea of withholding regional funding for those who break the deficit limits, as that would only impact the poorer states. In June 2010 France agreed to back Germany's plan for suspending the voting rights of members who breach the rules. In March 2011 was initiated a new reform of the Stability and Growth Pact aiming at straightening the rules by adopting an automatic procedure for imposing of penalties in case of breaches of either the deficit or the debt rules. Criticism --------- In 1997, Arnulf Baring expressed concern that the European Monetary Union would make Germans the most hated people in Europe. Baring suspected the possibility that the people in Mediterranean countries would regard Germans and the currency bloc as economic policemen. In 2001, James Tobin thought that the euro project would not succeed without making drastic changes to European institutions, pointing out the difference between the US and the eurozone. Concerning monetary policies, the system of Federal Reserve banks in the US aims at both growth and reducing unemployment, while the ECB tends to give its first priority to price stability under the Bundesbank's supervision. As the price level of the currency bloc is kept low, the unemployment level of the region has become higher than that of the US since 1982. Concerning fiscal policies, 12% of the US federal budget is used for transfers to states and local governments. The US government does not impose restrictions on state budget policies, whereas the Treaty of Maastricht requires each eurozone member country to keep its budget deficit below 3% of its GDP. In 2008, a study by Alberto Alesina and Vincenzo Galasso found that the adoption of euro promoted market deregulation and market liberalization. Furthermore, the euro was also linked to wage moderation, as wage growth slowed down in countries that adopted the new currency. Oliver Hart, who received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016, criticized the euro, calling it a "mistake" and emphasising his opposition to monetary union since its inception. He also expressed opposition to European integration, arguing that the European Union should instead focus on decentralisation as it has “gone too far in centralising power”. In 2018, a study based on DiD methodology found that the adoption of euro produced no systematic growth effects, as no growth-enhancing effects were found when compared to European economies outside the eurozone. The eurozone has also been criticized for deepening inequality in Europe, particularly between the richest and poorest countries. According to a study by Bertelsmann Stiftung, countries such as Austria and the Netherlands benefited significantly from the common currency, while southern and eastern European members of the eurozone gained very little, and some countries are considered to have suffered adverse effects from adopting the euro. In an article for the Politico, Joseph Stiglitz argues: "The result for the eurozone has been slower growth, and especially for the weaker countries within it. The euro was supposed to usher in greater prosperity, which in turn would lead to renewed commitment to European integration. It has done just the opposite — increasing divisions within the EU, especially between creditor and debtor countries." Matthias Matthijs believes that the euro resulted in a "winner-take-all" economy, as national income differences between eurozone members have widened further. He argues that countries such as Austria and Germany have gained from the eurozone at the expense of southern countries like Italy and Spain. By adopting the euro and abandoning their national currencies, eurozone countries gave up their ability to conduct independent monetary policy; as such, monetary policies used to combat recession, such as monetary stimulus or currency devaluation, are no longer available. During the European debt crisis, several eurozone countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus) were unable to repay their debt without third-party intervention by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In order to grant the bailout, the ECB and the IMF forced the affected countries to adopt strict austerity measures. The European bailouts were largely about shifting exposure from banks onto European taxpayers, and exacerbated issues such as high unemployment and poverty. In 2019, a study from the Centre for European Policy concluded that while some countries had gained from adopting the euro, several countries were poorer than they would have been had they not adopted it, with France and Italy being particularly affected. The publication prompted a large number of reactions, pushing its authors to put out a statement clarifying some points. In 2020, a study from the University of Bonn reached a different conclusion: the adoption of the euro made “some mild losers (France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal) and a clear winner (Ireland)”. Both studies used the synthetic control method to estimate what might have happened if the euro hadn't been adopted. See also -------- * Capital Markets Union * Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union * European banking union * List of acronyms associated with the eurozone crisis * List of people associated with the eurozone crisis * Sixpack (European Union law) * Special territories of members of the European Economic Area

Eurozone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone

Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North America—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (which upon Confederation was divided into Ontario and Quebec)—united to form a federation, becoming a fully independent country over the next century. Over its history, Canada's international borders have changed several times as it has added territories and provinces, making it the world's second-largest country by area. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces receive their power and authority from the *Constitution Act, 1867* (formerly called the *British North America Act, 1867*), whereas territorial governments are creatures of statute with powers delegated to them by the Parliament of Canada. The powers flowing from the *Constitution Act* are divided between the Government of Canada (the federal government) and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. A change to the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces requires a constitutional amendment, whereas a similar change affecting the territories can be performed unilaterally by the Parliament of Canada or government. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign within certain areas based on the divisions of responsibility between the provincial and federal government within the *Constitution Act, 1867*, and each province thus has its own representative of the Canadian Crown, the lieutenant governor. The territories are not sovereign, but instead their authorities and responsibilities are devolved directly from the federal level, and as a result, have a commissioner that represents the federal government. Provinces --------- Provinces of Canada| Flag, name and postal abbr. | Cities | Entered Confederation | Officiallanguage(s) | Population | Area (km2) | Seats | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Capital | Largest | 2021 census | Q1 2023estimates | Land | Water | Total | Commons | Senate | |  Ontario | ON | Toronto | July 1, 1867 | English | 14,223,942 | 15,386,407 | 917,741 | 158,654 | 1,076,395 | 121 | 24 | |  Quebec | QC | Quebec City | Montreal | July 1, 1867 | French | 8,501,833 | 8,787,554 | 1,356,128 | 185,928 | 1,542,056 | 78 | 24 | |  Nova Scotia | NS | Halifax | July 1, 1867 | English | 969,383 | 1,037,782 | 53,338 | 1,946 | 55,284 | 11 | 10 | |  New Brunswick | NB | Fredericton | Moncton | July 1, 1867 | English, French | 775,610 | 825,474 | 71,450 | 1,458 | 72,908 | 10 | 10 | |  Manitoba | MB | Winnipeg | July 15, 1870 | English | 1,342,153 | 1,431,792 | 553,556 | 94,241 | 647,797 | 14 | 6 | |  British Columbia | BC | Victoria | Vancouver | July 20, 1871 | English | 5,000,879 | 5,399,118 | 925,186 | 19,549 | 944,735 | 42 | 6 | |  Prince Edward Island | PE | Charlottetown | July 1, 1873 | English | 154,331 | 173,954 | 5,660 | 0 | 5,660 | 4 | 4 | |  Saskatchewan | SK | Regina | Saskatoon | September 1, 1905 | English | 1,132,505 | 1,214,618 | 591,670 | 59,366 | 651,036 | 14 | 6 | |  Alberta | AB | Edmonton | Calgary | September 1, 1905 | English | 4,262,635 | 4,647,178 | 642,317 | 19,531 | 661,848 | 34 | 6 | |  Newfoundland and Labrador | NL | St. John's | March 31, 1949 | English | 510,550 | 531,948 | 373,872 | 31,340 | 405,212 | 7 | 6 | | Total provinces | 36,873,821 | 39,435,825 | 5,490,918 | 572,013 | 6,062,931 | 335 | 102 | Territories ----------- There are three territories in Canada. Unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay and all islands north of the Canadian mainland (from those in James Bay to the Queen Elizabeth Islands). The following table lists the territories in order of precedence[*clarification needed*] (each province has precedence over all the territories, regardless of the date each territory was created). Another territory, the District of Keewatin, existed from October 7, 1876, until September 1, 1905, when it rejoined the Northwest Territories and became the Keewatin Region. It occupied the area that is now the Kenora District of Ontario, northern Manitoba, and mainland Nunavut. The government of Keewatin was based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The territory did not have any representation in federal parliament. Territories of Canada| Flag, name and postal abbr. | Cities | Entered Confederation | Official languages | Population | Area (km2) | Seats | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Capital | Largest | 2021 census | Q1 2023estimates | Land | Water | Total | Commons | Senate | |  Northwest Territories | NT | Yellowknife | July 15, 1870 | Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, Tłįchǫ | 41,070 | 45,493 | 1,183,085 | 163,021 | 1,346,106 | 1 | 1 | |  Yukon | YT | Whitehorse | June 13, 1898 | English, French | 40,232 | 44,238 | 474,391 | 8,052 | 482,443 | 1 | 1 | |  Nunavut | NU | Iqaluit | April 1, 1999 | Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, English, French | 36,858 | 40,692 | 1,936,113 | 157,077 | 2,093,190 | 1 | 1 | | Total territories | 118,160 | 130,423 | 3,593,589 | 328,150 | 3,921,739 | 3 | 3 | Population ---------- The vast majority of Canada's population is concentrated in areas close to the Canada–US border. Its four largest provinces by area (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta) are also (with Quebec and Ontario switched in order) its most populous; together they account for 86% of the country's population. The territories (the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon) account for over a third of Canada's area but are only home to 0.3% of its population, which skews the national population density value. Canada's population grew by 5.0% between the 2006 and 2011 censuses. Except for New Brunswick, all territories and provinces increased in population during this time. In terms of percent change, the fastest-growing province or territory was Nunavut with an increase of 12.7% between 2011 and 2016, followed by Alberta with 11.6% growth, while New Brunswick's population decreased by 0.5%. Generally, Canadian provinces have steadily grown in population along with Canada. However, some provinces such as Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have experienced long periods of stagnation or population decline. Ontario and Quebec have always been the two biggest provinces in Canada, with together over 60% of the population at any given time. The population of the West relative to Canada as a whole has steadily grown over time, while that of Atlantic Canada has declined. Territorial evolution --------------------- Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were the original provinces, formed when several British North American colonies federated on July 1, 1867, into the Dominion of Canada and by stages began accruing the indicia of sovereignty from the United Kingdom. Prior to this, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada. Over the following years, Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), and Prince Edward Island (1873) were added as provinces. The British Crown had claimed two large areas north-west of the Canadian colony, known as Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, and assigned them to the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1870, the company relinquished its claims for £300,000 (CND$1.5 million), assigning the vast territory to the government of Canada. Subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. The North-West Territories encompassed all of current northern and western Canada, except for the British holdings in the Arctic islands and the Colony of British Columbia. NWT included the northern two-thirds of Ontario and Quebec. After the province of Manitoba was established in 1870, in a small area in the south of today's province, almost all of present-day Manitoba was still contained in the NWT. (Manitoba expanded to its present size in 1912.) The British claims to the Arctic islands were transferred to Canada in 1880, adding to the size of the North-West Territories. In 1898 the Yukon Territory, later renamed "Yukon" in 2003, was carved from the area surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1, 1905, a portion of the North-West Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba were expanded northward: Manitoba's to the 60° parallel, Ontario's to Hudson Bay and Quebec's to encompass the District of Ungava. In 1869, the people of Newfoundland voted to remain a British colony over fears that taxes would increase with Confederation, and that the economic policy of the Canadian government would favour mainland industries. In 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada, Newfoundland underwent a prolonged economic crisis, and the legislature turned over political control to the Newfoundland Commission of Government in 1933. Following Canada's participation in World War II, in a 1948 referendum, a narrow majority of Newfoundland citizens voted to join the Confederation, and on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province. The province was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001. Bermuda, the last British North American colony, which had been somewhat subordinated to Nova Scotia, was one of two Imperial fortress colonies in British North America - the other being Nova Scotia, and more particularly the city of Halifax. Halifax and Bermuda were the sites of the Royal Navy's North America Station (or, depending on the time period and the extent of the Western Hemisphere it included, the *River St. Lawrence and Coast of America and North America and West Indies Station*, the *North America and Newfoundland Station*, the *North America and West Indies Station*, and finally the *America and West Indies Station*) main bases, dockyards, and Admiralty Houses, and the squadron of the station was based at Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax during the summers and Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda in the winters until the 1820s, when Bermuda (which was better located to control the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States, impossible to attack over land, and almost impregnable against attack over water) became the main base year round. A large British Army garrison in Bermuda, which fell under the Commander-in-Chief in Nova Scotia, existed to defend the colony as a naval base (and to prevent it becoming as useful a base to the navy of an adversary), as well as to support amphibious operations throughout the region (such as the Chesapeake campaign during the American War of 1812). Bermuda was consequently the most important British naval and military base in the Americas. Canadian confederation resulted in the Canadian Militia becoming responsible for the defence of the Maritimes, the abolition of the British Army's commander-in-chief there, and the reduction of British military forces in the Maritimes to a small garrison for the protection of the Halifax dockyard, which would be withdrawn when that dockyard was handed over to the Dominion government in 1905 for use by the new Canadian naval service. Britain retained control of Bermuda as an imperial fortress, with the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda (a military officer previously ranking between lieutenant-colonel and major-general) becoming a lieutenant-general termed a *General Officer Commanding* and the Bermuda garrison becoming a command in its own right. Bermuda was consequently left out of the confederation of Canada, though it retained naval links with Halifax and the state church (or *established church*), the Church of England, continued to place Bermuda under the Bishop of Newfoundland until 1919 (Bermuda also remained linked to the Maritimes under the Methodist and Roman Catholic churches). In 1903, resolution of the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbia's northwestern boundary. This was one of only two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. The second reduction, in 1927, occurred when a boundary dispute between Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland saw Labrador enlarged at Quebec's expense; this land returned to Canada, as part of the province of Newfoundland, in 1949. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the western portion of Northern Canada, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 (1,514,192 sq mi) in land area. They are often referred to as a single region, the North, for organisational and economic purposes. For much of the Northwest Territories' early history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration. The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which, as the Keewatin Region, it became an administrative district of the Northwest Territories. In 1999, it was dissolved when it became part of Nunavut. Government ---------- Theoretically, provinces have a great deal of power relative to the federal government, with jurisdiction over many public goods such as health care, education, welfare, and intra-provincial transportation. They receive "transfer payments" from the federal government to pay for these, as well as exacting their own taxes. In practice, however, the federal government can use these transfer payments to influence these provincial areas. For instance, in order to receive healthcare funding under Medicare, provinces must agree to meet certain federal mandates, such as universal access to required medical treatment. Provincial and territorial legislatures have no second chamber like the Canadian Senate. Originally, most provinces had such bodies, known as legislative councils, with members titled councillors. These upper houses were abolished one by one, Quebec's being the last in 1968. In most provinces, the single house of the legislature is known as the Legislative Assembly; the exceptions are Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where the chamber is called the House of Assembly, and Quebec where it is called the National Assembly. Ontario has a Legislative Assembly but its members are called Members of the Provincial Parliament or MPPs. The legislative assemblies use a procedure similar to that of the House of Commons of Canada. The head of government of each province, called the premier, is generally the head of the party with the most seats. This is also the case in Yukon, but the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties at the territorial level. The King's representative in each province is the Lieutenant Governor. In each of the territories there is an analogous Commissioner, but they represent the federal government rather than the monarch. Federal, provincial, and territorial terminology compared| Jurisdiction | Legislature | Lower house | Members of lower house | Superior Court | Head of government | Viceroy | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Canada | Parliament | House of Commons | Member of Parliament (MP) | Federal Court | Prime Minister | Governor General | | | | Ontario | Parliament | Legislative Assembly | Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) | Superior Court of Justice | Premier | Lieutenant Governor | | Quebec | Legislature | National Assembly | Member of the National Assembly (MNA) | Superior Court | | Nova Scotia | General Assembly | House of Assembly | Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) | Supreme Court | | New Brunswick | Legislature | Legislative Assembly | Court of King's Bench | | Manitoba | | British Columbia | Parliament | Supreme Court | | Prince Edward Island | General Assembly | | Saskatchewan | Legislature | Court of King's Bench | | Alberta | | Newfoundland and Labrador | General Assembly | House of Assembly | Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) | Supreme Court | | | | Northwest Territories | Assembly | Legislative Assembly | Member of the Legislative Assembly | Supreme Court | Premier | Commissioner | | Yukon | Legislature | | Nunavut | Assembly | Court of Justice | ### Provincial legislature buildings * Alberta Legislature BuildingAlberta Legislature Building * British Columbia Parliament BuildingsBritish Columbia Parliament Buildings * Manitoba Legislative BuildingManitoba Legislative Building * New Brunswick Legislative BuildingNew Brunswick Legislative Building * Newfoundland and Labrador Confederation BuildingNewfoundland and Labrador Confederation Building * Nova Scotia Province HouseNova Scotia Province House * Ontario Legislative BuildingOntario Legislative Building * Prince Edward Island Province HousePrince Edward Island Province House * Quebec Parliament BuildingQuebec Parliament Building * Saskatchewan Legislative BuildingSaskatchewan Legislative Building ### Territorial legislature buildings * Northwest Territories Legislative BuildingNorthwest Territories Legislative Building * Nunavut Legislative BuildingNunavut Legislative Building * Yukon Legislative BuildingYukon Legislative Building ### Map **Clickable map of Canada exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories, and their capitals** A clickable map of Canada exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories, and their capitals.A clickable map of Canada exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories, and their capitals. Provincial political parties ---------------------------- Most provinces have rough provincial counterparts to major federal parties. However, these provincial parties are not usually formally linked to the federal parties that share the same name. For example, no provincial Conservative or Progressive Conservative Party shares an organizational link to the federal Conservative Party of Canada, and neither do provincial Green Parties to the Green Party of Canada. Provincial New Democratic Parties, on the other hand, are fully integrated with the federal New Democratic Party—meaning that provincial parties effectively operate as sections, with common membership, of the federal party. The Liberal Party of Canada shares such an organizational integration with Atlantic Canada provincial Liberals in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Other provincial Liberal Parties are unaffiliated with their federal counterpart. Some provinces have provincial political parties with no clear federal equivalent, such as the Alberta Party and Saskatchewan Party. The provincial political climate of Quebec is different: the main split is between sovereignty, represented by the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, and federalism, represented primarily by the Quebec Liberal Party. The Coalition Avenir Québec, meanwhile, takes an abstentionist position on the question and does not support or oppose sovereignty. Currently, the one minority provincial/territorial government is held by the Liberals in Yukon. | | | Provincial/territorial governments| Province/territory | Premier | Party in government | Party political position | Majority/minority | Lieutenant governor/commissioner | Last election | Next election | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Alberta** | Danielle Smith | | United Conservative | Centre-right toright-wing | Majority | Salma Lakhani | 2019 | 2023 | | **British Columbia** | David Eby | | New Democratic | Centre-left | Majority | Janet Austin | 2020 | 2024 | | **Manitoba** | Heather Stefanson | | Progressive Conservative | Centre-right | Majority | Anita Neville | 2019 | 2023 | | **New Brunswick** | Blaine Higgs | | Progressive Conservative | Centre-right | Majority | Brenda Murphy | 2020 | 2024 | | **Newfoundland and Labrador** | Andrew Furey | | Liberal | Centre | Majority | Judy Foote | 2021 | 2025 | | **Nova Scotia** | Tim Houston | | Progressive Conservative | Centre to centre-right | Majority | Arthur Joseph LeBlanc | 2021 | 2025 | | **Ontario** | Doug Ford | | Progressive Conservative | Centre-right | Majority | Elizabeth Dowdeswell | 2022 | 2026 | | **Prince Edward Island** | Dennis King | | Progressive Conservative | Centre-right | Majority | Antoinette Perry | 2019 | 2023 | | **Quebec** | François Legault | | Coalition Avenir Québec | Centre-right | Majority | J. Michel Doyon | 2022 | 2026 | | **Saskatchewan** | Scott Moe | | Saskatchewan Party | Centre-right | Majority | Russell Mirasty | 2020 | 2024 | | ***Northwest Territories*** | *Caroline Cochrane* | | *Consensus government* | Nonpartisan | *Margaret Thom* | *2019* | *2023* | | ***Nunavut*** | *P.J. Akeeagok* | | *Consensus government* | Nonpartisan | *Eva Aariak* | *2021* | *2025* | | **Yukon** | Ranj Pillai | | Liberal | Centre | Minority | Angélique Bernard | 2021 | 2025 | Ceremonial territory -------------------- The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, near Beaumont-Hamel, both in France, are ceremonially considered Canadian territory. In 1922, the French government donated the land used for the Vimy Memorial "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". The site of the Somme battlefield near Beaumont-Hamel site was purchased in 1921 by the people of the Dominion of Newfoundland. These sites do not, however, enjoy extraterritorial status and are thus subject to French law. Proposed provinces and territories ---------------------------------- Since Confederation in 1867, there have been several proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories. The Constitution of Canada requires an amendment for the creation of a new province but the creation of a new territory requires only an act of Parliament, a legislatively simpler process. In late 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin surprised some observers by expressing his personal support for all three territories gaining provincial status "eventually". He cited their importance to the country as a whole and the ongoing need to assert sovereignty in the Arctic, particularly as global warming could make that region more open to exploitation leading to more complex international waters disputes. See also -------- **BC** **AB** **SK** **MB** **ON** **QC** **NB** **PE** **NS** **NL** **YT** **NT** **NU** Canadian Provinces and TerritoriesHistory by province or territory * Canadian provincial and territorial name etymologies + Canadian adjectival and demonymic forms of place names * Language policies of Canada's provinces and territories * List of areas disputed by Canada and the United States * List of regions of Canada * List of governments in Canada by annual expenditures * Commonwealth Local Government Forum-Americas * Provincial museums of Canada * List of Canada-related topics by provinces and territories + List of Canadian provinces and territories by gross domestic product + List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols + List of Canadian provinces by unemployment rate + List of Canadian provinces and territories by Human Development Index + Population of Canada by province and territory + Flags of provinces and territories of Canada Further reading --------------- * Brownsey, Keith; Howlett, Michael (2001). *The Provincial State in Canada: Politics in the Provinces and Territories*. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-55111-368-5. * Moore, Christopher; Slavin, Bill; Lunn, Janet (2002). *The Big Book of Canada: Exploring the Provinces and Territories*. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-0-88776-457-8. * Pross, A. Paul; Pross, Catherine A. (1972). *Government Publishing in the Canadian Provinces: a Prescriptive Study*. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-1827-0. * Tomblin, Stephen (1995). *Ottawa and the Outer Provinces: The Challenge of Regional Integration in Canada*. James Lorimer & Company. ISBN 978-1-55028-476-8.

Provinces and territories of Canada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada

2031

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2031

**Wallonia** (/wɒˈloʊniə/; French: *Wallonie* [walɔni]), officially the **Walloon Region** (French: *Région wallonne*), is one of the three regions of Belgium—along with Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is primarily French-speaking. It accounts for 55% of Belgium's territory, but only a third of its population. The Walloon Region and the French Community of Belgium, which is the political entity responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education, are independent concepts, because the French Community of Belgium encompasses both Wallonia and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. There is a German-speaking minority in eastern Wallonia, resulting from the annexation of three cantons previously part of the German Empire at the conclusion of World War I. This community represents less than 1% of the Belgian population. It forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues. During the industrial revolution, Wallonia was second only to the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal and iron. This brought the region wealth, and from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century, Wallonia was the more prosperous half of Belgium. Since World War II, the importance of heavy industry has greatly diminished, and the Flemish Region has exceeded Wallonia in wealth as Wallonia has declined economically. Wallonia now suffers from high unemployment and has a significantly lower GDP per capita than Flanders. The economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of political conflicts in Belgium and a major factor in Flemish separatism. The capital of Wallonia is Namur, and the most populous city is Charleroi. Most of Wallonia's major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the east–west aligned Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north of this valley, Wallonia lies on the Central Belgian Plateau, which, like Flanders, is a relatively flat and agriculturally fertile area. The south and southeast of Wallonia is made up of the Ardennes, an expanse of forested highland that is less densely populated. Wallonia borders Flanders and the Netherlands (the province of Limburg) in the north, France (Grand Est and Hauts-de-France) to the south and west, and Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate) and Luxembourg (Capellen, Clervaux, Esch-sur-Alzette, Redange and Wiltz) to the east. Wallonia has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1980. Terminology ----------- The term "Wallonia" can mean slightly different things in different contexts. One of the three federal regions of Belgium is still constitutionally defined as the "Walloon Region" as opposed to "Wallonia", but the regional government has renamed itself Wallonia, and it is commonly called Wallonia. Preceding 1 April 2010, when the renaming came into effect, Wallonia would sometimes refer to the territory governed by the Walloon Region, whereas *Walloon Region* referred specifically to the government. In practice, the difference between the two terms is small and what is meant is usually clear, based on context. Wallonia is a cognate of terms such as Wales, Cornwall and Wallachia, ultimately also related to words Celt and Belgae, phonetically evolved over centuries. The Germanic word Walha, meaning *the strangers*, referred to Gallic or Celtic people. Wallonia is named after the Walloons, a group of locals who natively speak Romance languages. In Middle Dutch (and French), the term Walloons included both historical secular Walloon principalities, as well as the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic sprachraum within the medieval Low Countries. History ------- Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 57 BC. The Low Countries became part of the larger Gallia Belgica province which originally stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and the southern part of the Netherlands. The population of this territory was Celtic with a Germanic influence which was stronger in the north than in the south of the province. Gallia Belgica became progressively romanized. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. The Merovingian Franks gradually gained control of the region during the 5th century, under Clovis. Due to the fragmentation of the former Roman Empire, Vulgar Latin regionally developed along different lines and evolved into several *langue d'oïl* dialects, which in Wallonia became Picard, Walloon and Lorrain. The oldest surviving text written in a *langue d'oïl*, the *Sequence of Saint Eulalia*, has characteristics of these three languages and was likely written in or very near to what is now Wallonia around 880 AD. From the 4th to the 7th century, the Franks established several settlements, probably mostly in the north of the province where the romanization was less advanced and some Germanic trace was still present. The language border (that now splits Belgium in the middle) began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingians and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance. French-speaking cities, with Liège as the largest one, appeared along the Meuse, while Gallo-Roman cities such as Tongeren, Maastricht and Aachen became Germanized. The Carolingian dynasty dethroned the Merovingians in the 8th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun gave the territory of present-day Wallonia to Middle Francia, which would shortly fragment, with the region passing to Lotharingia. On Lotharingia's breakup in 959, the present-day territory of Belgium became part of Lower Lotharingia, which then fragmented into rival principalities and duchies by 1190. Literary Latin, which was taught in schools, lost its hegemony during the 13th century and was replaced by Old French. In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy took over the Low Countries. The death of Charles the Bold in 1477 raised the issue of succession, and the Liégeois took advantage of this to regain some of their autonomy. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Low Countries were governed successively by the Habsburg dynasty of Spain (from the early 16th century until 1713–14) and later by Austria (until 1794). This territory was enlarged in 1521–22 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor gained the Tournai region from France. Present-day Belgium was conquered in 1795 by the French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was annexed to the Republic, which later became the Napoleonic Empire. After the Battle of Waterloo, Wallonia became part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William of Orange. The Walloons played an active part in the Belgian Revolution in 1830. The Provisional Government of Belgium proclaimed Belgium's independence and held elections for the National Congress. ### Belgian period In the 19th century, the area began to industrialize, and Wallonia was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe. This brought the region great economic prosperity, which was not mirrored in poorer Flanders and the result was a large amount of Flemish immigration to Wallonia. Belgium was divided into two divergent communities. On the one hand, the very Catholic Flemish society was characterized by an economy centered on agriculture; on the other hand, Wallonia was the center of the continental European Industrial Revolution, where classical liberal and socialist movements were rapidly emerging. Major strikes and general strikes took place in Wallonia, including the Walloon jacquerie of 1886, the Belgian general strikes of 1893, 1902, 1913 (for universal suffrage), 1932 (depicted in *Misère au Borinage*), and 1936. After World War II, major strikes included the general strike against Leopold III of Belgium (1950), and the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike for autonomy for Wallonia. The profitability of the heavy industries to which Wallonia owed its prosperity started declining in the first half of the 20th century, and the center of industrial activity shifted north to Flanders. The loss of prosperity caused social unrest, and Wallonia sought greater autonomy in order to address its economic problems. In the wake of the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike, the process of state reform in Belgium got underway. This reform started partly with the linguistic laws of 1962–63, which defined the four language areas within the constitution. But the strikes of 1960 which took place in Wallonia more than in Flanders are not principally linked with the four language areas nor with the Communities but with the Regions. In 1968, the conflict between the communities burst out. French speakers in Flanders (who were not necessarily Walloons) were driven out of, most notably the Leuven-based Catholic University amid shouts of "*Walen buiten*!" ("Walloons out!"). After a formal split of the university in two and the creation of a brand new campus in Wallonia, a wider series of State reforms was passed in Belgium, which resulted in the federalisation of the nation and the creation of the Walloon Region and the French Community (comprising both Wallonia and Brussels), administrative entities each of which would gain various levels of considerable autonomy. Geography --------- Wallonia is landlocked, with an area of 16,901 km2 (6,526 sq mi), or 55 percent of the total area of Belgium. The Sambre and Meuse valley, from Liège (70 m (230 ft)) to Charleroi (120 m (390 ft)) is an entrenched river in a fault line which separates Middle Belgium (elevation 100–200 m (330–660 ft)) and High Belgium (200–700 m (660–2,300 ft)). This fault line corresponds to a part of the southern coast of the late London-Brabant Massif. The valley, along with Haine and Vesdre valleys form the *sillon industriel*, the historical centre of the Belgian coalmining and steelmaking industry, and is also called the Walloon industrial backbone. Due to their long industrial historic record, several segments of the valley have received specific names: Borinage, around Mons, le Centre, around La Louvière, the Pays noir, around Charleroi and the Basse-Sambre, near Namur. To the north of the Sambre and Meuse valley lies the Central Belgian plateau, which is characterized by intensive agriculture. The Walloon part of this plateau is traditionally divided into several regions: Walloon Brabant around Nivelles, Western Hainaut (French: *Wallonie picarde*, around Tournai), and Hesbaye around Waremme. South of the sillon industriel, the land is more rugged and is characterized by more extensive farming. It is traditionally divided into the regions of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, Condroz, Fagne-Famenne, the Ardennes and Land of Herve, as well as the Belgian Lorraine around Arlon and Virton. Dividing it into Condroz, Famenne, Calestienne, Ardennes (including Thiérache), and Belgian Lorraine (which includes the Gaume) is more reflective of the physical geography. The larger region, the Ardennes, is a thickly forested plateau with caves and small gorges. It is host to much of Belgium's wildlife but little agricultural capacity. This area extends westward into France and eastward to the Eifel in Germany via the High Fens plateau, on which the Signal de Botrange forms the highest point in Belgium at 694 metres (2,277 ft). Subdivisions ------------ The Walloon region covers 16,901 km2 (6,526 sq mi) and is divided into five provinces, 20 arrondissements and 262 cities or municipalities. | Province | Capital city | Population(1 January 2019) | Area | Density | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 |  Hainaut (*Henegouwen*) | Mons (*Bergen*) | 1,344,241 | 3,813 km2 (1,472 sq mi) | 353/km2 (910/sq mi) | | 2 |  Liège (*Luik*) | Liège (*Luik*) | 1,106,992 | 3,857 km2 (1,489 sq mi) | 288/km2 (750/sq mi) | | 3 |  Luxembourg (*Luxemburg*) | Arlon (*Aarlen*) | 284,638 | 4,459 km2 (1,722 sq mi) | 64/km2 (170/sq mi) | | 4 |  Namur (*Namen*) | Namur (*Namen*) | 494,325 | 3,675 km2 (1,419 sq mi) | 135/km2 (350/sq mi) | | 5 |  Walloon Brabant (*Waals-Brabant*) | Wavre (*Waver*) | 403,599 | 1,097 km2 (424 sq mi) | 368/km2 (950/sq mi) | The province of Walloon Brabant is the most recent one, being formed in 1995 after the splitting of the province of Brabant. ### Cities The largest cities in Wallonia are: * Charleroi (204,146) * Liège (195,790) * Namur (110,428) * Mons (92,529) * La Louvière (81,138) * Tournai (69,792) * Seraing (63,500) * Verviers (56,596) * Mouscron (55,687) * Herstal (38,969) * Braine-l'Alleud (38,748) * Châtelet (36,131) The 10 largest groups of foreign residents in 2018 are: | | | | --- | --- | |  Italy | 98,682 | |  France | 81,148 | |  Germany | 16,815 | |  Morocco | 16,275 | |  Spain | 16,040 | |  Romania | 14,181 | |  Portugal | 11,340 | |  Turkey | 9,112 | |  Netherlands | 7,534 | |  Democratic Republic of Congo | 6,699 | Science and technology ---------------------- Contributions to the development of science and technology have appeared since the beginning of the country's history. The baptismal font of Renier de Huy is not the only example of medieval Walloon technical expertise: the words "houille" (coal) or "houilleur" (coal miner) or "grisou" (damp) were coined in Wallonia and are Walloon in origin. The economically important very deep coal mining in the course of the First Industrial Revolution has required highly reputed specialized studies for mining engineers. But that was already the case before the Industrial Revolution, with an engineer as Rennequin Sualem for instance. Engineer Zenobe Gramme invented the Gramme dynamo, the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. Chemist Ernest Solvay gave his name to the Solvay process for production of soda ash, an important chemical for many industrial uses. Ernest Solvay also acted as a major philanthropist and gave its name to the Solvay Institute of Sociology, the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry which are now part of the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1911, he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry. Georges Lemaître of the Université catholique de Louvain is credited with proposing the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe in 1927. Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine were awarded to Walloons: Jules Bordet (Université libre de Bruxelles) in 1919, Albert Claude (ULB) together with Christian De Duve (UCLouvain) in 1974. In the present day, Bureau Greisch has acquired an international reputation as consulting engineer and architect in the fields of structures, civil engineering and buildings, including the Millau Viaduct in France. Economy ------- Wallonia is rich in iron and coal, and these resources and related industries have played an important role in its history. In ancient times, the Sambre and Meuse valley was an important industrial area in the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, Wallonia became a center for brass working and bronze working, with Huy, Dinant and Chimay being important regional centers. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the iron masters of Liège developed a method of refining iron ore by the use of a blast furnace, called the Walloon Method. There were also a few coal mines around Charleroi and the Borinage during this period, but their output was small, and was principally consumed as fuel by various industries such as the important glassmaking industry that sprang up in the Charleroi basin during the 14th century. In the 19th century, the area began to industrialize, mainly along the so-called sillon industriel. It was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe, and Wallonia was the second industrial power in the world, in proportion to its population and its territory, after the United Kingdom. The sole industrial centre in Belgium outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Wallonia was the historic cloth making town of Ghent. The two World Wars curbed the continuous expansion that Wallonia had enjoyed up till that time. Towards the end of the 1950s, things began to change dramatically. The factories of Wallonia were by then antiquated, the coal was running out and the cost of extracting coal was constantly rising. It was the end of an era, and Wallonia has been making efforts to redefine itself. The restoration of economical development is high on the political agenda, and the government is encouraging development of industries, notably in cutting-edge technology and in business parks. The economy is improving, but Wallonia is not yet at the level of Flanders and is still suffering from difficulties. The current Walloon economy is relatively diversified, although certain areas (especially around Charleroi and Liège) are still suffering from the steel industry crisis, with an unemployment rate of up to 30 percent. Nonetheless, Wallonia has some companies which are world leaders in their specialized fields, including armaments, glass production, lime and limestone production, cyclotrons and aviation parts. The south of Wallonia, bordering Luxembourg, benefits from its neighbour's economic prosperity, with many Belgians working on the other side of the border; they are often called *frontaliers*. The Ardennes area south of the Meuse is a popular tourist destination for its nature and outdoor sports, in addition to its cultural heritage, with places such as Bastogne, Dinant, Durbuy, and the famous hot springs of Spa. The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 105.7 billion € in 2018, accounting for 23% of Belgian economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 25,700 € or 85% of the EU27 average in the same year. Politics and government ----------------------- Belgium is a federal state made up of three communities and three regions, each with considerable autonomy. One of these is the Walloon Region, which is governed by the Parliament of Wallonia and the executive Government of Wallonia. The Walloon Region's autonomy extends even to foreign policy; Wallonia is entitled to pursue its own foreign policy, including the signing of treaties, and in many domains, even the Belgian federal government is not able to sign an international treaty without the agreement of the Parliament of Wallonia. Wallonia is also home to about 80 percent of the population of the French Community of Belgium, a political level responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education, with the remainder living in Brussels. Wallonia is also home to the small German-speaking Community of Belgium in the east, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues. Although in Flanders, the Flemish Region assigned all of its powers to the Flemish Community, the Walloon Region remains in principle distinct from and independent from the French Community, and vice versa. Despite this, the French Community's parliament is almost entirely composed of members of Wallonia's and Brussels' parliaments, so the bodies are governed by the same individuals. Additionally, the French Community of Belgium has controversially begun referring to itself exclusively as the 'Wallonia-Brussels Federation' to emphasize the links between the French Community, Wallonia and Brussels. The Walloon Region has a unicameral parliament with 75 members elected for five years by direct universal suffrage, and an executive, the Government of Wallonia, elected by a political majority in Parliament. The Government numbers nine members with the president. Each member is called a *Walloon minister*. The head of the Government is called the Minister-President of Wallonia. The coalition government for the 2014–2019 legislature was a center-left coalition PS-cdH until July 28 when it was replaced by a center-left coalition MR-cdH. The current Minister-President is Elio Di Rupo. ### History of Walloon autonomy "From 1831, the year of Belgium's independence, until the federalization of the country in 1970, Wallonia has increasingly asserted itself as a region in its own right." Following several state reforms, especially the 1993 state reform, Belgium became a federal state made up of three communities and three regions, with Wallonia being represented by the Walloon Region and its two language communities. The directly elected Walloon Parliament was created in June 1995, replacing the *Conseil régional wallon* (Regional Council of Wallonia). The first Council had sat on 15 October 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the Belgian Senate elected in Wallonia. Symbols ------- The first appearance of the French word *Wallonie* as a reference to the romance world as opposed to Germany is said to date from 1842. Two years later, it was first used to refer to the Romance part of the young country of Belgium. In 1886, the writer and Walloon militant Albert Mockel, first used the word with a political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation, in opposition with the word *Flanders* used by the Flemish Movement. The word had previously appeared in German and Latin as early as the 17th century. The rising of a Walloon identity led the Walloon Movement to choose different symbols representing Wallonia. The main symbol is the "bold rooster" (French: *coq hardi*), also named "Walloon rooster" (French: *coq wallon*, Walloon: *cok walon*), which is widely used, particularly on arms and flags. The rooster was chosen as an emblem by the Walloon Assembly on 20 April 1913, and designed by Pierre Paulus on 3 July 1913. The Flag of Wallonia features the red rooster on a yellow background. An anthem, *Le Chant des Wallons* (*The Walloons' Song*), written by Theophile Bovy in 1900 and composed by Louis Hillier in 1901, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913, the "national" feast day of Wallonia took place for the first time in Verviers, commemorating the participation of Walloons during the Belgian Revolution of 1830. It is held annually on the third Sunday of September. The Assembly also chose a motto for Wallonia, "Walloon Forever" (Walloon: *Walon todi*), and a cry, "Liberty" (French: *Liberté*). In 1998, the Walloon Parliament made all these symbols official except the motto and the cry. Religion -------- The population of Wallonia is predominantly of Christian heritage. In 2016, 68% of residents of Wallonia declared themselves to be Roman Catholic (21% were practising Catholics and 47% were non-practising), 3% were Muslim, 3% were Protestant Christian, 1% were of other religions and 25% were non-religious. Religion in Wallonia (2016)   Roman Catholicism (68%)  Protestantism (3%)  Islam (3%)  Non-religious (25%)  Other religion (1%) Languages --------- ### Official languages French is by far the main language of Wallonia and holds official status; in the East Cantons, German is also official. The German-speaking Community of Belgium accounts for about 2% of the region's population. Belgian French, which is also spoken in the Brussels-Capital Region, is similar to that spoken in France, with slight differences in pronunciation and some vocabulary differences, notably the use of the words *septante* (70) and *nonante* (90), as opposed to *soixante-dix* and *quatre-vingt-dix* in France. There are noticeable Walloon accents, with the accent from Liège and its surroundings being perhaps the most striking. Other regions of Wallonia also have characteristic accents, often linked to the regional language. ### Regional languages Walloons traditionally also speak regional Romance languages, all from the *Langues d'oïl* group. Wallonia includes almost all of the area where Walloon is spoken, a Picard zone corresponding to the major part of the Hainaut Province, the Gaume (district of Virton) with the Lorrain language and a Champenois zone. There are also regional Germanic languages, such as the Luxembourgish language in Arelerland (Land of Arlon). The regional languages of Wallonia are more important than in France, and they have been officially recognized by the government. With the development of education in French, however, these dialects have been in continual decline. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects; some schools offer language courses in Walloon, and Walloon is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited. Culture ------- ### Literature #### In Walloon Literature is written principally in French but also in Walloon and other regional languages, colloquially called Walloon literature. Walloon literature (regional language not French) has been printed since the 16th century. But it did have its golden age, paradoxically, during the peak of the Flemish immigration to Wallonia in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals." The New York Public Library possesses a surprisingly large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holding are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903, and then they fall again, down to eleven in 1913. See 'Switching Languages', p. 153. Yves Quairiaux counted 4800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period plays were almost the only popular show in Wallonia. But this theater remains popular in the present-day Wallonia: Theater is still flourishing, with over 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. There are links between French literature and (the very small) Walloon literature. For instance Raymond Queneau set Editions Gallimard the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology. Ubu roi was translated in Walloon by André Blavier ( an important pataphysician of Verviers, friend of Queneau), for the new and important Puppets theater of Liège of Jacques Ancion, the Al Botroûle theater "at the umbilical cord" in Walloon indicating a desire to return to the source (according to Joan Cross). But Jacques Ancion wanted to develop a regular adult audience. From the 19th century, he included the Walloon play *Tati l'Pèriquî* by E.Remouchamps and the avant-garde *Ubu roi* by A.Jarry. For Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, "the dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis". #### In French Jean-Marie Klinkenberg (member of the Groupe µ) wrote that Wallonia, and literature in Wallonia, has been present in French language since its formation. In their 'Histoire illustrée des lettres française de Belgique', Charlier and Hanse (editors), La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles, 1958, published 247 pages (on 655 ), about the "French" literature in the Walloon provinces (or Walloon principalities of the Middle-Age, sometimes also Flemish provinces and principalities), for a period from the 11th to the 18th century. Among the works or the authors, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (9th century), La Vie de Saint Léger (10th century), Jean Froissart (14th century in the County of Hainaut), Jean d'Outremeuse, Jean Lebel, Jean Lemaire de Belges (16th century from Bavay), the Prince of Ligne (18th century, Beloeil). There is a Walloon Surrealism, especially in Hainaut Province. Charles Plisnier (1896–1952), born in Mons, won the Prix Goncourt in 1936, for his novel *Mariages* and for *Faux Passeports* (short stories denouncing Stalinism, in the same spirit as Arthur Koestler). He was the first foreigner to receive this honour. The Walloon Georges Simenon is likely the most widely read French-speaking writer in the world, according to the Tribune de Genève. More than 500 million of his books have been sold, and they have been translated into 55 languages. There is a link between the Jean Louvet's work and the social issues in Wallonia. #### In Picard Picard is spoken in Hainaut Province of western Belgium. Notable Belgian authors who wrote in Picard include Géo Libbrecht, Paul Mahieu, Paul André, Francis Couvreur and Florian Duc. ### Mosan art, painting, architecture Mosan art is a regional style of Romanesque art from the Meuse river valley in present-day Wallonia, and the Rhineland, with manuscript illumination, metalwork, and enamel work from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Among them is the masterpiece of Renier de Huy and perhaps of the whole Mosan art Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège. The architecture of Roman churches of the Walloon country are also named mosan, exemplified by the Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude in Nivelles, and the churches of Waha and Hastière, Dinant. The Ornamental brassware is also a part of the Mosan art and among these dinandiers Hugo d'Oignies and Nicholas of Verdun. Jacques du Broeucq was a sculptor of the 16th century. Flemish art was not confined to the boundaries of modern Flanders and several leading artists came from or worked in areas in which langues d'oïl were spoken, from the region of modern Wallonia, e.g. Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier de la Pasture) and Jacques Daret. Joachim Patinir Henri Blès are generally called mosan painters. Lambert Lombard (Liège, 1505 – 1566) was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. Gérard de Lairesse, Bertholet Flemalle were also important painters in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (Liège, 1858 – Antwerp, 1910) architect and furniture designer, credited (along with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde) with creating the Art Nouveau style, coined as a style in Paris by Bing. And in Liège also, principally Jean Del Cour, the sculptor of the Virgin in *Vinâve d'Isle*, Léon Mignon the sculptor of *Li Tore* and Louis Jéhotte of the statue of Charlemagne. George Grard (1901—1984) was a Walloon sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of Pierre Renoir and Aristide Maillol, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze. During the 19th and 20th centuries many original romantic, expressionist and surrealist Wallon painters emerged, including Félicien Rops, Paul Delvaux, Pierre Paulus, Fernand Verhaegen, Antoine Wiertz, René Magritte ... The avant-garde CoBrA movement appeared in the 1950s. ### Music There was an important musical life in Prince-Bishopric of Liège since the beginning. Between 1370 and 1468 flourished a school of music in Liège, with Johannes Brassart, Johannes de Sarto and firstly Johannes Ciconia, the third Master of Ars Nova. The vocal music of the so-called Franco-Flemish School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. Robert Wangermée and Philippe Mercier wrote in their encyclopedic book about the Walloon music that Liège, Cambrai and Hainaut Province played a leading part in the so-called Franco-Flemish School. Among them were Orlande de Lassus, Gilles Binchois, Guillaume Dufay In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe (author of the unique opera in Walloon during the 20th century *Piére li houyeû* – Pierre the miner – based on a real incident which occurred in 1877 during a miners' strike in the Liège region), and Arthur Grumiaux, while Adolphe Sax (born in Dinant) invented the saxophone in 1846. The composer César Franck was born in Liège in 1822, Guillaume Lekeu in Verviers. More recently, André Souris (1899–1970) was associated with Surrealism. Zap Mama is a more international group. Henri Pousseur is generally regarded as a member of the Darmstadt School in the 1950s. Pousseur's music employs serialism, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of Schubert and Webern (*Votre Faust*), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (*Couleurs croisées*). He was strongly linked to the social strikes in Liège during the 1960s. He worked also with the French writer Michel Butor. ### Cinema Walloon films are often characterized by social realism. It is perhaps the reason why the documentary *Misère au Borinage*, and especially its co-director Henri Storck, is considered by Robert Stallaerts as the father of the Walloon cinema. He wrote: "Although a Fleming, he can be called the father of the Walloon cinema.". For F. André between *Misère au Borinage* and the films like those of the Dardenne brothers (since 1979), there is *Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre* (1960) (also shot in the Borinage), a film regarded as a point of reference in the history of the cinema. Like those of the Dardenne brothers, Thierry Michel, Jean-Jacques Andrien, Benoît Mariage, or, e.g. the social documentaries of Patric Jean, the director of Les enfants du Borinage writing his film as a letter to Henri Storck. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno's *Vase de noces* (1974), *Mireille in the life of the others* by Jean-Marie Buchet (1979), *C'est arrivé près de chez vous* (English title: *Man bites dog*) by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are influenced by surrealism, absurdism and black comedy. The films of the Dardenne brothers are also inspired by the Bible and *Le Fils* for instance is regarded as one of the most spiritually significant films. ### Festivals The Ducasse de Mons (Walloon French for Kermesse), is one of the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It comprises two important parts: the procession, the descent and the ascent of the shrine of Waltrude, and the combat between Saint George and the dragon. The combat (after the procession), plays out on the Trinity Sunday between 12:30 pm and 1:00 pm on the Mons's central square. It represents the fight between Saint George (the good) and the dragon (the evil). The dragon is a mannequin carried and moved by the *white men* (*fr:Hommes blancs*). The dragon fights Saint George by attacking with his tail. Saint George on his horse turns clockwise and the dragon turns in the other direction. Saint George finally kills the dragon. The Gilles of Binche and the giants' procession in Ath are also UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. ### Cuisine Wallonia is famous for a number of different foods and drinks, a great many of which are specialties of certain cities or regions. The Liège waffle a rich, dense, sweet, and chewy waffle native to Liège, is the most popular type of waffle in Belgium, and can be found in stores and even vending machines throughout the country. Cougnou, or the *bread of Jesus*, is a sweet bread typically eaten around Christmas time and found throughout the region. Other specialties include Herve cheese, an apple butter called *sirop de Liège*, the Garden strawberry of Wépion. Also notable is the Dinant specialty Flamiche: These cheese tarts are not found in window displays as they are meant to be eaten straight from the oven. As one restaurateur stated in a book about Walloon gastronomy "it is the client who waits for the flamiche, as the flamiche does not wait for the client". There are also the Ardennes ham, the *tarte al djote* from Nivelles, a dessert pie made with beet leaves and cheese, while tarte au riz is a rice-pudding filled pie from Verviers. The Walloons of the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin have a tradition of making what is called a Belgian Pie but which is a flat pie more like a pizza covered with prune purée and topped with a thin cheese layer. These were made by the dozens in outdoor stone ovens for the many kermisses, in a tradition that dates back to immigration in the 1850s. A signature Walloon sausage is called Belgian Trippe among the Walloon community of Northeastern Wisconsin on the Door Peninsula. It is a blend of pork and cabbage made differently from household to household and probably based on a traditional Walloon sausage such as Boudin Verte d'Orp. Cussette is a fresh cheese which gets its airborne *P. roqueforti* culture from a tradition of making it in the kitchen. This is aged only one week at 30 degrees C, until it develops a faint blue cast and a tang. Walloon headcheese differs from the German in that it is more finely ground, includes bits of cartilage, and is allowed to sit for a month or two in a cool place before being eaten. In terms of drink, Wallonia mirrors Belgium as a whole; beer and wine are both popular, and a great diversity of beers are made and enjoyed in Wallonia. Installed in Bierghes in the Senne valley, the Gueuzerie Tilquin is the only gueuze blendery in Wallonia. Wallonia boasts three of the seven Trappist beers (from Chimay, Orval and Rochefort) in addition to a great number of other locally brewed beers. Wallonia is also home to the last bastion of traditional rustic *saison*, most notably those produced at the Brasserie de Silly and the Brasserie Dupont (located in Tourpes, in the region of Western Hainaut Province historically known for its production of rustic farmhouse ales). Jupiler, the best-selling beer in Belgium, is brewed in Jupille-sur-Meuse in Liège. Wallonia also home to a Jenever called Peket, and a May wine called Maitrank. Transportation -------------- ### Airports The two largest cities in Wallonia each have an airport. The Brussels South Charleroi Airport has become an important passenger airport, especially with low fares companies such as Ryanair or Wizzair. It serves as a low-cost alternative to Brussels Airport, and it saw 7 303 720 passengers in 2016. The Liège Airport is specialized in freight, although it also operates tourist-oriented charter flights. Today, Liège is the 8th airport for European freight and aims to reach the 5th rank in the next decade. ### Railways, motorways, buses TEC is the single public transit authority for all of Wallonia, operating buses and trams. Charleroi is the sole Walloon city to have a metro system, the Charleroi Pre-metro. Wallonia has an extensive and well-developed rail network, served by the Belgian National Railway Company, SNCB. Wallonia's numerous motorways fall within the scope of the TransEuropean Transport network programme (TEN-T). This priority programme run by the European Union provides more than 70,000 km of transport infrastructure, including motorways, express rail lines and roadways, and has been developed to carry substantial volumes of traffic. ### Waterways With traffic of over 20 million tonnes and 26 kilometres of quays, the autonomous port of Liège (PAL) is the third largest inland port in Europe. It carries out the management of 31 ports along the Meuse and the Albert Canal. It is accessible to sea and river transporters weighing up to 2,500 tonnes, and to push two-barge convoys (4,500 tonnes, soon to be raised to 9,000 tonnes). Even if Wallonia does not have direct access to the sea, it is very well connected to the major ports thanks to an extensive network of navigable waterways that pervades Belgium, and it has effective river connections to Antwerp, Rotterdam and Dunkirk. On the west side of Wallonia, in Hainaut Province, the Strépy-Thieu boat lift, permits river traffic of up to the new 1350-tonne standard to pass between the waterways of the Meuse and Scheldt rivers. Completed in 2002 at an estimated cost of €160 million (then 6.4 billion Belgian francs) the lift has increased river traffic from 256 kT in 2001 to 2,295 kT in 2006. * Brussels South Charleroi AirportBrussels South Charleroi Airport * Namur Railway StationNamur Railway Station * Charleroi Pre-metroCharleroi Pre-metro * TEC Bus in LiègeTEC Bus in Liège International relations ----------------------- ### Trade The Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency (AWEX) is the Wallonia Region of Belgium's government agency in charge of foreign trade promotion and foreign investment attraction. The AWEX organizes regular trade missions to the promising market of Kazakhstan, where it has a representative office in Almaty. In 2017, the AWEX together with the Flanders Investment and Trade brought a delegation of 30 companies to Astana and Almaty, the two largest cities in Kazakhstan. ### Twin towns and sister cities * Japan Aichi, Japan * United States Maryland, USA See also -------- * History of coal mining * Manifesto for Walloon culture * Huguenots Further reading --------------- * Johannes Kramer (1984). *Zweisprachigkeit in den Benelux-ländern* (in German). Buske Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87118-597-7. 50°30′N 4°45′E / 50.500°N 4.750°E / 50.500; 4.750

Wallonia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallonia

**Litmus** is a water-soluble mixture of different dyes extracted from lichens. It is often absorbed onto filter paper to produce one of the oldest forms of pH indicator, used to test materials for acidity. In an acidic medium, blue litmus paper turns red, while in a basic or alkaline medium, red litmus paper turns blue. History ------- The word "litmus" comes from an Old Norse word for “moss used for dyeing”. About 1300 the Spanish physician Arnaldus de Villa Nova began using litmus to study acids and bases. From the 16th century onwards, the blue dye was extracted from some lichens, especially in the Netherlands. Natural sources --------------- Litmus can be found in different species of lichens. The dyes are extracted from such species as *Roccella tinctoria* (South American), *Roccella fuciformis* (Angola and Madagascar), *Roccella pygmaea* (Algeria), *Roccella phycopsis*, *Lecanora tartarea* (Norway, Sweden), *Variolaria dealbata*, *Ochrolechia parella*, *Parmotrema tinctorum*, and *Parmelia*. Currently, the main sources are *Roccella montagnei* (Mozambique) and *Dendrographa leucophoea* (California). Uses ---- The main use of litmus is to test whether a solution is acidic or basic, as blue litmus paper turns red under acidic conditions, and red litmus paper turns blue under basic or alkaline conditions, with the color change occurring over the pH range 4.5–8.3 at 25 °C (77 °F). Neutral litmus paper is purple. Wet litmus paper can also be used to test for water-soluble gases that affect acidity or basicity; the gas dissolves in the water and the resulting solution colors the litmus paper. For instance, ammonia gas, which is alkaline, turns red litmus paper blue. While all litmus paper acts as pH paper, the opposite is not true. Litmus can also be prepared as an aqueous solution that functions similarly. Under acidic conditions, the solution is red, and under alkaline conditions, the solution is blue. | | | --- | | **Litmus** (pH indicator) | | *below pH 4.5* | | *above pH 8.3* | | **4.5** | **⇌** | **8.3** | Chemical reactions other than acid–base can also cause a color change to litmus paper. For instance, chlorine gas turns blue litmus paper white; the litmus dye is bleached because hypochlorite ions are present. This reaction is irreversible, so the litmus is not acting as an indicator in this situation. Chemistry --------- The litmus mixture has the CAS number 1393-92-6 and contains 10 to around 15 different dyes. All of the chemical components of litmus are likely to be the same as those of the related mixture known as orcein, but in different proportions. In contrast with orcein, the principal constituent of litmus has an average molecular mass of 3300. Acid-base indicators on litmus owe their properties to a **7-hydroxyphenoxazone** chromophore. Some fractions of litmus were given specific names including erythrolitmin (or erythrolein), azolitmin, spaniolitmin, leucoorcein, and leucazolitmin. Azolitmin shows nearly the same effect as litmus. A recipe to make litmus out of the lichens, as outlined on a UC Santa Barbara website says: Details are difficult to find because the processes were kept secret. This summary of a modern manufacturing procedure is from The vanishing lichens, D H S Richardson, London, 1975. The lichens (preferably Lecanora tartarea and Roccella tinctoria) are ground in a solution of sodium carbonate and ammonia. Stir the lichens from time to time and the color changes from red to purple and finally blue after about four weeks. The lichens are then dried and powdered. At this stage the lichens contain partly litmus and partly orcein pigments. The orcein is removed by extraction with alcohol, leaving the pure blue litmus. It is marketed as blue lumps, masses, or tablets, after mixing with colorless compounds such as chalk and gypsum. Litmus paper is paper impregnated with this substance. Mechanism --------- Red litmus contains a weak diprotic acid. When it is exposed to a basic compound, the hydrogen ions react with the added base. The conjugate base formed from the litmus acid has a blue color, so the wet red litmus paper turns blue in alkaline solution.

Litmus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litmus

The **little grebe** (***Tachybaptus ruficollis***), also known as **dabchick**, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. The genus name is from Ancient Greek *takhus* "fast" and *bapto* "to sink under". The specific *ruficollis* is from Latin *rufus* "red" and Modern Latin *-collis*, "-necked", itself derived from Latin *collum* "neck". At 23 to 29 centimetres (9 to 11+1⁄2 inches) in length it is the smallest European member of its family. It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range. Taxonomy -------- The little grebe was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name *Colymbus ruficollis*. The tricolored grebe was considered conspecific, with some taxonomic authorities still considering it so. There are six currently-recognized subspecies, separated principally by size and colouration. * *T. r. ruficollis* – (Pallas, 1764): nominate, found from Europe and western Russia south to North Africa * *T. r. iraquensis* – (Ticehurst, 1923): found in southeastern Iraq and southwestern Iran * *T. r. capensis* – (Salvadori, 1884): found in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the Indian subcontinent, extending east to Burma * *T. r. poggei* – (Reichenow, 1902): found from southeastern to northeastern Asia, Hainan, Taiwan, Japan, and south Kuril Islands * *T. r. philippensis* – (Bonnaterre, 1790): found in the northern Philippines * *T. r. cotabato* – (Rand, 1948): found on Mindanao Description ----------- The little grebe is a small water bird with a pointed bill. The adult is unmistakable in summer, predominantly dark above with its rich, rufous colour neck, cheeks and flanks, and bright yellow gape. The rufous is replaced by a dirty brownish grey in non-breeding and juvenile birds. Juvenile birds have a yellow bill with a small black tip, and black and white streaks on the cheeks and sides of the neck as seen below. This yellow bill darkens as the juveniles age, eventually turning black in adulthood. In winter, its size, buff plumage, with a darker back and cap, and “powder puff” rear end enable easy identification of this species. The little grebe's breeding call, given singly or in duet, is a trilled repeated *weet-weet-weet* or *wee-wee-wee* which sounds like a horse whinnying. Distribution ------------ This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa. Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze. Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays. Behaviour --------- The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater. It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place. Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well. Usually four to seven eggs are laid. When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds. This makes it less likely to be detected by predators. The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults. In India, the species breeds during the rainy season. Gallery ------- * Breeding plumageBreeding plumage * Nest at edge of lake in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, IndiaNest at edge of lake in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India * ChickChick * Diving at Delta del Llobregat, BarcelonaDiving at Delta del Llobregat, Barcelona * Eggs, Collection Museum WiesbadenEggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden * IllustrationIllustration * Little grebe In prime breeding attireLittle grebe In prime breeding attire * Grebe displaying its webbed feetGrebe displaying its webbed feet * Little grebe in winter plumageLittle grebe in winter plumage * Season's new bornSeason's new born

Little grebe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_grebe

**Gospel** originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus, culminating in his trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances. Modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically, but nevertheless, they provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later Christian authors. The canonical gospels are the four which appear in the New Testament of the Bible. They were probably written between AD 66 and 110. All four were anonymous (with the modern names of the "Four Evangelists" added in the 2nd century), almost certainly none were by eyewitnesses, and all are the end-products of long oral and written transmission. Mark was the first to be written, using a variety of sources. The authors of Matthew and Luke both independently used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with a collection of sayings called "the Q source", and additional material unique to each. There is near-consensus that John had its origins as the hypothetical Signs Gospel thought to have been circulated within a Johannine community. The contradictions and discrepancies between the first three and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable. Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. Important examples include the gospels of Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary; infancy gospels such as that of James (the first to introduce the perpetual virginity of Mary); and gospel harmonies such as the Diatessaron. Etymology --------- *Gospel* is the Old English translation of the Hellenistic Greek term εὐαγγέλιον, meaning "good news"; this may be seen from analysis of ευαγγέλιον (εὖ "good" + ἄγγελος "messenger" + -ιον diminutive suffix). The Greek term was Latinized as *evangelium* in the Vulgate, and translated into Latin as *bona annuntiatio*. In Old English, it was translated as *gōdspel* (*gōd* "good" + *spel* "news"). The Old English term was retained as *gospel* in Middle English Bible translations and hence remains in use also in Modern English. Canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ----------------------------------------------- ### Contents The four canonical gospels share the same basic outline of the life of Jesus: he begins his public ministry in conjunction with that of John the Baptist, calls disciples, teaches and heals and confronts the Pharisees, dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead. Each has its own distinctive understanding of him and his divine role and scholars recognize that the differences of detail between the gospels are irreconcilable, and any attempt to harmonize them would only disrupt their distinct theological messages. Matthew, Mark and Luke are termed the synoptic gospels because they present very similar accounts of the life of Jesus. Mark begins with the baptism of the adult Jesus and the heavenly declaration that he is the son of God; he gathers followers and begins his ministry, and tells his disciples that he must die in Jerusalem but that he will rise; in Jerusalem he is at first acclaimed but then rejected, betrayed, and crucified, and when the women who have followed him come to his tomb they find it empty. Mark never calls Jesus "God" or claims that he existed prior to his earthly life, apparently believes that he had a normal human parentage and birth, makes no attempt to trace his ancestry back to King David or Adam; it originally ended at Mark 16:8 and had no post-resurrection appearances, although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author knew of the tradition. The authors of Matthew and Luke added infancy and resurrection narratives to the story they found in Mark, although the two differ markedly. Each also makes subtle theological changes to Mark: the Markan miracle stories, for example, confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God (which was Mark's understanding of the Messiah), but in Matthew they demonstrate his divinity, and the "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb in Mark becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than Matthew, has expanded on the source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, and eliminated some passages entirely, notably most of chapters 6 and 7. John, the most overtly theological, is the first to make Christological judgements outside the context of the narrative of Jesus's life. He presents a significantly different picture of Jesus's career, omitting any mention of his ancestry, birth and childhood, his baptism, temptation and transfiguration; his chronology and arrangement of incidents is also distinctly different, clearly describing the passage of three years in Jesus's ministry in contrast to the single year of the synoptics, placing the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning rather than at the end, and the Last Supper on the day before Passover instead of being a Passover meal. The Gospel of John is the only gospel to call Jesus God, and in contrast to Mark, where Jesus hides his identity as messiah, in John he openly proclaims it. ### Composition Like the rest of the New Testament, the four gospels were written in Greek. The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. A few conservative scholars defend the traditional ascriptions or attributions, but for a variety of reasons the majority of scholars have abandoned this view or hold it only tenuously. In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death his followers expected him to return at any moment, certainly within their own lifetimes, and in consequence there was little motivation to write anything down for future generations, but as eyewitnesses began to die, and as the missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of the founder's life and teachings. The stages of this process can be summarised as follows: * Oral traditions – stories and sayings passed on largely as separate self-contained units, not in any order; * Written collections of miracle stories, parables, sayings, etc., with oral tradition continuing alongside these; * Written proto-gospels preceding and serving as sources for the gospels – the dedicatory preface of Luke, for example, testifies to the existence of previous accounts of the life of Jesus. * Gospels formed by combining proto-gospels, written collections and still-current oral tradition. Mark is generally agreed to be the first gospel; it uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories (Mark 2:1–3:6), apocalyptic discourse (4:1–35), and collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of Thomas and probably not the Q source used by Matthew and Luke. The authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with the collection of sayings called the Q source and additional material unique to each called the M source (Matthew) and the L source (Luke). Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because of the close similarities between them in terms of content, arrangement, and language. The authors and editors of John may have known the synoptics, but did not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. There is a near-consensus that this gospel had its origins as a "signs" source (or gospel) that circulated within the Johannine community (which produced John and the three epistles associated with the name) and later expanded with a Passion narrative as well as a series of discourses. All four also use the Jewish scriptures, by quoting or referencing passages, or by interpreting texts, or by alluding to or echoing biblical themes. Such use can be extensive: Mark's description of the Parousia (second coming) is made up almost entirely of quotations from scripture. Matthew is full of quotations and allusions, and although John uses scripture in a far less explicit manner, its influence is still pervasive. Their source was the Greek version of the scriptures, called the Septuagint; they do not seem familiar with the original Hebrew. ### Genre and historical reliability The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels are a subset of the ancient genre of *bios*, or ancient biography. Ancient biographies were concerned with providing examples for readers to emulate while preserving and promoting the subject's reputation and memory; the gospels were never simply biographical, they were propaganda and *kerygma* (preaching). As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and as Luke's attempt to link the birth of Jesus to the census of Quirinius demonstrates, there is no guarantee that the gospels are historically accurate. The majority view among critical scholars is that the authors of Matthew and Luke have based their narratives on Mark's gospel, editing him to suit their own ends, and the contradictions and discrepancies between these three and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable. In addition, the gospels we read today have been edited and corrupted over time, leading Origen to complain in the 3rd century that "the differences among manuscripts have become great, ... [because copyists] either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please". Most of these are insignificant, but many are significant, an example being Matthew 1:18, altered to imply the pre-existence of Jesus. For these reasons modern scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically, but nevertheless they do provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later authors. Scholars usually agree that John is not without historical value: certain of its sayings are as old or older than their synoptic counterparts, its representation of the topography around Jerusalem is often superior to that of the synoptics, its testimony that Jesus was executed before, rather than on, Passover, might well be more accurate, and its presentation of Jesus in the garden and the prior meeting held by the Jewish authorities are possibly more historically plausible than their synoptic parallels. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the author had direct knowledge of events, or that his mentions of the Beloved Disciple as his source should be taken as a guarantee of his reliability. ### Textual history and canonisation The oldest gospel text known is 𝔓52, a fragment of John dating from the first half of the 2nd century. The creation of a Christian canon was probably a response to the career of the heretic Marcion (c. 85–160), who established a canon of his own with just one gospel, the Gospel of Marcion, similar to the Gospel of Luke. The Muratorian canon, the earliest surviving list of books considered (by its own author at least) to form Christian scripture, included Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Irenaeus of Lyons went further, stating that there must be four gospels and only four because there were four corners of the Earth and thus the Church should have four pillars. He referred to the four collectively as the "fourfold gospel" (*euangelion tetramorphon*). Non-canonical (apocryphal) gospels ---------------------------------- The many apocryphal gospels arose from the 1st century onward, frequently under assumed names to enhance their credibility and authority, and often from within branches of Christianity that were eventually branded heretical. They can be broadly organised into the following categories: * Infancy gospels: arose in the 2nd century, include the Gospel of James, also called the Protoevangelium, which was the first to introduce the concept of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the unrelated Coptic Gospel of Thomas), both of which related many miraculous incidents from the life of Mary and the childhood of Jesus that are not included in the canonical gospels. * Ministry gospels * Sayings gospels and agrapha * Passion, resurrection and post-resurrection gospels * Gospel harmonies: in which the four canonical gospels are combined into a single narrative, either to present a consistent text or to produce a more accessible account of Jesus' life. The apocryphal gospels can also be seen in terms of the communities which produced them: * The Jewish-Christian gospels are the products of Christians of Jewish origin who had not given up their Jewish identity: they regarded Jesus as the messiah of the Jewish scripture, but did not agree that he was God, an idea which, although central to Christianity as it eventually developed, is contrary to Jewish beliefs. * Gnostic gospels uphold the idea that the universe is the product of a hierarchy of gods, of whom the Jewish god is a rather low-ranking member. Gnosticism holds that Jesus was entirely "spirit", and that his earthly life and death were therefore only an appearance, not a reality. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment. The major apocryphal gospels (after Bart Ehrman, "Lost Christianities" – comments on content are by Ehrman unless otherwise noted) | Title | Probable date | Content | | --- | --- | --- | | Epistle of the Apostles | Mid 2nd c. | Anti-gnostic dialogue between Jesus and the disciples after the resurrection, emphasising the reality of the flesh and of Jesus' fleshly resurrection | | Gospel According to the Hebrews | Early 2nd c. | Events in the life of Jesus; Jewish-Christian, with possible gnostic overtones | | Gospel of the Ebionites | Early 2nd c. | Jewish-Christian, embodying anti-sacrificial concerns | | Gospel of the Egyptians | Early 2nd c. | "Salome" figures prominently; Jewish-Christian stressing asceticism | | Gospel of Mary | 2nd c. | Dialogue of Mary Magdalene with the apostles, and her vision of Jesus' secret teachings. It was originally written in Greek and is often interpreted as a Gnostic text. It is typically not considered a gospel by scholars since it does not focus on the life of Jesus. | | Gospel of the Nazareans | Early 2nd c. | Aramaic version of Matthew, possibly lacking the first two chapters; Jewish-Christian | | Gospel of Nicodemus | 5th c. | Jesus' trial, crucifixion and descent into Hell | | Gospel of Peter | Early 2nd c. | Fragmentary narrative of Jesus' trial, death and emergence from the tomb. It seems to be hostile toward Jews, and includes docetic elements. It is a narrative gospel and is notable for asserting that Herod, not Pontius Pilate, ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. It had been lost but was rediscovered in the 19th century. | | Gospel of Philip | 3rd c. | Mystical reflections of the disciple Philip | | Gospel of the Saviour | Late 2nd c. | Fragmentary account of Jesus' last hours | | Coptic Gospel of Thomas | Early 2nd c. | The *Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church* says that the original may date from c. 150. Some scholars believe that it may represent a tradition independent from the canonical gospels, but that developed over a long time and was influenced by Matthew and Luke; other scholars believe it is a later text, dependent from the canonical gospels. While it can be understood in Gnostic terms, it lacks the characteristic features of Gnostic doctrine. It includes two unique parables, the parable of the empty jar and the parable of the assassin. It had been lost but was discovered, in a Coptic version dating from c. 350, at Nag Hammadi in 1945–46, and three papyri, dated to c. 200, which contain fragments of a Greek text similar to but not identical with that in the Coptic language, have also been found. | | Infancy Gospel of Thomas | Early 2nd c. | Miraculous deeds of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve | | Gospel of Truth | Mid 2nd c. | Joys of Salvation | | Papyrus Egerton 2 | Early 2nd c. | Fragmentary, four episodes from the life of Jesus | | Diatessaron | Late 2nd c. | Gospel harmony (and the first such gospel harmony) composed by Tatian; may have been intended to replace the separate gospels as an authoritative text. It was accepted for liturgical purposes for as much as two centuries in Syria, but was eventually suppressed. | | Protoevangelium of James | Mid 2nd c. | Birth and early life of Mary, and birth of Jesus | | Gospel of Marcion | Mid 2nd c. | Marcion of Sinope, c. 150, had a much shorter version of the gospel of Luke, differing substantially from what has now become the standard text of the gospel and far less oriented towards the Jewish scriptures. Marcion's critics said that he had edited out the portions of Luke he did not like, though Marcion argued that his was the more genuinely original text. He is said to have rejected all other gospels, including those of Matthew, Mark and especially John, which he alleged had been forged by Irenaeus. | | Secret Gospel of Mark | Uncertain | Allegedly a longer version of Mark written for an elect audience | | Gospel of Judas | Late 2nd c. | Purports to tell the story of the gospel from the perspective of Judas, the disciple who is usually said to have betrayed Jesus. It paints an unusual picture of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, in that it appears to interpret Judas's act not as betrayal, but rather as an act of obedience to the instructions of Jesus. The text was recovered from a cave in Egypt by a thief and thereafter sold on the black market until it was finally discovered by a collector who, with the help of academics from Yale and Princeton, was able to verify its authenticity. The document itself does not claim to have been authored by Judas (it is, rather, a gospel about Judas), and is known to date to at least 180 AD. | | Gospel of Barnabas | 14th–16th c. | Contradicts the ministry of Jesus in canonical New Testament and strongly denies Pauline doctrine, but has clear parallels with Islam, mentioning Muhammad as Messenger of God. Jesus identifies himself as a prophet, not the son of God. | See also -------- * Agrapha * Apocalyptic literature * *The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ* * Authorship of the Bible * Bodmer Papyri * Dating the Bible * Fifth gospel (genre) * The gospel * Gospel (liturgy) * Gospel harmony * Gospel in Islam * Gospel of Marcion * Jesusism * Jewish-Christian gospels References ---------- ### Bibliography * Achtemeier, Paul J. (1985). *HarperCollins Bible Dictionary*. San Francisco: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060600372. * Alexander, Loveday (2006). "What is a Gospel?". In Barton, Stephen C. (ed.). *The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521807661. * Allen, O. Wesley (2013). *Reading the Synoptic Gospels*. Chalice Press. ISBN 978-0827232273. * Anderson, Paul N. (2011). *The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel: An Introduction to John*. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1451415551. * Aune, David E. (1987). *The New Testament in its literary environment*. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-25018-8. * Aune, David E. (2003). *The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and Rhetoric*. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-25018-8. * Bauckham, Richard (2008). *Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony*. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0802863904. * Beaton, Richard C. (2005). "How Matthew Writes". In Bockmuehl, Markus; Hagner, Donald A. (eds.). *The Written Gospel*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83285-4. * Bernhard, Andrew E. (2006). *Other Early Christian Gospels: A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts*. Library of New Testament Studies. Vol. 315. London; New York: T & T Clark. ISBN 0-567-04204-9. * Boring, M. Eugene (2006). *Mark: A Commentary*. Presbyterian Publishing Corp. ISBN 978-0-664-22107-2. * Brown, Raymond E. (1966). *The Gospel according to John (I–XII): Introduction, Translation, and Notes, vol. 29, Anchor Yale Bible*. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780385015172. * Burge, Gary M. (2014). "Gospel of John". In Evans, Craig A. (ed.). *Routledge Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus*. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317722243. * Burkett, Delbert (2002). *An introduction to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00720-7. * Burridge, R.A. (2006). "Gospels". In Rogerson, J.W.; Lieu, Judith M. (eds.). *The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199254255. * Casey, Maurice (2010). *Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian's Account of His Life and Teaching*. T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-64517-3. * Charlesworth, James H. (2008). *The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide*. Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-0687021673. * Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). *The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192802903. * Culpepper, R. Alan (1999). "The Christology of the Johannine Writings". In Kingsbury, Jack Dean; Powell, Mark Allan Powell; Bauer, David R. (eds.). *Who Do You Say that I Am?: Essays on Christology*. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664257521. * Donahue, John (2005). *The Gospel of Mark*. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0814659656. * Duling, Dennis C. (2010). "The Gospel of Matthew". In Aune, David E. (ed.). *The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament*. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1444318944. * Dunn, James D.G. (2005). "The Tradition". In Dunn, James D.G.; McKnight, Scot (eds.). *The Historical Jesus in Recent Research*. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1575061009. * Edwards, James R. (2015). *The Gospel according to Luke*. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0802837356. * Edwards, James R. (2002). *The Gospel according to Mark*. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0851117782. * Ehrman, Bart; Plese, Zlatko (2011). *The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199831289. * Ehrman, Bart (2006). *The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199831289. * Ehrman, Bart D. (2005a). *Misquoting Jesus*. Harper Collins. * Ehrman, Bart D. (2005b). *Lost Christianities*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195182491. * Ehrman, Bart D. (1999). *Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199839438. * Ehrman, Bart D. (1996). *The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-976357-3. * Eve, Eric (2021). *Solving the Synoptic Puzzle: Introducing the Case for the Farrer Hypothesis*. Wipf and Stock. ISBN 9781725283886. * Fant, Clyde E.; Reddish, Mitchell E. (2008). *Lost Treasures of the Bible*. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802828811. * Funk, Robert W.; Hoover, Roy W.; Jesus Seminar (1993). "The Gospel of Thomas". *The five gospels*. HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 471–532. * Gabel, John; et al. (1996). *The Bible as Literature*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509285-1. * Gamble, Harry (1985). *The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning*. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-0470-7. * Gerhardsson, Birger (1998). *Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity*. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802843661. * Goodacre, Mark (2001). *The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze*. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0567080561. * Harrington, Daniel J. (1991). *The Gospel of Matthew*. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0814658031. * Hatina, Thomas R. (2014). "Gospel of Mark". In Evans, Craig A. (ed.). *Routledge Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus*. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317722243. * Hengel, Martin (2003). *Studies in the Gospel of Mark*. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1592441884. * Honoré, A.M. (1986). "A statistical study of the synoptic problem". *Novum Testamentum*. **10** (2/3): 95–147. doi:10.2307/1560364. JSTOR 1560364. * Hurtado, Larry W. (2005). *Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity*. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0802831675. * Johnson, Luke Timothy (2010a). *The Writings of the New Testament – An Interpretation* (3rd ed.). Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1451413281. * Johnson, Luke Timothy (2010b). *The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction*. 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(1995). "Muhammad as the Messiah: A comparison of the polemical works of Juan Alonso with the Gospel of Barnabas". *Biblitheca Orientalis*: 245–291. * Woodhead, Linda (2004). *Christianity: A Very Short Introduction*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199687749. Quotations related to Gospel at Wikiquote

Gospel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel

In the Gregorian calendar, **New Year's Eve**, also known as **Old Year's Day** or **Saint Sylvester's Day** in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to as “New Year's Eve”. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinking, and watching or lighting fireworks. Some Christians attend a watchnight service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into New Year's Day, 1 January. The Line Islands (part of Kiribati), Samoa and Tonga, in the Pacific Ocean, are the first places to welcome the New Year, while American Samoa, Baker Island and Howland Island (part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands) are among the last. By region --------- ### Africa #### Algeria In Algeria, New Year's Eve (French: *Réveillon*; *Arabic: Ra’s al-‘Ām*) is usually celebrated with family and friends. In the largest cities, such as Algiers, Constantine, Annaba, Oran, Sétif, and Béjaïa, there are large celebrations which may feature concerts, late-night partying, firecrackers, fireworks at midnight and sparklers and shouts of "*Bonne année !*". The Martyrs' Memorial and the Grand-Post Place in Algiers are the main attraction for the majority of Algerians during the celebration, while some others prefer spending this special night outside the country, generally in Tunis or Paris. At 8pm (AST), the President's message of greetings to Algerians is read on TV. The EPTV network airs a yearly New Year's Eve entertainment show, variying its name, hosts and guests, which features sketches and musical performances. Popular films are also broadcast. At home or at restaurants, a special type of pastry cake called "*la bûche*" is eaten, and black coffee or soda is often drunk with it. People eat it a few minutes before the New Year's countdown. On New Year's Day (*le jour de l'an*), Algerians, especially children, write their "New Year's letter" on decorated paper, called "*Carte de bonne année*", to their parents and relatives, featuring their resolutions and wishes. #### Egypt In Egypt the new year is celebrated with fireworks and often evening parties with friends and family. #### Ghana In Ghana, Ghanaians celebrate New Year's Eve by going to church; others go to nightclubs, pubs or take to the streets to celebrate. At midnight, fireworks are displayed across various cities of Ghana, especially in Accra and Tema. #### Morocco In Morocco, New Year's Eve (Arabic: رأس العام, romanized: *Rass l'aam*—"head of the year") is celebrated in the company of family and friends. Moroccans get together to eat cake, dance, and laugh. Traditionally, Moroccans celebrate it at home, but some prefer to go to nightclubs. At midnight, fireworks are displayed across Ain Diab, in the corniche of Casablanca. #### Nigeria In Nigeria, Nigerians often Celebrate the New Year's Eve by going to church; others go to nightclubs and parties organized by individuals, communities, and other organizations. In Lagos, a year-end festival known as Lagos Countdown (later renamed One Lagos Fiesta) was first held in 2012, as part of an effort to establish tourism-oriented New Year's festivities more in line with those of other major metropolitan areas. #### Rwanda In Rwanda, Rwandans celebrate New Year's Eve by going to church, taking part in social gatherings and organizing family activities. The services usually start from 6 pm for the Roman Catholic church and 10 pm for the Protestants. At 00:00, at midnight, the president delivers an end-of-year address which is broadcast live on many radio and television stations. Fireworks were introduced in recent years, with the most significant displays happening at Kigali Convention Centre, Rebero Hill, Mount Kigali. #### South Africa In South Africa, South Africans vote on a top ten music countdown before 31 December.[Citation needed] When the countdown reaches number one, the song with the most votes plays on all the country's radio stations. Fireworks are lit all around South Africa. South Africans engage in occasional drinking and braais. #### South Sudan In South Sudan, South Sudanese attend church services at many churches in Juba. The service begins at 9 pm. At the stroke of midnight, the famous carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is sung to mark the end and beginning of the year with a blessing. The service ends at 12:30 am. ### Asia #### Azerbaijan The Gregorian calendar is still in force after Azerbaijan became an independent republic, and 1 January is celebrated as a day off. The day before, 31 December, is also marked as International Solidarity Day of Azerbaijanis, marking the double anniversary of that day in 1989 when the local residents took down the Soviet–Iranian border in then-Nakhichevan ASSR to reunite with Iranian Azerbaijanis south of the border, as well as the Istanbul-held first World Congress of Azerbaijanis which tackled issues regarding the Azeri expat communities. Celebrations of the holiday are influenced from its Soviet history, at midnight the national anthem is played on all TV stations following the message of the President of Azerbaijan produced by state channel AzTV. #### Bangladesh The New Year celebrations take place in all around the country mostly in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Cox's Bazar etc. The celebrations mostly take place at night. On this day, Bangladeshis go to parties at clubs or hotels, beaches, at the crowded roadsides and bridges where firecrackers are blasted out in the sky at night. The roadsides and bridges are also lighted up by colorful lights at night. Bangladeshis do a get-together as well as enjoy with their families. That day, Cox's Bazar becomes a popular tourist destination for both Bangladeshi and foreign tourists. Music, songs and dances are organized in the auditoriums, hotels, beaches and as well as in the grounds which are shown live concert on television where many Dhallywood celebrities along with many personalities participate in the dance, music, songs and often drama to liven up the concert more. Sometimes marriages and weddings take place in the clubs on the night of 31 December so that Bangladeshis can enjoy more. Bangladeshis also enjoy New Year's Eve with their families, relatives, and friends in the ships and yachts especially in the sea while going to Saint Martin where DJs liven up their night through their music and songs. Muslims during the year's last Jumu'ah prayer of mosque permanently pray a Munajat, which is done all over the mosques of the country, so that Allah may bless them and the coming year can be fruitful. Hindus organize a Puja so that the coming year can be fruitful for them. The Christians go to the churches for a watch night service till midnight, praying for blessing in the coming new year as it is also part of the Christmastide season observances. #### China In China, although the celebrations of the Lunar New Year are not until a few weeks after the Gregorian New Year, celebrations of the Gregorian New Year are held in some areas, particularly in major cities. For example, celebrations with fireworks and rock concerts have taken place in Beijing's Solana Blue Harbor Shopping Park, while cultural shows and other events are held at the city's Millennium Monument, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall of China, Olympic Green, and the Summer Palace. Since 2011, a light and sound show has been held at The Bund in Shanghai, a few minutes before midnight. #### Hong Kong In Hong Kong, many gather in shopping districts like Central, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. Beginning in 2008, a 60-second numerical countdown to New Year's, consisting of LED lights and pyrotechnic display effects, on the facade of Two International Finance Centre was launched, followed by a fireworks display, alongside an exhibition of the Symphony of Lights. For the arrival of 2013, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre initiated the countdown, while the fireworks display and A Symphony of Lights show were extended to eight minutes. Shopping malls are often major celebration venues. The Times Square shopping mall, for instance, holds their own celebration of the ball drop held at Times Square, New York City. There are also various district-wide celebrations. #### India New Year's Eve celebrations are the biggest in large cities, and include Goa's beaches, Bengaluru's Brigade Road and Park Street, Kolkata.[*failed verification*] #### Israel New Year's Eve has been observed in Israel since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1918; it is referred to as *Silvester* to distinguish it from the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which falls in either September or October on the Gregorian calendar. It is largely celebrated through social gatherings and parties. The New Year's holiday has historically attracted a negative stigma among parts of the Israeli Jewish population due to its connection to Pope Sylvester I—who is widely considered to have been an antisemite. As a result, celebrations have historically been modest in comparison to other countries. In December 2014, wearables manufacturer Jawbone published a report estimating that only 67.4% of Israelis were awake at midnight on New Year's Eve in 2013, and most people only stayed up as late as 12:45 a.m. IST. During the era of Mandatory Palestine in the early-1930s, promotional material for formal New Year's Eve parties and masquerade balls was targeted primarily towards Arabic and English-speaking residents (by contrast, posters for Hanukkah parties were written in Hebrew). These parties also became popular among German and Austrian Jews that had emigrated to avoid the rise of Nazi Germany. The increasing popularity of Silvester faced criticism from the Orthodox population, including the Hapoel HaMizrachi, who considered them contrary to Zionist values. In 1934, it was reported that the municipal council of Tel Aviv had passed a resolution to ban Silvester parties, calling them "contrary to the spirit and traditions of the people of Israel". However, reported efforts to ban the holiday were unsuccessful or not enforced, and it continued to increase in popularity (especially among secular populations). Following the post-Soviet aliyah, Novy God was imported into Israel by emigrants. The observance remained obscure outside of Israel's Russian community, and also faced stigma from those who mistook its traditions for being Christmas or Silvester. In the mid-2010s, a campaign was launched to promote awareness of the holiday among the 1.5 generation of immigrants, as well as non-Russian residents. By the late-2010s, public awareness of Novy God had increased; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to acknowledge Novy God in his holiday greetings, and it became more common for retailers to stock Novy God-related goods. In a 2020 survey, 72% of Israelis surveyed stated they were familiar with the holiday, but 54% did not perceive Novy God to be part of the country's culture. #### Japan In Japan, New Year's Eve is used to prepare for and welcome *Toshigami* (年神), the New Year's god. Japanese clean their homes and prepare Kadomatsu or Shimenawa to welcome the god before New Year's Eve. Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times at midnight in the traditional *Joya no Kane* (除夜の鐘). The rings represent the 108 elements of *bonō* (煩悩), mental states that lead Japanese to take unwholesome actions. In most cities and urban areas across Japan, New Year's Eve celebrations are usually accompanied by concerts, countdowns, fireworks and other events. In Tokyo, the two most crowded celebrations are held at the Shibuya crossing in Shibuya and the Zojoji Temple in Minato. Japanese gather around the Zojoji Temple to release helium balloons with New Year's wishes up in the sky and watch the lighting of Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree with a year number displayed on the observatory at the stroke of midnight. Three notable music-oriented television specials air near New Year's Eve. Since 1951, NHK has traditionally broadcast *Kōhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦)* (*Red/White Singing Battle*) on New Year's Eve, a music competition where two teams of popular musicians (the red and white teams, which predominantly contain female and male performers respectively) perform songs, with the winning team determined by a panel of judges, audience members at the NHK Hall in Tokyo, and televotes. The special is traditionally one of the most-watched television programs of the year in Japan. Although it did air on 31 December from 1959 to 2006, the Japan Record Awards ceremony, recognizing outstanding achievements in the Japanese music industry, is held annually on 30 December since 2007 and is broadcast on TBS. Since 1996, Fuji Television has broadcast *Johnny's Countdown*—a live concert at the Tokyo Dome organized by the talent agency Johnny & Associates. A newer tradition on New Year's Eve is mixed martial arts: promotions such as Pride Fighting Championships, DREAM, K-1 and now Rizin have hosted a large event each New Year's Eve at Saitama Super Arena since 2001. This card features highly anticipated or title fights, and even special attractions such as Rizin's 2018 NYE card, which had as its main event an exhibition between kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa and American boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. #### Kazakhstan In Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan, New Year's Eve celebrations were inherited from Soviet traditions; thus they are similar to those of Russia. An example of such traditions would be the playing of the national anthem at midnight and the presidential address before it. #### Korea Although the traditional Korean New Year *(Seollal)* is typically a more important holiday in both North and South Korea, the 31 December New Year's Eve of the Gregorian calendar is also celebrated. Most cities and urban areas in both Koreas host New Year's Eve gatherings. In Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, the chimes of the clock at the Grand People's Study House and the national fireworks display along Kim Il-sung Square, Juche Tower and the surrounding areas signal the start of the New Year. The celebration in Pyongyang, however, also marks the beginning of the North Korean calendar or the Juche Year, which is based on 15 April 1912, Kim Il Sung's date of birth, the celebrations are more recent in origin with the fireworks displays dating from 2013. For 2018–19, Kim Il Sung Square hosted a concert performance by the state Moranbong Band, midnight fireworks, and a drone show. In South Korea, two of the biggest celebrations take place in the capital of Seoul: the ringing of Bosingak bell 33 times at midnight and fireworks display at Myeong-dong, and an LED laser light show and fireworks display at the Lotte World Tower in Songpa-gu. Television networks KBS and SBS both broadcast award shows, the KBS Drama Awards and SBS Drama Awards, to honor achievements in the television dramas aired by the networks. Until 2022 South Koreans calculated their age using the East Asian age reckoning method, with all South Koreans adding a year to their age at midnight of the New Year (of the Gregorian, not the Korean calendar), the government finally ended the practice for 2023 and onwards. #### Lebanon In Lebanon. Lebanese people celebrate New Year's Eve with a dinner attended by family and friends. The dinner features traditional dishes such as tabouli, hummus, kibbi, and other Lebanese foods. These celebrations could also take place in restaurants and clubs. Game shows are also organized where contestants can try to win money. The countdown to New Year's is broadcast through the leading TV channel and the celebrations usually continue until sunrise. Fireworks are lit throughout the night. #### Malaysia *Ambang Tahun Baru*, a celebration sponsored by the government was held at Merdeka Square, the field opposite the Sultan Abdul Samad Building in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur in the early days. The event was broadcast live on government as well as private TV stations at those times. Countdown is now broadcast live on Government televisions from Putrajaya and the Broadcasting Centre which the concert is held and Fireworks are displayed at the Petronas Towers. There are New Year countdown parties in major cities such as George Town, Shah Alam and Kuching, typically organized by the private sector in these cities. #### Mongolia Mongolians began celebrating the Gregorian New Year in the Socialist period, with influence from the former Soviet Union. As a modern tradition, New Year's Eve as well as New Year's Day are public holidays, and are two of the biggest holidays of the year. They celebrate New Year's Eve with families. It is common, just like in the former Soviet Union, that the National Anthem of Mongolia is to be played at the midnight hour on television following the holiday address by the President of Mongolia. #### Pakistan New Year's Eve is usually celebrated with fireworks in big cities (e.g. Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad). Musical nights and concerts are also held. Many Pakistani youngsters enjoy the type of celebrations held the world over. The elite and educated classes participate in night-long activities in urban and cosmopolitan cities like Karachi, Lahore, and the capital of Islamabad. #### Philippines In the Philippines, New Year's Eve (*Bisperas ng Bagong Taon*) is a special non-working holiday (except for 2021 and 2022, where it is a special working holiday), and Filipinos usually celebrate in the company of family or close friends. Traditionally, most households would attend church for year-end services and afterwards, host or attend an abundant midnight feast called the *Media Noche*. Typical dishes include *pancit* (a noodle dish meant to symbolize for a longer life) and *hamón* (dry-cured ham), while *lechon* (roasted pig) is usually prepared as is barbecued food and various desserts. Some refrain from serving chicken, as their scratching and pecking for food is said to be an unlucky idiom for a hand-to-mouth existence. Many Filipinos also buy firecrackers and fireworks to be used in New Year's Eve, which is believed to drive away any bad luck in the start of the new year. Many opt to wear new, bright, or colorful clothes with circular patterns, such as polka dots, or display sweets and twelve round fruits in the belief that circles attract money, while candies represent a sweeter year ahead. Several customs must be done exactly at midnight: scattering coins to increase wealth in the coming year, jumping to increase height, or the Spanish custom of eating twelve grapes, one for each month of the year. Filipinos also make loud noises by blowing on cardboard or plastic horns called *torotot*, banging on pots and pans, playing loud music, blowing car horns, or by lighting firecrackers and bamboo cannons. It is an apotropaic ritual, as the din is believed to scare away bad luck and evil spirits. Although many Filipinos typically spend their New Year's Eve at their family homes, in some urban areas, many New Year's Eve parties and countdown celebrations are also hosted by the private sector with the help of the local government. These parties, which include balls hosted by hotels, usually display their own fireworks and are also well-attended. #### Saudi Arabia As Saudi Arabia has traditionally used the Umm al-Qura calendar, which is based on astronomical calculations, for administrative purposes, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV, the Saudi religious police) has historically enforced a ban on public celebrations of the Gregorian New Year. The Saudi religious police could also fine shops for offering New Year's-related products and confiscate them. However, the religious police did not go after individual citizens holding private celebrations. The power of the CPVPV was curtailed by the 2016 reforms of Mohammed bin Salman. On 1 October 2016, Saudi Arabia adopted the Gregorian calendar for payment of the monthly salaries of government employees (as a cost cutting measure), while retaining the Islamic calendar for religious purposes. New Year's Eve celebrations have been incorporated into Riyadh Season—a larger winter entertainment festival first held in 2019 in the capital of Riyadh to help promote tourism; the festivities are centred upon Boulevard Riyadh City, including fireworks and a concert at Mohammed Abdo Arena featuring top Arabic music performers. #### Singapore New Year's Eve celebrations in Singapore are centered in Marina Bay, which had hosted the *Marina Bay Singapore Countdown* with light shows being held in December under *Shine The Light* programme while fireworks at the city are not permitted on New Year's Eve. Heartland celebrations are held instead on New Year's Eve at various locations for countdown fireworks. Similarly, public transport services are extended; last MRT trains will leave City Hall at 1.15am. #### Taiwan The most prominent New Year's event in Taiwan is a major fireworks show launched from the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei. In 2018, the show was enhanced by the installation of a new LED display system on the north face of the tower between its 35th and 90th floors, which can be used to display digital animation effects. This change countered a reduction in the number of firework shells launched during the show, as part of an effort to produce less pollution. #### Thailand Aside from the traditional Thai New Year *Songkran (Thailand)* (which falls on 13 April or 14 April), Thais also celebrate the arrival of the Gregorian New Year on 1 January with families, relatives and friends, which includes a family dinner and following different customs. It is a public holiday. In most cities and urban areas across Thailand, New Year's Eve celebrations are accompanied by countdowns, fireworks, concerts and other major events, notably, the CentralWorld Square at CentralWorld and the area along Chao Phraya River at ICONSIAM and Asiatique in Bangkok, and the Pattaya Beach in Pattaya, while public places such as hotels, pubs, restaurants and nightclubs, also host New Year's Eve parties by offering food, entertainment and music to the guests, and they usually stay open until the next morning. #### Turkey Numerous decorations and customs traditionally associated with Christmas and Bayrams are part of secular New Year's Eve celebrations in Turkey. Homes and streets are lit in glittering lights. Small gifts are exchanged, and large family dinners are organized with family and friends, featuring a special turkey dish stuffed with a zante currant, pine nuts, pimiento and dill *iç pilav*, dolma, hot börek, baklava, and various other Turkish dishes; accompanied with rakı, Turkish wine, boza, *şerbet*, salep, Turkish tea, or coffee. Even though Turks generally do not celebrate Christmas, decorating New Year trees is an emerging tradition on New Year's Eve in Turkey and Turks associate Santa Claus with New Year's Eve. Television and radio channels are known to continuously broadcast a variety of special New Year's Eve programs, while municipalities all around the country organize fundraising events for the poor, in addition to celebratory public shows such as concerts and family-friendly events, as well as more traditional forms of entertainment such as the Karagöz and Hacivat shadow-theater, and even performances by the Mehter—the Janissary Band that was founded during the days of the Ottoman Empire. Public and private parties with large public attendances are organized in a number of cities and towns, particularly in the largest metropolitan areas such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Bursa and Antalya, with the biggest celebrations taking place in Istanbul's Taksim, Beyoğlu, Nişantaşı and Kadıköy districts and Ankara's Kızılay Square, which generally feature dancing, concerts, laser and light shows as well as the traditional countdown and fireworks display. In addition, at 12.00 pm, which is the moment of the new year, the president celebrates the new year of the citizens by appearing on state television and various television channels simultaneously. #### United Arab Emirates In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Khalifa—the world's tallest building—has hosted an annual fireworks display, which is among the world's most expensive. A fireworks show was not held for 2017–18: instead, a multimedia light and sound show was presented using the tower's lighting system, which set a Guinness World Record for the largest light and sound show staged on a single building. The fireworks show returned for 2019, in tandem with a multimedia presentation. ### Europe #### Albania Preparations for New Year's Eve in Albania start with the Christmas tree, which in Albania is known as "New Year's Tree" or "New Year's Pine". At midnight, Albanians toast and greet each other and fireworks are lit. #### Austria In Austria, New Year's Eve is usually celebrated with friends and family. At exactly midnight, all radio and television programmes operated by ORF broadcast the sound of the Pummerin, the bell of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, followed by the *Donauwalzer* ("The Blue Danube") by Johann Strauss II. Many Austrians dance to this at parties or in the street. Large crowds gather in the streets of Vienna, where the municipal government organizes a series of stages where bands and orchestras play. Fireworks are set off by both municipal governments and individuals. #### Belgium In Belgium, New Year's Eve (*Sint Sylvester Vooravond* ("Saint Sylvester's Eve") or *Oudjaar* ("old year")) is celebrated with family parties, called *réveillons* in the French speaking areas. On television, a stand-up comedian reviews the past year after which a musical or variety show signals midnight, when Belgians kiss, exchange good luck greetings, and toast the New Year and absent relatives and friends with champagne. Many Belgians light fireworks or go into the street to watch them. Most cities have their own fireworks display: the most famous is at Mont des Arts in Brussels. Cities, cafés and restaurants are crowded. Free bus services and special New Year's Eve taxis (the *Responsible Young Drivers*) bring Belgians home afterwards. On 1 January (*Nieuwjaarsdag* in Dutch) children read their "New Year's letter" and give holiday greeting cards of decorated paper featuring golden cherubs and angels, colored roses and ribbon-tied garlands to parents and godparents, on decorated paper. Belgian farmers also wish their animals a happy New Year. #### Bosnia and Herzegovina New Year is widely celebrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Streets are decorated for New Year's Eve and there is a fireworks show and concerts in all the larger cities. Restaurants, clubs, cafes and hotels are usually full of guests and they organize New Year's Eve parties. In the capital Sarajevo, Bosnians gather in the Square of children of Sarajevo where a local rock band entertains them. Several trumpet and rock groups play until the early morning hours. At midnight there is a big fireworks show. #### Czech Republic/Slovakia New Year's Eve (*Silvestr/Silvester*) celebrations and traditions in Czech Republic and Slovakia are very similar. New Year's Eve is the noisiest day of the year. Czechs and Slovaks generally gather with friends at parties, in pubs, clubs, in the streets, or city squares to eat, drink, and celebrate the new year. Fireworks are a popular tradition; in large cities such as Bratislava, or Prague, the fireworks start before noon and steadily increase until the clock strikes midnight. In the first minutes after midnight, Czechs and Slovaks toast with champagne, wish each other a happy new year, fortune and health, and go outside for the fireworks displays. In both countries all major TV stations air entertainment shows before and after the midnight countdown, which is followed by the National anthem of each country. The Presidents of the republics gave their New Year speech in the morning – ex-Czech President Miloš Zeman renewed the tradition of Christmas speeches. In recent years however the Czechoslovak national anthem is played at midnight in some stations, in honor of the shared history of both nations. #### Denmark Danes in Denmark may go to parties or entertain guests at home. There is a special evening meal that concludes with Kransekage, a special dessert, along with champagne. Other traditional dishes are boiled cod, stewed kale and cured saddle of pork. However, expensive cuts of beef as well as sushi have become increasingly popular. Multiple significant traditional events are broadcast on television and radio on 31 December. This includes, but is not limited to: The monarch's New Year message from Amalienborg Palace at 18:00 and the Town Hall Clock in Copenhagen striking midnight. Thousands of Danes gather together in Rådhuspladsen (the Town Hall Square) and cheer. The Royal Guard parade in their red gala uniforms. The climax of the celebration is fireworks launched as the Town Hall Tower bells chime on the stroke of midnight. After midnight, all radio & television stations play: "Vær velkommen, Herrens år [da]" [Danish new year's hymn] and followed by "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast" [Danish Royal Anthem] and "Der er et yndigt land" [Danish National Anthem]. Like in the surrounding nations, the German comedy sketch *Dinner for One* is broadcast every year at 23:45, and ends just minutes before the new year. This has been a tradition every year since 1980 (except in 1985). Another reoccurring broadcast is the 1968 film *The Party*, which is aired after midnight on 1 January. #### Estonia To celebrate New Year's Eve in Estonia, Estonians decorate villages, visit friends and prepare lavish meals. Some believe that Estonians should eat seven, nine, or twelve times on New Year's Eve. These are lucky numbers in Estonia; it is believed that for each meal consumed, the person gains the strength of that many men the following year. Meals should not be completely finished—some food should be left for ancestors and spirits who visit the house on New Year's Eve. Traditional New Year food includes pork with sauerkraut or Estonian sauerkraut (*mulgikapsad*), baked potatoes and swedes with hog's head, and white and blood sausage. Vegetarians can eat potato salad with navy beet[*clarification needed*] and pâté. Gingerbread and marzipan are very popular for dessert. Traditional New Year drinks include beer and mead, but mulled wine and champagne have become modern favourites. #### Finland In Finland, New Year's Eve is usually celebrated with family or friends. Late supper is served, often featuring wieners, Janssons frestelse, and potato salad. Some municipalities organize fireworks at midnight. Consumer fireworks are also very popular. A Finnish tradition is molybdomancy – to tell the fortunes of the New Year by melting "tin" (actually lead) in a tiny pan on the stove and throwing it quickly in a bucket of cold water. The resulting blob of metal is analyzed, for example by interpreting shadows it casts by candlelight. These predictions are however never taken seriously. YLE broadcasts the reception of the New Year at Helsinki Senate Square. The countdown to the New Year is with the Helsinki Cathedral clock. In the afternoon programme, the German comedy sketch *Dinner for One* is shown every year. On the radio, just before midnight, the poem *Hymyilevä Apollo* (Smiling Apollo) by Eino Leino is read. #### France In France, New Year's Eve (*la Saint-Sylvestre*) is usually celebrated with a feast, *le Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre* (*Cap d'Any* in Northern Catalonia). This feast customarily includes special dishes including foie gras, seafood such as oysters, and champagne. The celebration can be a simple, intimate dinner with friends and family or, *une soirée dansante*, a much fancier ball. On New Year's Day (*le Jour de l'An*) friends and family exchange New Year's resolutions, kisses, and wishes. Some people eat ice cream. #### Germany In Germany, parties are common on New Year's Eve (*Silvester*), and wishes of luck may be worded as *„Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!“*, which literally translates into *“Good slide into the new year!”* or *“Slide well into the new year!”*, as well as *„Prost Neujahr!“* for *“Cheers (to the) New Year!”* or *„Frohes Neues!“* literally meaning *“Happy new one!”* Fireworks are very popular, both with individuals and at large municipal displays. 31 December and the three days leading up to it are the only four days of the year on which fireworks may be sold in Germany. Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by over a million Germans. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate, where midnight fireworks are centered, with a live broadcast on ZDF under the name *Willkommen* with musical guests beginning in 2011. Germans toast the New Year with a glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine) or champagne. Molybdomancy *(Bleigießen)* is another German New Year's Eve tradition, which involves telling fortunes by the shapes made by molten lead dropped into cold water. Other auspicious actions are to touch a chimney sweep or rub some ash on one's forehead for good luck and health. Jam-filled doughnuts with or without alcoholic fillings are eaten. Finally a tiny marzipan pig is consumed for more good luck. In some northern regions of Germany (e.g. East Frisia) the making of *Speckendicken [de]* (also *Speckdicken*) is another tradition – Germans go door to door visiting their neighbors and partaking in this dish. It looks similar to a pancake, but the recipe calls for either dark molasses or dark syrup, topped with a few mettwurst slices and bacon strips. Another notable tradition is watching the British comedy sketch *Dinner for One*, which has traditionally been broadcast on German television on New Year's Eve since 1972. The version traditionally broadcast on German television was originally recorded in 1963, and was occasionally used as filler programming by NDR due to popular demand; in 1972, *Dinner for One* received its traditional New Year's Eve scheduling. The sketch, as well as its catchphrase "the same procedure as every year", are well known in German pop culture. *Dinner for One* is also broadcast on or around New Year's Eve in other European countries, although it is, ironically, relatively unknown in the United Kingdom. In 2023 On New Year's Eve in Berlin, the fire department reported 38 separate incidents, including 14 cases where firetrucks were supposedly "lured into ambushes" and shot at with fireworks and pelted with beer crates.The level of aggression toward emergency service staff was completely unexpected, Berlin fire department spokesman Thomas Kirstein told public radio RBB. A total of 15 emergency responders were injured in Berlin, with one requiring hospital treatment. The police department said 18 of its officers had been injured. Berlin's fire department said it was "shocked and saddened" by the incidents, which left many asking what lies behind the apparent increase in violence toward emergency service staff and why they in particular have become a target. #### Greece A midnight fireworks display is held over the historic Parthenon temple in the capital of Athens. A common tradition among Greek Orthodox families is the cutting of a vasilopita ("King's pie" or "St. Basil's pie") at midnight. A coin or similar object is usually baked inside, and whoever finds it is said to have luck over the next year. New Year's Day is considered a feast day for Basil of Caesarea, and it is also considered a custom to reserve the first slice of the vasilopita for St. Basil. #### Hungary New Year's Eve (*Szilveszter*) in Hungary is celebrated with home parties and street parties, including a gathering in downtown Budapest. Fireworks and firecrackers are popular. Champagne, wine and traditional Hungarian New Year dishes—frankfurter sausages with horseradish, lentil soup, fish, and roast pig—are consumed. The national anthem is commonly sung at midnight. Television channels usually broadcast comedic and musical programs most of the day and in the evening. At midnight, a countdown is followed by the national anthem and the President's speech (which is usually pre-recorded). In past centuries, some Hungarians believed that animals were able to speak on New Year's Eve, and that onion skins sprinkled with salt could indicate a rainy month. Hungarian Christian communities focus on celebrating Mass on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. #### Iceland Fireworks are very popular in Iceland, particularly on New Year's Eve. Iceland's biggest New Year's Eve events are usually in and around the capital, Reykjavík. Since the 1940s, state broadcaster RÚV has traditionally broadcast *Áramótaskaupið* (literally *The New Year's Comedy* or *The New Year's Lampoon*), a special which features comedy sketches satirizing the events and news headlines of the past year. Originating from radio and later moving to television, the special is the most-watched television program of the year in Iceland (with an estimated 75% of the population having watched the special in 2018, across 98% of all televisions in the country). Some of its sketches have become well known in local popular culture—such as a 1989 sketch that portrayed then Minister of Finance Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson as a Batman-esque superhero known as "Skattmann" ("Taxman"), and a 2008 sketch—satirizing protests of the Icelandic financial crisis—which popularized "Helvítis fokking fokk!" as an expression of frustration towards the crisis. #### Ireland New Year's Eve (*Oíche Chinn Bliana*, *Oíche na Coda Móire*, or *Oíche Chaille,* the night of big portion) when traditionally households would partake in a large feast that was believed to ensure a plentiful new year. Beliefs around the day meant that no food or other goods would be taken from the house, to guard against less or hunger in the year to come, believing that if anything was taken from the house on this day the house would remain empty for the year and have no luck. It was traditional for no water to be drawn from a well after sunset. Even the homeless and those in need would not be offered food or alms on this day. In many of the country, a large barmbrack would be baked during the day, with the man of the house taking three large bites of the cake in the evening, and throwing it against the inside of the front door as an offering to the Holy Trinity. An invocation accompanied this: > "Fógraímíd an gorta > > > Amach to tír na dTurcach; > > > Ó 'nocht go bliain ó 'nocht > > > > Agus 'nocht féin amach" > > This translates as "We warn famine to retire, To the land of the Turks; From tonight to this night twelve months, And from this night itself." The bits of cake would be gathered, and eaten by the family. Other variations include throwing the cake to someone outside the door, or conducting the ritual in the stables or other animal housing. Church bells ringing, the lighting of bonfires, and singing would take place towards midnight. In modern times, celebrations in major cities are modest, with most Irish Citizens favoring small parties in the home for family and friends. #### Italy In Italy, New Year's Eve (Italian: *Vigilia di Capodanno* or *Notte di San Silvestro*) is celebrated by the observation of traditional rituals, such as wearing red underwear. An ancient tradition in southern regions which is rarely followed today was disposing of old or unused items by dropping them from the window. Dinner is traditionally eaten with relatives and friends. It often includes zampone or cotechino (a meal made with pig's trotters or entrails), and lentils. At 20:30, the President of the Republic reads a television message of greetings to Italians. At midnight, fireworks are displayed all across the country. Rarely followed today is the tradition that consist in eating lentil stew when the bell tolls midnight, one spoonful per bell. This is supposed to bring good fortune; the round lentils represent coins. On television, Rai 1 broadcasts a special to welcome the New Year at 21:00 called *L'anno che verrà* with musical guests, surprises and many more. #### Malta Malta organized its first New Year's street party in 2009 in Floriana. The event was not highly advertised and proved controversial, due to the closing of an arterial street for the day. In 2010 there were the first national celebrations in St. George's Square, Valletta Although professional fireworks are very popular in Malta, they are almost totally absent on New Year's Eve. Maltese Usually hit nightclubs and specific dance music parties to celebrate New Year's Eve. #### Montenegro In Montenegro, New Year's Eve celebrations are held in all large cities, usually accompanied by fireworks. It is usually celebrated with family or friends, at home or outside. Restaurants, clubs, cafés and hotels organize celebrations with food and music. #### Netherlands New Year's Eve (*Oud en Nieuw* or *Oudejaarsavond*) in the Netherlands is usually celebrated as a cozy evening with family or friends, although Dutch Citizens attend big organized parties. Traditional snack foods are *oliebollen* (Dutch doughnuts) and *appelbeignets* (apple slice fritters). On television, the main feature is the *oudejaarsconference*, a performance by one of the major Dutch cabaretiers (comparable to stand-up comedy, but more serious, generally including a satirical review of the year's politics). Historically, in Reformed Protestant families, Psalm 90 is read, although this tradition is now fading away. At midnight, Glühwein *(bishops wine)* or champagne is drunk. Many Dutch Citizens light their own fireworks. City centres are usually intensely crowded, and large crowds combined with the fire quickly turn into a safety hazard. Towns do not organize a central fireworks display, except for Rotterdam where the national fireworks display can be seen near the Erasmus Bridge.Additionally, there are certain types of fireworks that are banned. In rural areas, the tradition of nl:Carbidschieten (*blasting off footballs or churnlids with Calcium carbide gas filled milk churns*) is performed instead of lighting fireworks. #### Macedonia New Year's Eve is celebrated across North Macedonia. New Year's Day is celebrated by day-long fireworks shows. The day is celebrated together with family or friends at home or in restaurants, clubs, cafés and hotels. During the daytime celebration, children get gifts. Evening celebrations include food, music, and dancing to both traditional Macedonian folk music, and modern music. New Year's Eve is celebrated on 31 December and also on 14 January according to the Macedonian Orthodox Calendar. #### Norway In Norway, New Year's Eve (*Nyttårsaften*) is the second biggest celebration of the year, after Christmas Eve. While Christmas Eve is a family celebration, New Year's Eve is an opportunity to celebrate with friends. Traditionally, there is first a feast, commonly consisting of stuffed, roast turkey with potatoes, sprouts, gravy and Waldorf salad. The accompanying beverage is traditionally beer (commonly either Christmas beer or lager beer). Dessert will often be vanilla pudding or rice cream, and there will be cakes and coffee later in the evening – commonly accompanied by a glass of cognac. Then, at close to midnight on New Year's Day, Norwegians will go outside to send up fireworks. Fireworks are only permitted to be sold to the general public on the days leading up to New Year's Eve, and only to be launched that night. Due to the general use of fireworks, more fires occur on New Year's Eve than on any other day of the year in Norway. Accordingly, most Norwegian cities, and many towns, host a large, public fireworks display in order to discourage private use of fireworks in built-up areas. Norwegians will then congregate in a central square or similar to watch and celebrate. #### Poland In Poland, New Year's Eve (*Sylwester*) celebrations include both indoor and outdoor festivities. A large open-air concert is held in the Main Square in Kraków. 150,000 to 200,000 revelers celebrate the New Year with live music and a fireworks display over St. Mary's Basilica. Similar festivities are held in other cities around Poland. For those who do not wish to spend the New Year in the city, the mountains are a popular destination. Zakopane, located in the Carpathian Mountains, is the most popular Polish mountain resort in winter. Also, New Year's Eve (*Sylwester*) celebrations are in Katowice, near the Spodek arena. In Sławatycze, Polish Citizens tour the streets dressed up as bearded men. Major television networks broadcast the events live all across the country on New Year's Eve like Polsat and TVP. #### Portugal In Portugal, the New Year celebration is taken very seriously. The tradition is to drink champagne and eat twelve raisins – one for each month of the year, making a wish for each. Another Portuguese tradition is a special cake called *Bolo-Rei* (literally: King Cake). *Bolo-Rei* is a round cake with a large hole in the centre, resembling a crown covered with crystallized and dried fruit. It is baked from a soft, white dough, with raisins, various nuts and crystallized fruit. Inside is hidden the characteristic *fava* (broad bean). Tradition dictates that whoever finds the *fava* has to pay for the *Bolo-Rei* next year. Initially, a small prize (usually a small metal toy) was also included within the cake. However, the inclusion of the prize was forbidden by the European Union for safety reasons. The Portuguese brought the recipe of the *Gateau des Rois* from France in the second half of the 19th century. To this day, this recipe is a very well kept secret. In Lisbon, the New Year is celebrated with a grand concert. The New Year's Concert is held at the CCB (Centro Cultural de Belém) on the evening of 1 January, featuring the prestigious Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. #### Romania Traditional celebrations of New Year's Eve (*Revelion*) are the norm in Romania. Romanians follow centuries-old customs, rituals, and conventions. Children sing "Plugușorul" and "Sorcova", traditional carols that wish goodwill, happiness and success. Parties are common in the evening. Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Romanians have gathered in the University Square in Bucharest. Other significant parties occur in Piața Constituției. New Year's Eve is also marked by a national all-night telecast on Romanian Television, which also celebrates its anniversary on this holiday, having opened its doors in the New Year's Eve of 1956. #### Russia The most prominent public celebration of the New Year (*Novy God*) is held at Moscow's Red Square under the Kremlin Clock—whose chimes at midnight are traditionally followed by the playing of the Russian national anthem, and a fireworks display. The President's New Year's address is traditionally televised shortly before midnight in each time zone, reflecting on the previous year and the state of the country. In 1999, unpopular president Boris Yeltsin famously used the New Year's address to announce his resignation. Novy God is practiced as a gift-giving holiday with similarities to Christmas; New Year trees (*yolka*) are decorated and displayed in homes and public spaces, and Ded Moroz (Russian: Дед Мороз, lit. 'Grandfather Frost') is depicted as delivering presents to children on New Year's Eve (similarly to the Western figure of Santa Claus) with assistance from his granddaughter Snegurochka (Russian: Снегурочка, lit. 'the Snow Maiden'). The present-day traditions were established under Soviet rule, when the Communist Party abolished Christmas and other religious holidays in 1928 as part of its anti-religion policies. In 1935, Soviet officials, including politician Pavel Postyshev, began promoting the New Year as a non-working holiday in the benefit of youth. Christmas traditions were adapted in a secular form. Even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reinstatement of religious holidays, Novy God has remained a popular celebration in modern Russia, and among Soviet and Russian expats living in other countries. #### Serbia The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Yugoslavia in 1919, but the Serbian Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian calendar, meaning that the new year is often celebrated twice. Prior to World War II, the New Year's holiday was celebrated more often by Serbs in urban regions, with large parties held on both 1 and 14 January. By contrast, residents of rural regions rarely celebrated the new year, and placed a larger focus on Christmas. In 1945 after World War II, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia came into power, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was succeeded by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia). As in the Soviet Union, the communist government discouraged the observance of religious holidays, encouraged celebrations of the New Year on 1 January as a secular gift-giving holiday, and similarly adopted the figure of Grandfather Frost (*Deda Mraz*). Some residents (especially those in opposition to the communist government) continued to celebrate the Orthodox New Year, doing so quietly by candlelight in order to evade attention from authorities. After the end of communist rule and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the three holidays began to co-exist: the Gregorian New Year and the Serbian New Year (14 January) are both marked by festivities in major Serbian cities, although festivities for the Serbian New Year (which became designated as a public holiday again in 2013) are usually modest in comparison to their Gregorian counterparts. #### Slovenia As in the other constituents of SFR Yugoslavia, Christmas and other religious holidays were abolished by the communist government in the mid-1940s, with the New Year promoted as a secular holiday in the place of Saint Nicholas Day and Christmas. Grandfather Frost is refereed to in Slovenian as "Dedek Mraz", and was originally billed as having come from Siberia. After Yugoslavia broke from the Eastern Bloc, the character was stated to come from the Triglav mountain instead, and artist Maksim Gaspari created a new depiction of Dedek Mraz in traditional Slovenian apparel. Saint Nicholas Day and Christmas were reinstated as holidays after the end of communist rule. #### Spain In Spain, the main public celebration of New Year's Eve (*Nochevieja*, literally "Old Night", or *Fin de Año*) is held at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, where revellers await the midnight chimes of the clock tower at the Royal House of the Post Office - in a TVE-produced event, which also aired on other national stations. A notable Spanish tradition is to eat twelve grapes at midnight—one for each chime of the clock—which is said to bring luck and prosperity. The tradition dates back as early as 1895 but first gained wider attention in 1909, when it was promoted by Alicante grape growers to help spur sales of that year's surplus harvest. In the lead-up to the holiday, grocery stores are usually stocked with large amounts of grapes. The tradition has also been adopted in other communities with cultural ties to Spain or Latin America, including Hispanic and Latino Americans. It is common to attend *cotillones de nochevieja* that last into the following morning, including smaller parties at bars and larger-scale events at hotels. After midnight, Spaniards often drink sparkling wines such as cava and champagne. A 10 km (6.2 mi) race known as the San Silvestre Vallecana is also held in Madrid on the evening of New Year's Eve, which includes an amateur fun run and a competitive event for elite athletes. In 2012 the event hosted a record of around 40,000 runners. Regional capitals and major cities also host New Year's eve festivities. #### Sweden In Sweden, New Year's Eve is usually celebrated with families or with friends. A few hours before and after midnight, Swedish citizens usually party and eat a special dinner, often three courses. New Year's Eve is celebrated with large fireworks displays throughout the country, especially in the cities, major ones in particular having distinguishing celebrations. Swedish citizens over the age of 18 are allowed to buy fireworks, which are sold by local stores or by private people. While watching or lighting fireworks at midnight, Swedish citizens usually drink champagne. The Swedish lottery television show *BingoLotto* features a special New Year's Eve edition to commemorate the holiday with musical guests, four bingo games, and surprises. #### Switzerland In Switzerland, New Year's Eve is typically celebrated in private gatherings or public events. The final of the Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament is traditionally held on New Year's Eve. #### Ukraine The main public celebration is held at Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, including concerts, the singing of the National Anthem at midnight, and a fireworks display, aired on UA:PBC. For 2013–14, amid the Euromaidan movement, it also included a world record attempt at the largest simultaneous singing of a national anthem. Similar celebrations are held in all other major cities and regional capitals. Under Soviet rule, Ukrainian New Year's celebrations became patterned off the secular Novy God traditions, with Christmas (which, among those who practice Eastern Christianity, is held on January 7) officially considered abolished—if not celebrated in secret by those opposed to the communist regime. Christmas regained prominence after the dissolution, with figures such as Grandfather Frost eventually being displaced by figures such as Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus. As in other former Soviet countries, *The Irony of Fate* was also regularly screened on or around the New Year in Ukraine; in 2015, broadcaster STB pulled the film as part of a wider boycott of Russian films in response to the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea (citing, in particular, a lead actress who had been blacklisted by the Ukraine government for her support of the invasion). Nationalists have also criticized the practice of New Year trees for similar reasons despite being of Western origin. #### United Kingdom ##### England The most prominent New Year's Eve (Old Year's Night) celebration in England is that of Central London, where the arrival of midnight is greeted with the chimes of Big Ben. In recent years, a major fireworks display has also been held, with fireworks launched from the nearby London Eye Ferris wheel. On New Year's Eve 2010, an estimated 250,000 Brits gathered to view an eight-minute fireworks display around and above the London Eye which was, for the first time, set to a musical soundtrack. The 2020–21 and 2021-22 events did not admit any spectators because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead used a drone and fireworks show. Other major New Year events are held in the cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle. ##### Scotland In Scotland, New Year's (*Hogmanay*) is celebrated with several different customs, such as First-Footing, which involves friends or family members going to each other's houses with a gift of whisky and sometimes a lump of coal. Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, hosts one of the world's most famous New Year celebrations. The celebration is focused on a major street party along Princes Street. The cannon is fired at Edinburgh Castle at the stroke of midnight, followed by a large fireworks display. Edinburgh hosts a festival of four or five days, beginning on 28 December, and lasting until New Year's Day or 2 January, which is also a bank holiday in Scotland. Other cities across Scotland, such as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Stirling have large organised celebrations too, including fireworks at midnight. BBC Scotland broadcast the celebrations in Edinburgh to a Scottish audience, with the celebrations also screened across the world. STV covers both worldwide New Year celebrations, and details of events happening around Scotland. ##### Wales The Welsh tradition of giving gifts and money on New Year's Day (Welsh: *Calennig*) is an ancient custom that survives in modern-day Wales, though nowadays it is now customary to give bread and cheese. Thousands of Welsh citizens descend every year on Cardiff to enjoy live music, catering, ice-skating, funfairs, and fireworks. Many of the celebrations take place at Cardiff Castle and Cardiff City Hall. Every New Year's Eve, the Nos Galan road race (*Rasys Nos Galan*), a five-kilometre (3.1 mi) running contest, is held in Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. The race celebrates the life and achievements of Welsh runner Guto Nyth Brân. Founded in 1958 by local runner Bernard Baldwin, it is run over the five-kilometre route of Guto's first competitive race. The main race starts with a church service at Llanwynno, and then a wreath is laid on Guto's grave in Llanwynno graveyard. After lighting a torch, it is carried to the nearby town of Mountain Ash, where the main race takes place. The race consists of a double circuit of the town Centre, starting in Henry Street and ending in Oxford Street, by the commemorative statue of Guto. Traditionally, the race was timed to end at midnight, but in recent times it was rescheduled for the convenience of family entertainment, now concluding at around 9 pm. This has resulted in a growth in size and scale, and the proceedings now start with an afternoon of street entertainment, and fun run races for children, concluding with the church service, elite runners' race, and presentations. ### North America #### Canada New Year's Eve traditions and celebrations in Canada vary regionally, but are typically similar to those in the United States, with a focus on social gatherings and public celebrations (such as concerts and fireworks displays). The CBC's English- and French-language television networks have been well known for airing sketch comedy specials on New Year's Eve, lampooning the major events and news stories of the year. From 1992 through 2019, CBC Television aired *Year of the Farce*, an annual special produced by the comedy troupe Royal Canadian Air Farce*.* The special was part of a weekly *Royal Canadian Air Farce* television series beginning in 1993, while the 2008 edition doubled as the program's series finale. The troupe continued to produce *Year of the Farce* as an annual reunion special until 2019. The CBC's French network Ici Radio-Canada Télé airs a similar special, *Bye Bye*, which has been presented by various comedians and troupes, Originally running from 1968 to 1998, it was revived in 2006 by the Québécois troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles. Its 2008 edition, hosted and co-produced by Québécois television personality Véronique Cloutier, was criticized for featuring sketches that viewers perceived as offensive, including sketches making fun of English Canadians and American president-elect Barack Obama. Four out of the five highest-rated television programs in Quebecois history have been editions of *Bye Bye*, with the 2021 edition being seen by a record 4.862 million viewers. Since 2017 (with the inaugural edition marking the beginning of the country's sesquicentennial year), CBC Television has broadcast a more traditional countdown special: a localized version is broadcast for each time zone, which features music performances and midnight festivities from across the country. The Canadian men's junior hockey team has usually played their final preliminary round game at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship on New Year's Eve, most often against the United States. #### Costa Rica In Costa Rica, families usually gather around 8 pm for parties that last until 1 or 2 am, the next day. There are several traditions among Costa Rican families, including eating 12 grapes representing 12 wishes for the new year, and running across the street with luggage to bring new trips and adventures in the upcoming year. #### El Salvador In El Salvador, New Year's Eve is spent with families. Family parties start around 5:00 pm, and last until 1:00 to 3:00 am, the following day. Families eat dinner together and sing traditional New Year's Eve songs, such as "Cinco para las Doce". After the dinner, individuals light fireworks and continue partying outside. A radio station broadcasts a countdown to midnight. When the clock strikes midnight, fireworks are lit across the country. Salvadorans start exchanging hugs and wishes for the new year. The main event takes place at midnight where fireworks are lit along with thousands of life-size effigies called "Año Viejo". Almost every local family will either make such an effigy from scraps of paper and old clothes or buy one ready-made. The effigy is placed just outside the front of their home. Such effigies represent the things people hated about the departing year and are fashioned to resemble celebrities, politicians, public servants, cartoon characters etc. They are burnt on the stroke of midnight to banish the old year and mark a fresh start in the new. Some of the braver Ecuadorians jump through these burning effigies 12 times to represent a wish for every month. #### Guatemala In Guatemala, banks close on New Year's Eve, and businesses close at noon. In the town of Antigua, Guatemalans usually gather at the Santa Catalina Clock Arch to celebrate New Year's Eve (Spanish: *Fin del Año*). In Guatemala City the celebrations are centered on Plaza Mayor. Firecrackers are lit starting at sundown, continuing without interruption into the night. Guatemalans wear new clothes for good fortune and eat a grape with each of the twelve chimes of the bell during the New Year countdown, while making a wish with each one. The celebrations include religious themes which may be either Mayan or Catholic. Catholic celebrations are similar to those at Christmas. Gifts are left under the tree on Christmas morning by the Christ Child for the children, but parents and adults do not exchange gifts until New Year's Day. #### Mexico Mexicans celebrate New Year's Eve, (Spanish: "Víspera de Año Nuevo" o "Noche Vieja") by eating a grape with each of the twelve chimes of a clock's bell during the midnight countdown, while making a wish with each one. Mexican families decorate homes and parties in colors that represent wishes for the upcoming year: red encourages an overall improvement of lifestyle and love, yellow encourages blessings of improved employment conditions, green for improved financial circumstances, and white for improved health. Mexican sweet bread is baked with a coin or charm hidden in the dough. When the bread is served, the recipient of the slice with the coin or charm is said to be blessed with good luck in the New Year . Another tradition is to make a list of all the bad or unhappy events over the past 12 months; before midnight, this list is thrown into a fire, symbolizing the removal of negative energy from the new year. At the same time, they are expressed for all the good things during the year that is ending so that they will continue in the new year. Mexicans celebrate with a late-night dinner with their families, the traditional meal being turkey or pork loin. Afterwards many Mexicans attend parties outside the home, for example, in night clubs. In Mexico City a street festival on New Year's Eve takes place on the Zocalo, the city's main square. After the twelfth chime, Mexicans will shout and wish each other a "¡Feliz Año Nuevo!" (*transl.*  Happy New Year!) and, in many places, celebrations also include fireworks, firecrackers and sparklers. #### Panama In Panama, Panamanians usually celebrate New Year's Eve with a dinner, followed by multiple individual fireworks celebrations. Fireworks begin around 11 pm for parties that last until 1 am, the next day. Many Panamanians leave the city and go to the rural towns across the country, to celebrate with families and friends. #### Trinidad and Tobago In Port of Spain the tradition is to celebrate in one's yard with friends, families and neighbors, and eat and drink till sunrise. At midnight the city becomes festive with fireworks in every direction. The celebration only starts at midnight. Music is heard from all the houses and bars, nightclubs, street parties, and Soca raves. Trinidadians and Tobagonians celebrate not only the new year but the beginning of the carnival season as well. #### United States In the United States, New Year's Eve is celebrated via a variety of social gatherings, and large-scale public events such as concerts, fireworks shows, and "drops"—an event inspired by time balls where an item is lowered or raised over the course of the final minute of the year. Drop events are typically patterned after the annual "ball drop" held at New York City's Times Square, where a 5,400-kilogram (11,875 lb), 3.7-metre-diameter (12 ft) ball is lowered down a 21-metre-high (70 ft) pole on the roof of One Times Square. The event has been held since 1907, and the ball itself—which is adorned with Waterford Crystal panels and an LED lighting system—has been displayed atop the building year-round since 2009. Drop events often use either a ball in imitation of Times Square, or items that represent local culture or history (such as Atlanta's Peach Drop, which reflects Georgia's identity as the "Peach State"). New York City and Times Square serve as the focal point for national media coverage of the holiday. Bandleader Guy Lombardo and his band—The Royal Canadians—were well known for their annual broadcast from New York City. Their signature performance of "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight helped make the standard synonymous with the holiday. Beginning on radio in 1929, Lombardo moved to CBS television from 1956 to 1976, adding coverage of the ball drop. Following Lombardo's death, *Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve* (which premiered for 1973 on NBC, and moved to ABC for 1975) became the dominant New Year's Eve special on U.S. television—especially among younger viewers—with Dick Clark having anchored New Year's coverage (including *New Year's Rockin' Eve* and the one-off *ABC 2000 Today*) for 32 straight years. After Clark suffered a stroke in December 2004, Regis Philbin guest hosted the 2005 edition. Due to a lingering speech impediment brought upon by the stroke, Clark retired as host and was succeeded by Ryan Seacrest for 2006, but continued making limited appearances on the special until his death in 2012. Other notable New Year's events are held in New York besides those in Times Square; since 1984, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan has hosted the annual "New Year's Eve Concert for Peace", which was founded in 1984 by composer Leonard Bernstein. The New York Road Runners hosts a "Midnight Run" event at Central Park, which features a fireworks show and a footrace around the park that begins at the stroke of midnight. Other notable celebrations include the Las Vegas Strip's "America's Party", which consists of a ticketed concert event at the Fremont Street Experience, and a public fireworks show at midnight that is launched from various casino resorts on the Strip. Nashville has typically held concerts featuring country music performers, with them becoming the focal point of a CBS television special since 2022. Los Angeles, a city long without a major public New Year celebration, held an inaugural gathering in Downtown's newly completed Grand Park to celebrate the arrival of 2014. The event included food trucks, art installations, and culminated with a projection mapping show on the side of Los Angeles City Hall near midnight. The inaugural event drew over 25,000 spectators and participants. For 2016, Chicago introduced an event known as Chi-Town Rising. Since 2014–15, musician Pitbull has hosted a New Year's Eve concert at Miami's Bayfront Park (which was initially televised as a New Year's special on Fox, *Pitbull's New Year's Revolution*, until 2017–18). Major theme parks also hold New Year's celebrations; Disney theme parks, such as Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim, California, are traditionally the busiest around the Christmas and New Year's holidays. ### Oceania #### Australia Each major city in Australia holds New Year's Eve celebrations, usually accompanied by a fireworks display and other events. The most prominent celebration in the country is Sydney New Year's Eve, which takes place at Sydney Harbour and consists of two fireworks shows — the evening "Family Fireworks" held at 9:00 p.m. local time, followed by the main fireworks at midnight. Sydney Harbour Bridge is a focal point of the show, via pyrotechnics launched from the bridge, as well as lighting displays that illuminate it during the show—colloquially known as the "bridge effect", and previously taking the form of a symbol on its trusses that reflected an annual theme. Gloucester Park, a racecourse in central Perth, is the largest and most recognized display in the Western Australian city. In Brisbane events are held at Southbank. At night, 50,000 Australians gather at sites around the Brisbane River to watch a fireworks display. In Melbourne, hundreds of thousands of Australians come to the Central Business District to see the fireworks. In the South Australian capital of Adelaide, events are held at both Rymill Park in the city, Semaphore and at Glenelg beach. #### Kiribati Kiritimati (UTC+14) part of Kiribati (and other Kiribati's Line Islands, especially populated Tabuaeran and Teraina), is one of the first locations in the world to welcome the New Year. Other Kiribati islands follow at UTC+13 and UTC+12. #### New Zealand Many of New Zealand's cities and towns see in the new year with open-air concerts and fireworks displays. Auckland regularly has a fireworks display at midnight from the top of the Sky Tower. In Wellington, Frank Kitts Park is the venue for a festival including fireworks, music, and open-air film displays. Similar events occur in Hamilton, starting with a family-friendly event at Steele Park, followed by an adult-specific party at SkyCity Hamilton. Gisborne, one of the first cities in the world to see sunrise at new year also celebrates with a new year festival. The small town of Whangamata, on the Coromandel Peninsula, is a major party venue in the new year, especially for Aucklanders. In the South Island, both Christchurch and Dunedin host free live music concerts culminating with a midnight fireworks display. These are held at Hagley Park and The Octagon respectively. The South Island's main resort town, Queenstown is also a major new year party venue, with music and fireworks. #### Samoa Since changing the time zone from UTC-11 to UTC+13 in winter and UTC+14 in summer (including new year), Samoa is the first country to receive the New Year as a whole, sharing it with some parts of Kiribati. ### South America #### Argentina Traditional celebrations in Argentina include a family dinner of traditional dishes, including *vitel tonné*, *asado*, *sandwiches de miga*, *piononos*. Like dessert: *turrón*, *mantecol* and *pan dulce*. Just before midnight, Argentines flock to the streets to enjoy fireworks and light firecrackers. The fireworks can be seen in any terrace. The first day of the New Year is celebrated at midnight with cider or champagne. Argentines wish each other a happy New Year, and sometimes share a toast with neighbours. Parties often continue until dawn. Citizens in La Plata have a long tradition of making giant dolls, mostly of paper and wood, although sometimes also incorporating fireworks, which are burnt after the stroke of midnight. The celebration is during the summer, like in many South American countries, so many families in the New Year are seen at tourist centers of the Argentine Atlantic coast (Mar del Plata, Necochea, Villa Gesell, Miramar, etc.). #### Brazil In Brazil, Brazilians typically celebrate New Year's Eve (Portuguese: *Ano Novo*) at large parties hosted by restaurants and clubs; local traditions determine who opens a bottle of Champagne at midnight. People often wear colors with religious symbolism on New Year's Eve, such as white for good luck, yellow for good energies, happiness and money, red for love. Rituals such as the consumption of grapes, lychees and lentils also take place due to this mixture. The most prominent public celebration in Brazil is a fireworks display on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, which is one of the world's largest. In 2017, it was estimated that the fireworks would attract over three million spectators to welcome 2018. On television, the most prominent New Year's Eve special is TV Globo's *Show da Virada [pt]*, which features pre-recorded concert performances (usually filmed from a different Brazilian city annually), and live coverage of New Year's celebrations across the country Brasília holds a public celebration on the Monumental Axis or Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha. Celebrations in Manaus are centered upon a fireworks display on the Rio Negro Bridge, while Paulista Avenue hosts the main celebration in São Paulo, Brazil's largest city. Another notable New Year's Eve tradition in São Paulo is the Saint Silvester Road Race, a 15K run through the city's Central Zone. Held annually since 1925, its route incorporates several major streets and landmarks, including the Viaduto do Chá and Paulista Avenue. #### Chile New Year's Eve is celebrated in Chile by the observation of various traditions, such as wearing yellow underwear and watching fireworks. Chileans who want to travel walk the streets with a suitcase in hand, others hold money in their hand or place coins at their door for good fortune in the new year. Celebrations include a family dinner with special dishes, usually lentils for good luck, and twelve grapes to symbolize wishes for each month of the coming year. Family celebrations usually last until midnight, then some continue partying with friends until dawn. In Chile's capital Santiago, thousands of Chileans gather at the Entel Tower to watch the countdown to midnight and a fireworks display. There are several fireworks shows across the country, and over one million spectators attend the most popular, the "Año Nuevo en el Mar", in Valparaiso. Since 2000, the sale of fireworks to individuals has been illegal, meaning fireworks can now only be observed at fireworks displays during major events. #### Colombia In Colombia it is a traditional celebration. There are many traditions across the country, including a family dinner with special dishes, fireworks, popular music, wearing special or new clothes, eating empanadas and the giving of parties of various kinds. With each stroke of the clock until midnight, the families eat grapes. It is a common practice to consume a variety of tropical foodstuffs, including melon, sandia, or watermelon and chontaduro. #### Ecuador A New Year's Eve tradition in Ecuador is for men to dress in drag, representing the "widows" of the past year. They dance in the streets and ask for a toll from drivers to pass. There are also traditional family events, meals, and modern celebrations such as hosting parties and going to nightclubs. Ecuadorians usually eat grapes and drink Champagne with close family members and friends. #### Suriname In Suriname, Surinamese Citizens goes into cities' commercial districts to watch fireworks shows on New Year's Eve. It is a spectacle based on the famous red-firecracker-ribbons. The bigger stores invest in these firecrackers and display them in the streets. Every year the length of them is compared, and high praises are held for the company that has managed to import the largest ribbon. These celebrations start at 10 am and finish the next day. The day is usually filled with laughter, dance, music, and drinking. When the night starts, the big street parties are already at full capacity. The most popular fiesta is the one that is held at café 't Vat in the main tourist district. The parties stop between 10 and 11 pm after which the people go home to light their *pagaras* (red-firecracker-ribbons) at midnight. After midnight, the parties continue and the streets fill again until daybreak. #### Uruguay In Uruguay, traditional celebrations include family gatherings in which *asado* and *lechon* are usually eaten, as well as *turrón* and *pan dulce* as desserts. In the Old City of Montevideo, a district where a large number of office buildings are concentrated, employees, prior to the end of the last working day of the year, throw torn daybooks and calendars through the windows, causing a “paper rain”, which adds to the buckets of water that are thrown from the balconies. In the Mercado del Puerto there is a massive “cider fight” accompanied by music. At the stroke of midnight, Uruguayans flock to the streets to enjoy fireworks and light firecrackers, and to eat Twelve Grapes. Due to the fact that Uruguay lies in the Southern Hemisphere, the New Year is celebrated in summer, so resort cities such as Punta del Este are filled with Uruguayans and foreign tourists, including celebrities from the region, to attend parties and festivals of music, fireworks, and light shows on the beach. #### Venezuela Radio specials give a countdown and announce the New Year. In Caracas, the bells of the Cathedral of Caracas ring twelve times. During these special programs, is a tradition to broadcast songs about the end of the year. It is a non-working holiday. Popular songs include "Viejo año" ("Old year"), by Gaita group Maracaibo 15, and "Cinco pa' las 12" ("Five minutes before twelve"), which was versioned by several popular singers including Nestor Zavarce, Nancy Ramos and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma. The unofficial hymn for the first minutes of the New Year is "Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva" ("New Year, New Life"), by the band Billo's Caracas Boys. Venezuelans play the national anthem in their houses. Traditions include wearing yellow underwear, eating Pan de jamón, and 12 grapes with sparkling wine. Special holiday programs are broadcast on Venezuelan television stations including Venevision. Religious observances --------------------- Many Christian congregations have New Year's Eve watchnight services. Many denominations in Christianity, especially Moravians and Methodists, as well as congregations populated by certain ethnic communities, such as in the Korean community and African American community, have a tradition known as the Watch Night service (or Watch Night Mass), in which the faithful congregate in services continuing past midnight, giving thanks for the blessings of the outgoing year and praying for divine favor during the upcoming year. In the English-speaking world, Watch Night services can be traced back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who learned the custom from the Moravian Brethren who came to England in the 1730s. Moravian congregations still observe the Watch Night service on New Year's Eve. Watch Night services took on special significance to African Americans on New Year's Eve 1862, as slaves anticipated the arrival of 1 January 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation became effective. With Christianity, in the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, and the Anglican Communion, 1 January is observed as the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, and specifically within Roman Catholicism, honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus; it is a Holy Day of Obligation in most countries (Australia being a notable exception), thus the Church requires the attendance of all Catholics in such countries for Mass that day. However a vigil Mass may be held on the evening before a Holy Day; thus it has become customary to also have Mass on the night of New Year's Eve (which are sometimes referred to as Watchnight Masses). (New Year's Eve is a feast day honoring Pope Sylvester I in the Roman Catholic calendar, but it is not widely recognized in the United States). The Catholic Church grants a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, to those who recite the Te Deum in public on New Year's Eve, which is usually done prior to the celebration of Mass. In Vatican City, on December 31, the Pope usually performs a solemn service of Vespers with recitation of the Te Deum in St. Peter's Basilica. After the service, he usually goes out from the basilica into St. Peter's Square to greet the faithful and visit the Nativity scene on the square. Music ----- Music associated with New Year's Eve comes in both classical and popular genres, and there is also Christmas song focus on the arrival of a new year during the Christmas and holiday season. * "Auld Lang Syne" by Robert Burns. * Johann Sebastian Bach, in the *Orgelbüchlein*, composed three chorale preludes for the new year: *Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen* ["Help me to praise God's goodness"] (BWV 613); *Das alte Jahr vergangen ist* ["The old year has passed"] (BWV 614); and *In dir ist freude* ["In you is joy"] (BWV 615). * "The year is gone, beyond recall" is a traditional Christian hymn to give thanks for the new year, dating back to 1713. * "Happy New Year" by ABBA * "Imagine" by John Lennon * "It Was a Very Good Year" by Frank Sinatra * "It's Just Another New Year's Eve" by Barry Manilow * "Let's Start the New Year Right" by Bing Crosby * "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang * "New Year's Day" by U2 * "The Final Countdown" by Europe * "Ding Dong Ding Dong" by George Harrison * "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" by Doris Day * "Ode to Joy" from the 9th Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven * "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg * "Let's Spend This New Year's Eve At Home" by Christi Bauerlee * "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day * "Kiss Me at Midnight" by 'N Sync from their 1998 album *The Winter Album* * "Firework" by Katy Perry * "This Is the New Year" by A Great Big World * "New Year's Day" by Taylor Swift * "1999" by Prince * "Will 2K" by Will Smith * "Millennium" by Robbie Williams * "Brand New Day" by Sting * "Disco 2000" by Pulp * "Año Más" by Mecano * "Xīnnián Hǎo" (新年好), a Mandarin version of the popular American folk song Oh My Darling, Clementine See also -------- * New Year's food * List of films set around New Year * List of objects dropped on New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve

**Hamburg** (German: [ˈhambʊʁk] (), locally also [ˈhambʊɪ̯ç] (); Low Saxon: *Hamborg* [ˈhambɔːç] ()), officially the **Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg** (German: *Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg*; Low Saxon: *Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg*), is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, as well as the overall 8th-largest city and largest non-capital city in the European Union with a population of over 1.85 million. Hamburg's urban area has a population of around 2.5 million and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which has a population of over 5.1 million people in total. At the southern tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Hamburg stands on the branching River Elbe at the head of a 110 km (68 mi) estuary down to the North Sea, on the mouth of the Alster and Bille. Hamburg is one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen, and is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest and Europe's third-largest, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. The local dialect is a variant of Low Saxon. The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign city state, and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers or *Hanseaten*. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Major regional broadcaster NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers *Der Spiegel* and *Die Zeit* are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf, Lufthansa and Unilever. Hamburg is also a major European science, research, and education hub, with several universities and institutions. The city enjoys a very high quality of living, being ranked 19th in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Hamburg hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Former German chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel were both born in Hamburg. The former Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, has been the current German chancellor since December 2021. Hamburg is a major international and domestic tourist destination. The *Speicherstadt* and *Kontorhausviertel* were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it the city with the highest number of bridges in Europe. Aside from its rich architectural heritage, the city is also home to notable cultural venues such as the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle concert halls. It gave birth to movements like *Hamburger Schule* and paved the way for bands including the Beatles. Hamburg is also known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European entertainment districts. History ------- ### Origins Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva. ### Etymology The name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, and acquired the name *Hammaburg*, *burg* meaning castle or fort. The origin of the *Hamma* term remains uncertain, but its location is estimated to be at the site of today's Domplatz. ### Medieval Hamburg In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric. The first bishop, Ansgar, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years later, Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350. Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period. In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access (or free-trade zone) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an allegedly forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg. This charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, quickly made it a major port in Northern Europe. Its trade alliance with Lübeck in 1241 marks the origin and core of the powerful Hanseatic League of trading cities. On 8 November 1266, a contract between Henry III and Hamburg's traders allowed them to establish a *hanse* in London. This was the first time in history that the word *hanse* was used for the trading guild of the Hanseatic League. In 1270, the solicitor of the senate of Hamburg, *Jordan von Boitzenburg*, wrote the first description of civil, criminal and procedural law for a city in Germany in the German language, the *Ordeelbook* (*Ordeel*: sentence). On 10 August 1410, civil unrest forced a compromise (German: *Rezeß*, literally meaning: withdrawal). This is considered the first constitution of Hamburg. In 1356 was celebrated for the first time the *Matthiae-Mahl* feast dinner for Hanseatic League cities on 25 February, the first day of spring in medieval times. It continues today as the world's oldest ceremonial meal. ### Early modern period In 1529, the city embraced Lutheranism, and it received Reformed refugees from the Netherlands and France. When Jan van Valckenborgh introduced a second layer to the fortifications to protect against the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, he extended Hamburg and created a "New Town" (*Neustadt*) whose street names still date from the grid system of roads he introduced. Upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Free Imperial City of Hamburg was not incorporated into a larger administrative area while retaining special privileges (mediatised), but became a sovereign state with the official title of the *Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg*. Hamburg was briefly annexed by Napoleon I to the First French Empire (1804–1814/1815). Russian forces under General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. Hamburg re-assumed its pre-1811 status as a city-state in 1814. The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Hamburg's independence and it became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation (1815–1866). In 1842, about a quarter of the inner city was destroyed in the "Great Fire". The fire started on the night of 4 May and was not extinguished until 8 May. It destroyed three churches, the town hall, and many other buildings, killing 51 people and leaving an estimated 20,000 homeless. Reconstruction took more than 40 years. After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848, Hamburg adopted in 1860 a semidemocratic constitution that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations included the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association. Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866–1871) and of the German Empire (1871–1918), and maintained its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). Hamburg acceded to the German Customs Union or Zollverein in 1888, the last (along with Bremen) of the German states to join. The city experienced its fastest growth during the second half of the 19th century when its population more than quadrupled to 800,000 as the growth of the city's Atlantic trade helped make it Europe's second-largest port. The Hamburg-America Line, with Albert Ballin as its director, became the world's largest transatlantic shipping company around the start of the 20th century. Shipping companies sailing to South America, Africa, India and East Asia were based in the city. Hamburg was the departure port for many Germans and Eastern Europeans to emigrate to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trading communities from all over the world established themselves there. A major outbreak of cholera in 1892 was badly handled by the city government, which retained an unusual degree of independence for a German city. About 8,600 died in the largest German epidemic of the late 19th century, and the last major cholera epidemic in a major city of the Western world. ### Second World War Hamburg was a *Gau* within the administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1934 until 1945. During the Second World War, the Allied bombing of Hamburg devastated much of the city and the harbour. On 23 July 1943, the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force firebombing created a firestorm which spread from the *Hauptbahnhof* (main railway station) and quickly moved south-east, completely destroying entire boroughs such as Hammerbrook, Billbrook and Hamm South. Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed Operation Gomorrah by the RAF, killed at least 42,600 civilians; the precise number is not known. About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts. The Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is in the greater Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the north of Hamburg. At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp (about 25 km (16 mi) outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the bombing of Kriegsmarine evacuation vessels by the RAF at the end of the war. Systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent started on 18 October 1941. These were all directed to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe or to concentration camps. Most deported persons perished in the Holocaust. By the end of 1942 the *Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg* was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (District Northwest). On 10 June 1943 the Reich Security Main Office dissolved the association by a decree. The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a mixed marriage were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to Theresienstadt, where most of them perished. ### Post-war history The city was surrendered to British Forces on 3 May 1945, in the Battle of Hamburg, three days after Adolf Hitler's death. After the Second World War, Hamburg formed part of the British Zone of Occupation; it became a state of what was then West Germany in 1949. On 16 February 1962, a North Sea flood caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people. The inner German border – only 50 kilometres (30 mi) east of Hamburg – separated the city from most of its hinterland and reduced Hamburg's global trade. Since German reunification in 1990, and the accession of several Central European and Baltic countries into the European Union in 2004, the Port of Hamburg has restarted ambitions for regaining its position as the region's largest deep-sea port for container shipping and its major commercial and trading centre. Geography --------- Hamburg is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster and Bille. The city centre is around the Binnenalster ("Inner Alster") and Außenalster ("Outer Alster"), both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The islands of Neuwerk, Scharhörn, and Nigehörn, 100 kilometres (60 mi) away in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of the city of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the *Altes Land* (old land) region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe. Neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburg's highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres (381 ft) AMSL. Hamburg borders the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. ### Climate Hamburg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: *Cfb*), influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the Atlantic Ocean. The location in the north of Germany provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but definitely in the category due to the prevailing westerlies. Nearby wetlands enjoy a maritime temperate climate. The amount of snowfall has varied greatly in recent decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, heavy snowfall sometimes occurred, the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year. The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C (68.2 to 72.5 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C (31.5 to 33.8 °F). | Climate data for Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel (Hamburg Airport), elevation: 15 m, 1981-2010 normals | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 14.4(57.9) | 17.2(63.0) | 23.0(73.4) | 29.7(85.5) | 33.5(92.3) | 34.6(94.3) | 40.1(104.2) | 37.3(99.1) | 32.3(90.1) | 26.1(79.0) | 20.2(68.4) | 15.7(60.3) | 40.1(104.2) | | Average high °C (°F) | 3.5(38.3) | 4.4(39.9) | 8.0(46.4) | 12.3(54.1) | 17.5(63.5) | 19.9(67.8) | 22.1(71.8) | 22.2(72.0) | 17.9(64.2) | 13.0(55.4) | 7.5(45.5) | 4.6(40.3) | 13.2(55.8) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 1.0(33.8) | 1.6(34.9) | 4.6(40.3) | 7.8(46.0) | 12.5(54.5) | 15.2(59.4) | 17.4(63.3) | 17.4(63.3) | 13.7(56.7) | 9.5(49.1) | 4.9(40.8) | 2.3(36.1) | 9.0(48.2) | | Average low °C (°F) | −1.4(29.5) | −1.2(29.8) | 1.1(34.0) | 3.3(37.9) | 7.4(45.3) | 10.5(50.9) | 12.7(54.9) | 12.5(54.5) | 9.6(49.3) | 6.0(42.8) | 2.4(36.3) | 0.0(32.0) | 6.2(43.2) | | Record low °C (°F) | −22.8(−9.0) | −29.1(−20.4) | −15.3(4.5) | −7.1(19.2) | −5.0(23.0) | 0.6(33.1) | 3.4(38.1) | 1.8(35.2) | −1.2(29.8) | −7.1(19.2) | −15.4(4.3) | −18.5(−1.3) | −29.1(−20.4) | | Average rainfall mm (inches) | 67.8(2.67) | 49.9(1.96) | 67.7(2.67) | 43.0(1.69) | 57.4(2.26) | 78.6(3.09) | 76.7(3.02) | 78.9(3.11) | 67.4(2.65) | 67.0(2.64) | 69.2(2.72) | 68.9(2.71) | 792.6(31.20) | | Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 12.1 | 9.2 | 11.3 | 8.9 | 9.6 | 11.3 | 11.4 | 10.2 | 10.8 | 10.5 | 11.7 | 12.4 | 129.4 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 46.9 | 69.0 | 108.8 | 171.6 | 223.4 | 198.7 | 217.5 | 203.1 | 144.6 | 107.9 | 53.0 | 37.4 | 1,581.9 | | Average ultraviolet index | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | | Source: WMO (UN), DWD and Weather Atlas *View climate chart 1986-2016 or 1960-1990* | | Climate data for Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel (Hamburg Airport), elevation: 15 m, 1961-1990 normals and extremes | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 12.8(55.0) | 16.7(62.1) | 23.0(73.4) | 29.7(85.5) | 29.2(84.6) | 32.7(90.9) | 33.2(91.8) | 34.8(94.6) | 30.3(86.5) | 24.0(75.2) | 20.2(68.4) | 15.7(60.3) | 34.8(94.6) | | Average high °C (°F) | 2.7(36.9) | 3.8(38.8) | 7.2(45.0) | 11.9(53.4) | 17.0(62.6) | 20.2(68.4) | 21.4(70.5) | 21.6(70.9) | 18.0(64.4) | 13.3(55.9) | 7.6(45.7) | 4.0(39.2) | 12.4(54.3) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 0.5(32.9) | 1.1(34.0) | 3.7(38.7) | 7.3(45.1) | 12.2(54.0) | 15.5(59.9) | 16.8(62.2) | 16.6(61.9) | 13.5(56.3) | 9.7(49.5) | 5.1(41.2) | 1.9(35.4) | 8.7(47.6) | | Average low °C (°F) | −2.2(28.0) | −1.8(28.8) | 0.4(32.7) | 3.0(37.4) | 7.2(45.0) | 10.4(50.7) | 12.2(54.0) | 11.9(53.4) | 9.4(48.9) | 6.3(43.3) | 2.5(36.5) | −0.7(30.7) | 4.9(40.8) | | Record low °C (°F) | −20.8(−5.4) | −18.7(−1.7) | −13.8(7.2) | −6.5(20.3) | −2.2(28.0) | 0.6(33.1) | 4.2(39.6) | 1.8(35.2) | −0.6(30.9) | −3.3(26.1) | −15.4(4.3) | −18.5(−1.3) | −20.8(−5.4) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 61.0(2.40) | 41.0(1.61) | 56.0(2.20) | 51.0(2.01) | 57.0(2.24) | 74.0(2.91) | 82.0(3.23) | 70.0(2.76) | 70.0(2.76) | 63.0(2.48) | 71.0(2.80) | 72.0(2.83) | 768(30.23) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 12.0 | 9.0 | 11.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 12.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 10.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 131 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 42.2 | 67.0 | 104.7 | 160.7 | 216.8 | 221.8 | 206.7 | 207.3 | 141.1 | 100.7 | 53.0 | 35.2 | 1,557.2 | | Source: NOAA | Demographics ------------ Historical population| Year | Pop. | ±% | | --- | --- | --- | | 950 | 500 | —     | | 1430 | 16,000 | +3100.0% | | 1840 | 136,956 | +756.0% | | 1900 | 705,738 | +415.3% | | 1910 | 931,035 | +31.9% | | 1920 | 1,026,989 | +10.3% | | 1930 | 1,145,124 | +11.5% | | 1940 | 1,725,500 | +50.7% | | 1945 | 1,350,278 | −21.7% | | 1950 | 1,605,606 | +18.9% | | 1961 | 1,840,543 | +14.6% | | 1970 | 1,793,640 | −2.5% | | 1975 | 1,717,383 | −4.3% | | 1980 | 1,645,095 | −4.2% | | 1985 | 1,579,884 | −4.0% | | 1990 | 1,652,363 | +4.6% | | 2000 | 1,715,392 | +3.8% | | 2010 | 1,786,448 | +4.1% | | 2012 | 1,734,272 | −2.9% | | 2013 | 1,746,342 | +0.7% | | 2014 | 1,762,791 | +0.9% | | 2015 | 1,787,408 | +1.4% | | 2016 | 1,810,438 | +1.3% | | 2018 | 1,841,179 | +1.7% | | 2020 | 1,852,478 | +0.6% | | Population size may be affected by changes in administrative divisions. | On 31 December 2016, there were 1,860,759 people registered as living in Hamburg in an area of 755.3 km2 (291.6 sq mi). The population density was 2,464/km2 (6,380/sq mi). The metropolitan area of the Hamburg region (Hamburg Metropolitan Region) is home to 5,107,429 living on 196/km2 (510/sq mi). There were 915,319 women and 945,440 men in Hamburg. For every 1,000 females, there were 1,033 males. In 2015, there were 19,768 births in Hamburg (of which 38.3% were to unmarried women); 6422 marriages and 3190 divorces, and 17,565 deaths. In the city, the population was spread out, with 16.1% under the age of 18, and 18.3% were 65 years of age or older. 356 people in Hamburg were over the age of 100. According to the Statistical Office for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the number of people with a migrant background is at 34% (631,246). Immigrants come from 200 countries. 5,891 people have acquired German cititzenship in 2016. In 2016, there were 1,021,666 households, of which 17.8% had children under the age of 18; 54.4% of all households were made up of singles. 25.6% of all households were single parent households. The average household size was 1.8. ### Portuguese community Hamburg has the largest Portuguese community in Germany with about 30,000 people with Portuguese diaspora. Many Portuguese sailor and dealor came to Hamburg since the 15th century due to its port. Since 1970s, there is a district in Hamburg called Portugiesenviertel [de] (Portuguese quarter) where many Portuguese people settled there and has many Portuguese restaurants, cafes and shops today which attracts many tourists. There are many statues, squares and streets in Hamburg that are named after Portuguese historical figures including the Vasco da Gama statue on the Kornhaus bridge, which was suggested by Portuguese community to make the Portuguese community in Hamburg visible. ### Afghan community Hamburg has a large Afghan community with about 40,000 people of Afghan diaspora, which makes Hamburg not only the largest Afghan community in Germany, it has also the largest Afghan community in Europe. They first came to Hamburg in the Afghan conflict in 1990s where many Afghan migrants choose to live in Hamburg. Since then the Afghan population grow and after 2015 the Afghan population almost doubled due to the refugee crisis. There is an area in Hamburg behind the central station where many Afghan restaurants and shops are located there. Many carpet shops in Speicherstadt is operated by Afghans. ### Foreign citizens in Hamburg Hamburg residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2016 is as follows | Citizenship | Number | % | | --- | --- | --- | | Total | 288,338 | 100% | | Europe | 193,812 | 67.2% | | European Union | 109,496 | 38% | | Asian | 59,292 | 20.6% | | African | 18,996 | 6.6% | | American | 11,315 | 3.9% | | Australian and Oceanian | 1,234 | 0.4% | ### Language As elsewhere in Germany, Standard German is spoken in Hamburg, but as typical for northern Germany, the original language of Hamburg is Low German, usually referred to as *Hamborger Platt* (German *Hamburger Platt*) or *Hamborgsch*. Since large-scale standardisation of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-coloured dialects have developed (contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois *Hanseatendeutsch* (Hanseatic German), although the term is used in appreciation. All of these are now moribund due to the influences of Standard German used by education and media. However, the former importance of Low German is indicated by several songs, such as the famous sea shanty Hamborger Veermaster, written in the 19th century when Low German was used more frequently. Many toponyms and street names reflect Low Saxon vocabulary, partially even in Low Saxon spelling, which is not standardised, and to some part in forms adapted to Standard German. ### Religion | Religion in Hamburg – 2018 | | --- | | religion | | percent | | None or other |   | 65.2% | | EKD Protestants |   | 24.9% | | Roman Catholics |   | 9.9% | 65.2% of the population is not religious or adherent other religions than the Evangelical Church or Catholicism. In 2018, 24.9% of the population belonged to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, the largest religious body, and 9.9% to the Roman Catholic Church. Hamburg is seat of one of the three bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg. According to the publication *Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland* ("*Muslim life in Germany*"), an estimated 141,900 Muslim migrants (from nearly 50 countries of origin) lived in Hamburg in 2008. About three years later (May 2011) calculations based on census data for 21 countries of origin resulted in a figure of about 143,200 Muslim migrants in Hamburg, making up 8.4% percent of the population. As of 2021[update], there were more than 50 mosques in the city, including the Ahmadiyya run Fazle Omar Mosque, which is the oldest in the city, and which hosts the Islamic Centre Hamburg. A Jewish community exists. Government ---------- The city of Hamburg is one of 16 German states, therefore the Mayor of Hamburg's office corresponds more to the role of a minister-president than to the one of a city mayor. As a German state government, it is responsible for public education, correctional institutions and public safety; as a municipality, it is additionally responsible for libraries, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply and welfare services. Since 1897, the seat of the government has been Hamburg City Hall (Hamburg Rathaus), with the office of the mayor, the meeting room for the Senate and the floor for the Hamburg Parliament. From 2001 until 2010, the mayor of Hamburg was Ole von Beust, who governed in Germany's first statewide "black-green" coalition, consisting of the conservative CDU Hamburg and the alternative GAL, which are Hamburg's regional wing of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Von Beust was briefly succeeded by Christoph Ahlhaus in 2010, but the coalition broke apart on 28 November 2010. On 7 March 2011 Olaf Scholz (SPD) became mayor. After the 2015 election the SPD and the Alliance 90/The Greens formed a coalition. ### Boroughs Hamburg is made up of seven boroughs (German: *Bezirke*) and subdivided into 104 quarters (German: *Stadtteile*). There are 181 localities (German: *Ortsteile*). The urban organisation is regulated by the Constitution of Hamburg and several laws. Most of the quarters were former independent cities, towns or villages annexed into Hamburg proper. The last large annexation was done through the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, when the cities Altona, Harburg, and Wandsbek were merged into the state of Hamburg. The *Act of the Constitution and Administration of Hanseatic city of Hamburg* established Hamburg as a state and a municipality. Some of the boroughs and quarters have been rearranged several times. Each borough is governed by a Borough Council (German: *Bezirksversammlung*) and administered by a Municipal Administrator (German: *Bezirksamtsleiter*). The boroughs are not independent municipalities: their power is limited and subordinate to the Senate of Hamburg. The borough administrator is elected by the Borough Council and thereafter requires confirmation and appointment by Hamburg's Senate. The quarters have no governing bodies of their own. Since the latest territorial reform of March 2008, the boroughs are Hamburg-Mitte, Altona, Eimsbüttel, Hamburg-Nord, Wandsbek, Bergedorf, and Harburg. *Hamburg-Mitte* ("Hamburg Centre") covers mostly the urban centre of the city and consists of the quarters Billbrook, Billstedt, Borgfelde, Finkenwerder, HafenCity, Hamm, Hammerbrook, Horn, Kleiner Grasbrook, Neuwerk, Rothenburgsort, St. Georg, St. Pauli, Steinwerder, Veddel, Waltershof, and Wilhelmsburg. The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt ("old town") and Neustadt ("new town") are the historical origin of Hamburg. *Altona* is the westernmost urban borough, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864, Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937. Politically, the following quarters are part of Altona: Altona-Altstadt, Altona-Nord, Bahrenfeld, Ottensen, Othmarschen, Groß Flottbek, Osdorf, Lurup, Nienstedten, Blankenese, Iserbrook, Sülldorf, Rissen, and Sternschanze. *Bergedorf* consists of the quarters Allermöhe, Altengamme, Bergedorf—the centre of the former independent town, Billwerder, Curslack, Kirchwerder, Lohbrügge, Moorfleet, Neuengamme, Neuallermöhe, Ochsenwerder, Reitbrook, Spadenland, and Tatenberg. *Eimsbüttel* is split into nine-quarters: Eidelstedt, Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude, Hoheluft-West, Lokstedt, Niendorf, Rotherbaum, Schnelsen, and Stellingen. Located within this borough is former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel. *Hamburg-Nord* contains the quarters Alsterdorf, Barmbek-Nord, Barmbek-Süd, Dulsberg, Eppendorf, Fuhlsbüttel, Groß Borstel, Hoheluft-Ost, Hohenfelde, Langenhorn, Ohlsdorf with Ohlsdorf cemetery, Uhlenhorst, and Winterhude. *Harburg* is situated on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas, and some research institutes. The quarters are Altenwerder, Cranz, Eißendorf, Francop, Gut Moor, Harburg, Hausbruch, Heimfeld, Langenbek, Marmstorf, Moorburg, Neuenfelde, Neugraben-Fischbek, Neuland, Rönneburg, Sinstorf, and Wilstorf. *Wandsbek* is divided into the quarters Bergstedt, Bramfeld, Duvenstedt, Eilbek, Farmsen-Berne, Hummelsbüttel, Jenfeld, Lemsahl-Mellingstedt, Marienthal, Poppenbüttel, Rahlstedt, Sasel, Steilshoop, Tonndorf, Volksdorf, Wandsbek, Wellingsbüttel, and Wohldorf-Ohlstedt. Cityscape --------- Panoramic view of the Hamburg skyline of the Binnenalster taken from Lombardsbrücke ### Architecture Hamburg has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles and no skyscrapers (see List of tallest buildings in Hamburg). Churches are important landmarks, such as St Nicholas', which for a short time in the 19th century was the world's tallest building. The skyline features the tall spires of the most important churches (*Hauptkirchen*) St Michael's (nicknamed "Michel"), St Peter's, St James's (*St. Jacobi*), and St. Catherine's covered with copper plates, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm, the radio and television tower (no longer publicly accessible). The many streams, rivers, and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than London, Amsterdam, and Venice put together. Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world. The Köhlbrandbrücke, Freihafen Elbbrücken, Lombardsbrücke, and Kennedybrücke dividing Binnenalster from Aussenalster are important roadways. The town hall is a richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in 1897. The tower is 112 metres (367 ft) high. Its façade, 111 m (364 ft) long, depicts the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, since Hamburg was, as a Free Imperial City, only under the sovereignty of the emperor. The Chilehaus, a brick expressionist office building built in 1922 and designed by architect Fritz Höger, is shaped like an ocean liner. Europe's largest urban development since 2008, the HafenCity, will house about 15,000 inhabitants and 45,000 workers. The plan includes designs by Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano. The Elbphilharmonie *(Elbe Philharmonic Hall)*, opened in January 2017, houses concerts in a sail-shaped building on top of an old warehouse, designed by architects *Herzog & de Meuron*. The many parks are distributed over the whole city, which makes Hamburg a very verdant city. The biggest parks are the *Stadtpark*, the Ohlsdorf Cemetery, and Planten un Blomen. The *Stadtpark*, Hamburg's "Central Park", has a great lawn and a huge water tower, which houses one of Europe's biggest planetaria. The park and its buildings were designed by Fritz Schumacher in the 1910s. ### Parks and gardens The lavish and spacious *Planten un Blomen* park (Low German dialect for "plants and flowers") located in the centre of Hamburg is the green heart of the city. Within the park are various thematic gardens, the biggest Japanese garden in Germany, and the *Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg*, which is a historic botanical garden that now consists primarily of greenhouses. The *Botanischer Garten Hamburg* is a modern botanical garden maintained by the University of Hamburg. Besides these, there are many more parks of various sizes. In 2014 Hamburg celebrated a birthday of park culture, where many parks were reconstructed and cleaned up. Moreover, every year there are the famous water-light-concerts in the *Planten un Blomen* park, from May to early October. Culture ------- Hamburg has more than 40 theatres, 60 museums, and 100 music venues and clubs. With 6.6 music venues per 100,000 inhabitants, Hamburg has the second-highest density of music venues of Germany's largest cities, after Munich and ahead of Cologne and Berlin. In 2005, more than 18 million people visited concerts, exhibitions, theatres, cinemas, museums, and cultural events, and 8,552 taxable companies (average size 3.16 employees) were engaged in the culture sector, which includes music, performing arts, and literature. The creative industries represent almost one fifth of all companies in Hamburg. Hamburg has entered the European Green Capital Award scheme, and was awarded the title of European Green Capital for 2011. ### Theatres The state-owned *Deutsches Schauspielhaus*, the Thalia Theatre, Ohnsorg Theatre, "Schmidts Tivoli", and the *Kampnagel* are well-known theatres. The English Theatre of Hamburg, near the U3 station Mundsburg, was founded in 1976 and is the oldest professional English-language theatre in Germany, with exclusively English-speaking actors in its company. ### Museums Hamburg has several large museums and galleries showing classical and contemporary art, for example the Kunsthalle Hamburg with its contemporary art gallery (*Galerie der Gegenwart*), the *Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe* (Museum of Art and Design), and the Deichtorhallen (with the House of Photography and Hall of Contemporary Art). The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg opened in the HafenCity quarter in 2008. There are various specialised museums in Hamburg, such as the *Archäologisches Museum Hamburg* (Hamburg Archaeological Museum) in the Harburg borough, the Hamburg Museum of Work (*Museum der Arbeit*), and several museums of local history, such as the Kiekeberg Open Air Museum [de] (*Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg*) at Kiekeberg in the Harburg Hills, just outside of Hamburg, in Rosengarten. Two museum ships near St. Pauli Piers (*Landungsbrücken*) bear witness to the freight ship (*Cap San Diego*) and cargo sailing ship era (*Rickmer Rickmers*). In 2017 the Hamburg-built iron-hulled sailing ship *Peking* returned to the city and was installed in the German Port Museum in 2020. The world's largest model railway museum, Miniatur Wunderland, with 15.4 km (9.57 mi) total railway length, is also situated near St. Pauli Piers in a former warehouse. BallinStadt, a memorial park and former emigration station, is dedicated to the millions of Europeans who emigrated to North and South America between 1850 and 1939. Visitors descending from those overseas emigrants may search for their ancestors at computer terminals. ### Music Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company. Its orchestra is the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The city's other well-known orchestra is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The main concert venue is the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie. Before it was the Laeiszhalle, *Musikhalle Hamburg*. The Laeiszhalle also houses a third orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker. György Ligeti and Alfred Schnittke taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. Hamburg is the birthplace of Johannes Brahms, who spent his formative early years in the city, and the birthplace and home of the famous waltz composer Oscar Fetrás, who wrote the well-known "Mondnacht auf der Alster" waltz. Since the German premiere of *Cats* in 1986, there have always been musicals running, including *The Phantom of the Opera*, *The Lion King*, *Dirty Dancing*, and *Dance of the Vampires (musical)*. This density, the highest in Germany, is partly due to the major musical production company *Stage Entertainment* being based in the city. In addition to musicals, opera houses, concert halls, and theatres, the cityscape is characterised by a large music scene. This includes, among other things, over 100 music venues, several annual festivals and over 50 event organisers based in Hamburg. Larger venues include the Barclaycard Arena, the Bahrenfeld harness racing track, and Hamburg City Park. Hamburg was an important centre of rock music in the early 1960s. The Beatles lived and played in Hamburg from August 1960 to December 1962. They proved popular and gained local acclaim. Prior to the group's initial recording and widespread fame, Hamburg provided residency and performing venues for the band during the time they performed there. One of the venues they performed at was the Star Club on St. Pauli. Hamburg has produced a number of successful (pop) musicians. Among the best known are Udo Lindenberg, Deichkind, and Jan Delay. The singer Annett Louisan lives in Hamburg. An important meeting place for Hamburg musicians from the 1970s to the mid-80s was the jazz pub Onkel Pö, which was originally founded in the Pöseldorf neighbourhood and later moved to Eppendorf. Many musicians who were counted as part of the "Hamburg scene[de]" met here. In addition to Udo Lindenberg, these included Otto Waalkes, Hans Scheibner and groups such as Torfrock and Frumpy. One of the members of the band Frumpy was the Hamburg-born singer and composer Inga Rumpf. Hamburg is famous for a special kind of German alternative music, the "Hamburger Schule", a term used for bands like Tocotronic, Blumfeld, Tomte or Kante. The meeting point of the Hamburg School was long considered to be the Golden Pudel Club[de] in Altona's old town, near the Fischmarkt. Alongside clubs such as the Pal, the Moondoo or the Waagenbau, today the Pudel is a central location of the Hamburg electro scene. Well-known artists of this scene include the DJ duo Moonbootica, Mladen Solomun, and Helena Hauff. Hamburg is also home to many music labels, music distributors and publishers. These include Warner Music, Kontor Records, PIAS, Edel SE & Co. KGaA, Believe Digital, and Indigo. The high proportion of independent labels in the city, which include Audiolith, Dial Records, Grand Hotel van Cleef, among others, is striking. Before its closure, the label L'Age D'Or also belonged to these. In addition, Hamburg has a considerable alternative and punk scene, which gathers around the Rote Flora, a squatted former theatre located in the Sternschanze. The city was a major centre for heavy metal music in the 1980s. Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild, and Grave Digger started in Hamburg. The industrial rock band KMFDM was also formed in Hamburg, initially as a performance art project. The influences of these and other bands from the area helped establish the subgenre of power metal. In the late 90s, Hamburg was considered one of the strongholds of the German hip-hop scene. Bands like Beginner shaped Hamburg's hip-hop style and made the city a serious location for the hip-hop scene through songs like "Hamburg City Blues". In addition to Beginner, several successful German hip-hop acts hail from Hamburg, such as Fünf Sterne Deluxe, Samy Deluxe, Fettes Brot, and 187 Strassenbande. Hamburg has a vibrant psychedelic trance community, with record labels such as Spirit Zone. ### Festivals and regular events Hamburg is noted for several festivals and regular events. Some of them are street festivals, such as the LGBT pride *Hamburg Pride* festival or the Alster fair (German: *Alstervergnügen*), held at the *Binnenalster*. The *Hamburger DOM* is northern Germany's biggest funfair, held three times a year. *Hafengeburtstag* is a funfair to honour the birthday of the port of Hamburg with a party and a ship parade. The annual biker's service in Saint Michael's Church attracts tens of thousands of bikers. Christmas markets in December are held at the Hamburg Rathaus square, among other places. The *long night of museums* (German: *Lange Nacht der Museen*) offers one entrance fee for about 40 museums until midnight. The sixth *Festival of Cultures* was held in September 2008, celebrating multi-cultural life. The Filmfest Hamburg — a film festival originating from the 1950s *Film Days* (German: *Film Tage*) — presents a wide range of films. The *Hamburg Messe and Congress* offers a venue for trade shows, such *hanseboot*, an international boat show, or *Du und deine Welt*, a large consumer products show. Regular sports events—some open to pro and amateur participants—are the cycling competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, the Hamburg Marathon, the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin, the tennis tournament Hamburg Masters, and equestrian events like the Deutsches Derby. Hamburg is also known for its music and festival culture. For example, the Reeperbahn alone has between 25–30 million visitors every year. In addition, there are over a million visitors to the annual festivals and major music events. Hamburg's festivals include the Elbjazz Festival, which takes place 2 days a year (usually on the Whitsun weekend) in Hamburg's harbour and HafenCity. For contemporary and experimental music, the "blurred edges Archived 20 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine" festival usually follows in May at various venues within Hamburg. In mid-August, the MS Dockville music and arts festival has run annually since 2007 in the Wilhelmsburg district. This is followed at the end of September by the Reeperbahn Festival[de], which has been running since 2006. As Europe's largest club festival, it offers several hundred program points around the Reeperbahn in Hamburg over four days and is one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide. In November, the ÜBERJAZZ Festival, which aims to expand the stylistic boundaries of the concept of jazz, starts every year at Kampnagel. ### Cuisine Original Hamburg dishes are *Birnen, Bohnen und Speck* (green beans cooked with pears and bacon). *Aalsuppe* (Hamburgisch *Oolsupp*) is often mistaken to be German for "eel soup" (*Aal*/*Ool* translated 'eel'), but the name probably comes from the Low Saxon *allns* [aˑlns], meaning "all", "everything and the kitchen sink", not necessarily eel. Today eel is often included to meet the expectations of unsuspecting diners. There is *Bratkartoffeln* (pan-fried potato slices), *Finkenwerder Scholle* (Low Saxon *Finkwarder Scholl*, pan-fried plaice), *Pannfisch* (pan-fried fish with mustard sauce), *Rote Grütze* (Low Saxon *Rode Grütt*, related to Danish *rødgrød*, a type of summer pudding made mostly from berries and usually served with cream, like Danish *rødgrød med fløde*), and *Labskaus* (a mixture of corned beef, mashed potatoes, and beetroot, a cousin of the Norwegian *lapskaus* and Liverpool's lobscouse, all offshoots off an old-time one-pot meal that used to be the main component of the common sailor's humdrum diet on the high seas). *Alsterwasser* (in reference to the city's river, the Alster) is the local name for a type of shandy, a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade (*Zitronenlimonade*), the lemonade being added to the beer. There is the curious regional dessert pastry called "Franzbrötchen". Looking rather like a flattened croissant, it is similar in preparation, but includes a cinnamon and sugar filling, often with raisins or brown sugar streusel. The name may also reflect to the roll's croissant-like appearance – *franz* appears to be a shortening of *französisch*, meaning "French", which would make a *Franzbrötchen* a "French roll". Ordinary bread rolls tend to be oval-shaped and of the French bread variety. The local name is *Schrippe* (scored lengthways) for the oval kind and, for the round kind, *Rundstück* ("round piece" rather than mainstream German *Brötchen*, diminutive form of *Brot* "bread"), a relative of Denmark's *rundstykke*. In fact, while by no means identical, the cuisines of Hamburg and Denmark, especially of Copenhagen, have a lot in common. This also includes a predilection for open-faced sandwiches of all sorts, especially topped with cold-smoked or pickled fish. The American hamburger may have developed from Hamburg's *Frikadeller*: a pan-fried patty (usually larger and thicker than its American counterpart) made from a mixture of ground beef, soaked stale bread, egg, chopped onion, salt, and pepper, usually served with potatoes and vegetables like any other piece of meat, not usually on a bun. The Oxford Dictionary defined a *Hamburger steak* in 1802: a sometimes-smoked and -salted piece of meat, that, according to some sources, came from Hamburg to America. The name and food, "hamburger", has entered all English-speaking countries, and derivative words in non-English speaking countries. There are restaurants which offer most of these dishes, especially in the HafenCity. ### Main sights * Elbphilharmonie ("Elphi")*Elbphilharmonie* ("Elphi") * Port of HamburgPort of Hamburg * St. Pauli Piers and cruise shipSt. Pauli Piers and cruise ship * Speicherstadt (Warehouse district)*Speicherstadt* (Warehouse district) * Hamburg City HallHamburg City Hall * St. Michael's Church ("Michel")St. Michael's Church ("Michel") * Reeperbahn, nightlife district of St. Pauli*Reeperbahn*, nightlife district of St. Pauli * Miniatur Wunderland (Miniature Wonderland)*Miniatur Wunderland* (Miniature Wonderland) * Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom")*Große Freiheit* ("Great Freedom") * Nikolai MemorialNikolai Memorial * HafenCityHafenCity * Dockland at nightDockland at night * View over frozen Alster towards Radisson Hotel and Hertz-TurmView over frozen Alster towards Radisson Hotel and Hertz-Turm * Planten un Blomen*Planten un Blomen* * Jungfernstieg BoulevardJungfernstieg Boulevard * Hills and mansions in BlankeneseHills and mansions in Blankenese * Laeiszhalle concert venue*Laeiszhalle* concert venue * Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the busiest railway station in GermanyHamburg Hauptbahnhof, the busiest railway station in Germany * Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper courtHanseatisches Oberlandesgericht ("HansOLG"), upper court * Highrises in St. Pauli (Hafenkrone)Highrises in St. Pauli (*Hafenkrone*) * Köhlbrand BridgeKöhlbrand Bridge * TV TowerTV Tower * Traditional sailing ships at Sandtorkai in HafenCityTraditional sailing ships at Sandtorkai in HafenCity * View over Hamburg and the AlsterView over Hamburg and the Alster ### Alternative culture Hamburg has long been a centre of alternative music and counter-culture movements. The boroughs of St. Pauli, Sternschanze, and Altona are known for being home to many radical left-wing and anarchist groups, culminating every year during the traditional May Day demonstrations. During the 2017 G20 summit, which took place in Hamburg from 7–8 July that year, protestors clashed violently with the police in the Sternschanze area and particularly around the Rote Flora. On 7 July, several cars were set on fire and street barricades were erected to prevent the police from entering the area. In response to that, the police made heavy use of water cannons and tear gas in order to scatter the protestors. However, this was met with strong resistance by protestors, resulting in a total of 160 injured police and 75 arrested participants in the protests. After the summit, however, the Rote Flora issued a statement, in which it condemns the arbitrary acts of violence that were committed by some of the protestors whilst generally defending the right to use violence as a means of self-defence against police oppression. In particular, the spokesperson of the Rote Flora said that the autonomous cultural centre had a traditionally good relationship with its neighbours and local residents, since they were united in their fight against gentrification in that neighbourhood. ### British culture There are several English-speaking communities, such as the Caledonian Society of Hamburg, The British Club Hamburg, British and Commonwealth Luncheon Club, Anglo-German Club e.V., Professional Women's Forum, The British Decorative and Fine Arts Society, The English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth, The Scottish Country Dancers of Hamburg, The Hamburg Players e.V. English Language Theatre Group, The Hamburg Exiles Rugby Club, several cricket clubs, and The Morris Minor Register of Hamburg. Furthermore, the Anglo-Hanseatic Lodge No. 850 within the Grand Lodge of British Freemasons of Germany under the United Grand Lodges of Germany works in Hamburg, and has a diverse expat membership. There is also a 400-year-old Anglican church community worshipping at *St Thomas Becket Church[de]*. American and international English-speaking organisations include The American Club of Hamburg e.V., the American Women's Club of Hamburg, the English Speaking Union, the German-American Women's Club, and The International Women's Club of Hamburg e.V. *The American Chamber of Commerce* handles matters related to business affairs. The International School of Hamburg serves school children. William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent the last two weeks of September 1798 at Hamburg. Dorothy wrote a detailed journal of their stay, labelled "The Hamburg Journal (1798) by noted Wordsworth scholar Edward de Selincourt". A Hamburg saying, referring to its anglophile nature, is: "Wenn es in London anfängt zu regnen, spannen die Hamburger den Schirm auf". ... "When it starts raining in London, people in Hamburg open their umbrellas". ### Memorials A memorial for successful English engineer William Lindley, who, beginning in 1842, reorganised the drinking water and sewerage system and thus helped to fight against cholera, is near Baumwall railway station in Vorsetzen street. In 2009, more than 2,500 "stumbling blocks" (*Stolpersteine*) were laid, engraved with the names of deported and murdered citizens. Inserted into the pavement in front of their former houses, the blocks draw attention to the victims of Nazi persecution. Economy ------- The gross domestic product (GDP) of Hamburg was 119.0 billion € in 2018, accounting for 3.6% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €59,600 or 197% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 132% of the EU average. The city has a relatively high employment rate, at 88 percent of the working-age population, employed in over 160,000 businesses. The median gross salary in 2021 was €47,544, which is 9.29% higher than the median gross salary in Germany overall. The unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in October 2018 and was higher than the German average. | Year | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Unemployment rate in % | 8.9 | 8.3 | 9.0 | 9.9 | 9.7 | 11.3 | 11.0 | 9.1 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.2 | 7.8 | 7.5 | 7.4 | 7.6 | 7.4 | 7.1 | 6.8 | 6.3 | 6.1 | ### Banking Hamburg has for centuries been a commercial centre of Northern Europe, and is the most important banking city of Northern Germany. The city is the seat of Germany's oldest bank, the Berenberg Bank, M.M.Warburg & CO, and Hamburg Commercial Bank. The Hamburg Stock Exchange is the oldest of its kind in Germany. ### Port The most significant economic unit is the Port of Hamburg, which ranks third to Rotterdam and Antwerpen in Europe and 17th-largest worldwide, with transshipments of 8.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo and 138.2 million tons of goods in 2016. International trade is also the reason for the large number of consulates in the city. Although situated 110 kilometres (70 mi) up the Elbe, it is considered a sea port due to its ability to handle large ocean-going vessels. ### Industrial production Heavy industry of Hamburg includes the making of steel, aluminium, copper and various large shipyards such as Blohm + Voss. Hamburg, along with Seattle and Toulouse, is an important location of the civil aerospace industry. Airbus, which operates the Hamburg-Finkenwerder assembly plant in Finkenwerder, employs over 13,000 people. ### HafenCity The HafenCity is Europe's largest urban development project and is located in the Hamburg-Mitte district. It consists of the area of the Great Grasbrook, the northern part of the former Elbe island Grasbrook, and the warehouse district on the former Elbe island Kehrwieder and Wandrahm. It is bordered to the north, separated by the customs channel to Hamburg's city centre, west and south by the Elbe, and to the east, bounded by the upper harbour, Rothenburgsort. The district is full of rivers and streams and is surrounded by channels, and has a total area of about 2.2 square-kilometres. HafenCity has 155 hectares in the area formerly belonging to the free port north of the Great Grasbrook. Residential units for up to 12,000 people are planned to be built on the site by around the mid-2020s, and jobs for up to 40,000 people, mainly in the office sector, should be created. It is the largest ongoing urban development project in Hamburg. Construction work started in 2003, and in 2009 the first part of the urban development project was finished with the completion of the Dalmannkai / Sandtorkai neighbourhood – which is the first stage of the HafenCity project. According to the person responsible for the development and commercialisation of HafenCity, *HafenCity Hamburg GmbH*, half of the master plan underlying structural construction is already completed, whereas the other half is either under construction or is in the construction preparation stages. ### Tourism In 2017, more than 6,783,000 visitors with 13,822,000 overnight stays visited the city. The tourism sector employs more than 175,000 people full-time and brings in revenue of almost €9 billion, making the tourism industry a major economic force in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Hamburg has one of the fastest-growing tourism industries in Germany. From 2001 to 2007, the overnight stays in the city increased by 55.2% (Berlin +52.7%, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern +33%). A typical Hamburg visit includes a tour of the city hall and the grand church St. Michaelis (calle "*Michel*"), and visiting the old warehouse district (Speicherstadt) and the harbour promenade (*Landungsbrücken*). Sightseeing buses connect these points of interest. As Hamburg is one of the world's largest harbours, many visitors take one of the harbour and/or canal boat tours (*Große Hafenrundfahrt*, *Fleetfahrt*) which start from the *Landungsbrücken*. Major destinations also include museums. The area of Reeperbahn, in the quarter St. Pauli, is Europe's largest red light district and home of strip clubs, brothels, bars, and nightclubs. The singer and actor Hans Albers is strongly associated with St. Pauli, and wrote the neighbourhood's unofficial anthem, "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins" ("On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight"), in the 1940s. The Beatles had stints on the Reeperbahn early in their careers. Others prefer the laid-back neighbourhood *Schanze*, with its street cafés, or a barbecue on one of the beaches along the river Elbe. Hamburg's famous zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, was founded in 1907 by Carl Hagenbeck as the first zoo with moated, barless enclosures. In 2016, the average visitor spent two nights in Hamburg. The majority of visitors come from Germany. Most foreigners are European, especially from Denmark (395,681 overnight stays), the United Kingdom (301,000 overnight stays), Switzerland (340,156 overnight stays), Austria (about 252,397 overnight stays), and the Netherlands (about 182,610 overnight stays). The largest group from outside Europe comes from the United States (206,614 overnight stays). The *Queen Mary 2* has docked regularly since 2004, and there were six departures planned from 2010 onwards. ### Creative industries Media businesses employ over 70,000 people. The Norddeutscher Rundfunk, which includes the television station NDR Fernsehen, is based in Hamburg, including the very popular news program *Tagesschau*, as are the commercial television station *Hamburg 1*, the Christian television station *Bibel TV*, and the civil media outlet *Tide TV*. There are regional radio stations such as Radio Hamburg. Some of Germany's largest publishing companies, Axel Springer AG, Gruner + Jahr, and Bauer Media Group, are located in the city. Many national newspapers and magazines, such as *Der Spiegel* and *Die Zeit*, are produced in Hamburg, as well as some special-interest newspapers such as *Financial Times Deutschland*. *Hamburger Abendblatt* and *Hamburger Morgenpost* are daily regional newspapers with a large circulation. There are music publishers, such as Warner Bros. Records Germany, and ICT firms such as Adobe Systems and Google Germany. A total of about 2,000 companies are located in Hamburg that are active in the music industry. With over 17,000 employees and a gross value added of around 640 million euros, this industry is one of the strongest in the city. The Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft[de] and the Clubkombinat represent the companies in the industry. The interests of Hamburg musicians\* are represented, for example, by RockCity Hamburg e.V.. Hamburg was one of the locations for the James Bond series film *Tomorrow Never Dies*. The *Reeperbahn* has been the location for many scenes, including the 1994 Beatles film *Backbeat*. The film *A Most Wanted Man* was set in and filmed in Hamburg. Hamburg was also shown in *An American Tail*, where Fievel Mousekewitz and his family immigrate to America in the hopes to escape cats. Infrastructure -------------- ### Health systems Hamburg has 54 hospitals. The University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, with about 1,736 beds, houses a large medical school. There are also smaller private hospitals. On 1 January 2011 there were about 12,507 hospital beds. The city had 5,663 physicians in private practice and 456 pharmacies in 2010. ### Transport Hamburg is a major transportation hub, connected to four Autobahnen (motorways) and the most important railway junction on the route to Scandinavia. Bridges and tunnels connect the northern and southern parts of the city, such as the old Elbe Tunnel (*Alter Elbtunnel*) or St. Pauli Elbtunnel (official name), which opened in 1911, today a major tourist sight, and the Elbe Tunnel (*Elbtunnel*), the crossing of a motorway. Hamburg Airport is the oldest airport in Germany still in operation. There is also the smaller Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport, used only as a company airport for Airbus. Some airlines market Lübeck Airport in Lübeck as serving Hamburg. Hamburg's licence plate prefix was "HH" (Hansestadt Hamburg; English: Hanseatic City of Hamburg) between 1906 and 1945 and from 1956 onwards, rather than the single letter normally used for large cities since the federal registration reform in 1956, such as B for Berlin or M for Munich. "H" was Hamburg's prefix in the years between 1945 and 1947 (used by Hanover since 1956). ### Public transport Public transport by rail, bus, and ship is organised by the *Hamburger Verkehrsverbund* ("Hamburg transit authority") (HVV). Tickets sold by one company are valid on all other HVV companies' services. The HVV was the first organisation of this kind worldwide. 33 mass transit rail lines across the city are the backbone of public transport. The S-Bahn (commuter train system) comprises six lines and the U-Bahn four lines – *U-Bahn* is short for *Untergrundbahn* (underground railway). Approximately 41 km (25 mi) of 101 km (63 mi) of the U-Bahn is underground; most is on embankments or viaduct or at ground level. Older residents still speak of the system as *Hochbahn* (elevated railway), also because the operating company of the subway is the *Hamburger Hochbahn*. The AKN railway connects satellite towns in Schleswig-Holstein to the city. On some routes regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional *metronom* trains may be used with an HVV ticket. Except at the four bigger stations of the city, Hauptbahnhof, Dammtor, Altona, and Harburg, regional trains do not stop inside the city. The tram system was opened in 1866 and shut down in 1978. Gaps in the rail network are filled by more than 669 bus routes, operated by single-deck two-, three- and four-axle diesel buses. Hamburg has no trams or trolleybuses, but has hydrogen-fuelled buses. The buses run frequently during working hours, with buses on some so-called MetroBus routes as often as every 2 minutes. On special weekday night lines the intervals can be 30 minutes or more, while on normal days (Monday-Friday) normal buses stop running at night (MetroBuses run 24 hours a day, every day of the year at least every half hour). There are eight ferry lines along the River Elbe, operated by *HADAG*, that fall under the aegis of the HVV. While mainly used by citizens and dock workers, they can also be used for sightseeing tours. The international airport serving Hamburg, Hamburg Airport Helmut Schmidt (IATA: HAM, ICAO: EDDH), is the fifth biggest and oldest airport in Germany, having been established in 1912 and located about 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the city centre. About 60 airlines provide service to 125 destination airports, including some long-distance destinations like Newark, New Jersey on United Airlines, Dubai on Emirates, and Tehran on Iran Air. Hamburg is a secondary hub for Lufthansa, which is the largest carrier at the airport, and the airline also operates one of its biggest Lufthansa Technik maintenance facilities there. The second airport is located in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, officially named Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI). It is about 10 km (6 mi) from the city centre and is a nonpublic airport for the Airbus plant. It is the second biggest Airbus plant, after Toulouse, and the third biggest aviation manufacturing plant after Seattle and Toulouse; the plant houses the final assembly lines for A318, A319, A320, A321, and A380 aircraft. Public transportation statistics The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Hamburg, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 58 min. 16% of public transit riders, ride for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 11 min, while 11% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 8.9 km, while 21% travel for over 12 km in a single direction. ### Utilities Electricity for Hamburg and Northern Germany is largely provided by *Vattenfall Europe*, formerly the state-owned *Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke*. Vattenfall Europe used to operate the Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant and Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant, both taken out of service as part of the nuclear power phase-out. In addition, E.ON operates the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant, near Hamburg. There are also the coal-fired Wedel, Tiefstack, and Moorburg CHP Plant, and the fuel-cell power plant in the HafenCity quarter. *VERA Klärschlammverbrennung* uses the biosolids of the Hamburg wastewater treatment plant; the *Pumpspeicherwerk Geesthacht* is a pump storage power plant and a solid waste combustion power station is *Müllverwertung Borsigstraße*. In June 2019 City of Hamburg introduced a law governing the phasing out of coal based thermal and electric energy production ("Kohleausstiegsgesetz"). This move was the result of negotiations between parliamentary parties and representatives of the popular petition *Tschuess Kohle ("Goodbye Coal").* In 2020, Hamburg Ministry for Environment and Energy announced a partnership with Namibia, which is a potential supplier of woody biomass from encroacher bush as replacement of coal. Sports ------ Hamburger SV is a football team playing in the 2. Bundesliga (as of 2023). The HSV was the oldest team of the Bundesliga, playing in the league since its beginning in 1963, until a change of results saw them relegated from the Bundesliga in 2018. HSV was six times German champion, three times winner of the German Cup, and triumphed in the European Cup in 1983, as well as having participated in the group stages of the Champions League twice: in 2000–01 and 2006–07. They play at the Volksparkstadion (average attendance in the 12–13 season was 52,916). In addition, FC St. Pauli was a second division football club that came in second place in the 2009–10 season and qualified to play alongside Hamburger SV in the first division for the first time since the 2001–02 season. St. Pauli's home games take place at the Millerntor-Stadion. The Hamburg Freezers represented Hamburg until 2016 in the DEL, the premier ice hockey league in Germany. HSV Handball represented Hamburg until 2016 in the German handball league. In 2007, HSV Handball won the European Cupwinners Cup. The Club won the league in the 2010–11 season and had an average attendance of 10.690 in the O2 World Hamburg the same year. The most recent success for the team was the EHF Champions League win in 2013. Since 2014, the club has suffered from economic problems and was almost not allowed the playing licence for the 2014–15 season; but due to economic support from the former club president/sponsor Andreas Rudolf, the club was allowed the licence in the last minute. On 20 January 2016, however, their licence was removed due to violations following the continued economic struggles. In 2016–17, they were not allowed to play in the first or second league. The team lives on through their former second team (now their main team) in the third division (2016-2018) and in second division (since 2018). The *BCJ Hamburg* played in the Basketball Bundesliga from 1999 to 2001. Later, the Hamburg Towers became the city's prime team. The Towers promoted to Germany's top division in 2019. In 2022, they already reached the playoffs. The Towers play their home games at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Wilhelmsburg. Hamburg is the nation's field hockey capital and dominates the men's as well as the women's Bundesliga. Hamburg hosts many top teams such as Uhlenhorster Hockey Club, Harvesterhuder Hockey Club, and Club An Der Alster. The Hamburg Warriors are one of Germany's top lacrosse clubs. The club has grown immensely in the last several years and includes at least one youth team, three men's, and two women's teams. The team participates in the Deutsch Lacrosse Verein. The Hamburg Warriors are part of the Harvestehuder Tennis- und Hockey-Club e.V (HTHC). Hamburg Blue Devils was one of the prominent American Football teams playing in German Football League before its exit in 2017. Hamburg Sea Devils is a team of European League of Football (ELF), which is a planned professional league, that is set to become the first fully professional league in Europe since the demise of NFL Europe. The Sea Devils will start playing games in June 2021. There are also the Hamburg Dockers, an Australian rules football club. The FC St. Pauli team dominates women's rugby in Germany. Other first-league teams include VT Aurubis Hamburg (Volleyball) and Hamburger Polo Club. Eimsbütteler TV plays in the German Women's 2 Volleyball Bundesliga. There are also several minority sports clubs, including four cricket clubs. The Centre Court of the Tennis Am Rothenbaum venue, with a capacity of 13,200 ppeople, is the largest in Germany. Hamburg also hosts equestrian events at *Reitstadion Klein Flottbek* (Deutsches Derby in jumping and dressage) and *Horner Rennbahn* (Deutsches Derby flat racing). Besides, Hamburg owns the famous harness racing track "Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld". The Hamburg Marathon is the biggest marathon in Germany after Berlin's. In 2008, 23,230 participants were registered. World Cup events in cycling, the UCI ProTour competition EuroEyes Cyclassics, and the triathlon ITU World Cup event *Hamburg City Man* are also held in here. Volksparkstadion was used as a site for the 2006 World Cup. In 2010 UEFA held the final of the UEFA Europa League in the arena. Hamburg made a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but 51.7 percent of those city residents participating in a referendum in November 2015 voted against continuing Hamburg's bid to host the games. Meanwhile, Hamburg's partner city Kiel voted in favour of hosting the event, with almost 66 percent of all participants supporting the bid. Opponents of the bid had argued that hosting the 33rd Olympic Games would cost the city too much in public funds. Education --------- The school system is managed by the Ministry of Schools and Vocational Training (*Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung*). The system had approximately 191,148 students in 221 primary schools and 188 secondary schools in 2016. There are 32 public libraries in Hamburg. Nineteen universities are located in Hamburg, with about 100,589 university students in total, including 9,000 resident students. Six universities are public, including the largest, the University of Hamburg (Universität Hamburg) with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the University of Music and Theatre, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the HafenCity University Hamburg, and the Hamburg University of Technology. Seven universities are private, like the Bucerius Law School, the Kühne Logistics University, and the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration. The city has also smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as the Helmut Schmidt University (formerly the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg). Hamburg is home to one of the oldest international schools in Germany, the International School of Hamburg. Twin towns – sister cities -------------------------- Hamburg is twinned with: * Russia Saint Petersburg, Russia (1957) * France Marseille, France (1958) * China Shanghai, China (1986) * Germany Dresden, Germany (1987) * Nicaragua León, Nicaragua (1989) * Japan Osaka, Japan (1989) * Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic (1990) * United States Chicago, United States (1994) * Tanzania Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (2010) Notable people -------------- > In Hamburg it's hard to find a native Hamburger. A hurried and superficial search turns up only crayfish, people from Pinneberg, and those from Bergedorf. One accompanies the contented little kippers of a striving society; mackerels from Stade, sole from Finkenwerder, herrings from Cuxhaven swim in expectant throngs through the streets of my city and lobsters patrol the stock exchange with open claws.... The first so-called unguarded glance always lands on the bottom of the sea and falls into twilight of the aquarium. Heinrich Heine must have had the same experience when he tried, with his cultivated scorn and gifted melancholy, to find the people of Hamburg. > > — Siegfried Lenz, in *Leute von Hamburg* (People of Hamburg) ISBN 978-3-423-11538-4. The list below originated with a ref to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, including entries said to be "born at Hamburg". * Lucas Holstenius (1596–1661), German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian and librarian * Andreas Schlüter (c. 1659 – c. 1714), German baroque sculptor and architect * Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680–1747), German poet * Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment * Konrad Ekhof (1720–1778), the foremost German actor of the 18th century * Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790), German educational reformer, teacher and writer * Meta Klopstock (1728–1758), writer * Johann Joachim Eschenburg (1743–1820), German critic and literary historian * Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826), astronomer. He named and determined the orbit of Uranus. * Johann Dominicus Fiorillo (1748–1821), German painter and historian of art * Christian, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg (1748–1821), poet, brother of Frederick Leopold * Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1750–1819), German lawyer and translator * Georg Friedrich von Martens (1756–1821), German jurist and diplomat * Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (1758–1836), banker and politician * Johann Franz Encke (1791–1865), astronomer. He measured the distance from Earth to the Sun. * Ami Boué (1794–1881), geologist of French Huguenot origin * Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794–1868), German art historian * Johann Christian Poggendorff (1796–1877), physicist. He dealt with electricity and magnetism. * Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804–1881), German botanist, co-founder of cell theory * Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888), Orthodox rabbi. He founded the *Torah im Derech Eretz.* * Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), German composer, pianist, organist and conductor * Ludwig Preller (1809–1861), German philologist and antiquarian * Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872), German travel, writer and novelist * Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth (1818–1892), German geologist and mineralogist * Heinrich Barth (1821–1865), German explorer of Africa and a scholar * Jacob Bernays (1824–1881), German philologist and philosophical writer * Julius Oppert (1825–1905), French-German Assyriologist * Thérèse Tietjens (1831–1877), leading opera and oratorio soprano * Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), German composer, pianist and conductor * Michael Bernays (1834–1897), German literary historian, scholar of Goethe and Shakespeare * Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910), German chemist. He discovered the pinacol coupling reaction. * Wilhelm Kühne (1837–1900), German physiologist. He coined the word "enzyme" in 1878. * Carl Rosa (1842–1889), musical impresario. He founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in London. * Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913), a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos * Hans Hinrich Wendt (1853–1928), German Protestant theologian * Hans von Bartels (1856–1913), German painter * Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), physicist who first proved the existence of electromagnetic waves * Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015), politician and chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982 * Angela Merkel (born 1954), retired politician and scientist, chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021 * Olaf Scholz (born 1958), politician, First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, and the current chancellor of Germany since 2021 See also -------- * Novo Hamburgo

Hamburg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg

**Logistics** is a part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logistics management is a component that holds the supply chain together. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items. In military logistics, it is concerned with maintaining army supply lines with food, armaments, ammunitions, and spare parts apart from the transportation of troops themselves. Meanwhile, civil logistics deals with the acquisition, movement, and storage of raw materials, semi-finished goods, and finished goods. For organisations that provide services such as garbage collection, mail deliveries, public utilities, and after-sales services, logistical problems also need to be addressed. Logistics deals with movements of materials or products from one facility to another (e.g. from the production facility to assembly plants to distribution centers); it does not deal with the material flow within the production or assembly plants (e.g. production planning or single-machine scheduling). Logistics occupies a significant amount of the operational cost of an organisation or country. For example, logistical costs of organizations in the United States incurred about 11% of United States national gross domestic product (GDP) in 1997. Such a situation is also similar for the countries in the European Union (EU) where logistics incurred 8.8 to 11.5% of the national GDP in 1993. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software. The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation in all logistics fields. A professional working in the field of logistics management is called a logistician. Nomenclature ------------ The term **logistics** is attested in English from 1846, and is from French: *logistique*, where it was either coined or popularized by Swiss military officer and writer Antoine-Henri Jomini, who defined it in his *Summary of the Art of War* (*Précis de l'Art de la Guerre*). The term appears in the 1830 edition, then titled *Analytic Table* (*Tableau Analytique*), and Jomini explains that it is derived from French: **logis**, lit. 'lodgings' (cognate to English *lodge*), in the terms French: *maréchal des logis*, lit. 'marshall of lodgings' and French: *major-général des logis*, lit. 'major-general of lodging': > Autrefois les officiers de l’état-major se nommaient: maréchal des logis, major-général des logis; de là est venu le terme de logistique, qu’on emploie pour désigner ce qui se rapporte aux marches d’une armée. > > > > > > > > Formerly the officers of the general staff were named: marshall of lodgings, major-general of lodgings; from there came the term of logistics [*logistique*], which we employ to designate those who are in charge of the functioning of an army. > > The term is credited to Jomini, and the term and its etymology criticized by Georges de Chambray in 1832, writing: > *Logistique*: Ce mot me paraît être tout-à-fait nouveau, car je ne l'avais encore vu nulle part dans la littérature militaire. … il paraît le faire dériver du mot *logis*, étymologie singulière … > > > > > > > > *Logistic*: This word appears to me to be completely new, as I have not yet seen it anywhere in military literature. … he appears to derive it from the word *lodgings* [*logis*], a peculiar etymology … > > Chambray also notes that the term *logistique* was present in the *Dictionnaire de l'Académie française* as a synonym for algebra. The French word: *logistique* is a homonym of the existing mathematical term, from Ancient Greek: λογῐστῐκός, romanized: *logistikós*, a traditional division of Greek mathematics; the mathematical term is presumably the origin of the term *logistic* in logistic growth and related terms. Some sources give this instead as the source of *logistics*, either ignorant of Jomini's statement that it was derived from *logis*, or dubious and instead believing it was in fact of Greek origin, or influenced by the existing term of Greek origin. Definition ---------- Jomini originally defined logistics as: > ... l'art de bien ordonner les marches d'une armée, de bien combiner l'ordre des troupes dans les colonnes, les tems [temps] de leur départ, leur itinéraire, les moyens de communications nécessaires pour assurer leur arrivée à point nommé ... > > > ... the art of well-ordering the functionings of an army, of well combining the order of troops in columns, the times of their departure, their itinerary, the means of communication necessary to assure their arrival at a named point ... > > > The *Oxford English Dictionary* defines logistics as "the branch of military science relating to procuring, maintaining and transporting material, personnel and facilities". However, the *New Oxford American Dictionary* defines logistics as "the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies", and the Oxford Dictionary on-line defines it as "the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation". As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering that creates "people systems" rather than "machine systems". According to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (previously the Council of Logistics Management), logistics is the process of planning, implementing and controlling procedures for the efficient and effective transportation and storage of goods including services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements and includes inbound, outbound, internal and external movements. Academics and practitioners traditionally refer to the terms operations or production management when referring to physical transformations taking place in a single business location (factory, restaurant or even bank clerking) and reserve the term logistics for activities related to distribution, that is, moving products on the territory. Managing a distribution center is seen, therefore, as pertaining to the realm of logistics since, while in theory, the products made by a factory are ready for consumption they still need to be moved along the distribution network according to some logic, and the distribution center aggregates and processes orders coming from different areas of the territory. That being said, from a modeling perspective, there are similarities between operations management and logistics, and companies sometimes use hybrid professionals, with for example a "Director of Operations" or a "Logistics Officer" working on similar problems. Furthermore, the term "supply chain management" originally referred to, among other issues, having an integrated vision of both production and logistics from point of origin to point of production. All these terms may suffer from semantic change as a side effect of advertising. Logistics activities -------------------- Logistical activities can be divided into three main areas, namely order processing, inventory management, and freight transportation. Traditionally, order processing was a time-consuming activity that can take up to 70% of the order-cycle time. However, with the advent of new technologies such as bar code scanning, computers, and network connection, orders from customers can quickly reach the seller in no time and the availability of stocks can be checked in real-time. The purpose of having an inventory is to reduce the overall logistical cost while improving service to customers. Having a stockpile of finished goods beforehand can reduce the frequency of transportation to and from the customers and cope with the randomness of customer demands. However, maintaining an inventory requires capital investment in finished goods and maintaining a warehouse. Storage and order picking occupies for most of the warehouse maintenance cost. Freight transportation forms the key part of logistics and allows access to wide markets as goods can be transported to hundred or thousands of kilometers away. Freight transportation accounts for two-thirds of logistical costs and has a major impact on customer service. Transportation policies and warehouse management are closely intertwined. The rise of commercial transactions through the internet give rise to the need of "e-logistics". Compared to traditional logistics, e-logistics handle parcels that are valued at less than a hundred US dollars to customers scattered at various destinations around the world. In e-logistics, customers' demands come in waves, when compared to traditional logistics where the demand is consistent. **Inbound logistics** is one of the primary processes of logistics concentrating on purchasing and arranging the inbound movement of materials, parts, or unfinished inventory from suppliers to manufacturing or assembly plants, warehouses, or retail stores. **Outbound logistics** is the process related to the storage and movement of the final product and the related information flows from the end of the production line to the end user. Given the services performed by logisticians, the main fields of logistics can be broken down as follows: * Procurement logistics * Distribution logistics * After-sales logistics * Disposal logistics * Reverse logistics * Green logistics * Global logistics * Domestics logistics * Concierge service * Reliability, availability, and maintainability * Asset control logistics * Point-of-sale material logistics * Emergency logistics * Production logistics * Construction logistics * Capital project logistics * Digital logistics * Humanitarian logistics **Procurement logistics** consists of activities such as market research, requirements planning, make-or-buy decisions, supplier management, ordering, and order controlling. The targets in procurement logistics might be contradictory: maximizing efficiency by concentrating on core competences, outsourcing while maintaining the autonomy of the company, or minimizing procurement costs while maximizing security within the supply process. **Advance logistics** consists of the activities required to set up or establish a plan for logistics activities to occur. **Global logistics** is technically the process of managing the "flow" of goods through what is called a supply chain, from its place of production to other parts of the world. This often requires an intermodal transport system, transport via ocean, air, rail, and truck. The effectiveness of global logistics is measured in the Logistics Performance Index. **Distribution logistics** has, as main tasks, the delivery of the finished products to the customer. It consists of order processing, warehousing, and transportation. Distribution logistics is necessary because the time, place, and quantity of production differ with the time, place, and quantity of consumption. **Disposal logistics** has as its main function to reduce logistics cost(s) and enhance service(s) related to the disposal of waste produced during the operation of a business. **Reverse logistics** denotes all those operations related to the reuse of products and materials. The reverse logistics process includes the management and the sale of surpluses, as well as products being returned to vendors from buyers. It is "the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal. More precisely, reverse logistics is the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal. The opposite of reverse logistics is **forward logistics**."[*This quote needs a citation*] **Green logistics** describes all attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impact of logistics activities. This includes all activities of the forward and reverse flows. This can be achieved through intermodal freight transport, path optimization, vehicle saturation and city logistics. **RAM logistics** (see also Logistic engineering) combines both **business logistics** and **military logistics** since it is concerned with highly complicated technological systems for which reliability, availability and maintainability are essential, ex: weapon systems and military supercomputers. **Asset control logistics**: companies in the retail channels, both organized retailers and suppliers, often deploy assets required for the display, preservation, promotion of their products. Some examples are refrigerators, stands, display monitors, seasonal equipment, poster stands & frames. **Emergency logistics** (or **humanitarian logistics**) is a term used by the logistics, supply chain, and manufacturing industries to denote specific time-critical modes of transport used to move goods rapidly in the event of an emergency. The reason for enlisting emergency logistics services could be a production delay or anticipated production delay, or an urgent need for specialized equipment to prevent events such as aircraft being grounded (also known as "aircraft on ground"—AOG), ships being delayed, or telecommunications failure. Humanitarian logistics involves governments, the military, aid agencies, donors, non-governmental organizations and emergency logistics services are typically sourced from a specialist provider. The term ***production logistics*** describes logistic processes within a value-adding system (ex: factory or a mine). Production logistics aims to ensure that each machine and workstation receives the right product in the right quantity and quality at the right time. The concern is with production, testing, transportation, storage, and supply. Production logistics can operate in existing as well as new plants: since manufacturing in an existing plant is a constantly changing process, machines are exchanged and new ones added, which gives the opportunity to improve the production logistics system accordingly. Production logistics provides the means to achieve customer response and capital efficiency. Production logistics becomes more important with decreasing batch sizes. In many industries (e.g. mobile phones), the short-term goal is a batch size of one, allowing even a single customer's demand to be fulfilled efficiently. Track and tracing, which is an essential part of production logistics due to product safety and reliability issues, is also gaining importance, especially in the automotive and medical industries. **Construction logistics** has been employed by civilizations for thousands of years. As the various human civilizations tried to build the best possible works of construction for living and protection. Now construction logistics has emerged as a vital part of construction. In the past few years, construction logistics has emerged as a different field of knowledge and study within the subject of supply chain management and logistics. Seven R's --------- The Seven R's is a popular concept used to enforce best practices in logistics management which consists of the following: * Right product (including the right information about it) * (At) right quantity * Right time * Right condition * Right place * (to) the right customer * (with the) right (financial) resources Military logistics ------------------ In military science, maintaining one's supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy is a crucial—some would say the most crucial—element of military strategy, since an armed force without resources and transportation is defenseless. The historical leaders Hannibal, Alexander the Great, and the Duke of Wellington are considered to have been logistical geniuses: Alexander's expedition benefited considerably from his meticulous attention to the provisioning of his army, Hannibal is credited to have "taught logistics" to the Romans during the Punic Wars and the success of the Anglo-Portuguese army in the Peninsula War was due to the effectiveness of Wellington's supply system, despite the numerical disadvantage. The defeat of the British in the American War of Independence and the defeat of the Axis in the African theater of World War II are attributed by some scholars to logistical failures. Militaries have a significant need for logistics solutions and so have developed advanced implementations. Integrated logistics support (ILS) is a discipline used in military industries to ensure an easily supportable system with a robust customer service (logistic) concept at the lowest cost and in line with (often high) reliability, availability, maintainability, and other requirements, as defined for the project. In military logistics, Logistics Officers manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed. Supply chain management in military logistics often deals with a number of variables in predicting cost, deterioration, consumption, and future demand. The United States Armed Forces' categorical supply classification was developed in such a way that categories of supply with similar consumption variables are grouped together for planning purposes. For instance, peacetime consumption of ammunition and fuel will be considerably lower than wartime consumption of these items, whereas other classes of supply such as subsistence and clothing have a relatively consistent consumption rate regardless of war or peace. Some classes of supply have a linear demand relationship: as more troops are added, more supply items are needed; or as more equipment is used, more fuel and ammunition are consumed. Other classes of supply must consider a third variable besides usage and quantity: time. As equipment ages, more and more repair parts are needed over time, even when usage and quantity stay consistent. By recording and analyzing these trends over time and applying them to future scenarios, the US Armed Forces can accurately supply troops with the items necessary at the precise moment they are needed. History has shown that good logistical planning creates a lean and efficient fighting force. The lack thereof can lead to a clunky, slow, and ill-equipped force with too much or too little supply. Business logistics ------------------ One definition of business logistics speaks of "having the right item in the right quantity at the right time at the right place for the right price in the right condition to the right customer". Business logistics incorporates all industry sectors and aims to manage the fruition of project life cycles, supply chains, and resultant efficiencies. The term *business logistics* has evolved since the 1960s due to the increasing complexity of supplying businesses with materials and shipping out products in an increasingly globalized supply chain, leading to a call for professionals called supply chain logisticians. In business, logistics may have either an internal focus (inbound logistics) or an external focus (outbound logistics), covering the flow and storage of materials from point of origin to point of consumption (see supply-chain management). The main functions of a qualified logistician include inventory management, purchasing, transportation, warehousing, consultation, and the organizing and planning of these activities. Logisticians combine professional knowledge of each of these functions to coordinate resources in an organization. There are two fundamentally different forms of logistics: one optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes, while the other coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out some project (e.g., restructuring a warehouse). ### Nodes of a distribution network A distribution network would require several intermediaries to bring consumer or industrial goods from manufacturers to a user. Intermediaries would markup the costs of the products during distribution, but benefit users by providing lower transportation costs than the manufacturers. The number of intermediaries required for the distribution network depends upon the types of goods being distributed. For example, consumer goods such as cosmetics and handicrafts may not require any intermediaries as they can be sold door-to-door or can be obtained from local flea markets. For industrial goods such as raw materials and equipment, intermediaries are not needed because manufacturers can sell a large number of goods to a user. Generally, there are three types of intermediaries, namely: agent/broker, wholesaler, and retailer. The nodes of a distribution network include: * Factories where products are manufactured or assembled * A depot or deposit, a standard type of warehouse for storing merchandise (high level of inventory) * Distribution centers for order processing and order fulfillment (lower level of inventory) and also for receiving returning items from clients. Typically, distribution centers are way stations for products to be disbursed further down the supply chain. They usually do not ship inventory directly to customers, whereas fulfillment centers do. * Transit points for cross-docking activities, which consist of reassembling cargo units based on deliveries scheduled (only moving merchandise) * Traditional "mom-and-pop" retail stores, modern supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores or also voluntary chains, consumers' co-operatives, groups of consumers with collective buying power. Note that subsidiaries will be mostly owned by another company and franchisers, although using other company brands, actually own the point of sale. ### Logistic families and metrics A logistic family is a set of products that share a common characteristic: weight and volumetric characteristics, physical storing needs (temperature, radiation, etc.), handling needs, order frequency, package size, etc. The following metrics may be used by the company to organize its products in different families: * Physical metrics used to evaluate inventory systems include stocking capacity, selectivity, superficial use, volumetric use, transport capacity, transport capacity use. * Monetary metrics used include space holding costs (building, shelving, and services) and handling costs (people, handling machinery, energy, and maintenance). Other metrics may present themselves in both physical or monetary form, such as the standard inventory turnover. ### Handling and order processing Unit loads are combinations of individual items which are moved by handling systems, usually employing a pallet of normed dimensions. Handling systems include: trans-pallet handlers, counterweight handler, retractable mast handler, bilateral handlers, trilateral handlers, AGV and other handlers. Storage systems include: pile stocking, cell racks (either static or movable), cantilever racks and gravity racks. Order processing is a sequential process involving: processing withdrawal list, picking (selective removal of items from loading units), sorting (assembling items based on the destination), package formation (weighting, labeling, and packing), order consolidation (gathering packages into loading units for transportation, control and bill of lading). Picking can be both manual or automated. Manual picking can be both man-to-goods, i.e. operator using a cart or conveyor belt, or goods-to-man, i.e. the operator benefiting from the presence of a mini-load ASRS, vertical or horizontal carousel or from an Automatic Vertical Storage System (AVSS). Automatic picking is done either with dispensers or depalletizing robots. Sorting can be done manually through carts or conveyor belts, or automatically through sorters. ### Transportation Consolidating small shipments into large shipments can help to save transportation costs. There are three methods to do this: facility consolidation, multi-stop consolidation, and temporal consolidation. Facility consolidation uses the economics of scale by transporting small shipments over short distances and large shipments over long distances. Multi-stop consolidation makes multiple stops to consolidate small shipments in the case of less-than-truckload shipping. Temporal consolidation adjusts the shipping schedules forwards or backward so as to make a single large shipment rather than several small shipments over time. Cargo can be consolidated into pallets or containers. There are five basic modes of transport, namely, ship, rail, truck, air, and pipeline operated by different carrier. These shipping methods can be combined in various ways such as intermodal transport (no handling), multimodal transport, and combined transport (minimal road transport). A shipper chooses a carrier by taking into account the total cost of shipment and transit time. Air is the most expensive type of transport, followed by truck, rail, pipeline, and ship. Cargo can be organized in different shipment categories. Unit loads are usually assembled into higher standardized units such as: ISO containers, swap bodies or semi-trailers. Especially for very long distances, product transportation will likely benefit from using different transportation means: When moving cargo, typical constraints are maximum weight and volume. Operators involved in transportation include: all train, road vehicles, boats, airplanes companies, couriers, freight forwarders and multi-modal transport operators. Merchandise being transported internationally is usually subject to the Incoterms standards issued by the International Chamber of Commerce. ### Configuration and management In the logistics business, a logistical system is designed at a minimum cost based on the expected customer service level. As the service improves, the number of sales also increased. As service is further improved, more sales are captured from competing providers. Further increase in customer service levels after these only increases sales marginally. Similarly to production systems, logistic systems need to be properly configured and managed. Actually a number of methodologies have been directly borrowed from operations management such as using Economic Order Quantity models for managing inventory in the nodes of the network. Distribution resource planning (DRP) is similar to MRP, except that it does not concern activities inside the nodes of the network but planning distribution when moving goods through the links of the network. Traditionally in logistics, configuration may be at the level of the warehouse (node) or at level of the distribution system (network). Regarding a single warehouse, besides the issue of designing and building the warehouse, configuration means solving a number of interrelated technical-economic problems: dimensioning rack cells, choosing a palletizing method (manual or through robots), rack dimensioning and design, number of racks, number and typology of retrieval systems (e.g. stacker cranes). Some important constraints have to be satisfied: fork and load beams resistance to bending and proper placement of sprinklers. Although picking is more of a tactical planning decision than a configuration problem, it is important to take it into account when deciding the layout of the racks inside the warehouse and buying tools such as handlers and motorized carts since once those decisions are taken they will work as constraints when managing the warehouse, the same reasoning for sorting when designing the conveyor system or installing automatic dispensers. Configuration at the level of the distribution system concerns primarily the problem of location of the nodes in geographic space and distribution of capacity among the nodes. The first may be referred to as facility location (with the special case of site selection) while the latter to as capacity allocation. The problem of outsourcing typically arises at this level: the nodes of a supply chain are very rarely owned by a single enterprise. Distribution networks can be characterized by numbers of levels, namely the number of intermediary nodes between supplier and consumer: * Direct store delivery, i.e. zero levels * One level network: central warehouse * Two level network: central and peripheral warehouses This distinction is more useful for modeling purposes, but it relates also to a tactical decision regarding safety stocks: considering a two-level network, if safety inventory is kept only in peripheral warehouses then it is called a dependent system (from suppliers), if safety inventory is distributed among central and peripheral warehouses it is called an independent system (from suppliers). Transportation from producer to the second level is called primary transportation, from the second level to a consumer is called secondary transportation. Although configuring a distribution network from zero is possible, logisticians usually have to deal with restructuring existing networks due to presence of an array of factors: changing demand, product or process innovation, opportunities for outsourcing, change of government policy toward trade barriers, innovation in transportation means (both vehicles or thoroughfares), the introduction of regulations (notably those regarding pollution) and availability of ICT supporting systems (e.g. ERP or e-commerce). Once a logistic system is configured, management, meaning tactical decisions, takes place, once again, at the level of the warehouse and of the distribution network. Decisions have to be made under a set of constraints: internal, such as using the available infrastructure, or external, such as complying with the given product shelf lifes and expiration dates. At the warehouse level, the logistician must decide how to distribute merchandise over the racks. Three basic situations are traditionally considered: shared storage, dedicated storage (rack space reserved for specific merchandise) and class-based storage (class meaning merchandise organized in different areas according to their access index). Picking efficiency varies greatly depending on the situation. For a man to goods situation, a distinction is carried out between high-level picking (vertical component significant) and low-level picking (vertical component insignificant). A number of tactical decisions regarding picking must be made: * Routing path: standard alternatives include transversal routing, return routing, midpoint routing, and largest gap return routing * Replenishment method: standard alternatives include equal space supply for each product class and equal time supply for each product class. * Picking logic: order picking vs batch picking At the level of the distribution network, tactical decisions involve mainly inventory control and delivery path optimization. Note that the logistician may be required to manage the reverse flow along with the forward flow. ### Warehouse management system and control Although there is some overlap in functionality, warehouse management systems (WMS) can differ significantly from warehouse control systems (WCS). Simply put, a WMS plans a weekly activity forecast based on such factors as statistics and trends, whereas a WCS acts like a floor supervisor, working in real-time to get the job done by the most effective means. For instance, a WMS can tell the system that it is going to need five of stock-keeping unit (SKU) A and five of SKU B hours in advance, but by the time it acts, other considerations may have come into play or there could be a logjam on a conveyor. A WCS can prevent that problem by working in real-time and adapting to the situation by making a last-minute decision based on current activity and operational status. Working synergistically, WMS and WCS can resolve these issues and maximize efficiency for companies that rely on the effective operation of their warehouse or distribution center. ### Logistics outsourcing Logistics outsourcing involves a relationship between a company and an LSP (logistic service provider), which, compared with basic logistics services, has more customized offerings, encompasses a broad number of service activities, is characterized by a long-term orientation, and thus has a strategic nature. Outsourcing does not have to be complete externalization to an LSP, but can also be partial: * A single contract for supplying a specific service on occasion * Creation of a spin-off * Creation of a joint venture Third-party logistics (3PL) involves using external organizations to execute logistics activities that have traditionally been performed within an organization itself. According to this definition, third-party logistics includes any form of outsourcing of logistics activities previously performed in house. For example, if a company with its own warehousing facilities decides to employ external transportation, this would be an example of third-party logistics. Logistics is an emerging business area in many countries. External 3PL providers have evolved from merely providing logistics capabilities to becoming real orchestrators of supply chains that create and sustain a competitive advantage, thus bringing about new levels of logistics outsourcing. The concept of a fourth-party logistics (4PL) provider was first defined by Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as an integrator that assembles the resources, planning capabilities, and technology of its own organization and other organizations to design, build, and run comprehensive supply chain solutions. Whereas a third-party logistics (3PL) service provider targets a single function, a 4PL targets management of the entire process. Some have described a 4PL as a general contractor that manages other 3PLs, truckers, forwarders, custom house agents, and others, essentially taking responsibility of a complete process for the customer. ### Horizontal alliances between logistics service providers Horizontal business alliances often occur between logistics service providers, i.e., the cooperation between two or more logistics companies that are potentially competing. In a horizontal alliance, these partners can benefit twofold. On one hand, they can "access tangible resources which are directly exploitable". In this example extending common transportation networks, their warehouse infrastructure and the ability to provide more complex service packages can be achieved by combining resources. On the other hand, partners can "access intangible resources, which are not directly exploitable". This typically includes know-how and information and, in turn, innovation. Logistics automation -------------------- Logistics automation is the application of computer software or automated machinery to improve the efficiency of logistics operations. Typically, this refers to operations within a warehouse or distribution center with broader tasks undertaken by supply chain engineering systems and enterprise resource planning systems. Industrial machinery can typically identify products through either barcode or RFID technologies. Information in traditional bar codes is stored as a sequence of black and white bars varying in width, which when read by laser is translated into a digital sequence, which according to fixed rules can be converted into a decimal number or other data. Sometimes information in a bar code can be transmitted through radio frequency, more typically radio transmission is used in RFID tags. An RFID tag is a card containing a memory chip and an antenna that transmits signals to a reader. RFID may be found on merchandise, animals, vehicles, and people as well. Logistics: profession and organizations --------------------------------------- A logistician is a professional logistics practitioner. Professional logisticians are often certified by professional associations. One can either work in a pure logistics company, such as a shipping line, airport, or freight forwarder, or within the logistics department of a company. However, as mentioned above, logistics is a broad field, encompassing procurement, production, distribution, and disposal activities. Hence, career perspectives are broad as well. A new trend[*as of?*] in the industry is the 4PL, or fourth-party logistics, firms, consulting companies offering logistics services. Some universities and academic institutions train students as logisticians, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs. A university with a primary focus on logistics is Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg, Germany. It is non-profit and supported by Kühne-Foundation of the logistics entrepreneur Klaus Michael Kühne. The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), established in the United Kingdom in 1919, received a Royal Charter in 1926. The Chartered Institute is one of the professional bodies or institutions for the logistics and transport sectors that offer professional qualifications or degrees in logistics management. CILT programs can be studied at centers around the UK, some of which also offer distance learning options. The institute also have overseas branches namely The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Australia (CILTA) in Australia and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong (CILTHK) in Hong Kong. In the UK, Logistics Management programs are conducted by many universities and professional bodies such as CILT. These programs are generally offered at the postgraduate level. The Global Institute of Logistics established in New York in 2003 is a think tank for the profession and is primarily concerned with intercontinental maritime logistics. It is particularly concerned with container logistics and the role of the seaport authority in the maritime logistics chain. The International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) is a professional network that promotes the professional development of supply chain managers and others working in the field of public health logistics and commodity security, with particular focus on developing countries. The association supports logisticians worldwide by providing a community of practice, where members can network, exchange ideas, and improve their professional skills. ### Key Issue for Logistics Indusry Environmental sustainability is another key issue for the logistics industry. With transportation accounting for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, logistics companies are under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact. This has led to the development of alternative fuels, such as electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, as well as the use of renewable energy sources for logistics facilities. ### Logistics museums There are many museums in the world which cover various aspects of practical logistics. These include museums of transportation, customs, packing, and industry-based logistics. However, only the following museums are fully dedicated to logistics: *General logistics* * Logistics Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia) * Museum of Logistics (Tokyo, Japan) * Beijing Wuzi University Logistics Museum (Beijing, China) *Military logistics* * Royal Logistic Corps Museum (Surrey, England, United Kingdom) * The Canadian Forces Logistics Museum (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) * Logistics Museum (Hanoi, Vietnam) See also -------- * Automated identification and data capture * Document automation in supply chain management and logistics * Field inventory management * Freight claim * Freight forwarder * Incoterms * Containerization * Integrated Service Provider * Inventory management software * Performance-based logistics * Physical inventory * Sales territory * Storage management system * Blockchain * Dutch flower bucket * Self-driving truck * Automated storage and retrieval system * Automated guided vehicle Further reading --------------- * Engels, Donald W. (1980). *Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army*, University of California Press (194 pages). online * Hess, Earl J. *Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation* (2017) online review * Huston, James A. (1966). *The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1775–1953*, United States Army (789 pages). online * Handfield, R.B., Straube, F., Pfohl, H.C. & Wieland, A., *Trends and Strategies in Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Embracing Global Logistics Complexity to Drive Market Advantage*, BVL 2013 * Ronald H. Ballou, Samir K. Srivastava, *Business Logistics: Supply Chain Management*, Pearson Education, 2007 * Donald Bowersox, David Closs, M. Bixby Cooper, *Supply Chain Logistics Management*, McGraw-Hill 2012 * M. Christopher: *Logistics & Supply Chain Management: creating value-adding networks*, Prentice Hall 2010. online * J. V. Jones: *Integrated Logistics Support Handbook*, McGraw-Hill Logistics Series 2006 * B. S. Blanchard: *Logistics Engineering and Management*, Pearson Prentice Hall 2004 * R.G. Poluha: *The Quintessence of Supply Chain Management: What You Really Need to Know to Manage Your Processes in Procurement, Manufacturing, Warehousing, and Logistics (Quintessence Series)*. First Edition. Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London 2016. ISBN 978-3-662-48513-2 * Preclík Vratislav: Průmyslová logistika (Industrial logistics), 359 p., ISBN 80-01-03449-6, First issue Nakladatelství ČVUT v Praze, 2006, pp. 7 – 50, 63 – 73, 75 – 85, 123 – 347, Prague 2006 * International Logistics

Logistics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistics

In computing, an **interface** is a shared boundary across which two or more separate components of a computer system exchange information. The exchange can be between software, computer hardware, peripheral devices, humans, and combinations of these. Some computer hardware devices, such as a touchscreen, can both send and receive data through the interface, while others such as a mouse or microphone may only provide an interface to send data to a given system. Hardware interfaces ------------------- Hardware interfaces exist in many components, such as the various buses, storage devices, other I/O devices, etc. A hardware interface is described by the mechanical, electrical, and logical signals at the interface and the protocol for sequencing them (sometimes called signaling). A standard interface, such as SCSI, decouples the design and introduction of computing hardware, such as I/O devices, from the design and introduction of other components of a computing system, thereby allowing users and manufacturers great flexibility in the implementation of computing systems. Hardware interfaces can be parallel with several electrical connections carrying parts of the data simultaneously or serial where data are sent one bit at a time. Software interfaces ------------------- A software interface may refer to a wide range of different types of interface at different "levels". For example, an operating system may interface with pieces of hardware. Applications or programs running on the operating system may need to interact via data streams, filters, and pipelines. In object oriented programs, objects within an application may need to interact via methods. ### In practice A key principle of design is to prohibit access to all resources by default, allowing access only through well-defined entry points, i.e., interfaces. Software interfaces provide access to computer resources (such as memory, CPU, storage, etc.) of the underlying computer system; direct access (i.e., not through well-designed interfaces) to such resources by software can have major ramifications—sometimes disastrous ones—for functionality and stability. Interfaces between software components can provide constants, data types, types of procedures, exception specifications, and method signatures. Sometimes, public variables are also defined as part of an interface. The interface of a software module *A* is deliberately defined separately from the implementation of that module. The latter contains the actual code of the procedures and methods described in the interface, as well as other "private" variables, procedures, etc. Another software module *B*, for example the client to *A*, that interacts with *A* is forced to do so only through the published interface. One practical advantage of this arrangement is that replacing the implementation of *A* with another implementation of the same interface should not cause *B* to fail—how *A* internally meets the requirements of the interface is not relevant to *B*, which is only concerned with the specifications of the interface. (See also Liskov substitution principle.) ### In object-oriented languages In some object-oriented languages, especially those without full multiple inheritance, the term *interface* is used to define an abstract type that contains no data but defines behaviours as method signatures. A class having code and data for all the methods corresponding to that interface and declaring so is said to *implement* that interface. Furthermore, even in single-inheritance-languages, one can implement multiple interfaces, and hence can *be* of different types at the same time. An interface is thus a type definition; anywhere an object can be exchanged (for example, in a function or method call) the *type* of the object to be exchanged can be defined in terms of one of its implemented *interface*s or base-classes rather than specifying the specific class. This approach means that any class that implements that interface can be used. For example, a dummy implementation may be used to allow development to progress before the final implementation is available. In another case, a fake or mock implementation may be substituted during testing. Such stub implementations are replaced by real code later in the development process. Usually a method defined in an interface contains no code and thus cannot itself be called; it must be implemented by non-abstract code to be run when it is invoked. An interface called "`Stack`" might define two methods: `push()` and `pop()`. It can be implemented in different ways, for example, `FastStack` and `GenericStack`—the first being fast, working with a data structure of fixed size, and the second using a data structure that can be resized, but at the cost of somewhat lower speed. Though interfaces can contain many methods they may contain only one or even none at all. For example, the Java language defines the interface `Readable` that has the single `read()` method; various implementations are used for different purposes, including `BufferedReader` , `FileReader` , `InputStreamReader` , `PipedReader` , and `StringReader` . Marker interfaces like `Serializable` contain no methods at all and serve to provide run-time information to generic processing using Reflection. ### Programming to the interface The use of interfaces allows for a programming style called *programming to the interface*. The idea behind this approach is to base programming logic on the interfaces of the objects used, rather than on internal implementation details. Programming to the interface reduces dependency on implementation specifics and makes code more reusable. Pushing this idea to the extreme, inversion of control leaves the *context* to inject the code with the specific implementations of the interface that will be used to perform the work. User interfaces --------------- A **user interface** is a point of interaction between a computer and humans; it includes any number of modalities of interaction (such as graphics, sound, position, movement, etc.) where data is transferred between the user and the computer system. See also -------- * Abstraction inversion * Application binary interface * Application programming interface * Business Interoperability Interface * Computer bus * Hard disk drive interface * Implementation (computer science) * Implementation inheritance * Interoperability * Inheritance semantics * Modular programming * Software componentry * Virtual inheritance

Interface (computing)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_(computing)

**Abū Nuwās al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī al-Ḥakamī** (variant: **Al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī 'Abd al-Awal al-Ṣabāḥ, Abū 'Alī** (الحسن بن هانئ بن عبد الأول بن الصباح ،ِابو علي), known as **Abū Nuwās al-Salamī** (أبو نواس السلمي) or just **Abū Nuwās** (أبو نواس *Abū Nuwās*); c. 756 – c. 814) was a classical Arabic poet, and the foremost representative of the modern (*muhdath*) poetry that developed during the first years of Abbasid Caliphate. He also entered the folkloric tradition, appearing several times in *One Thousand and One Nights*. Early life ---------- Abu Nuwas was born in the province of Ahvaz (modern Khuzestan Province) of the Abbasid Caliphate, either in the city of Ahvaz or one of its adjacent districts. His date of birth is uncertain, he was born sometime between 756 and 758. His father was Hani, a Syrian or Persian who had served in the army of the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II (r. 744–750). His mother was a Persian named Gulban, whom Hani had met whilst serving in the police force of Ahvaz. When Abu Nuwas was 10 years old, his father died. In his early childhood Abu Nuwas followed his mother to Basra in lower Iraq where he attended Qur’an school and became a Hafiz at a young age. His youthful good looks and innate charisma attracted the attention of the Kufan poet, Abu Usama Waliba ibn al-Hubab al-Asadi, who took Abu Nuwas to Kufa as a young apprentice. Waliba recognized in Abu Nuwas his talent as a poet and encouraged him toward this vocation, but was also attracted sexually to the young man and may have had erotic relations with him. Abu Nuwas's relationships with adolescent boys when he had matured as a man seem to mirror his own experience with Waliba. Work ---- Abu Nuwas wrote poetry in multiple genres; his great talent was most recognized in his wine poems and in his hunting poems. Abu Nuwas’s *diwan,* his poetry collection, was divided by genre: panegyric poems, elegies, invective, courtly love poems on men and women, poems of penitence, hunting poems, and wine poems. His erotic lyric poetry, which is often homoerotic, is known from over 500 poems and fragments. He also participated in the well-established Arabic tradition of satirical poetry, which included duels between poets involving vicious exchanges of poetic lampoons and insults. Ismail bin Nubakht, one of Nuwas's contemporaries, said: > > "I never saw a man of more extensive learning than Abu Nuwas, nor one who, with a memory so richly furnished, possessed so few books. After his death we searched his house, and could only find one book-cover containing a quire of paper, in which was a collection of rare expressions and grammatical observations." > > > ### Khamiryyat The spirit of a new age was reflected in wine poetry after the change in dynasties to the Abbasids. Abu Nuwas was a major influence on the development of wine poetry. His poems were likely written to entertain the Baghdad elite. The centerpiece of wine poetry lays the vivid description of the wine, exalted descriptions of its taste, appearance, fragrance, and effects on the body and mind. Abu Nuwas draws on many philosophical ideas and imagery in his poetry that glorify the Persians and mock Arab classicism. He used wine poetry as a medium to echo the themes of Abbasid relevance in the Islamic world. An example of this is shown through a piece he wrote in his Khamriyyat: > "Wine is passed round among us in a silver jug, adorned by a Persian craftsman with a variety of designs, Chosroes on its base, and round its side oryxes which horsemen hunt with bows. Wine's place is where tunics are buttoned; water's place is where the Persian cap (qalansuwah) is worn, > > This passage has a prevalence of Persian imagery corresponding to the Persian language used in this period. Abu Nuwas was known to have both a poetic and political tone in his poetry. Along with other Abbasid poets, Nuwas atones for his openness to drinking wine and disregarding religion. He wrote satirical strikes at Islam using wine as both an excuse and liberator. A specific line of poetry in his Khamiryyat exemplifies his facetious relationship with religion; this line compares the religious prohibition of wine to God's forgiveness. Nuwas wrote his literature as if his sins were vindicated within a religious framework. Abu Nuwas's poetry also reflected his love for wine and sexuality. The poems were written to celebrate both the physical and metaphysical experience of drinking wine that did not conform to the norms of poetry in the Islamic world. A continuing theme in Abbasid wine poetry was its affiliation with pederasty due to the fact that wine shops usually employed boys as servers. These poems were often salacious and rebellious. In the erotic section of his Diwan, his poems describe young servant girls dressed up as young boys drinking wine. His affection for young boys was displayed through his poetry and social life. Nuwas explores an intriguing prejudice: that homosexuality was imported to Abbasid Iraq from the province in which the revolution originated. He states in his writing that during the Umayyad caliphate, poets only indulged in female lovers. Nuwas' seductive poems use wine as a central theme for blame and scapegoat. This is shown through an excerpt from his *al-muharramah:* > > > "Boasting myriad colors when it spreads out in glass, silencing all tongues, > > > > Showing off her body, golden, like a peal on a tailor's strong, in the hand of a lithe young man who speaks beautifully in response to a lover's request, > > > > > > With a curl on each temple and a look in his eye that spells disaster. > > > > > > He is a Christian, he wears clothes from Khurasan and his tunic bares his upper chest and neck. > > > > > > Were you to speak to this elegant beauty, you would fling Islam from the top of a tall mountain. > > > > > > If I were not afraid of the depredation of He who leads all sinners into transgression, > > > > > > I would convert to his religion, entering it knowingly with love, > > > > > > For I know that the Lord would not have distinguished this youth so unless his was the true religion." > > This poem accounts for various sins of Nuwas: being served by a Christian, glorifying a boys beauty, and finding testimony in Christianity. Nuwas's writing ridicules heterosexual propriety, the condemnation of homosexuality, the alcohol ban, and Islam itself. He uses his literature to testify against the religious and cultural norms during the Abbasid caliphate. Though many of his poems describe his affection for boys, relating the taste and pleasure of wine to women is a signature technique of Abu Nuwas. Nuwas's preference was not uncommon among heterosexual men of his time as homoerotic lyrics and poetry were popular among Muslim mystics. The earliest anthologies of his poetry and his biography were produced by: * Yaḥyā ibn al-Faḍl and Ya‘qūb ibn al-Sikkīt arranged his poetry under ten subject categories, rather than in alphabetical order. Al-Sikkīt wrote an 800-page commentary. * Abū Sa’īd al-Sukkarī edited his poetry, providing commentary and linguistic notes; he completed editing approximately two thirds of the corpus of one thousand folios. * Abū Bakr ibn Yaḥyā aI-Ṣūlī edited his work, organizing poems alphabetically, and corrected some false attributions. * ‘Alī ibn Ḥamzah al-Iṣbahānī also edited his writings, compiling works alphabetically. * Yūsuf ibn al-Dāyah * Abū Hiffān * Ibn al-Washshā’ Abū Ṭayyib, scholar of Baghdād * Ibn ‘Ammār wrote a critique of Nuwas's work, including citing instances of alleged plagiarism. * Al-Munajjim family: Abū Manṣūr; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā; ‘Alī ibn Yaḥyā; Yaḥyā ibn ‘Alī; Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Hārūn ibn ‘Alī; ‘Alī ibn Hārūn; Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī; Hārūn ibn ‘Alī ibn Hārūn. * Abū al-Ḥasan al-Sumaysāṭī also wrote in praise of Nuwas. Imprisonment and death ---------------------- He died during the Great Abbasid Civil War before al-Ma’mūn advanced from Khurāsān in either 199 or 200 AH (814–816 AD). Because he frequently indulged in drunken exploits, Nuwas was imprisoned during the reign of Al-Amin, shortly before his death. The cause of his death is disputed: four different accounts of Abu Nuwas’s death survive: 1. He was poisoned by the Nawbakht family, having been framed with a poem satirizing them; 2. He died in a tavern drinking right up to his death; 3. He was beaten by the Nawbakht for the satire falsely attributed to him; wine appears to have had a role in the flailing emotions of his final hours—this seems to be a combination of accounts one and two; 4. He died in prison, a version which contradicts the many anecdotes stating that in the advent of his death he suffered illness and was visited by friends (though not in prison). He most probably died of ill health, and equally probably in the house of the Nawbakht family, whence came the myth that they poisoned him. Nuwas was buried in Shunizi cemetery in Baghdad. Legacy ------ ### Influences Nuwas is one of a number of writers credited with inventing the literary form of the *mu‘ammā* (literally "blinded" or "obscured"), a riddle which is solved "by combining the constituent letters of the word or name to be found". He also perfected two Arabic genres: Khamriyya (wine poetry) and Tardiyya (hunting poetry). Ibn Quzman, who was writing in Al-Andalus in the 12th century, admired him deeply and has been compared to him. ### Commemoration The city of Baghdad has several places named for the poet. Abū Nuwās Street runs along the east bank of the Tigris River, in a neighbourhood that was once the city's showpiece. Abu Nuwas Park is located on the 2.5-kilometer stretch between the Jumhouriya Bridge and a park that extends out to the river in Karada near the 14th of July Bridge. In 1976, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in honor of Abu Nuwas. The Abu Nawas Association, founded in 2007 in Algeria, was named after the poet. The primary aim of the organisation is to decriminalise homosexuality in Algeria, seeking the abolition of article 333 and 338 of the Algerian penal code which still considers homosexuality a crime punishable by imprisonment and accompanied by a fine. Censorship ---------- While his works were in circulation freely until the early years of the twentieth century, the first modern censored edition of his works was published in Cairo in 1932. In January 2001, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture ordered the burning of some 6,000 copies of books of Nuwas's homoerotic poetry. In the Saudi *Global Arabic Encyclopedia* entry for Abu Nuwas, all mentions of pederasty were omitted. In popular culture ------------------ He features as a character in a number of stories in *One Thousand and One Nights*, where he is cast as a boon companion of Harun al-Rashid. A heavily fictionalised Abu Nuwas is the protagonist of the novels *The Father of Locks* (Dedalus Books, 2009) and *The Khalifah's Mirror* (2012) by Andrew Killeen, in which he is depicted as a spy working for Ja'far al-Barmaki. In the Sudanese novel *Season of Migration to the North* (1966) by Tayeb Salih, Abu Nuwas's love poetry is cited extensively by one of the novel's protagonists, the Sudanese Mustafa Sa'eed, as a means of seducing a young English woman in London: "Does it not please you that the earth is awaking,/ That old virgin wine is there for the taking?" The Tanzanian artist Godfrey Mwampembwa (Gado) created a Swahili comic book called *Abunuwasi* which was published in 1996. It features a trickster figure named Abunuwasi as the protagonist in three stories draw inspiration from East African folklore as well as the fictional Abu Nuwasi of *One Thousand and One Nights*. In Pasolini's Arabian Nights, the *Sium* story is based on Abu Nuwas' erotic poetry. The original poems are used throughout the scene. Editions and translations ------------------------- * *Dīwān Abū Nu’ās, khamriyyāt Abū Nu’ās*, ed. by ‘Alī Najīb ‘Aṭwi (Beirut 1986). * *O Tribe That Loves Boys*. Hakim Bey (Entimos Press / Abu Nuwas Society, 1993). With a scholarly biographical essay on Abu Nuwas, largely taken from Ewald Wagner's biographical entry in *The Encyclopedia of Islam.* * *Carousing with Gazelles, Homoerotic Songs of Old Baghdad*. Seventeen poems by Abu Nuwas translated by Jaafar Abu Tarab. (iUniverse, Inc., 2005). * Jim Colville. *Poems of Wine and Revelry: The Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas.* (Kegan Paul, 2005). * *The Khamriyyāt of Abū Nuwās: Medieval Bacchic Poetry*, trans. by Fuad Matthew Caswell (Kibworth Beauchamp: Matador, 2015). Trans. from ‘Aṭwi 1986. Further reading --------------- * Kennedy, Philip F. (1997). *The Wine Song in Classical Arabic Poetry: Abu Nuwas and the Literary Tradition*. Open University Press. ISBN 0-19-826392-9. * Kennedy, Philip F. (2005). *Abu Nuwas: A Genius of Poetry*. OneWorld Press. ISBN 1-85168-360-7. * Lacy, Norris J. (1989). "The Care and Feeding of Gazelles – Medieval Arabic and Hebrew love poetry". In Moshe Lazar (ed.). *Poetics of Love in the Middle Ages*. George Mason University Press. pp. 95–118. ISBN 0-913969-25-7. * Frye, Richard N. (1975). *The Golden Age of Persia*. p. 123. ISBN 0-06-492288-X. * Rowell, Alex (2017). *Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nawas*. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1-84904-897-2. * Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1843). *Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary (tr. Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-al-Anbā Abnā' al-Zamān)*. Vol. i. Translated by McGuckin de Slane, William. London: W.H. Allen. pp. 391–395.

Abu Nuwas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Nuwas

**Mende** (French pronunciation: ​[mɑ̃d], Occitan pronunciation: [ˈmende]) is a commune and the prefecture of the department of Lozère, in the region of Occitania, Southern France. Its inhabitants are called the *Mendois*. The city, including the first traces of dwellings date back to 200 BC, was originally named *Mimata*, probably in reference to the mountains that surround it. Mende is located between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier, but also on the axis of Lyon–Saint-Étienne–Albi–Toulouse. The other important nearby towns are Aurillac and Saint-Flour (Cantal), Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire), Rodez, Millau (Aveyron) and Alès and Nîmes (Gard). Even though Mende remains a relatively sparsely populated city (approximately 12,000 inhabitants), it remains the most important of the Lozère Department. In addition, it is the city-centre of the unique urban area of this department. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mende. Geography --------- ### Situation Mende Mende is situated in the high valley of the Lot, in a mountainous area, in the *Pays du Gévaudan*, the Rieucros stream joins to it on its right bank. The city is overlooked (on the left bank of the Lot) by Mont Mimat [fr] and its black pine forest [fr]. Access is by the Côte de la Croix Neuve [fr]. On the right bank, residential areas extend over different causses, including the *Causse d'Auge*. Located on the axis of Lyon-Toulouse, the city has long been a commercial crossroads between the Auvergne, Rhone and the Languedoc. The commune is bordered by Chastel-Nouvel to the north, Badaroux to the east, Lanuéjols to the southeast, Brenoux and Saint-Bauzile to the south, Balsièges to the southwest, and Barjac and Servières to the west. Mende is one of the "gateway cities" (along with Millau, Lodève, Alès and Ganges) for the site of the Causses and Cévennes, of world heritage by UNESCO under the inscription "Les Causses and Cevennes, Mediterranean agro-pastoral cultural landscape". According to the INSEE, Mende is an urban commune without suburbs (*ville isolée* [isolated town]). It lies at the centre of an functional urban area composed of 31 communes, the only one in the department of Lozère. ### The Causses The town of Mende is built in the Lot Valley, within the area of the Grands Causses [fr]. The region of the Causses in Lozère is one of the four natural regions [fr] of Lozère, with the Margeride, the Aubrac and the Cévennes. The city is nestled in the middle of different Causses which form as natural barriers. However, over the 20th century, urbanisation began to extend beyond these limits. Of the Causses, Mont Mimat [fr] is the most significant. The causse is overhung by the Cross of Saint Privat [fr]. A first wooden cross was planted in 1900 or 1907. It was replaced a few years later, on 8 July 1933, a Jubilee year, by a 12.5 metres (41 ft)-high iron cross. Until 1945, this cross was the place of large gatherings in honour of Mendois soldiers. This cross has been illuminated since the summer of 1965. The mount also houses the chapel where Privat, the martyr of the Gévaudan, withdrew to. At its foot lies the area of Vabre where can be found the first remains of houses in the city. Opposite this is the Causse d'Auge (northeast) and the Causse du Crouzet (northwest), and the Margeride mountains beyond. To the west is Causse de Changefège, located between Mende and Barjac, which complements the borders of the city. ### Geology The geology of the city of Mende is very dependent on the surrounding causses and streams that pass through them. The Mont Mimat and the Causse de Changefège are composed of limestone of the "Grands Causses", thus presenting abrupt edges. The other causses (as well as the butte de Fontanille) are composed of limestone of the "Petits Causses" (without these edges). The Lot Valley is composed of marl. The Valdonnez [fr] Valley, in the south of Mende, is full of blue marl, leaving one to presuppose that the marl of the town of Mende would be, in part, of the same origin. Finally, the various streams (the Rieucros) of the causses of the north of the city are lined by mica-schist. ### Hydrology The city of Mende was built on the banks of the Lot. But the Lot is not the only presence of water in the city: Indeed, it has several sources, including those of Mont Mimat [fr]. The most significant of them is located in the Vabre district, close to the first houses. These sources have also often been channeled and feed the underground water system of the city, visible on the surface through numerous fountains and the old wash house. The streets, such as the *Rue du Torrent*, attest to the passage of water from Mont Mimat. To the north, on the other side of the Lot, the sources are much more distant, but water is present in the stream known as Rieucros. ### Climate Mende is subject to an oceanic stream that comes from the Aubrac and Mediterranean and flows from the Cévennes. The department of Lozère, Mende in particular, benefit from insolation (or sunlight) similar to that of Toulouse with approximately 2,069 hours of sunshine per year. The city, away from the mountains that surround it, has a more protected climate than the highlands of Gévaudan: So, average temperatures oscillate between 13 °C (55 °F) and 18 °C (64 °F). With respect to annual precipitation, data for the Lozère is between 600–1,800 millimetres (24–71 in), depending on the exposure of the regions, with up to 50 days of snow per year. | Climate data for Mende, 1981 - 2010 | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Average high °C (°F) | 4.8(40.6) | 5.6(42.1) | 8.8(47.8) | 11.3(52.3) | 15.6(60.1) | 19.9(67.8) | 23.4(74.1) | 23.1(73.6) | 18.7(65.7) | 13.9(57.0) | 8.3(46.9) | 5.6(42.1) | 13.3(55.9) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 0.9(33.6) | 1.2(34.2) | 4.0(39.2) | 6.3(43.3) | 10.4(50.7) | 14.0(57.2) | 16.9(62.4) | 16.6(61.9) | 13.0(55.4) | 9.3(48.7) | 4.3(39.7) | 1.8(35.2) | 8.3(46.9) | | Average low °C (°F) | −3.1(26.4) | −3.1(26.4) | −0.9(30.4) | 1.3(34.3) | 5.0(41.0) | 8.1(46.6) | 10.3(50.5) | 10.1(50.2) | 7.3(45.1) | 4.7(40.5) | 0.3(32.5) | −2.1(28.2) | 3.2(37.8) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 55.1(2.17) | 46.2(1.82) | 48.2(1.90) | 78.7(3.10) | 88.6(3.49) | 73.8(2.91) | 48.1(1.89) | 64.8(2.55) | 92.0(3.62) | 94.3(3.71) | 83.9(3.30) | 68.6(2.70) | 842.3(33.16) | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 109.1 | 123.2 | 168.4 | 170.6 | 205.5 | 243.4 | 285.4 | 249.1 | 197.4 | 131.7 | 97.1 | 96.1 | 2,069.2 | | Source: Météo climat | Between 1971 and 2000, monthly rainfall ranged from 50 millimetres (2.0 in) (March) and 90 millimetres (3.5 in) (September). In more detail, here are some statements in Mende records since 1985: | | | | --- | --- | | Lowest temperature | −23.7 °C (−10.7 °F) | | Coldest day | 12 January 1987 | | Coldest year | 1984 | | Highest temperature | 37.1 °C (98.8 °F) | | Hottest day | 27 June 2019 | | Hottest year | 2009 | | Maximum rain in 24 hours | 127 millimetres (5.0 in) | | Wettest day | 20 September 1980 | | Driest year | 2011 | | Wettest year | 1994 | ### Routes and transportation Mende is located in the centre of the Lozère department and therefore centralises the roads. The city has rail and air access, but the Lot is not navigable (too shallow) as with all the rivers of the department (except for recreational canoeing, or in rare exceptions for the transport of people such as the crossing of the Tarn towards La Malène). #### Road network Mende is located on the Route Nationale 88 [fr], linking Lyon and Toulouse. The road comes from Balsièges to the west and Badaroux to the east. This axis can be reached easily. Haute-Loire and Ardèche are to the east, via Langogne and Aveyron is to the west via La Canourgue-Banassac, as well as the A75 autoroute. A road doubling project is underway in the department, bypassing Mende from the north. This doubling is however a long project (1993), having had several outlines and some opposition. The project was finally abandoned in October 2012 making Lozère a department without draft dual carriageways on RN 88. Indeed, its neighbours Aveyron and Tarn continue their projects of dual carriageways between Rodez and Toulouse with all expected to be commissioned in December 2015. The work of the Rodez - Séverac section should be completed by the end of 2019. The same will be the case for Haute-Loire, which continues its road access. However, the workarounds of Mende and Langogne are budgeted. These projects in adjacent departments will reach major cities nearby to Mende (Rodez, Albi, Toulouse, Le Puy and even Lyon). Finally, the economic impact or the absence of dual carriageways in Lozere must be assessed in the medium and long term. Furthermore, a viaduct (the Rieucros Viaduct) commissioned in December 2009 will be used to ensure a first bypass of Mende. It connects the industrial area of the Causse d'Auge to the technological centre of Valcroze (and the RD 42) and also helps to relieve the traffic connecting the districts north and northwest of the city. The RN 88 deviation from Mende should be the first from Pelouse to reach up to the Causse d'Auge with an "expressway" configuration. Then it would continue on the D 806 (ex RN 106 [fr] north) to the Rieucros Viaduct, and then a new section of the viaduct to the Mende exit in the hamlet of La Thébaïde (west bypass). These two sections will only be of two lanes. Subsequently, the expressway from the Causse d'Auge will be directly linked to the A 75. Another national road, the RN 106, formerly ran through the city. This name is no longer valid for the section coming from the Gard and joining Mende via Florac (it is then of the RN 88 on the stretch between Balsièges and Mende). The northern part of the road was decommissioned in 2007 and now bears the name of D 806. This stretch goes from Mende to Saint-Chély-d'Apcher (and the A75 autoroute) via Chastel-Nouvel. Secondary access is provided by the RD 42 from the northwest, which joins the RN 88 at Barjac, and by the RD 25 which, passing through the Côte de la Croix Neuve [fr], crosses Mont Mimat [fr] before arriving at the Valdonnez. #### Rail network Mende features an SNCF railway station, located on the railway line of the Translozérien [fr], between Le Monastier (the Causses line [fr]) and La Bastide - Saint-Laurent-les-Bains (line of the Cevennes [fr]). This line, built at the very beginning of the 20th century, bears the nickname of *"ligne du toit de la France"* [the roof of France line], and Mende is the main railway station. Ten weekly links are provided by rail. The station is also the starting point of the TER connection to Clermont-Ferrand by bus, which is daily. #### Urban transport network Referred to as TUM (for *Transports Urbains Mendois*) the urban transport network is exclusively equipped with buses, which run through the city and some nearby villages (Les Boulaines, Chabrits, Chabannes). Since its establishment in 2000, it has replaced the school bus service. The urban transport network is also responsible for the management of the pay car parks in the city. A part of the city centre is also exclusively pedestrian. #### Air transport **Nearby Airports**| Name | Destinations | Distance | | --- | --- | --- | | Rodez-Aveyron | FranceEurope | 115 km (71 mi) | | Clermont-Ferrand Aulnat | France Europe | 200 km (120 mi) | | Lyon–Saint-Exupéry | FranceEuropeNorth America | 240 km (150 mi) | | Toulouse–Blagnac | FranceEuropeNorth America | 270 km (170 mi) | The prefecture of the Lozère department shares its airfield [fr] with the neighbouring village of Brenoux. This airfield, located on Mont Mimat [fr], is thus 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Clermont-Ferrand, 215 kilometres (134 mi) from Montpellier and 250 kilometres (160 mi) away from Lyon and Toulouse. Highlights include it being the site of the final scene of the film *La Grande Vadrouille*, and also of five stages of the Tour de France (1995, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2018). Furthermore, a Mende-Paris air link was implemented in October 2007. However, the flight was departing from the aerodrome of Le Puy-en-Velay, located 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Mende and reached by a shuttle. This connection was born of a desire to open up Mende to air travel, which is indeed late at this level for a prefecture, and has no direct flight to Paris unlike its neighbours Clermont-Ferrand, Rodez, Aurillac or Le Puy-en-Velay. Since the beginning of 2008, a study has been conducted by the CCI of the Lozère department, in order to discuss the possibility of the establishment of a link between the Lozerian prefecture and the regional capital, Montpellier but four years after the launch of this study, no concrete project to date has been presented. Finally, two more major airports with international influence and close to Mende are Clermont-Ferrand Aulnat and Rodez-Aveyron. Urban planning -------------- ### Five historic sections In the 13th century, the city was concentrated in what is now the city centre, bounded by the boulevards, and formerly the ramparts. It was then split into five sections (or neighbourhoods) known as *pans*: Auriac, Aygues-Passe, Champnau, Chastel and Claustres. When it was initially named as such, the Pan d'Auriac was mainly a place of settlement, before becoming the *quartier des pénitents blancs* [district of the white penitents] who settled there. The Pan d'Aygues-Passe (or Aigues-Passe), meaning "water that passes", owes its name to the inclination of its streets, where the water flowed during cleaning. The Pan de Champnau derives its name from *new field*, and includes what was a new residential area, at north of the city. The Pan de Chastel is the old commercial district of the city. It is located towards the Chastel Gate, which led then to Chastel-Nouvel, where a castle stood which was property of the bishops. Finally the Pan des Claustres, whose name comes from cloisters, was the largest of the city and is now between the *Place Urbain V* [fr] and *Foirail* [fr], i.e. between the two tombs of Saint Privat [fr] (the chapel Saint-Ilpide on the hill of the executioner, and the crypt of Sainte-Thècle under the cathedral square). ### The modern districts of the city * The historic centre The historic city centre is bordered by boulevards which took the place of the ancient walls. In addition to housing, the centre is mostly occupied by convenience stores and artisans. Beyond the boulevards, there are other houses as well as government buildings. The General Council and the prefecture indeed share the former Bishop's Palace [fr], but services are scattered throughout the city. *Allée Piencourt* connects downtown roads to Badaroux and Chastel-Nouvel, near the ancient diocese (pré claux and pré vival) having been built. * Mende North (Chaldecoste), the Causse d'Auge North of the *Allée Piencourt*, past the Berlière Bridge, dwellings are present at the foot of the Causse d'Auge. These were established in several instalments over the 19th and 20th centuries, the first of these being Chaldecoste. It is in this part of the city that the large and the small seminary as well as the Convent of Carmel are found. The city extends to the north in the direction of Alteyrac (commune of Chastel-Nouvel). Between these areas and Alteyrac is located the zone of economic activities (ZAE) of the Causse d'Auge. The northern districts often bear names of flowers, this part of the city that historically sheltered gardens and vineyards, along the draille linking the *Plateau du Palais du Roi* [King's Palace Plateau]. The causse is bounded by two streams, the Rieucros in the east and the Rieucros d'Abaïsse [fr] to the west. * Fontanilles Above the Badaroux road, on a hill, lies the Fontanilles district. It was originally social housing. At the foot of the hill is the Lycée Notre-Dame, while beyond the district of Saint-Laurent (where one finds traces of history with the presence of a chapel and a windmill) and, later, the Gardès ZAE. In this part, to the west of Gardès, is also the village of Sirvens where traces of a Gallo-Roman villa were discovered. * Mende South, Mont Mimat Stuck between Fontanille, Mont Mimat and the city centre, are districts located roadside above pré claux. In this area are located the centre of firefighters, the Château of Bellesagne and the former gendarmerie. The market is also in this area, but more to the east than the precedents cited (beyond the boulevards, however). Above it lies the Vabre district and Hill of the Executioner where the first traces of dwellings of the city were found. Also nearby is the city's prison. * Le Chapitre and the road to Chabrits In the westerly direction, found the District of Le Chapitre with the sports complex and the holiday village. This area is at the foot of a portion of the Causse de Changefège, where homes are installed along the Chabrits road (*Avenue du 11-Novembre*, north-west of the city). It is in this part of the city which the district of Valcroze is found (new in the 19th century), the Chabrits ZAE and technology park. * Balsièges road The other side of the Lot, along the Route nationale 88 (France) [fr], is found the avenue of the Gorges du Tarn and the area of Ramille. It is in this part where retail establishments are found. The Ramille zone saw the introduction, despite some criticism about the instability of the ground, of the hypermarket of the department, as well as a commercial area. ### City map On the map are the main roads of the city. To the west, the RN 88 is joined to Balsièges, passing through the Rocher de Moïse (classified site) located at the left end. To the northwest, it is the hamlet of Chabannes, and further to Chabrits. To the south, Mont Mimat [fr] is found, where the new cross stands which symbolically marks the top of the hill (although it continues a little higher). This road leads to the Hermitage of Saint Privat [fr], at the cross of the same name and the route of Valdonnez (Lanuéjols, Brenoux, Saint-Bauzile). To the east, Fontanille district is on a hillock, circumvented by the Lot. Behind lies the district of Saint-Laurent, then the ZAE de Gardès (and the village of the same name) and the village of Sirvens. Following the RN 88, one reaches Badaroux. Finally to the north, is the area of the Chaldecoste (broken down into several districts: Bergerie, Chanteperdrix, Vignette, etc.) where one can reach the ZAE du causse d'Auge. Further to the north, one finds Chastel-Nouvel before returning to the ground of Randon [fr] and the *Plateau du Palais du Roi*. The drinking water of the city of Mende comes from this direction, because of the Lac de Charpal reservoir, which is the main source. ### Housing In 2017, Mende had 6,851 residences for an official population of 12,134 people. 87% of them are primary residences and 6.1% of secondary residences, which contrasts sharply with the figure of the Lozère department amounting to a 32.3% share of secondary housing. The population has been growing for several years, and the city has acquired new quarters over the years: Chaldecoste and Chanteperdrix in the 1970s, La Bergerie in the 1990s, and Valcroze in the 2000s. The city has 17.9% of HLM-type accommodations. 59% of dwellings have four rooms or more and 19% have three rooms. The city is composed of many individual homes, small and large dwellings remaining in the minority. However, one can see that between 1990 and 1999 there was an increase of 85.3% of dwellings of one or two rooms. This can partly be explained by the development of higher education, with the branch of the University of Perpignan. Toponymy -------- The region is an ancient site of settlement dating back to the Bronze Age, although the capital of the Gévaudan, the Gallic period then Gallo-Roman, was Anderitum. Found in the ancient texts are the names of *Mimate*, *Mimata* (mountain), which refer to this town at the foot of *Mons Mimatensis* (Mont Mimat [fr]). In the same spirit, another name circulating is that of *Viculus Mimatensis* (or *Vicus Mimatensis*). It is the city which gave its name to Mont Mimat ("mount of the Mendois", literally) and not vice versa. History ------- ### Gallo-Roman era Traces of dwellings dating from 200 BC were found, ancient Roman *villae*, as well as around the city. However, residents could have been be domiciled here well before. Indeed, on Mont Mimat to Chapieu, a dolmen was found around 1913 including a trepanned skull. The other surrounding plateaux also attest this presence with other dolmens (on the Causse de Changefege for example). These remains may date from the Chalcolithic period. The city, strictly speaking, dates from the Middle Ages, and it is not found cited at the end of the 6th century by Gregory of Tours in his *Histoire des Francs*. This text speaks of the martyrdom of Saint Privat [fr], the first bishop of the Gabali, who was the origin of a pilgrimage to the hermitage and the caves where he had retired. Mende in the 3rd century was then only a village. The history of Privat is thus situated around the 3rd century, while he was sent by Austromoine to evangelize the Gévaudan. It was during this period that the Alemanni invaded the country, guided by their leader, Chrocus. The Gabali took refuge in the fortress of Grèzes where they were under siege for two years. Their bishop, Privat, was meanwhile in one of the caves of Mont Mimat which he had converted into a hermitage. When Chrocus learned that the bishop was not among his people, he went looking for him to use as a hostage in order to get the Gabali to leave Grèzes. Privat was martyred at his cave on Mont Mimat [fr] near the village of Mimate. Presented to the Gabali, he refused to deliver his people despite all the barbaric tortures to which he was subjected (according to Gregory of Tours: *"The good shepherd refused to deliver his sheep to wolves, and they tried to force his to sacrifice to demons"*). Exhausted, the Alemanni would leave the Gabali free, by promising them peace. Privat succumbed to his injuries in the following days. His act of resistance, refusing to deliver his compatriots, thus earned him great popular fervour, and it was around his tomb and his hermitage that pilgrimage began, allowing the village to grow. ### Middle Ages In the 12th century Gévaudan was part of the County of Barcelona. In Mende, the counties have a castle, the castel frag. Three other lords had their castle around the Romanesque church: That of Canilhac (who owned the archtreasurer rights of the church), that of Cabrières (who was granted rights of archdeacon) and Dolan (who administered and ruled the episcopal home during the interregnum of bishops). In 1161, Mende, who was under the suzerainty of the King of France, saw his Bishop Aldebert III [fr] get the royal rights. It was the golden bull, an act signed by the king and marked with a royal seal in gold, which contained the terms of this agreement. It thus gave Aldebert and his successors, in perpetuity, the Royal power and the full powers of justice on the inhabitants of the bishopric. This fact is quite rare because only four golden bulls in six centuries were granted by the Kings of France. It was from this time that the city walls were built. Aldebert wished to protect the city and secure channels that lead there. he recovered and also built the fortress of Chapieu on Mont Mimat [fr], and was done so that it could accommodate a garrison. This allowed the monitoring of the direct route between Mont Lozère and Villefort, in other words towards the Regordane Way, trade route. At that time, however, Mende was not provided the civil and religious capital of Gévaudan. In fact the power was always dependent of two entities: The county and Viscount of Grèzes. The Viscount, property of the King of Aragon, was recovered by the King of France in 1258. The bishop had great power as a vassal, but he didn't have the total legitimacy of some Royal officials. This situation ended from 1307 with the Act of paréage between Bishop Guillaume VI Durand and King Philip IV. Indeed, it definitively fixed the possessions of the king and those of the bishop, even if some disputes persisted. During the Hundred Years' War security increased with the strengthening of the fortifications and the construction of ditches to 1361-1362. At that time, the chapter of Mende had a castle on the heights of the city, Chastel-Nouvel. In 1370 many locals felt safe from the ramparts of the city, despite threats from the routiers. Also, few of them took refuge in Chastel-Nouvel. But the walls were insufficient, and could not prevent the pillages. This period isolated Mende from its neighbours, including Le Puy-en-Velay, and waited the arrival of the Constable of France, Bertrand du Guesclin, then the intervention of Charles VI and the liberation of the region so that the roads reopened around 1452. In 1390, Bernardon de la Salle [fr] was in Mende, where John III of Armagnac sought, on behalf of the King of France, to put an end to the private war that Raymond de Turenne led against the Pope from Avignon. The Gascon signed as a witness to an agreement between the legate of Clement VII, Antoine de Lisa, Bishop of Maguelone [fr], and a representative of the Viscount of Turenne. This interview of Mende helped the Florentines to send ambassadors to solicit the Count of Armagnac. He was proposed to cross the Alps and attack the Count of Vertus in Lombardy. It was also at this time that Pope Urban V began the work of the cathedral (1368), for a completion in 1467. By its letters patent, King Louis XI confirmed the privileges for this cathedral, granted by his predecessors, in September 1464. At the beginning of the 1470s, conflict erupted between Bishop Antoine de La Panouse [fr] and King Louis XI, because of the support that the bishop had given to the County of Armagnac when it had revolted. To counter it, the king subtracted La Panouse authority over the city which then became autonomous. It wasn't until 1478 that the bishops found authority over the city, sharing revenues with the consul. At the end of the Hundred Years' War, Mende developed its production of drapery, and thus increased its role as a commercial crossroads between the Languedoc and Auvergne, exporting its fame. It is estimated that in the 16th century Mende was one of the richest dioceses of Languedoc before Montpellier and Toulouse. This wealth of the diocese reinforced the ecclesiastical power. Thus among the list of the bishops of the time one can count a number from the family of the Pope. Giuliano della Rovere was ordained bishop of Mende, although he never visited in the capital of Gévaudan (practice known as commendation). His nephews, Clement and François [fr], succeeded him in this position. During his tenure, François adorned the cathedral with its bell towers, which one hosted the *Non Pareille*, the largest bell in the world. In October 1485, when Clement de La Rovere came to the episcopal seat, old quarrels between the consul and the bishopric re-emerged, first mentioned with fear of losing this privilege. Thus they barricaded the gates of Mende, so that the bishop could not access. At this time the bishops primarily used their Balsièges Castle as a residence (that of Chanac being the summer residence). In vain as the Della Rovere family covered the full authority by notice of the king in 1492. The title of consul was held in place of the traditional title of trustee. ### Renaissance In the 16th century, the main events were the Reformation and the Wars of Religion which resulted. On 21 July 1562, 4,000 Protestants got within the walls of the city. They destroyed the unprotected monuments and besieged the city by depriving it of water. They withdrew four days later, largely due to being given 2,000 ecus. This ransom ensured the city a few years of peace. During the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Baron [fr] Astorg de Peyre was murdered in the king's room: his widow then hired a young man, Matthieu Merle to avenge the death of her husband. From 1569 to 1576 he held with his troops the fortress of Grèzes where he gradually seized the north of Gévaudan. From 1577 he moved with his troops to Marvejols intending to seize Mende, although not ceasing his conquests to the north, he failed however in August 1578 at Saint-flour. The night of Christmas 1579, to enter the city, Merle's soldiers expected that the people of Mendes were at midnight mass. During his stay in Mende, Merle made further fortification to the city, not hesitating razing 120 homes to restore the ramparts. In February 1581, while he ruled all the Gévaudan, he enforced the threat he had made to the people. He had in fact asked them to deliver 4,000 ecus, a sum that the Mendois could not collect. He partially destroyed Mende Cathedral built by Pope Urban V. He saved a bell tower to avoid damaging the episcopal palace where his home was established. It was at this time that the *Non Pareille* was melted, the biggest bell in the world, to manufacture culverins and other cannonballs. The city was liberated on bail that year thanks to the intervention of the King of Navarre. The city liberated, a seneschal was created to ensure the peace. Response to the attack of Merle was organised in 1586 against the town of Marvejols, led by baron de Saint-Vidal. It was during this response that the Peyre fortress disappeared from the rock of Peyre. The seneschal took its place. The Tower of Auriac, today known as the Tower of Penitents, was built to accommodate one hundred soldiers. The seneschal gradually took precedence over the diocese, which called for the help of the Duke of Languedoc in 1597. It was after this episode that the Seneschal of Mende disappeared. ### From the 17th century to the French Revolution The beginning of the 17th century was coloured by the work of reconstruction of the cathedral for an inauguration in 1605, although work had lasted until 1629. Far from the splendour of the original, while taking up the same plane, this new cathedral was characterised by a bell tower which was smaller than the other. Between 1645 and 1660, the city was the scene of strife between two rival factions: The Marmaux and the Catharinaux, all members of the consuls or the bourgeoisie, but not having the same opinion on the importance of episcopal power, the latter being opposed. The bishop was also the target of an attack while he officiated in Mende Cathedral in 1645 (he was actually not touched). After several trials, it was not without difficulty that the kingdom gave back his ancestral power, the consul remaining under his control. At the end of the century, Monsignor Piencourt [fr] landscaped a lane which joined to the Lot (since known as *"Allée Piencourt"*) and especially acquired the Aubusson tapestries for the episcopal palace. These tapestries, classified, since adorn the cathedral. It was also behind the early educational development in the city and contributed to the building of the hospital. It also made the hospital its heir, allowing it to develop. In 1702, the war of the Camisards was triggered in the Cévennes. Mende somewhat landscaped its walls in order to prevent any attack. However, this war which began with the murder of Father du Chayla at Le Pont-de-Montvert never reached Mende. In 1721, the Great Plague arrived in Gévaudan affecting the town of Mende with an amount of 1,078 victims in one year. Two generations later, the walls were removed (in 1768), "so the air circulates better". Once all these troubles passed, the city redeveloped its economy around wool and sheep farming. The city extended a little bit under the development of the appearance of the mills, and its first factory. In 1754, Mende saw Louis Mandrin the famous brigand, who lodged in a house there and, according to legend, hid treasure. Between 1764 and 1767, Mende was the witness the comings and goings of the wolf-hunters of the king, who came to seek rest in the city before returning to hunt the beast which was terrorising the north of the country. It was seen close to Mende, once at Pailhou and between Rieutort-de-Randon and Chastel-Nouvel but remained primarily in Margeride. At this time the quarrel between the consul and the bishop was brought up to date by the edict on municipal organizations. The burghers and nobles opposed, but the bishop finally retained power in 1771. During the French Revolution, Mende had to share with Marvejols the function of department capital of Gévaudan. This was renamed in the Lozère department in 1790, and the guardianship of the church disappeared in 1791, thus putting an end to the paréage of 1307. Mende was the scene of small counter-revolutionary clashes, but without great effects. It became the sole capital shortly after. ### Since the 19th century In 1800, the prefect settled in the city, and the prefecture occupies the episcopal palace after the sale of the property of the church. In the middle of the 19th century, the causses around Mende are planted with Austrian black pine, this national forest has continued since then. The choice of black pine was due to its ease of acclimation, and its robustness. The presence of this forest often protected Mende from floods. Then the railway appeared in the prefecture, then linking to Sévérac-le-Château (3 May 1884). The railway line follows the Lot to cross the city, and also continues to follow, like the newly created road. In 1887 the old episcopal palace disappeared in flames, the prefecture had to be rebuilt. On 8 April 1888 Mende became one of the first cities in France, and the first chef-lieu to have electric lighting. The plant was installed in the old Hôtel de Ressouches [fr]. The twentieth century was marked by a beginning of economic decline. The gradual end of the wool industry, the First and the Second World War depopulated the city. Between 1931 and 1934 baths are built, since becoming the Saint Ilpide [fr] Home, and located on the market square. The building was destroyed in summer 2013, to be replaced by a multi-cultural hall. In 1939, shortly before World War II, an internment camp was built in the woods of the Rieucros. The population was opposed to this transit camp for anti-fascists and communists. It then became an internment camp exclusively for women. The mayor at the time, Henri Bourrillon [fr], condemned the Vichy regime and the camp in his hometown, where he made sure that children interned with their mother followed a normal education. His hostile words and acts to the regime in place led him to be removed from his post in 1941. He then joined Resistance where he became one of the leaders for the Lozère. Arrested and sent to German camps in 1944, he died during a transfer in 1945. Ideally placed between the Maquis of the Cévennes and the Aubrac, the town was located as well as a centre for the coordination of the Lozère Interior Resistance. As for the population, it protected itself Place Urbain V [fr] where shelters against aerial bombardments were implemented. From the 1970s, the city had a sizable population growth. The city then extended to the Causse d'Auge. In the 1980s and 1990s, one can also see that the department was depopulating overall, while its prefecture was expanding. Culture and sport took more importance in the life of the city. During the 1990s, the city developed administrative reconciliations with nearby cities. Therefore, it formed the Estelle city network with Aurillac and Rodez. The principle of the network was to share experiences and pool resources to develop such medium-sized cities. Shortly after, it was with other networks that Mende became closer to other cities of the Massif Central. This is the case, for example, with the Cyber Massif network dedicated to the digital opening up of the region. Moreover, since the beginning of the 21st century, Mende had tried to actively participate in the policies of opening up of the Massif Central. The city lies in the Lot Valley and reached an area of 37 square kilometres (14 sq mi) in the 2000s. It also seeks to enroll in a sustainable development project, in the image of the department with, among other projects, the construction of a cogeneration plant and the establishment of a network of heat. The timber industry, so important in the economy of the city, could therefore be put to further use. The establishment of bio-energy in the city has also been carried out by the appearance of a wind farm north of the city. Politics and administration --------------------------- Mende is the chef-lieu of the Lozère department: It welcomes in this regard the prefecture and the headquarters of the General Council. The buildings of these two institutions are scattered within the city. A project of the Department Hall to consolidate all services of the General Council is under consideration. The mayor's office is housed in the town hall which dates from the 18th century, however, a large part of the services have been moved to the annex of the mayor's office. ### City hall This is the old consular house which was used as a city hall of the Revolution until 1852. On that date, Mayor Becamel bought the Pages family mansion located in the *Place d'Angiran*. Since then the city hall has been based in this city mansion (listed historical monument) in the square which has become *Place Charles-de-Gaulle*, although a part of the services is now located in the annex which faces it. As the cathedral, the city hall also houses the tapestries of Aubusson, classified since 1909. ### Political trends and results ### List of mayors Since 1945, the following were elected mayors of the city of Mende: List of mayors of Mende| Start | End | Name | Party | Other details | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 29 April 1945 | 6 February 1956 (resigned) | Jean Mazel [fr] | | Jurist | | 1956 | 1971 | René Estoup | | | | 1971 | 1977 | Henri Trémolet de Villers [fr] | CNIP | Lawyer | | March 1977 | 1983 | Pierre Couderc [fr] | RI [fr] | Medical doctor | | 14 March 1983 | 2008 | Jean-Jacques Delmas | DVD | Medical doctorDéputé of Lozère (1993-1997) Councillor general (1970-2010) | | March 2008 | In progress | Alain Bertrand [fr] | PS | Inspector of the Domains Regional councillor (1998-2011) Senator of Lozère since 2011 | ### Intercommunality The city of Mende belongs to the Cœur de Lozère Community of Communes [fr]. It was created in December 2001 under the name of *Communauté de communes de la Haute Vallée d'Olt* before changing its name in 2009. The commune being the largest in terms of population, it was its mayor, Jean-Jacques Delmas, who became the first president of the community. The implementation of this community of communes has allowed a transfer of powers. So, all areas of economic activity and sports facilities now fall under the responsibility of the community, rather than the commune itself. However, the actions are much wider since waste treatment also enters the competence of the community. The waste disposal site of the commune lies in the ZAE du Causse d'Auge, north of the city. In this context, unsorted collection is also the responsibility of the community of communes. This community of communes is not the only grouping of communities for the town of Mende. A comprehensive plan was implemented around the label *Pays d'Art et d'Histoire de Mende et Lot en Gévaudan* [Lands of art and history of Mende and Lot in Gevaudan]. These are twenty-two communes which now belong to the Pays d'Art [Lands of Art] which comes in the continuity of the city of art and history label which Mende has had since 1981. The lands comprises four communities: Cœur de Lozère, Goulet-Mont Lozère [fr], Valdonnez [fr] and Pays de Chanac [fr], which is assistant to the Chastel-Nouvel commune. ### Administrative division The city is the chef-lieu of two cantons: Mende-1 and Mende-2 since 2015. Mende-1 comprises the northern part of the city, Mende-2 the southern part. | | | Representatives | Canton | Canton Code | Population (2017) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | Régine Bourgade and Laurent Suau | Mende-1 | *48 09* | 6,076 inhabitants | | | | Françoise Amarger-Brajon and Jean-Claude Moulin | Mende-2 | *48 10* | 6,058 inhabitants | ### Courts Before the Act of paréage of 1307, Mendoise and Gevaudanaise justice was fully devolved to the bishops. This power was shared with the king after the signing of the Act. Power was shared between the various barons [fr] for the communal land, with Mende being in the land of the bishops and Marvejols in lands of the king, and like this until 1789. The courthouse was built between 1833 and 1835. On 18 February 1994, it was the target of a bombing by the FLNC. The tribunal groups together a children's tribunal, a tribunal of commerce, a court and a high court. It depends on the Court of appeal of Nîmes [fr]. The city has long held prisons. Current prison was commissioned in 1891. One of the first high-security areas of France was then moved there in 1949. It was at this date that the prison ownership changed, from the State Department. Several personalities have stayed here, the most famous being Jacques Mesrine. André Génovès' film, *Mesrine* released in 1983, also tells of the criminal plan to destroy the QHS. François Besse [fr] had sought to bring Jacques Mesrine out of prison when he was imprisoned in Mende. This area had also been the target of critics, such as those of the Committee of action of prisoners and Serge Livrozet, in 1975. In 1989, the Mende detention centre was again publicised with the escape of Ahmed Otmane [fr], who managed to escape by threatening guards with a dummy gun. The last prison 'personality' of Mende, René Riesel [fr], activist of the Confédération paysanne [fr] alongside José Bové, was imprisoned after the case of the McDonald's franchise destruction in Millau. Twin towns – sister cities -------------------------- Mende is twinned with: * Germany Wunsiedel, Germany (1980) * Italy Volterra, Italy (1993) * Portugal Vila Real, Portugal (2003) Since 2007, the cities of Wunsiedel and Volterra are also paired together. The twinning with Vila Real (much more populous than the city of Mende) is explained by the fact that a large part of the Portuguese population of Mende, and Lozère in general, is from this region. Population and society ---------------------- ### Demographics #### Demographic evolution In contrast to the department of Lozère, the prefecture saw its demographic curve draw increasingly since the French Revolution. If the department was strongly affected by the rural exodus in France [fr] and the great wars of the 20th century, the city had the presence of its own authorities. This may explain why Mende has not experienced the same trend as Lozère. This table shows the demographic for the town of Mende, but it can be considered that the *bassin Mendois* [Mende area] follows the same trend. In 2017, the commune had 12,134 inhabitants. Historical population| | Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. | | --- | --- | --- | | 1793 | 5,000 | —     | | 1800 | 5,014 | +0.04% | | 1806 | 5,890 | +2.72% | | 1821 | 5,370 | −0.61% | | 1831 | 5,822 | +0.81% | | 1836 | 5,909 | +0.30% | | 1841 | 5,440 | −1.64% | | 1846 | 5,492 | +0.19% | | 1851 | 6,994 | +4.95% | | 1856 | 6,877 | −0.34% | | 1861 | 6,770 | −0.31% | | 1866 | 6,453 | −0.95% | | 1872 | 6,906 | +1.14% | | 1876 | 7,300 | +1.40% | | 1881 | 7,202 | −0.27% | | 1886 | 8,033 | +2.21% | | 1891 | 7,878 | −0.39% | | 1896 | 7,370 | −1.32% | | | Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. | | --- | --- | --- | | 1901 | 7,319 | −0.14% | | 1906 | 7,007 | −0.87% | | 1911 | 7,005 | −0.01% | | 1921 | 6,109 | −1.36% | | 1926 | 6,056 | −0.17% | | 1931 | 6,145 | +0.29% | | 1936 | 6,499 | +1.13% | | 1946 | 7,003 | +0.75% | | 1954 | 7,752 | +1.28% | | 1962 | 8,337 | +0.91% | | 1968 | 9,713 | +2.58% | | 1975 | 10,451 | +1.05% | | 1982 | 10,929 | +0.64% | | 1990 | 11,286 | +0.40% | | 1999 | 11,804 | +0.50% | | 2007 | 12,153 | +0.36% | | 2012 | 11,908 | −0.41% | | 2017 | 12,134 | +0.38% | | | | | Source: EHESS and INSEE | #### Age structure | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | **Population by sex and age, as a percentage (%), 2017** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 0-14 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 16.9 | | | 15-29 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 21 | | | 30-44 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 17.25 | | | 45-59 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 20.9 | | | 60-74 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 14.5 | | | 75-89 | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 7.95 | | | 90+ | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | | 1.5 | | | | Total: 100 | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | male | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | --- | | | | female | | | | Source: INSEE | | The Mende population is fairly young taking into account the ageing population of Lozère. Compared with the 1990 census, it is the age group of 15–29 years which has had the greatest increase at the expense of those aged 0–14 and 30–44 years. The number of near-centenarians was also greater in 1999 than in 1990. #### Immigration In Mende, the share of the immigrant population represents about 8% of the total population. They originate mostly from Portugal (mainly from Vila Real), Morocco, Algeria, and Turkey. This being the image of immigration in the region. The Spanish immigration, which was very present in the middle of the twentieth century, has been disappearing since the 1970s. ### Education Mende has three nursery schools: *Solelhons* (the small Suns in Occitan), the Chênes school and Fontanilles school. They are in close relations with the primary schools of the Groupe solaire, Annex Michel del Castillo School and Fontanilles School, Jeanne d'Arc School dealing with private education. The public college of Henri-Bourillon is located in the former small seminary, and share places with the Lycée Chaptal. It hosts students from the city as well as a number from other neighbouring municipalities (Badaroux, Barjac, Chanac, Saint-Bauzile, Saint-Étienne-du-Valdonnez, etc.). The private college is the college of Saint-Privat [fr]. The continuity of private education is at the Lycée Notre-Dame. Another high school, the Lycée Emile Peytavin allows, in addition to general education, technical and vocational education. Finally, now attached to the Lycée Notre-Dame, we find the Private Professional Lycée Plaisance. Institutions of the city are also have one of the best success rates for the Baccalauréat diploma, compared with the other schools in the area, which puts them in the first half best institutions of France. At the level of higher education, Mende welcomes a BTS in its different high schools. An IUP [fr], branch of the University of Perpignan, offers four courses: Multimedia, gerontology, City Council Secretary, and tourism. It is located in the buildings of the former Lamolle barracks, which had housed the 142nd regiment of infanterie [fr]. Finally the city also houses a teacher training Institute, an Institute for training in nursing [fr] (IFSIL), a Centre de formation d'apprentis [fr] and a Greta [fr]. Schools :| * **Kindergartens** + École de Fontanilles + Groupe Scolaire (Solelhons) + École des chênes * **Écoles publiques** + École de Chabrits + École des Tilleuls + École de Fontanilles + Groupe Scolaire + École Michel del Castillo | * **Private schools** + École Jeanne d'Arc + École Saint-Joseph * **Collège public** + Collège Henri Bourrillon * **Collège privé** + Collège Saint-Privat | * **Public high schools of general education** + Lycée Jean-Antoine Chaptal + Lycée Émile-Peytavin * **Lycée privé d'enseignement général** + Lycée Notre-Dame * **Lycée professionnel et technique public** + Lycée Émile-Peytavin * **Lycée professionnel privé** + Lycée Notre-Dame | ### Cultural events and festivities The festivities of the town of Mende are held annually in the month of August. They were related to the feast of Saint Privat [fr], on 21 August. They are decorated with a flower parade and the election of "Miss Mende". Then, in September, every other year, Mende hosts its beer festival, with its twin town of Wunsiedel. The city has also several sports events. At the cultural level, the "meetings of writers" were organized at the beginning of the 1990s, in August. They have welcomed regional authors but also renowned authors such as Calixthe Beyala and Michel Folco. ### Health The department has a hospital, which opened in 1970. Five of the six services are located in Mende: Guy de Chauliac Hospital, the retirement home, the convalescence centre, the Training Institute in Nursing and boarding school. The sixth branch, another retirement home, is based at Rieutort-de-Randon. The hospital has approximately 70 physicians and 750 health professionals. Moreover, since 2011, it welcomes in its structure the home of the Paul Éluard psychological and psychiatric unit, a branch of the Centre hospitalier François-Tosquelles [fr] of Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole. To this one can add 20 physicians, general practitioners and specialists as well as a centre of firefighters. Though, if the implementation of the current hospital is fairly recent, the city has a fairly old hospital story. In the 12th century was the "alms house" for the population. This hospital, located on *Rue Angiran*, derived its income from the operation of a mill in the district of La Vernède, as well as donations of the lords of the lands. It was partially destroyed in 1593 during the construction of a nearby citadel. Though the citadel disappeared in 1597, the hospital was not repaired immediately. From 1635 a budget was allocated for the rebuilding of the institution. It would not be built in the same place, and would take the name of "Hospital of Aygues-Passes". In 1677 François-Placide de Baudry de Piencourt [fr] became Bishop of Mende [fr] and thus Count of Gévaudan. In his first year as bishop, he rebuilt a new hospital which became the "general hospital". In 1702 it enlarged, and at his death he bequeathed it all of his possessions. This hospital, today the Piencourt residence, remained in use until the inauguration of the hospital. Added to this hospital, two establishments existed following periods of epidemics, both which were outside the city. A plague centre, referred to as 'House of God', was established in the district of Janicot. At the Saint-Jean Bridge (now Pont-Roupt), a *maladrerie* was rebuilt in 1242, intended for the accommodation of lepers. ### Sports Mende is, by its number of licensees and all events, a sports town. Therefore, she was elected twice the sportiest city of France [fr] by the daily newspaper *L'Équipe* (1988 and 1998) and a finalist in 2011. It is one of only a few cities of France to have achieved this distinction twice. #### Facilities Mende features a sports zone known as the *Complexe sportif de Jean Jacques Delmas* [Sports complex of Jean Jacques Delmas], in honour of his death, having been originally of this project he was the mayor of Mende for 25 years. There are 3 football/rugby pitches (the Stade du Chapitre and 2 training grounds), the semi-Olympic Marceau Crespin [fr] pool, tennis courts, a fitness room, a skate-park, a street-ball court, table-tennis hall and archery/shooting. It is in this complex which the '"Festival of sport" takes place every two years. Chapitre Stadium, enlarged at the Mediterranean Games has 500 seats, but this figure may be largely surpassed during some matches. Installed on the causse d'Auge are three soccer/rugby fields and an athletics track, which came to replace the old track of Mirandol. The Stade de Mirandol had the municipal stadium office until the 1980s. Since 2006, an equestrian centre is also located on the causse, it comes in addition to the aging Sirvens centre located at the exit of the city. Finally, the causse d'Auge was the chosen site, in 2008, for the construction of a new gymnasium, opposite the football fields. Mont Mimat [fr] offers a freestyle park, many hiking, mountain biking and running trails, a jogging track and a football field. On the Lot, since 1983, a canoe base has been developed in order to practice several water sports. Near the Chaptal Lycée and the Henri Bourrillon College is the La Vernède complex. In this area are two gymnasiums, a dojo, a gymnastics Hall, one dance, one climbing (over an area outdoors), a covered petanque pitch and one outdoors. Before the construction of the gymnasium of La Vernède, this place was that of the municipal swimming pool and two tennis courts. Close to other educational institutions, other gyms are installed. There are six in all in the city: La Vernède, Lycée Notre-Dame, Piencourt, Lycée Chaptal, Lycée Théophile Roussel and college Saint-Privat. Sports grounds of Mende| Name | Capacity | Main sports | | --- | --- | --- | | Stade Jean-Jacques-Delmas | 1,500 | Football, rugby | | Gymnase de la Vernède | 585 | Handball | | Gymnase Piencourt | 350 | Volleyball | | Gymnase du Lycée Chaptal | N/A | Basketball | #### Sports clubs Many clubs share the facilities of the city. Football club Éveil Mendois evolved in CFA2 during two seasons (2000–01 and 2001–02), its successor, AF Lozère, plays in the Division d'honneur [fr] (6th division). The Éveil Mendois football club came from the omnisports club [fr] of the same name, founded in 1920. One of the highlights of its history remains a finish in the last 32 of Coupe de France final played opposite Angoulême on 24 January 1999. More recently, Mende moved up to the last 16 of the finals at the 2013 Coupe de France, winning on this occasion the "ranking of the Petits Poucets". The key club is the Mende Volley Lozère [fr] (formerly Mende Volley Ball) which plays in the Elite division, for the season 2014-2014 (3rd national division). At the top level, the MVL has a title of champion of France of N3 [fr] obtained at the end of the 2008-2009 season and a participation in the third round of the 2010-2011 Coupe de France. Of Rugby union (*Rugby Club Mende Lozère*), it found its place in Fédérale 3 in 2006, but returned to the regional level in the 2010s. The club however already evolved to a higher level a few years previously. The handball team (*Mende Gévaudan Club*) is evolving in 2014-2015 in the National 3 France Championship. Finally, the basketball team (*basketball Causses Mendois*) was found in 2014-2015 at the regional level. For women there are also handball, volleyball and basketball clubs which are Mendois clubs of highest level. Mende can be granted a special status to orienteering, an individual sport with team competitions. The fact remains that Mende is playing in the elite league of France, and *M. G. C. Pétanque* and its three veteran champions of France in 2007. Sports diversity does not stop there. Mende clubs also include roller hockey (*Les Comets*). Mende is also home to individual sports: Athletics, badminton, cycling, motorcycling, as well as many combat sports clubs. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a sports centre was set up to accompany young high school athletes to prepare for the best level. From the membership of the COL (centre omnisports Lozère), there is Romain Paulhan [fr] (France MTB 2010 downhill champion) and Fanny Lombard (Junior Champion of Europe 2009 and 2010 in the same discipline). **Team sports in Mende**| Sport | Name of club | Championship 2014-2015 | Division 2014-2015 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Men's Basketball | Basket Causses Mendois | Région masculine III | 8 | | Women's Basketball | Basket Causses Mendois | Région féminine II | 7 | | Men's Handball | Mende Gévaudan Club | Nationale 3 | 5 | | Women's Handball | Mende Gévaudan Club | Région I | 6 | | Men's Football | AF Lozère | Division d'Honneur | 6 | | Women's Football | Entente Gévaudan | Départemental | 6 | | Men's Rugby | Rugby Club Mende Lozère | Honneur régionale | 6 | | Men's Volleyball | Mende Volley Lozère [fr] | Elite | 3 | | Women's Volleyball | Mende Volley Lozère [fr] | Région féminine | 6 | #### Top athletes Among professional sportspeople born in Mende, is the road cyclist Christophe Laurent who shone by winning the jersey for the best climber of the Tour de l'Avenir and the Tour of California. The motorcyclist Laurent Charbonnel [fr], winner of the prologue of the Paris-Dakar Rally (1991), also hails from Mende. He was one of the best enduro riders with the palmares of France, and was also vice World champion. Kayaker Brigitte Guibal, Olympic silver medallist in 2000 in Sydney, was also born in Mende. It is in 1988 that Marion Buisson was born in Mende. After making her athletics debut at the *Éveil mendois*, she continued her career at Clermont athletics. She became champion of France in the pole vault in 2008 [fr], thereby achieving the minimum to participate in the Beijing Summer Olympics. #### Sporting events Each year, the *Trèfle Lozérien* [fr], an enduro competition, centres its course on the city of Mende. This race is part of the most renowned of the enduro season and allows, in addition, mixing professional and amateur riders. One month later (July), the city centre is dedicated to foot racing and the arrival of Marvejols-Mende half marathon [fr]. This race starts from Marvejols, joining Mende by the Col de Goudard and the Côte de Chabrits. It is sometimes used as a preparation marathon for major events (the World Championships, Olympic Games), but is also open to amateurs as the majority of the marathons. Since 2006, the month of July is also marked by the organisation of a national of pétanque. Cycling is also in honour of the city. The *Grand Prix of the city of Mende* [fr] hosted the best professionals in the 1970s. Since then, the Côte de la Croix Neuve [fr] has seen five stage finishes in the Tour de France (1995, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2018), and stages in the Tour de l'Avenir, the Grand Prix du Midi Libre, the Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon [fr] and Paris-Nice. Since 2006 and the rebirth of the Tour du Gévaudan, Mende is judged the final arrival of this amateur race of great importance. In 2008, the event was organised as the *Finale de la Coupe des France des clubs* [final of the Cup of France for clubs]. During the winter, a grand prix of regional cyclo-cross is also organized. The grand departure of the Tour de France VTT 1996, as well as the first two stages, happened at Mende. Mende was also host city of the Mediterranean Games in 1993 by hosting cycling, football, and swimming events. In October 2005, the city hosted the 37th national congress of the French hiking federation, Lozère being a popular department for hikers, and is crossed by two of the most important roads of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Then, in 2007, Mende was the host of a round of the French enduro championships, as well as the final of the Coupe de France rally. In 2008, France welcomed the enduro European grand prix, the final of the World Championship (WEC). It was the town of Alès which was chosen to host the competition. However the organization was forced to give up, and it was finally hosted by Mende on 11 and 12 October 2008. In 2011, the city hosted the Grand Prix of France, final of the World Championship. ### Media Mende is the seat of most of the media of Lozére. Thus we find the writings of the Lozère edition of *Midi Libre* and *Lozère nouvelle* [fr] [New Lozère], with regard to the written press. The radio station France Bleu and Totem [fr] have their editorial offices in Lozère. While Radio Eaux-Vives Lozère is installed at the former Grand Seminary. ### Worship The town of Mende is the episcopal seat of Gévaudan and Lozère, religious life has always been linked with its bishops. Also chapter headquarters, Mende has welcomed a large number of canons. A religious brotherhood, the "Brotherhood of the White Penitents" has long existed and has a procession every Holy Thursday since the 17th century. The Tower of the Penitents (called so because it is adjacent to the chapel of the penitents) is one of the last vestiges of the ramparts of the city. The large and small seminaries are traces of the presence of the formation of Catholic priests. The main place of worship is the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and Saint-Privat, built at the request of Pope Urban V, in place of the old church built over the tomb of Saint Privat [fr] but the city has many small chapels. One of the oldest is the chapel of Saint-Ilpide, on the hill of the executioner, which however was destroyed and replaced by a small chapel. Two other chapels are no longer used: That of the Penitents (future Museum of Religious Art) and the Chapel of Saint-Dominique (exhibition hall). The Chapel of the Hermitage (on Mont Mimat [fr]) and the cave which was drilled alongside, can still be used for offices. The Carmelite convent has existed since 1880 and has hosted a community of Carmelite nuns, which ensures production of altar bread (or wafers) for the diocese (and those nearby). Another Convent is installed in Mende, which is the Adoration of Picpus Convent. At the *Rue de la Chicanette* is installed the Jeanne Delanoue community of the Providence; little used for celebration services, the place is used for meetings between people in the religious world. The community is at the origin of the creation of the institution Notre-Dame-de-la-Providence, a social children's home adjacent to its premises and which hosts minors under administrative and judicial protection. There are of other religious communities, mainly related to private schools and retirement or rest homes. Worship in Mende, due to its history, is very oriented towards Catholicism, but there are other places of worship for other religions. Thus Mende, near of the Cévennes, has a Protestant temple installed in the *Allée Paul Doumer*. The city also had a synagogue in the former Jewish quarter, but it has long since been abandoned. This synagogue, also called Ferrier House from the name of one of its former owners, is the last vestige of the Mende ghetto. The Jews were expelled from the Gévaudan in the 14th century, and this synagogue became the (Catholic) college of All Saints until the French Revolution. Whilst counting the presence of a Muslim community, the city has no mosque, but simply an apartment that serves as place of worship. Economy ------- Industrial (wood industry, jewelry), service centre (shops, restaurants, bars), administrative (generates a lot of jobs) and tourism (medieval town, excursions to Gorges du Tarn), Mende is the starting point for the establishment of new businesses in the department, and turned more towards new technologies, with the advent of the technological hub. The city has more than 1300 companies, including about 900 in the commercial sector, and has an unemployment rate of 10.7% (2017). ### Zones of activities The city has five zones of economic activities (ZAE), each having a rather clearly defined role. The largest is the ZAE of the Causse d'Auge (north of the city), with a mainly industrial orientation in automation or in the management of the wood. The ZI of Gardès, on the road to Badaroux is an industrial area covering public works and mainly the building companies. The ZAE Lou Chaousse and Chabrits (both in the northwest) also have a vocation craft, but more oriented towards the trade for individuals. And finally, the *Pôle lozérien d'économie numérique* (POLeN) is turned to the new technologies. In addition, since the mid-2000s, the ZAC [fr] de Ramille was created. This area, wedged between the Lot and the RN 88 on the road to Balsièges hosts a commercial zone which has tended to develop. It is without doubt, with the area of the Causse d'Auge, the area of activity that has extended most recently. In the near future a new area of activity should emerge north of Mende, in the commune of Badaroux. This area whose size is expected to reach approximately 40 hectares (99 acres) initially, would be served by the RN 88 [fr] landscaped expressway. ### The agricultural past ***Distribution of enterprises (2015)***| | Mende | Lozère | | --- | --- | --- | | Number of enterprises | 1,374 | 9,371 | | | | Industry | 5.0% | 7.5% | | Construction | 7.4% | 9.6% | | Shops and repairers | 65.2% | 49.9% | | Services | 20.6% | 14.8% | | | | 0 employees | 49.7% | 69.6% | | 1 to 9 employees | 38.8% | 25.2% | | 10 to 50 employees | 9.0% | 4.1% | | 50+ employees | 2.4% | 1.0% | If the commune no longer has many farms, the city remains at the centre of a very rural area and is very oriented towards agriculture. Indeed, 54% of the Lozère territory is classified as a "utilised agricultural area". Livestock in the commune is mainly dedicated to the sheep sector, although cattle farms are found located between Mende and neighbouring communes. This attraction to sheep is ancestral to Mende, since the city has long lived wool exploitation, since the 16th century. In 1333 the city already had a brotherhood of the weavers. In 1849, the town was still equipped with five large mills. However, while having a rich textile past, the city now retains no activity. ### Industry Like the Lozère department, industry in Mende is mainly oriented towards the timber sector: Its operation, its treatment, its derivatives, etc. Another industry that holds an important place in the city is that of construction and public works. ### Shops and services Mende is also the seat of the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de la Lozère [fr] that handles Mende Brenoux airfield [fr]. The city is strongly turned towards the tertiary sector. As said above, a majority of the enterprises of the city are shops. Mende is the centre of an area's population of approximately 25,000 inhabitants around the Lot Valley, the city therefore centralises much of the services. Its quality of prefecture adds to the presence of public service. Tourism has also developed since the end of the 20th century. This openness on tourism translated between 1983 and 2008 by the creation of the office of tourism (municipal and intermunicipal), an increase of 400 beds offered to tourists, the opening of a holiday village and of a youth hostel, but also the creation of activity centre (canoe base, Freestyle Park, etc.). The city has eleven hotels, four with three stars and four having two. To this one can add the holiday village of Chapitre that offers 42 gîtes for rent, as well as two campsites near the Lot. Other businesses are those that can be found in other modern cities (banks, insurance, bakeries, the press houses, clothes, etc.). The city has a supermarket and a hypermarket, as well as several superettes and other discounters. The hypermarket, which is of recent construction, belongs to the Système U group and is located in the new area of activity of Ramilles. The supermarket (Intermarché) is, meanwhile, close to the city centre. Markets, vestiges of the traditional markets of the city are many, taking place on Wednesday (textile, utility, etc.) at *Place Chaptal*, and on Saturday mornings (food market) at *Place Chaptal* and *Place Urbain V*. In addition, night markets are held during the summer. ### Business The main companies in terms of turnover, as well as major private employers are: | Name | Employees | Turnover | Sector | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Robbez-Masson | 250 | €44M | Jewellery | | EURL Magne Distribution | 144 | €11M | Wholesaler | | Sté mendoise des supermarchés | 140 | €26M | Supermarket | | Engelvin TP réseaux | 107 | €14M | Public works | | Engelvin bois | 74 | €4.2M | Sawmill | | Société des travaux publics lozériens (STPL) | 72 | Not included | Public works | | Sud Expert Conseil | 43 | Not included | Accounting activities | | Engelvin bois moulé | 32 | €5.5M | Wood treatment | | Grand garage de Lozère | 28 | €11M | Car Garage | | AGT Groupe | 21 | €1.5M | Council and IT development | | SAS Pages et fils | 18 | €38M | Fuels | Local culture and heritage -------------------------- ### Places and monuments Since 1981 Mende has been classified as a city of art, and, since 2000, the grouping of *Mende and Lot in the Gévaudan* has the label of "city and land of art and history". Indeed, the city has a rich architectural heritage, witness of the prosperous time related to the papacy. * The Cathedral Notre-Dame and Saint-Privat The Cathedral of Saint-Privat (classed as a historical monument in 1906) whose construction began in 1368 at the initiative of Pope Urban V. Its bell towers date back, however, to the 16th century, following the destruction of one of them during the passage of the Huguenots by Matthieu Merle. The large belfry included housing *"Non Pareille"*, the largest bell in the world melted between 1517 and 1521 in Villefort and destroyed during the Wars of Religion. There remains only the clapper. The cathedral consists of twelve rectangular chapels, two pentagonal chapels and a sacristy. Originally it was built above the Sainte-Thècle crypt where the body of Saint Privat had been buried. It is located next to the old episcopal palace. * Public fountains The city has many public fountains. Water from the causses thus enters a piping system located beneath the city before joining the Lot. Two of them (Aigues-Passe and Soubeyrand) are classified as historic monuments. Piped water also enters the old wash house of the Calquières, still visible on *Rue d'Angiran*. * The Tower of the Penitents This tower is one of the few remains of the ancient walls of the 12th century. Protecting the Gate of Angiran which was next to it, this tower served as guard for the short-lived Seneschal of Mende. It includes three floors and an attic. This is the installation of the chapel which is adjacent, and especially its bell tower at the top which saved the tower during the destruction of the walls in 1768. * The Notre-Dame Bridge Dating back to the 13th century, this bridge is one of the symbols of the city. It has never been carried away by frequent floods in Mende. It formerly went by the name of Peyrenc Bridge, then took the name of Notre Dame due to the presence on its mouth of a Virgin, which disappeared during the Wars of Religion. Its span has a 22 metres (72 ft) opening and is 7 metres (23 ft) high. * The Hermitage of Saint Privat Saint Privat withdrew, in the 3rd century, into caves that he had built over Mende, on Mont Mimat [fr]. Since his Hermitage was built, it also to allow the pilgrims to go there. It can be accessed either by Way of the Cross (from the market) or by road from the causse (RD 25). At the hermitage, we find a hotel for the reception of the pilgrims, a chapel, grotto and a breakthrough designed to the original cave. * The former consular home The House where the consul sat, since 1578, also served as city hall after the Revolution. On its pediment is found the arms of the city: "*Azure in the Gothic M of or, a shining Sun similarly topped.*" Facing it is a trompe-l'œil wall symbolizing the twinning of Mende and Volterra. * Bahours Castle Located in the northwest of the city, the Bahours locality had two castles, one of which was destroyed in 1960. The remaining one is a strong house (manse) built in the 17th century, possibly on the foundations of a more ancient building. The main interest of this strong house is its kitchen listed as a historical monument, like the whole building. ### Cultural facilities Mende features a municipal theatre and several rooms that can be used to this kind of show. The ancient theatre of the city turned into cinema. A development project involves the construction of a new multicultural hall. In addition, Mende has a departmental library, the Lamartine Library. #### Theatres and auditoriums The ancient theatre of the city, established between 1890 and 1895, was replaced by a cinema. The main room used for the theatre is now the festival hall located at the market. This room, and its natural scenery of arches, is multi-cultural and is the largest in the city in terms of capacity. On the market lies the *antirouille*, a municipal building for young people and allowing everyone to have access to the internet, this building has a room to organize concerts. Near the market, along the *Chemin Saint-Ilpide*, the Urban V municipal room hosts plays, live shows, and also meetings and projections (world knowledge, for example). Finally as part of the redevelopment of the market (started by the installation of the intercommunal tourism office and the renovation of the Lamartine Library), an auditorium should be created behind the festival hall (the Emile-Joly Square being moved). #### Museums and exhibitions The Ignon-Fabre Museum (or the Museum of Mende) was located on *Rue de l'Épine* [street of the Holy thorn], at the Hôtel de Ressouches [fr], where there was installed the first electrification plant of the city. It was however closed due to lack of budget. Before it, a museum was located in a house next to the prison. The Chapel of Saint-Dominique and the current Department Hall can serve as an exhibition space, as can the Chapel of the Penitents and the former consular house. In addition a project of the Museum of Sacred Arts [fr], currently under study, should be installed in the Chapel of the Penitents. ### Quotes on Mende > *Mende, well located city* > > > > *And adorned with art* > > *Your bubbling bright springs* > > *Decorate you and adorn you* > > > > *As the gemstone in a crown.* > > — Unknown poet, 14th century The poem, written by an author whose story did not retain the name, was confirmed in the 19th century: > *Nothing is as beautiful as the view to be enjoyed on the hill which overlooks Mende. The green mountains surround the city, the gardens, the bold and elegant cathedral spires, all this presents a tableau of the most picturesque.* > > However, not everyone had a positive vision of the city. It had long had problems with sewage into the modern era, and was denigrated despite its charm: > *This city is small and the triangular shape makes it look pretty much like the shape of a heart. It is heavily populated, dirty, unsavoury and stifled. Its fountains are its main beauty.* > > This quote comes perhaps from the conditions in which the geographer of the king came in the city. Like those who would declare to Serge Livrozet that Mende was *capital of Lozère and torture*. ### Personalities linked to the commune Those born in Mende, or having a very strong tie with the city include: #### Born in Mende * Jean-Baptiste Amédée de Grégoire de Saint-Sauveur [fr] (1709-1792), Bishop of Bazas [fr], deputy of the clergy of the Seneschal of Bazas and Dean of the members of the Estates General of 1792. * Abraham Fontanel [fr] (1740-1817), art dealer and collector, founder of the society of fine arts in Montpellier * Abbon-Pierre-François Bonnel de la Brageresse [fr] (1757-1844), Bishop of Viviers [fr]. * Jean-Jacques Fayet [fr] (1786-1849), Member of Parliament for Lozère, Bishop of Orléans [fr]. * Nicolas Roch [fr] (1813-1879), great executioner of Paris. * Charles du Pont de Ligonnès [fr] (1845-1925), French lieutenant, Bishop of Rodez and Vabres [fr]. * Marie Borrel, born around 1886, recognized as part of the Lourdes Medical Bureau. * Henri Bourrillon [fr] (1891-1944), lawyer. During World War II, he was mayor of the city before becoming a hero of the Resistance, deported to Auschwitz, then Buchenwald, died on German roads. * Gaby Bruyère (1924-1978), actress. * Thierry Jean-Pierre (1955-2005), investigative judge, a lawyer and politician. * Claude Érignac (1937-1998), French officer, prefect of Corsica. * Joseph de La Porte du Theil [fr], officer French general, best known as the founder and head of the *Chantiers de la Jeunesse* during the Vichy regime. * René Boullier de Branche [fr] (1941-1981), politician, Deputy of Mayenne. * Michel Rostain, born in 1942, theatre director and writer, Prix Goncourt du premier roman in 2011 * Francis Saint-Léger born in 1957, politician, Member of Parliament for Lozère. * Élisabeth Filhol, born in 1965, writer. * Brigitte Guibal, born in 1971, kayaker. * Quentin Elias (1974-2014), singer and former member of the boy band Alliage, model and actor in adult films. * Christophe Laurent, born in 1977, professional cyclist. * Marion Buisson, born in 1988, pole vaulter. * Charlène Clavel [fr], born in 1991, handball player * Ludivine Coulomb [fr], born in 1992, footballer #### Linked to the commune * Urban V (1310-1370), Pope, born in the commune of Le Pont-de-Montvert but strongly attached to the episcopal capital of Gévaudan. * Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756-1832), born in the vicinity of Mende, but in the commune of Badaroux, it is however very linked to the city. He was a chemist, businessman and Councillor of State under Napoleon. He was the inventor of chaptalisation (process aimed at improving the quality of the wine). * Jean-Joseph-Marie-Eugène de Jerphanion [fr] (1796-1864), Bishop of Saint-Dié was educated at Mende, from the time his father Gabriel-Joseph de Jerphanion [fr] was the first prefect of the Lozère. * Marie-Lucien-Théophile Coupier [fr]. Engineer and French diplomat. Prefect of Lozère from 1869 to 1870. * Paul Doumer (1857-1932), before becoming President of the Republic, he was a college professor in Mende. * Clovis Brunel (1884-1971) born in Amiens, but who long worked as an archivist in Mende. * Joseph Joanovici (1905-1965), under house arrest in Mende. * Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014), mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal. As a child, he was deported to the camp of Rieucros. * Canon Clavel of Saint-Geniez [fr] (1808-1876), physician and botanist, studied at the seminary and became a Bachelor of Arts, there, in 1827. ### Heraldry, motto and logo #### Coat of arms of 1475 When King Louis XI granted autonomy to the city, he granted new arms in 1469. An 'L' surmounted by a crown, in gratitude to the king, was added to these in 1475. | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Mende in 1469Mende in 1469 | On the left, the arms of the cities of 1469 and 1475, with the blazon:*Or, a fess gules, surmounted two fleurs de lys of France.*Right, those which are updated in honour of King Louis XI, from 1475, and which persisted until the 16th century. | | #### Current blazon The current coat of arms dates from the sixteenth century. These weapons were registered in the Armorial General of France in 1697. | | | | --- | --- | | Arms of MendeArms of Mende | The arms of Mende are blazoned :*Azure, to a letter M uncial of or topped of a sun of the same.*The motto is: *Tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt* (Darkness has not invaded me).The symbolism of the shield, also named "the shining sun", and the motto both illustrate Mende loyalty towards the Catholic faith during the dark hours of the Wars of Religion. | See also -------- * Communes of the Lozère department * Tourism in Lozère [fr] * Generality of Toulouse [fr] * Parlement of Toulouse * Languedoc * Estates of Languedoc * Pays d'états * Gare de Mende [fr] Explanatory notes ----------------- 1. ↑ Raymond de Turenne came to Mende with his cousins Garin VIII, Baron d'Apcher en Gévaudan and Raoul de Lestrange, seigneur of Boulogne en Vivarais. A truce was agreed until 15 August 1391. The agreement was ratified in the name of Clement VII by François de Conzié, Archbishop of Arles, on 20 August 1390. Six days later, Raymond de Turenne committed *sur les Saintes Envangiles de Dieu et par la foi de son corps à les tenir et accomplir loyalement et sans fraude.* (on Saintes Envangiles of God and the faith of his body to keep and faithfully perform and without fraud.) Finally on 28 August in Avignon, Marie de Blois, Countess of Provence approved the agreement and affixed her seal. 2. ↑ During his marriage to Isabeau of France, daughter of Jean le Bon, Galéas Visconti had received in dowry the county of Vertus in Champagne. This noble title, the only one which could boast the Visconti, was passed to Jean Galéas. The Embassy of Florence was discreet since it was only revealed officially three months later. Jean III of Armagnac had a score to settle with Jean Galéas about the rights of his sister Beatrix d'Armagnac to the estate of his uncle Barnabò. The ambassadors of Florence came propose alliance and financial support. 3. ↑ François Astorg Peyre specifically Cardaillac [fr] 4. ↑ Although affiliated with the UDF, has always presented to the municipality under the abel Miscellaneous right 5. ↑ POLeN for *Pôle lozérien d'Économie Numérique*, is a technology activities park, a business incubator and an ICT resource centre. 6. ↑ Hyper U Cœur Lozère 7. ↑ Peugeot and Citroën garages 8. ↑ This hotel has since closed General bibliography -------------------- * Bardy, Benjamin (1973). *Mende* [*Mende*] (in French). Ingersheim: Éditions SAEP. * *Un siècle d'images mendoises* [*A century of mendoises pictures*] (in French). 1974. * Marcillac, Sylvain; Salles, Jean-François (1996). *Guetteurs du temps : la basilique cathédrale de Mende* [*Lookouts of the time: the Cathedral Basilica of Mende*] (in French). Mende: ARACAM. * Taillefer, Didier (2003). *Mende : 2000 ans d'histoire* [*Mende: 2000 years of history*] (in French). Toulouse: Editions Privat. ISBN 2-70899-718-1. * *Les campagnes de Mende, les communes rurales des cantons de Mende* [*Mende countryside, the rural communes of the cantons of Mende*] (in French). Lyon: Éditions Lieux-dits. 2007. ISBN 978-2914528368. Inventory of heritage, southern France. * Desdouits, Michel; Laurans, Alain. *Mende-en-Gévaudan* [*Mende-en-Gévaudan*] (in French). Alan Sutton. ISBN 2842535383. * Bunel, Claude (1954). *Bulletin de la Société des lettres, sciences et arts de la Lozère* [*Bulletin of the Society of the letters, sciences and arts of the Lozère*] (in French). * Barbot, Dr. Marcel (1958). *Les siècles obscurs de la primitive histoire de Mende* [*The obscure centuries of the primitive history of Mende*] (in French). * Remize (1910). *Saint Privat, martyr, évêque du Gévaudan, IIIe siècle* [*Saint Privat, martyr, Bishop of Gévaudan, 3rd century*] (in French). Mende. * André, Auguste (1931). *La Bête du Gévaudan* [*The beast of Gévaudan*] (in French). Mende: H. Chaptal.

Mende, Lozère

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mende,_Loz%C3%A8re

WeareThe bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these six frames, repeated indefinitely.This animation moves at 10 frames per second. **Animation** is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, many animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets, or clay figures. A **cartoon** is an animated film, usually a short film, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips, often featuring anthropomorphic animals, superheroes, or the adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to the persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and beta movement, but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect. While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over a separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phénakisticope, zoetrope, flip book, praxinoscope, and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally. For display on computers, technology such as the animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. In addition to short films, feature films, television series, animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, animation is also prevalent in video games, motion graphics, user interfaces, and visual effects. The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance, moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has a very long history in automata. Electronic automata were popularized by Disney as animatronics. Etymology --------- The word "animation" stems from the Latin "animātiōn", stem of "animātiō", meaning "a bestowing of life". The earlier meaning of the English word is "liveliness" and has been in use much longer than the meaning of "moving image medium". History ------- ### Before cinematography Hundreds of years before the introduction of true animation, people all over the world enjoyed shows with moving figures that were physically manipulated (manually, or sometimes mechanically) in puppetry, automata, shadow play, and the magic lantern (especially in phantasmagoria shows). In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phénakisticope) introduced the principle of modern animation, which would also be applied in the zoetrope (introduced in 1866), the flip book (1868), the praxinoscope (1877) and film. ### Silent era When cinematography eventually broke through in the 1890s, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. It took years before animation found its way to the cinemas. The successful short *The Haunted Hotel* (1907) by J. Stuart Blackton popularized stop-motion and reportedly inspired Émile Cohl to create *Fantasmagorie* (1908), regarded as the oldest known example of a complete traditional (hand-drawn) animation on standard cinematographic film. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by Winsor McCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as *Little Nemo* (1911) and *Gertie the Dinosaur* (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated "cartoons" became an industry in the US. Successful producer John Randolph Bray and animator Earl Hurd, patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century. Felix the Cat, who debuted in 1919, became the first fully realized animal character in the history of American animation. ### American golden age In 1928, *Steamboat Willie*, featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, popularized film with synchronized sound and put Walt Disney's studio at the forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output has always been very small, the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the golden age of American animation that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated the world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including Walt Disney Productions' Goofy (1932) and Donald Duck (1934), Warner Bros. Cartoons' Looney Tunes' Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937), Bugs Bunny (1938–1940), Tweety (1941–1942), Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (1949), Fleischer Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios' Betty Boop (1930), Popeye (1933) and Casper (1945), MGM cartoon studio's Tom and Jerry (1940) and Droopy, Walter Lantz Productions/Universal Studio Cartoons' Woody Woodpecker (1940), Terrytoons/20th Century Fox's Mighty Mouse (1942), and United Artists' Pink Panther (1963). ### Features before CGI In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made the first feature-length film *El Apóstol* (now lost), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's *Sin dejar rastros* in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation *Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed* in 1926, the oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature, *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020[update]. The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with *Gulliver's Travels* with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features *Pinocchio*, *Fantasia* (both 1940) and Fleischer Studios' second animated feature *Mr. Bug Goes to Town* (1941–1942) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with *An American Tail* in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in a wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Russia's Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became a true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effective limited animation. ### Television Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching Saturday-morning cartoons. Many classic cartoons found a new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series. Hanna-Barbera Productions was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as *The Flintstones* (1960–1966) (the first prime time animated series), *Scooby-Doo* (since 1969) and Belgian co-production *The Smurfs* (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and the demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker limited animation methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series such as *The Simpsons* (since 1989) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring stop motion and puppetry over cel animation. Japanese anime TV series became very successful internationally since the 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as *Barbapapa* (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), *Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking)* (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), and *The Jungle Book* (Italy/Japan 1989). ### Switch from cels to computers Computer animation was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller *Futureworld* (1976). *The Rescuers Down Under* was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced in a style that's very similar to traditional cel animation on the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by The Walt Disney Company in collaboration with Pixar in the late 1980s. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, became the dominant technique following the success of Pixar's *Toy Story* (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only the very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects. Economic status --------------- In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$80 billion. By 2020, the value had increased to an estimated US$270 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s. Education, propaganda and commercials ------------------------------------- The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios, including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and the humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals. Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid "Kills Bugs Dead" commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. Other media, merchandise and theme parks ---------------------------------------- Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove extremely lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to comic books. While many comic book characters found their way to the screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many manga are adapted into anime), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for video games (an interactive animation medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media, The Walt Disney Company is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their Mickey Mouse mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products, as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name, but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called Disneyana has many avid collectors, and even a dedicated Disneyana fanclub (since 1984). Disneyland opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts. Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies. Criticism --------- Criticism of animation has been common in media and cinema since its inception. With its popularity, a large amount of criticism has arisen, especially animated feature-length films. Criticisms regarding cultural representation and psychological effects on children have been raised around the animation industry, which some claim has remained politically unchanged and stagnant since its inception into mainstream culture. Awards ------ As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in the field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include ASIFA-Hollywood's Annie Awards, the Emile Awards in Europe and the Anima Mundi awards in Brazil. ### Academy Awards Apart from Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. *Beauty and the Beast* was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture, in 1991. *Up* (2009) and *Toy Story 3* (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten. Production ---------- The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking, with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature-length films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards, then handing the film over to the animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in a consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before the animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond the synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s. Techniques ---------- ### Traditional **Traditional animation** (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators' work has remained essentially the same over the past 90 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on the words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include *Pinocchio* (United States, 1940), *Animal Farm* (United Kingdom, 1954), *Lucky and Zorba* (Italy, 1998), and *The Illusionist* (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include *The Lion King* (US, 1994), *The Prince of Egypt* (US, 1998), *Akira* (Japan, 1988), *Spirited Away* (Japan, 2001), *The Triplets of Belleville* (France, 2003), and *The Secret of Kells* (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009). #### Full **Full animation** is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio (*The Little Mermaid*, *Beauty and the Beast*, *Aladdin*, *The Lion King*) to the more 'cartoon' styles of the Warner Bros. animation studio. Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, *The Secret of NIMH* (US, 1982), *The Iron Giant* (US, 1999), and *Nocturna* (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film. #### Limited **Limited animation** involves the use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America, limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in *Gerald McBoing-Boing* (US, 1951), *Yellow Submarine* (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other TV animation studios) and later the Internet (web cartoons). #### Rotoscoping **Rotoscoping** is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in *The Lord of the Rings* (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in *Waking Life* (US, 2001) and *A Scanner Darkly* (US, 2006). Some other examples are *Fire and Ice* (US, 1983), *Heavy Metal* (1981), and *Aku no Hana* (Japan, 2013). #### Live-action blending **Live-action/animation** is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of *Alice Comedies* (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include *Allegro Non Troppo* (Italy, 1976), *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* (US, 1988), *Volere volare* (Italy 1991), *Space Jam* (US, 1996) and *Osmosis Jones* (US, 2001). ### Stop motion Stop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the medium used to create the animation. Computer software is widely available to create this type of animation; traditional stop-motion animation is usually less expensive but more time-consuming to produce than current computer animation. Puppet animationTypically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting in a constructed environment, in contrast to real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady to constrain their motion to particular joints. Examples include *The Tale of the Fox* (France, 1937), *The Nightmare Before Christmas* (US, 1993), *Corpse Bride* (US, 2005), *Coraline* (US, 2009), the films of Jiří Trnka and the adult animated sketch-comedy television series *Robot Chicken* (US, 2005–present). PuppetoonCreated using techniques developed by George Pal, are puppet-animated films that typically use a different version of a puppet for different frames, rather than manipulating one existing puppet. Clay animation or Plasticine animation(Often called *claymation*, which, however, is a trademarked name). It uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated to pose the figures. Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of clay-animated works include *The Gumby Show* (US, 1957–1967), *Mio Mao* (Italy, 1974–2005), *Morph* shorts (UK, 1977–2000), *Wallace and Gromit* shorts (UK, as of 1989), Jan Švankmajer's *Dimensions of Dialogue* (Czechoslovakia, 1982), *The Trap Door* (UK, 1984). Films include *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*, *Chicken Run* and *The Adventures of Mark Twain*. Strata-cut animationMost commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like "loaf" of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. Cutout animationA type of stop-motion animation produced by moving two-dimensional pieces of material paper or cloth. Examples include Terry Gilliam's animated sequences from *Monty Python's Flying Circus* (UK, 1969–1974); *Fantastic Planet* (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973); *Tale of Tales* (Russia, 1979), The pilot episode of the adult television sitcom series (and sometimes in episodes) of *South Park* (US, 1997) and the music video Live for the moment, from Verona Riots band (produced by Alberto Serrano and Nívola Uyá, Spain 2014). Silhouette animationA variant of cutout animation in which the characters are backlit and only visible as silhouettes. Examples include *The Adventures of Prince Achmed* (Weimar Republic, 1926) and *Princes et Princesses* (France, 2000). Model animationStop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of Ray Harryhausen, as seen in films, *Jason and the Argonauts* (1963), and the work of Willis H. O'Brien on films, *King Kong* (1933). Go motionA variant of model animation that uses various techniques to create motion blur between frames of film, which is not present in traditional stop motion. The technique was invented by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett to create special effect scenes for the film *Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back* (1980). Another example is the dragon named "Vermithrax" from the 1981 film *Dragonslayer*. Object animationThe use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items. Graphic animationUses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.), which are sometimes manipulated frame by frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action. BrickfilmA subgenre of object animation involving using Lego or other similar brick toys to make an animation. These have had a recent boost in popularity with the advent of video sharing sites, YouTube and the availability of cheap cameras and animation software. PixilationInvolves the use of live humans as stop-motion characters. This allows for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and other effects. Examples of pixilation include *The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb* and *Angry Kid* shorts, and the Academy Award-winning *Neighbours* by Norman McLaren. ### Computer **Computer animation** encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer. 2D animation techniques tend to focus on image manipulation while 3D techniques usually build virtual worlds in which characters and objects move and interact. 3D animation can create images that seem real to the viewer. #### 2D 2D animation figures are created or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics and 2D vector graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques, interpolated morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping. 2D animation has many applications, including analog computer animation, Flash animation, and PowerPoint animation. Cinemagraphs are still photographs in the form of an animated GIF file of which part is animated. Final line advection animation is a technique used in 2D animation, to give artists and animators more influence and control over the final product as everything is done within the same department. Speaking about using this approach in *Paperman*, John Kahrs said that "Our animators can change things, actually erase away the CG underlayer if they want, and change the profile of the arm." #### 3D 3D animation is digitally modeled and manipulated by an animator. The 3D model maker usually starts by creating a 3D polygon mesh for the animator to manipulate. A mesh typically includes many vertices that are connected by edges and faces, which give the visual appearance of form to a 3D object or 3D environment. Sometimes, the mesh is given an internal digital skeletal structure called an armature that can be used to control the mesh by weighting the vertices. This process is called rigging and can be used in conjunction with key frames to create movement. Other techniques can be applied, mathematical functions (e.g., gravity, particle simulations), simulated fur or hair, and effects, fire and water simulations. These techniques fall under the category of 3D dynamics. ##### Terms * **Cel-shaded animation** is used to mimic traditional animation using computer software. The shading looks stark, with less blending of colors. Examples include *Skyland* (2007, France), *The Iron Giant* (1999, United States), *Futurama* (1999, United States) *Appleseed Ex Machina* (2007, Japan), *The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker* (2002, Japan), *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* (2017, Japan) * **Machinima** – Films created by screen capturing in video games and virtual worlds. The term originated from the software introduction in the 1980s demoscene, as well as the 1990s recordings of the first-person shooter video game *Quake*. * **Motion capture** is used when live-action actors wear special suits that allow computers to copy their movements into CG characters. Examples include *Polar Express* (2004, US), *Beowulf* (2007, US), *A Christmas Carol* (2009, US), *The Adventures of Tintin* (2011, US) *kochadiiyan* (2014, India) * **Computer animation** is used primarily for animation that attempts to resemble real life, using advanced rendering that mimics in detail skin, plants, water, fire, clouds, etc. Examples include *Up* (2009, US), *How to Train Your Dragon* (2010, US) * **Physically based animation** is animation using computer simulations. ### Mechanical * **Animatronics** is the use of mechatronics to create machines that seem animate rather than robotic. + **Audio-Animatronics and Autonomatronics** is a form of robotics animation, combined with 3-D animation, created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks move and make noise (generally a recorded speech or song). They are fixed to whatever supports them. They can sit and stand, and they cannot walk. An Audio-Animatron is different from an android-type robot in that it uses prerecorded movements and sounds, rather than responding to external stimuli. In 2009, Disney created an interactive version of the technology called Autonomatronics. + **Linear Animation Generator** is a form of animation by using static picture frames installed in a tunnel or a shaft. The animation illusion is created by putting the viewer in a linear motion, parallel to the installed picture frames. The concept and the technical solution were invented in 2007 by Mihai Girlovan in Romania. * **Chuckimation** is a type of animation created by the makers of the television series *Action League Now!* in which characters/props are thrown, or chucked from off camera or wiggled around to simulate talking by unseen hands. * The **magic lantern** used mechanical slides to project moving images, probably since Christiaan Huygens invented this early image projector in 1659. ### Other * **Hydrotechnics**: a technique that includes lights, water, fire, fog, and lasers, with high-definition projections on mist screens. * **Drawn on film animation**: a technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock; for example, by Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage. * **Paint-on-glass animation**: a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying oil paints on sheets of glass, for example by Aleksandr Petrov. * **Erasure animation**: a technique using traditional 2D media, photographed over time as the artist manipulates the image. For example, William Kentridge is famous for his charcoal erasure films, and Piotr Dumała for his auteur technique of animating scratches on plaster. * **Pinscreen animation**: makes use of a screen filled with movable pins that can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation. * **Sand animation**: sand is moved around on a back- or front-lighted piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast. * **Flip book**: a flip book (sometimes, especially in British English, called a flick book) is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, they also are geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, they appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books. * **Character animation** * **Multi-sketching** * **Special effects animation** See also -------- * Twelve basic principles of animation * Animated war film * Animation department * Animated series * Architectural animation * Avar * Independent animation * International Animation Day * International Animated Film Association * International Tournée of Animation * List of film-related topics * Motion graphic design * Society for Animation Studies * Wire-frame model References ---------- ### Sources #### Journal articles * Anderson, Joseph and Barbara (Spring 1993). "Journal of Film and Video". *The Myth of Persistence of Vision Revisited*. **45** (1): 3–13. Archived from the original on 24 November 2009. * Serenko, Alexander (2007). "Computers in Human Behavior" (PDF). *The Development of an Instrument to Measure the Degree of Animation Predisposition of Agent Users*. **23** (1): 478–95. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2013. #### Books * Baer, Eva (1983). *Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art*. State University of New York Press. pp. 58, 86, 143, 151, 176, 201, 226, 243, 292, 304. ISBN 978-0-87395-602-4. * Beck, Jerry (2004). *Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, the History of Cartoon, Anime & CGI*. Fulhamm London: Flame Tree Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84451-140-2. * Beckerman, Howard (2003). *Animation: The Whole Story*. Allworth Press. ISBN 978-1-58115-301-9. * Bendazzi, Giannalberto (1994). *Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation*. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20937-5. * Buchan, Suzanne (2013). *Pervasive Animation*. New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-80723-4. * Canemaker, John (2005). *Winsor McCay: His Life and Art* (Revised ed.). Abrams Books. ISBN 978-0-8109-5941-5. * Cotte, Olivier (2007). *Secrets of Oscar-winning Animation: Behind the scenes of 13 classic short animations*. Focal Press. ISBN 978-0240520704. * Crafton, Donald (1993). *Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898–1928*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-11667-9. * Culhane, Shamus (1990). *Animation: Script to Screen*. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-05052-8. * Drazin, Charles (2011). *The Faber Book of French Cinema*. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21849-3. * Faber, Liz; Walters, Helen (2004). *Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940*. London: Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85669-346-2. * Finkielman, Jorge (2004). *The Film Industry in Argentina: An Illustrated Cultural History*. North Carolina: McFarland. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7864-1628-8. * Furniss, Maureen (1998). *Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics*. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-1-86462-039-9. * Godfrey, Bob; Jackson, Anna (1974). *The Do-It-Yourself Film Animation Book*. BBC Publications. ISBN 978-0-563-10829-0. * Harryhausen, Ray; Dalton, Tony (2008). *A Century of Model Animation: From Méliès to Aardman*. Aurum Press. ISBN 978-0-8230-9980-1. * Herman, Sarah (2014). *Brick Flicks: A Comprehensive Guide to Making Your Own Stop-Motion LEGO Movies*. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62914-649-2. * Lawson, Tim; Persons, Alisa (2004). *The Magic Behind the Voices* [*A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors*]. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-696-4. * Laybourne, Kit (1998). *The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking – from Flip-books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation*. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-517-88602-1. * Ledoux, Trish (1997). *Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory and Resource Guide*. Tiger Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-9649542-5-0. * Lowe, Richard; Schnotz, Wolfgang, eds. (2008). *Learning with Animation. Research implications for design*. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85189-3. * Masson, Terrence (2007). *CG101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference*. Unique and personal histories of early computer animation production, plus a comprehensive foundation of the industry for all reading levels. Williamstown, MA: Digital Fauxtography. ISBN 978-0-9778710-0-1. * Needham, Joseph (1962). "Science and Civilization in China". *Physics and Physical Technology*. Vol. IV. Cambridge University Press. * Neupert, Richard (2011). *French Animation History*. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3836-2. * Parent, Rick (2007). *Computer Animation: Algorithms & Techniques*. Ohio State University: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0-12-532000-9. * Paul, Joshua (2005). *Digital Video Hacks*. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0-596-00946-5. * Pilling, Jayne (1997). Society of Animation Studies (ed.). *A Reader in Animation Studies*. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-1-86462-000-9. * Priebe, Ken A. (2006). *The Art of Stop-Motion Animation*. Thompson Course Technology. ISBN 978-1-59863-244-6. * Rojas, Carlos; Chow, Eileen (2013). *The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-998844-0. * Sammond, Nicholas (27 August 2015). *Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation*. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. doi:10.1515/9780822375784. ISBN 9780822358527. OCLC 8605897837. * Sito, Tom (2013). *Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation*. Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01909-5. * Solomon, Charles (1989). *Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation*. New York: Random House, Inc. 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Retrieved 19 February 2016. * Ball, Ryan (12 March 2008). "Oldest Animation Discovered in Iran". *Animation Magazine*. Retrieved 15 March 2016. * Beck, Jerry (2 July 2012). "A Little More About Disney's "Paperman"". Cartoon Brew. * Bendazzi, Giannalberto (1996). "The Untold Story of Argentina's Pioneer Animator". Animation World Network. Retrieved 29 April 2016. * "Animation" (PDF). *boi.gov.ph*. Board of Investments. November 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012. * Brown, Margery (2003). "Experimental Animation Techniques" (PDF). Olympia, WA: Evergreen State Collage. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2005. * Carbone, Ken (24 February 2010). "Stone-Age Animation in a Digital World: William Kentridge at MoMA". *Fast Company*. Retrieved 7 March 2016. * Kenyon, Heather (1 February 1998). "How'd They Do That?: Stop-Motion Secrets Revealed". Animation World Network. 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Animation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

**Ionization** (or **ionisation**) is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule is called an ion. Ionization can result from the loss of an electron after collisions with subatomic particles, collisions with other atoms, molecules and ions, or through the interaction with electromagnetic radiation. Heterolytic bond cleavage and heterolytic substitution reactions can result in the formation of ion pairs. Ionization can occur through radioactive decay by the internal conversion process, in which an excited nucleus transfers its energy to one of the inner-shell electrons causing it to be ejected. Uses ---- Everyday examples of gas ionization are such as within a fluorescent lamp or other electrical discharge lamps. It is also used in radiation detectors such as the Geiger-Müller counter or the ionization chamber. The ionization process is widely used in a variety of equipment in fundamental science (e.g., mass spectrometry) and in industry (e.g., radiation therapy). Production of ions ------------------ Negatively charged ions are produced when a free electron collides with an atom and is subsequently trapped inside the electric potential barrier, releasing any excess energy. The process is known as electron capture ionization. Positively charged ions are produced by transferring an amount of energy to a bound electron in a collision with charged particles (e.g. ions, electrons or positrons) or with photons. The threshold amount of the required energy is known as ionization potential. The study of such collisions is of fundamental importance with regard to the few-body problem, which is one of the major unsolved problems in physics. Kinematically complete experiments, i.e. experiments in which the complete momentum vector of all collision fragments (the scattered projectile, the recoiling target-ion, and the ejected electron) are determined, have contributed to major advances in the theoretical understanding of the few-body problem in recent years. ### Adiabatic ionization Adiabatic ionization is a form of ionization in which an electron is removed from or added to an atom or molecule in its lowest energy state to form an ion in its lowest energy state. The Townsend discharge is a good example of the creation of positive ions and free electrons due to ion impact. It is a cascade reaction involving electrons in a region with a sufficiently high electric field in a gaseous medium that can be ionized, such as air. Following an original ionization event, due to such as ionizing radiation, the positive ion drifts towards the cathode, while the free electron drifts towards the anode of the device. If the electric field is strong enough, the free electron gains sufficient energy to liberate a further electron when it next collides with another molecule. The two free electrons then travel towards the anode and gain sufficient energy from the electric field to cause impact ionization when the next collisions occur; and so on. This is effectively a chain reaction of electron generation, and is dependent on the free electrons gaining sufficient energy between collisions to sustain the avalanche. Ionization efficiency is the ratio of the number of ions formed to the number of electrons or photons used. Ionization energy of atoms -------------------------- The trend in the ionization energy of atoms is often used to demonstrate the periodic behavior of atoms with respect to the atomic number, as summarized by ordering atoms in Mendeleev's table. This is a valuable tool for establishing and understanding the ordering of electrons in atomic orbitals without going into the details of wave functions or the ionization process. An example is presented in the figure at right. The periodic abrupt decrease in ionization potential after rare gas atoms, for instance, indicates the emergence of a new shell in alkali metals. In addition, the local maximums in the ionization energy plot, moving from left to right in a row, are indicative of s, p, d, and f sub-shells. Semi-classical description of ionization ---------------------------------------- Classical physics and the Bohr model of the atom can qualitatively explain photoionization and collision-mediated ionization. In these cases, during the ionization process, the energy of the electron exceeds the energy difference of the potential barrier it is trying to pass. The semi-classical description, however, cannot describe tunnel ionization since the process involves the passage of electron through a classically forbidden potential barrier. Quantum mechanical description of ionization -------------------------------------------- The interaction of atoms and molecules with sufficiently strong laser pulses leads to the ionization to singly or multiply charged ions. The ionization rate, i.e. the ionization probability in unit time, can only be calculated using quantum mechanics. In general, the analytic solutions are not available, and the approximations required for manageable numerical calculations do not provide accurate enough results. However, when the laser intensity is sufficiently high, the detailed structure of the atom or molecule can be ignored and analytic solution for the ionization rate is possible. ### Tunnel ionization Tunnel ionization is ionization due to quantum tunneling. In classical ionization, an electron must have enough energy to make it over the potential barrier, but quantum tunneling allows the electron simply to go through the potential barrier instead of going all the way over it because of the wave nature of the electron. The probability of an electron's tunneling through the barrier drops off exponentially with the width of the potential barrier. Therefore, an electron with a higher energy can make it further up the potential barrier, leaving a much thinner barrier to tunnel through and, thus, a greater chance to do so. In practice, tunnel ionization is observable when the atom or molecule is interacting with near-infrared strong laser pulses. This process can be understood as a process by which a bounded electron, through the absorption of more than one photon from the laser field, is ionized. This picture is generally known as multiphoton ionization (MPI). Keldysh modeled the MPI process as a transition of the electron from the ground state of the atom to the Volkov states. In this model the perturbation of the ground state by the laser field is neglected and the details of atomic structure in determining the ionization probability are not taken into account. The major difficulty with Keldysh's model was its neglect of the effects of Coulomb interaction on the final state of the electron. As it is observed from figure, the Coulomb field is not very small in magnitude compared to the potential of the laser at larger distances from the nucleus. This is in contrast to the approximation made by neglecting the potential of the laser at regions near the nucleus. Perelomov et al. included the Coulomb interaction at larger internuclear distances. Their model (which we call PPT model) was derived for short range potential and includes the effect of the long range Coulomb interaction through the first order correction in the quasi-classical action. Larochelle et al. have compared the theoretically predicted ion versus intensity curves of rare gas atoms interacting with a Ti:Sapphire laser with experimental measurement. They have shown that the total ionization rate predicted by the PPT model fit very well the experimental ion yields for all rare gases in the intermediate regime of Keldysh parameter. The rate of MPI on atom with an ionization potential E i {\displaystyle E\_{i}} E_i in a linearly polarized laser with frequency ω {\displaystyle \omega } \omega is given by W P P T = | C n ∗ l ∗ | 2 6 π f l m E i ( 2 F ( 2 E i ) 3 2 ) 2 n ∗ − | m | − 3 2 ( 1 + γ 2 ) | m 2 | + 3 4 A m ( ω , γ ) e − 2 F ( 2 E i ) 3 2 g ( γ ) {\displaystyle W\_{PPT}=\left|C\_{n^{\*}l^{\*}}\right|^{2}{\sqrt {\frac {6}{\pi }}}f\_{lm}E\_{i}\left({\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E\_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}\right)^{2n^{\*}-|m|-{\frac {3}{2}}}\left(1+\gamma ^{2}\right)^{\left|{\frac {m}{2}}\right|+{\frac {3}{4}}}A\_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )e^{-{\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E\_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}g\left(\gamma \right)}} {\displaystyle W_{PPT}=\left|C_{n^{*}l^{*}}\right|^{2}{\sqrt {\frac {6}{\pi }}}f_{lm}E_{i}\left({\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}\right)^{2n^{*}-|m|-{\frac {3}{2}}}\left(1+\gamma ^{2}\right)^{\left|{\frac {m}{2}}\right|+{\frac {3}{4}}}A_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )e^{-{\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}g\left(\gamma \right)}} where * γ = ω 2 E i F {\displaystyle \gamma ={\frac {\omega {\sqrt {2E\_{i}}}}{F}}} {\displaystyle \gamma ={\frac {\omega {\sqrt {2E_{i}}}}{F}}} is the Keldysh's adiabaticity parameter, * n ∗ = 2 E i Z 2 {\displaystyle n^{\*}={\frac {\sqrt {2E\_{i}}}{Z^{2}}}} {\displaystyle n^{*}={\frac {\sqrt {2E_{i}}}{Z^{2}}}}, * F {\displaystyle F} F is the peak electric field of laser and * l ∗ = n ∗ − 1 {\displaystyle l^{\*}=n^{\*}-1} {\displaystyle l^{*}=n^{*}-1}. The coefficients f l m {\displaystyle f\_{lm}} f_{{lm}}, g ( γ ) {\displaystyle g(\gamma )} g(\gamma ) and C n ∗ l ∗ {\displaystyle C\_{n^{\*}l^{\*}}} {\displaystyle C_{n^{*}l^{*}}} are given by f l m = ( 2 l + 1 ) ( l + | m | ) ! 2 m | m | ! ( l − | m | ) ! g ( γ ) = 3 2 γ ( 1 + 1 2 γ 2 sinh − 1 ⁡ ( γ ) − 1 + γ 2 2 γ ) | C n ∗ l ∗ | 2 = 2 2 n ∗ n ∗ Γ ( n ∗ + l ∗ + 1 ) Γ ( n ∗ − l ∗ ) {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}f\_{lm}&={\frac {(2l+1)(l+|m|)!}{2^{m}|m|!(l-|m|)!}}\\g(\gamma )&={\frac {3}{2\gamma }}\left(1+{\frac {1}{2\gamma ^{2}}}\sinh ^{-1}(\gamma )-{\frac {\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}{2\gamma }}\right)\\|C\_{n^{\*}l^{\*}}|^{2}&={\frac {2^{2n^{\*}}}{n^{\*}\Gamma (n^{\*}+l^{\*}+1)\Gamma (n^{\*}-l^{\*})}}\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}f_{lm}&={\frac {(2l+1)(l+|m|)!}{2^{m}|m|!(l-|m|)!}}\\g(\gamma )&={\frac {3}{2\gamma }}\left(1+{\frac {1}{2\gamma ^{2}}}\sinh ^{-1}(\gamma )-{\frac {\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}{2\gamma }}\right)\\|C_{n^{*}l^{*}}|^{2}&={\frac {2^{2n^{*}}}{n^{*}\Gamma (n^{*}+l^{*}+1)\Gamma (n^{*}-l^{*})}}\end{aligned}}} The coefficient A m ( ω , γ ) {\displaystyle A\_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )} {\displaystyle A_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )} is given by A m ( ω , γ ) = 4 3 π 1 | m | ! γ 2 1 + γ 2 ∑ n > v ∞ e − ( n − v ) α ( γ ) w m ( 2 γ 1 + γ 2 ( n − v ) ) {\displaystyle A\_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )={\frac {4}{3\pi }}{\frac {1}{|m|!}}{\frac {\gamma ^{2}}{1+\gamma ^{2}}}\sum \_{n>v}^{\infty }e^{-(n-v)\alpha (\gamma )}w\_{m}\left({\sqrt {{\frac {2\gamma }{\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}}(n-v)}}\right)} {\displaystyle A_{m}(\omega ,\gamma )={\frac {4}{3\pi }}{\frac {1}{|m|!}}{\frac {\gamma ^{2}}{1+\gamma ^{2}}}\sum _{n>v}^{\infty }e^{-(n-v)\alpha (\gamma )}w_{m}\left({\sqrt {{\frac {2\gamma }{\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}}(n-v)}}\right)} where w m ( x ) = e − x 2 ∫ 0 x ( x 2 − y 2 ) m e y 2 d y α ( γ ) = 2 ( sinh − 1 ⁡ ( γ ) − γ 1 + γ 2 ) v = E i ω ( 1 + 2 γ 2 ) {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}w\_{m}(x)&=e^{-x^{2}}\int \_{0}^{x}(x^{2}-y^{2})^{m}e^{y^{2}}\,dy\\\alpha (\gamma )&=2\left(\sinh ^{-1}(\gamma )-{\frac {\gamma }{\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}}\right)\\v&={\frac {E\_{i}}{\omega }}\left(1+{\frac {2}{\gamma ^{2}}}\right)\end{aligned}}} {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}w_{m}(x)&=e^{-x^{2}}\int _{0}^{x}(x^{2}-y^{2})^{m}e^{y^{2}}\,dy\\\alpha (\gamma )&=2\left(\sinh ^{-1}(\gamma )-{\frac {\gamma }{\sqrt {1+\gamma ^{2}}}}\right)\\v&={\frac {E_{i}}{\omega }}\left(1+{\frac {2}{\gamma ^{2}}}\right)\end{aligned}}} #### Quasi-static tunnel ionization The quasi-static tunnelling (QST) is the ionization whose rate can be satisfactorily predicted by the ADK model, i.e. the limit of the PPT model when γ {\displaystyle \gamma } \gamma approaches zero. The rate of QST is given by W A D K = | C n ∗ l ∗ | 2 6 π f l m E i ( 2 F ( 2 E i ) 3 2 ) 2 n ∗ − | m | − 3 2 e − 2 3 F ( 2 E i ) 3 2 {\displaystyle W\_{ADK}=\left|C\_{n^{\*}l^{\*}}\right|^{2}{\sqrt {\frac {6}{\pi }}}f\_{lm}E\_{i}\left({\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E\_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}\right)^{2n^{\*}-|m|-{\frac {3}{2}}}e^{-{\frac {2}{3F}}\left(2E\_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}}} {\displaystyle W_{ADK}=\left|C_{n^{*}l^{*}}\right|^{2}{\sqrt {\frac {6}{\pi }}}f_{lm}E_{i}\left({\frac {2}{F}}\left(2E_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}\right)^{2n^{*}-|m|-{\frac {3}{2}}}e^{-{\frac {2}{3F}}\left(2E_{i}\right)^{\frac {3}{2}}}} As compared to W P P T {\displaystyle W\_{PPT}} {\displaystyle W_{PPT}} the absence of summation over n, which represent different above threshold ionization (ATI) peaks, is remarkable. Strong field approximation for the ionization rate -------------------------------------------------- The calculations of PPT are done in the **E**-gauge, meaning that the laser field is taken as electromagnetic waves. The ionization rate can also be calculated in **A**-gauge, which emphasizes the particle nature of light (absorbing multiple photons during ionization). This approach was adopted by Krainov model based on the earlier works of Faisal and Reiss. The resulting rate is given by W K R A = ∑ n = N ∞ 2 π ω 2 p ( n − n o s c ) 2 ∫ d Ω | F T ( I K A R Ψ ( r ) ) | 2 J n 2 ( n f , n o s c 2 ) {\displaystyle W\_{KRA}=\sum \_{n=N}^{\infty }2\pi \omega ^{2}p\left(n-n\_{\mathrm {osc} }\right)^{2}\int \mathrm {d} \Omega \left|FT\left(I\_{KAR}\Psi \left(\mathbf {r} \right)\right)\right|^{2}J\_{n}^{2}\left(n\_{f},{\frac {n\_{\mathrm {osc} }}{2}}\right)} {\displaystyle W_{KRA}=\sum _{n=N}^{\infty }2\pi \omega ^{2}p\left(n-n_{\mathrm {osc} }\right)^{2}\int \mathrm {d} \Omega \left|FT\left(I_{KAR}\Psi \left(\mathbf {r} \right)\right)\right|^{2}J_{n}^{2}\left(n_{f},{\frac {n_{\mathrm {osc} }}{2}}\right)} where: * n i = E i / ω , {\displaystyle n\_{i}=E\_{i}/\omega ,} {\displaystyle n_{i}=E_{i}/\omega ,} * n o s c = U p / ω {\displaystyle n\_{\mathrm {osc} }=U\_{p}/\omega } {\displaystyle n_{\mathrm {osc} }=U_{p}/\omega } with U p {\displaystyle U\_{p}} U_{p} being the ponderomotive energy, * N = [ n i + n o s c ] {\displaystyle N=[n\_{i}+n\_{\mathrm {osc} }]} {\displaystyle N=[n_{i}+n_{\mathrm {osc} }]} is the minimum number of photons necessary to ionize the atom, * J n ( u , v ) {\displaystyle J\_{n}(u,v)} {\displaystyle J_{n}(u,v)} is the double Bessel function, * p = 2 ω ( n − n o s c − n i ) , {\displaystyle p={\sqrt {2\omega (n-n\_{\mathrm {osc} }-n\_{i})}},} {\displaystyle p={\sqrt {2\omega (n-n_{\mathrm {osc} }-n_{i})}},} * n f = 2 n o s c / ω p cos ⁡ ( θ ) {\textstyle n\_{f}=2{\sqrt {n\_{\mathrm {osc} }/\omega }}p\cos(\theta )} {\textstyle n_{f}=2{\sqrt {n_{\mathrm {osc} }/\omega }}p\cos(\theta )} with θ {\displaystyle \theta } \theta the angle between the momentum of the electron, **p**, and the electric field of the laser, **F**, * *FT* is the three-dimensional Fourier transform, and * I K A R = ( 2 Z 2 n 2 F r ) n {\displaystyle I\_{KAR}=\left({\frac {2Z^{2}}{n^{2}Fr}}\right)^{n}} {\displaystyle I_{KAR}=\left({\frac {2Z^{2}}{n^{2}Fr}}\right)^{n}} incorporates the Coulomb correction in the SFA model. ### Atomic stabilization/population trapping In calculating the rate of MPI of atoms only transitions to the continuum states are considered. Such an approximation is acceptable as long as there is no multiphoton resonance between the ground state and some excited states. However, in real situation of interaction with pulsed lasers, during the evolution of laser intensity, due to different Stark shift of the ground and excited states there is a possibility that some excited state go into multiphoton resonance with the ground state. Within the dressed atom picture, the ground state dressed by m {\displaystyle m} m photons and the resonant state undergo an avoided crossing at the resonance intensity I r {\displaystyle I\_{r}} I_r. The minimum distance, V m {\displaystyle V\_{m}} V_{m}, at the avoided crossing is proportional to the generalized Rabi frequency, Γ ( t ) = Γ m I ( t ) m / 2 {\displaystyle \Gamma (t)=\Gamma \_{m}I(t)^{m/2}} {\displaystyle \Gamma (t)=\Gamma _{m}I(t)^{m/2}} coupling the two states. According to Story et al., the probability of remaining in the ground state, P g {\displaystyle P\_{g}} P_g, is given by P g = exp ⁡ ( − 2 π W m 2 d W / d t ) {\displaystyle P\_{g}=\exp \left(-{\frac {2\pi W\_{m}^{2}}{\mathrm {d} W/\mathrm {d} t}}\right)} {\displaystyle P_{g}=\exp \left(-{\frac {2\pi W_{m}^{2}}{\mathrm {d} W/\mathrm {d} t}}\right)} where W {\displaystyle W} W is the time-dependent energy difference between the two dressed states. In interaction with a short pulse, if the dynamic resonance is reached in the rising or the falling part of the pulse, the population practically remains in the ground state and the effect of multiphoton resonances may be neglected. However, if the states go onto resonance at the peak of the pulse, where d W / d t = 0 {\displaystyle \mathrm {d} W/\mathrm {d} t=0} {\displaystyle \mathrm {d} W/\mathrm {d} t=0}, then the excited state is populated. After being populated, since the ionization potential of the excited state is small, it is expected that the electron will be instantly ionized. In 1992, de Boer and Muller showed that Xe atoms subjected to short laser pulses could survive in the highly excited states 4f, 5f, and 6f. These states were believed to have been excited by the dynamic Stark shift of the levels into multiphoton resonance with the field during the rising part of the laser pulse. Subsequent evolution of the laser pulse did not ionize completely these states leaving behind some highly excited atoms. We shall refer to this phenomenon as "population trapping". We mention the theoretical calculation that incomplete ionization occurs whenever there is parallel resonant excitation into a common level with ionization loss. We consider a state such as 6f of Xe which consists of 7 quasi-degnerate levels in the range of the laser bandwidth. These levels along with the continuum constitute a lambda system. The mechanism of the lambda type trapping is schematically presented in figure. At the rising part of the pulse (a) the excited state (with two degenerate levels 1 and 2) are not in multiphoton resonance with the ground state. The electron is ionized through multiphoton coupling with the continuum. As the intensity of the pulse is increased the excited state and the continuum are shifted in energy due to the Stark shift. At the peak of the pulse (b) the excited states go into multiphoton resonance with the ground state. As the intensity starts to decrease (c), the two state are coupled through continuum and the population is trapped in a coherent superposition of the two states. Under subsequent action of the same pulse, due to interference in the transition amplitudes of the lambda system, the field cannot ionize the population completely and a fraction of the population will be trapped in a coherent superposition of the quasi degenerate levels. According to this explanation the states with higher angular momentum- with more sublevels- would have a higher probability of trapping the population. In general the strength of the trapping will be determined by the strength of the two photon coupling between the quasi-degenerate levels via the continuum. In 1996, using the very stable laser and by minimizing the masking effects of the focal region expansion with increasing intensity, Talebpour et al. observed structures on the curves of singly charged ions of Xe, Kr and Ar. These structures were attributed to electron trapping in the strong laser field. A more unambiguous demonstration of population trapping has been reported by T. Morishita and C. D. Lin. ### Non-sequential multiple ionization The phenomenon of non-sequential ionization (NSI) of atoms exposed to intense laser fields has been a subject of many theoretical and experimental studies since 1983. The pioneering work began with the observation of a "knee" structure on the Xe2+ ion signal versus intensity curve by L’Huillier et al. From the experimental point of view, the NS double ionization refers to processes which somehow enhance the rate of production of doubly charged ions by a huge factor at intensities below the saturation intensity of the singly charged ion. Many, on the other hand, prefer to define the NSI as a process by which two electrons are ionized nearly simultaneously. This definition implies that apart from the sequential channel A + L − > A + + L − > A + + {\displaystyle A+L->A^{+}+L->A^{++}} A+L->A^{+}+L->A^{{++}} there is another channel A + L − > A + + {\displaystyle A+L->A^{++}} A+L->A^{{++}} which is the main contribution to the production of doubly charged ions at lower intensities. The first observation of triple NSI in argon interacting with a 1 µm laser was reported by Augst et al. Later, systematically studying the NSI of all rare gas atoms, the quadruple NSI of Xe was observed. The most important conclusion of this study was the observation of the following relation between the rate of NSI to any charge state and the rate of tunnel ionization (predicted by the ADK formula) to the previous charge states; W N S ( A n + ) = ∑ i = 1 n − 1 α n ( λ ) W A D K ( A i + ) {\displaystyle W\_{NS}(A^{n+})=\sum \_{i=1}^{n-1}\alpha \_{n}\left(\lambda \right)W\_{ADK}\left(A^{i+}\right)} {\displaystyle W_{NS}(A^{n+})=\sum _{i=1}^{n-1}\alpha _{n}\left(\lambda \right)W_{ADK}\left(A^{i+}\right)} where W A D K ( A i + ) {\displaystyle W\_{ADK}\left(A^{i+}\right)} {\displaystyle W_{ADK}\left(A^{i+}\right)} is the rate of quasi-static tunneling to i'th charge state and α n ( λ ) {\displaystyle \alpha \_{n}(\lambda )} \alpha _{n}(\lambda ) are some constants depending on the wavelength of the laser (but not on the pulse duration). Two models have been proposed to explain the non-sequential ionization; the shake-off model and electron re-scattering model. The shake-off (SO) model, first proposed by Fittinghoff et al., is adopted from the field of ionization of atoms by X rays and electron projectiles where the SO process is one of the major mechanisms responsible for the multiple ionization of atoms. The SO model describes the NS process as a mechanism where one electron is ionized by the laser field and the departure of this electron is so rapid that the remaining electrons do not have enough time to adjust themselves to the new energy states. Therefore, there is a certain probability that, after the ionization of the first electron, a second electron is excited to states with higher energy (shake-up) or even ionized (shake-off). We should mention that, until now, there has been no quantitative calculation based on the SO model, and the model is still qualitative. The electron rescattering model was independently developed by Kuchiev, Schafer *et al*, Corkum, Becker and Faisal and Faisal and Becker. The principal features of the model can be understood easily from Corkum's version. Corkum's model describes the NS ionization as a process whereby an electron is tunnel ionized. The electron then interacts with the laser field where it is accelerated away from the nuclear core. If the electron has been ionized at an appropriate phase of the field, it will pass by the position of the remaining ion half a cycle later, where it can free an additional electron by electron impact. Only half of the time the electron is released with the appropriate phase and the other half it never return to the nuclear core. The maximum kinetic energy that the returning electron can have is 3.17 times the ponderomotive potential ( U p {\displaystyle U\_{p}} U_{p}) of the laser. Corkum's model places a cut-off limit on the minimum intensity ( U p {\displaystyle U\_{p}} U_{p} is proportional to intensity) where ionization due to re-scattering can occur. The re-scattering model in Kuchiev's version (Kuchiev's model) is quantum mechanical. The basic idea of the model is illustrated by Feynman diagrams in figure a. First both electrons are in the ground state of an atom. The lines marked a and b describe the corresponding atomic states. Then the electron a is ionized. The beginning of the ionization process is shown by the intersection with a sloped dashed line. where the MPI occurs. The propagation of the ionized electron in the laser field, during which it absorbs other photons (ATI), is shown by the full thick line. The collision of this electron with the parent atomic ion is shown by a vertical dotted line representing the Coulomb interaction between the electrons. The state marked with c describes the ion excitation to a discrete or continuum state. Figure b describes the exchange process. Kuchiev's model, contrary to Corkum's model, does not predict any threshold intensity for the occurrence of NS ionization. Kuciev did not include the Coulomb effects on the dynamics of the ionized electron. This resulted in the underestimation of the double ionization rate by a huge factor. Obviously, in the approach of Becker and Faisal (which is equivalent to Kuchiev's model in spirit), this drawback does not exist. In fact, their model is more exact and does not suffer from the large number of approximations made by Kuchiev. Their calculation results perfectly fit with the experimental results of Walker et al. Becker and Faisal have been able to fit the experimental results on the multiple NSI of rare gas atoms using their model. As a result, the electron re-scattering can be taken as the main mechanism for the occurrence of the NSI process. ### Multiphoton ionization of inner-valence electrons and fragmentation of polyatomic molecules The ionization of inner valence electrons are responsible for the fragmentation of polyatomic molecules in strong laser fields. According to a qualitative model the dissociation of the molecules occurs through a three-step mechanism: * MPI of electrons from the inner orbitals of the molecule which results in a molecular ion in ro-vibrational levels of an excited electronic state; * Rapid radiationless transition to the high-lying ro-vibrational levels of a lower electronic state; and * Subsequent dissociation of the ion to different fragments through various fragmentation channels. The short pulse induced molecular fragmentation may be used as an ion source for high performance mass spectroscopy. The selectivity provided by a short pulse based source is superior to that expected when using the conventional electron ionization based sources, in particular when the identification of optical isomers is required. Kramers-Henneberger frame and ionization phase effects ------------------------------------------------------ Studying the strong field ionization of the atom in so called Kramers-Henneberger (K-H) frame leads to the conclusion that the ionization efficiency strongly depends on the temporal details of the ionizing pulse but not necessarily on the field strength and the total energy of the ionizing pulse pumped into the atom. The Kramers-Henneberger frame is the non-intertial frame moving with the free electron under the influence of the harmonic laser pulse. The free electron solution of the Newton equations for the electron in one dimension in the harmonic laser field d 2 x d t 2 = F sin ⁡ ( ω t ) {\displaystyle {\frac {\mathrm {d} ^{2}x}{\mathrm {d} t^{2}}}=F\sin(\omega t)} {\displaystyle {\frac {\mathrm {d} ^{2}x}{\mathrm {d} t^{2}}}=F\sin(\omega t)} will be also harmonic x ( t ) = − F ω 2 sin ⁡ ( ω t ) = − a sin ⁡ ( ω t ) {\displaystyle x(t)=-{\frac {F}{\omega ^{2}}}\sin(\omega t)=-a\sin(\omega t)} {\displaystyle x(t)=-{\frac {F}{\omega ^{2}}}\sin(\omega t)=-a\sin(\omega t)} The frame comoving with this electron will be obtained by the coordinate transformation x → x + a sin ⁡ ( ω t ) {\displaystyle x\to x+a\sin(\omega t)} {\displaystyle x\to x+a\sin(\omega t)} while the added Coulomb potential will be V ( x ) = − 1 | x + a sin ⁡ ( ω t ) | {\displaystyle V(x)=-{\frac {1}{\left|x+a\sin(\omega t)\right|}}} {\displaystyle V(x)=-{\frac {1}{\left|x+a\sin(\omega t)\right|}}} The full cycle time-average of that potential which is V A V = − 1 2 | x + a 2 | − 1 2 | x − a 2 | {\displaystyle V\_{AV}=-{\frac {1}{2\left|x+{\frac {a}{\sqrt {2}}}\right|}}-{\frac {1}{2\left|x-{\frac {a}{\sqrt {2}}}\right|}}} {\displaystyle V_{AV}=-{\frac {1}{2\left|x+{\frac {a}{\sqrt {2}}}\right|}}-{\frac {1}{2\left|x-{\frac {a}{\sqrt {2}}}\right|}}} will be the even function of x {\displaystyle x} x and therefore having the maximum at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} x=0 while for that initial condition the solution will be x ( t ) = 0 {\displaystyle x(t)=0} x(t)=0 in the K-H and it will be therefore identical to the free electron solution in the laboratory frame. The electron velocity on the other hand is phase shifted both to the field strength and to the electron position: d x d t = − F ω cos ⁡ ( ω t ) {\displaystyle {\frac {\mathrm {d} x}{\mathrm {d} t}}=-{\frac {F}{\omega }}\cos(\omega t)} {\displaystyle {\frac {\mathrm {d} x}{\mathrm {d} t}}=-{\frac {F}{\omega }}\cos(\omega t)} Therefore, considering the wavelet pulses and defining the ionization as the full escape from the line segment of the length 2r (or from the spherical region in three dimensions) the full ionization happens in the classical model after the time r / ( a ω ) {\displaystyle r/(a\omega )} r/(a\omega ) or no ionization at all depending if the harmonic field wavelet is cut at the zero minimum or the maximum velocity. Dissociation – distinction -------------------------- A substance may dissociate without necessarily producing ions. As an example, the molecules of table sugar dissociate in water (sugar is dissolved) but exist as intact neutral entities. Another subtle event is the dissociation of sodium chloride (table salt) into sodium and chlorine ions. Although it may seem as a case of ionization, in reality the ions already exist within the crystal lattice. When salt is dissociated, its constituent ions are simply surrounded by water molecules and their effects are visible (e.g. the solution becomes electrolytic). However, no transfer or displacement of electrons occurs. See also -------- * Above threshold ionization * Ionization chamber – Instrument for detecting gaseous ionization, used in ionizing radiation measurements * Ion source * Photoionization * Thermal ionization * Electron ionization * Chemical ionization * Townsend avalanche – The chain reaction of ionization occurring in a gas with an applied electric field Table ----- Phase transitions of matter ()| ToFrom | Solid | Liquid | Gas | Plasma | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Solid | | Melting | Sublimation | | | Liquid | Freezing | | Vaporization | | | Gas | Deposition | Condensation | | Ionization | | Plasma | | | Recombination | |

Ionization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionization

**This article contains special characters.** Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. **Athena** or **Athene**, often given the epithet **Pallas**, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear. From her origin as an Aegean palace goddess, Athena was closely associated with the city. She was known as *Polias* and *Poliouchos* (both derived from *polis*, meaning "city-state"), and her temples were usually located atop the fortified acropolis in the central part of the city. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numerous other temples and monuments. As the patron of craft and weaving, Athena was known as *Ergane*. She was also a warrior goddess, and was believed to lead soldiers into battle as *Athena Promachos*. Her main festival in Athens was the Panathenaia, which was celebrated during the month of Hekatombaion in midsummer and was the most important festival on the Athenian calendar. In Greek mythology, Athena was believed to have been born from the forehead of her father Zeus. In some versions of the story, Athena has no mother and is born from Zeus' forehead by parthenogenesis. In others, such as Hesiod's *Theogony*, Zeus swallows his consort Metis, who was pregnant with Athena; in this version, Athena is first born within Zeus and then escapes from his body through his forehead. In the founding myth of Athens, Athena bested Poseidon in a competition over patronage of the city by creating the first olive tree. She was known as *Athena Parthenos* "Athena the Virgin," but in one archaic Attic myth, the god Hephaestus tried and failed to rape her, resulting in Gaia giving birth to Erichthonius, an important Athenian founding hero. Athena was the patron goddess of heroic endeavor; she was believed to have aided the heroes Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, and Jason. Along with Aphrodite and Hera, Athena was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War. She plays an active role in the *Iliad*, in which she assists the Achaeans and, in the *Odyssey*, she is the divine counselor to Odysseus. In the later writings of the Roman poet Ovid, Athena was said to have competed against the mortal Arachne in a weaving competition, afterward transforming Arachne into the first spider; Ovid also describes how she transformed Medusa into a Gorgon after witnessing her being raped by Poseidon in her temple. Since the Renaissance, Athena has become an international symbol of wisdom, the arts, and classical learning. Western artists and allegorists have often used Athena as a symbol of freedom and democracy. Etymology --------- Athena is associated with the city of Athens. The name of the city in ancient Greek is Ἀθῆναι (*Athȇnai*), a plural toponym, designating the place where—according to myth—she presided over the *Athenai*, a sisterhood devoted to her worship. In ancient times, scholars argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena. Now scholars generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city; the ending -*ene* is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names. Testimonies from different cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city goddesses were worshipped in other cities and, like Athena, took their names from the cities where they were worshipped. For example, in Mycenae there was a goddess called Mykene, whose sisterhood was known as *Mykenai*, whereas at Thebes an analogous deity was called Thebe, and the city was known under the plural form *Thebai* (or Thebes, in English, where the 's' is the plural formation). The name *Athenai* is likely of Pre-Greek origin because it contains the presumably Pre-Greek morpheme *\*-ān-*. In his dialogue *Cratylus*, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–347 BC) gives some rather imaginative etymologies of Athena's name, based on the theories of the ancient Athenians and his etymological speculations: > That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer may, I think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. Most of these in their explanations of the poet, assert that he meant by Athena "mind" [νοῦς, *noũs*] and "intelligence" [διάνοια, *diánoia*], and the maker of names appears to have had a singular notion about her; and indeed calls her by a still higher title, "divine intelligence" [θεοῦ νόησις, *theoũ nóēsis*], as though he would say: This is she who has the mind of God [ἁ θεονόα, *a theonóa*]. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean "she who knows divine things" [τὰ θεῖα νοοῦσα, *ta theia noousa*] better than others. Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [εν έθει νόεσιν, *en éthei nóesin*], and therefore gave her the name Etheonoe; which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athena. > > — Plato, Cratylus *407b* Thus, Plato believed that Athena's name was derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, *Atheonóa*—which the later Greeks rationalised as from the deity's (θεός, *theós*) mind (νοῦς, *noũs*). The second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides attempted to derive natural symbols from the etymological roots of Athena's names to be *aether*, *air*, *earth*, and *moon*. Origins ------- Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household crafts and protected the king. A single Mycenaean Greek inscription 𐀀𐀲𐀙𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja appears at Knossos in the Linear B tablets from the Late Minoan II-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets"; these comprise the earliest Linear B archive anywhere. Although *Athana potnia* is often translated as "Mistress Athena", it could also mean "the *Potnia* of Athana", or *the Lady of Athens*. However, any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain. A sign series *a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja* appears in the still undeciphered corpus of Linear A tablets, written in the unclassified Minoan language. This could be connected with the Linear B Mycenaean expressions *a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja* and *di-u-ja* or *di-wi-ja* (*Diwia*, "of Zeus" or, possibly, related to a homonymous goddess), resulting in a translation "Athena of Zeus" or "divine Athena". Similarly, in the Greek mythology and epic tradition, Athena figures as a daughter of Zeus (Διός θυγάτηρ; *cfr.* Dyeus). However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to "*a-ta-nū-tī wa-ya*", quoted as SY Za 1 by Jan Best. Best translates the initial *a-ta-nū-tī*, which is recurrent in line beginnings, as "I have given". A Mycenean fresco depicts two women extending their hands towards a central figure, who is covered by an enormous figure-eight shield; this may depict the warrior-goddess with her *palladium*, or her palladium in an aniconic representation. In the "Procession Fresco" at Knossos, which was reconstructed by the Mycenaeans, two rows of figures carrying vessels seem to meet in front of a central figure, which is probably the Minoan precursor to Athena. The early twentieth-century scholar Martin Persson Nilsson argued that the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early representations of Athena. Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or a bird goddess in general. In the third book of the *Odyssey*, she takes the form of a sea-eagle. Proponents of this view argue that she dropped her prophylactic owl mask before she lost her wings. "Athena, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison remarks, "has completely shed her animal form, has reduced the shapes she once wore of snake and bird to attributes, but occasionally in black-figure vase-paintings she still appears with wings." It is generally agreed that the cult of Athena preserves some aspects of the Proto-Indo-European transfunctional goddess. The cult of Athena may have also been influenced by those of Near Eastern warrior goddesses such as the East Semitic Ishtar and the Ugaritic Anat, both of whom were often portrayed bearing arms. Classical scholar Charles Penglase notes that Athena resembles Inanna in her role as a "terrifying warrior goddess" and that both goddesses were closely linked with creation. Athena's birth from the head of Zeus may be derived from the earlier Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent into and return from the Underworld. Plato notes that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess known as Neith, whom he identifies with Athena. Neith was the ancient Egyptian goddess of war and hunting, who was also associated with weaving; her worship began during the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. In Greek mythology, Athena was reported to have visited mythological sites in North Africa, including Libya's Triton River and the Phlegraean plain. Based on these similarities, the Sinologist Martin Bernal created the "Black Athena" hypothesis, which claimed that Neith was brought to Greece from Egypt, along with "an enormous number of features of civilization and culture in the third and second millennia". The "Black Athena" hypothesis stirred up widespread controversy near the end of the twentieth century, but it has now been widely rejected by modern scholars. Epithets and attributes ----------------------- Cult statue of Athena with the face of the Carpegna type (late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD), from the Piazza dell'Emporio, RomeBust of the Velletri Pallas type, copy after a votive statue of Kresilas in Athens (c. 425 BC) Athena was known as *Atrytone* (Άτρυτώνη "the Unwearying"), *Parthenos* (Παρθένος "Virgin"), and *Promachos* (Πρόμαχος "she who fights in front"). The epithet *Polias* (Πολιάς "of the city"), refers to Athena's role as protectress of the city. The epithet *Ergane* (Εργάνη "the Industrious") pointed her out as the patron of craftsmen and artisans. Burkert notes that the Athenians sometimes simply called Athena "the Goddess", *hē theós* (ἡ θεός), certainly an ancient title. After serving as the judge at the trial of Orestes in which he was acquitted of having murdered his mother Clytemnestra, Athena won the epithet *Areia* (Αρεία). Some have described Athena, along with the goddesses Hestia and Artemis as being asexual, this is mainly supported by the fact that in the Homeric Hymns, 5, *To Aphrodite,* where Aphrodite is described as having "no power" over the three goddesses. Athena was sometimes given the epithet *Hippia* (Ἵππια "of the horses", "equestrian"), referring to her invention of the bit, bridle, chariot, and wagon. The Greek geographer Pausanias mentions in his *Guide to Greece* that the temple of Athena *Chalinitis* ("the bridler") in Corinth was located near the tomb of Medea's children. Other epithets include Ageleia, Itonia and *Aethyia*, under which she was worshiped in Megara. The word *aíthyia* (αἴθυια) signifies a "diver", also some diving bird species (possibly the shearwater) and figuratively, a "ship", so the name must reference Athena teaching the art of shipbuilding or navigation. In a temple at Phrixa in Elis, reportedly built by Clymenus, she was known as *Cydonia* (Κυδωνία). Pausanias wrote that at Buporthmus there was a sanctuary of Athena Promachorma (Προμαχόρμα), meaning *protector of the anchorage*. The Greek biographer Plutarch (AD 46–120) refers to an instance during the construction of the Propylaia of her being called *Athena Hygieia* (Ὑγίεια, i. e. personified "Health") after inspiring a physician to a successful course of treatment. At Athens there is the temple of Athena *Phratria*, as patron of a phratry, in the Ancient Agora of Athens. ### Pallas Athena Athena's epithet *Pallas* – her most renowned one – is derived either from πάλλω, meaning "to brandish [as a weapon]", or, more likely, from παλλακίς and related words, meaning "youth, young woman". On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she is the Pallas of Athens, *Pallas Athenaie*, just as Hera of Argos is *Here Argeie*." In later times, after the original meaning of the name had been forgotten, the Greeks invented myths to explain its origins, such as those reported by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus and the *Bibliotheca* of Pseudo-Apollodorus, which claim that *Pallas* was originally a separate entity, whom Athena had slain in combat. In one version of the myth, Pallas was the daughter of the sea-god Triton; she and Athena were childhood friends, but Athena accidentally killed her during a friendly sparring match. Distraught over what she had done, Athena took the name Pallas for herself as a sign of her grief. In another version of the story, Pallas was a Giant; Athena slew him during the Gigantomachy and flayed off his skin to make her cloak, which she wore as a victory trophy. In an alternative variation of the same myth, Pallas was instead Athena's father, who attempted to assault his own daughter, causing Athena to kill him and take his skin as a trophy. The *palladium* was a statue of Athena that was said to have stood in her temple on the Trojan Acropolis. Athena was said to have carved the statue herself in the likeness of her dead friend Pallas. The statue had special talisman-like properties and it was thought that, as long as it was in the city, Troy could never fall. When the Greeks captured Troy, Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, clung to the palladium for protection, but Ajax the Lesser violently tore her away from it and dragged her over to the other captives. Athena was infuriated by this violation of her protection. Although Agamemnon attempted to placate her anger with sacrifices, Athena sent a storm at Cape Kaphereos to destroy almost the entire Greek fleet and scatter all of the surviving ships across the Aegean. ### *Glaukopis* In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is **Glaukopis** (γλαυκῶπις), which usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes". The word is a combination of **glaukós** (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and **ṓps** (ὤψ, "eye, face"). The word **glaúx** (γλαύξ, "little owl") is from the same root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive eyes. Athena was associated with the owl from very early on; in archaic images, she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her hand. Through its association with Athena, the owl evolved into the national mascot of the Athenians and eventually became a symbol of wisdom. ### *Tritogeneia* In the *Iliad* (4.514), the *Odyssey* (3.378), the *Homeric Hymns*, and in Hesiod's *Theogony*, Athena is also given the curious epithet *Tritogeneia* (Τριτογένεια), whose significance remains unclear. It could mean various things, including "Triton-born", perhaps indicating that the homonymous sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths. One myth relates the foster father relationship of this Triton towards the half-orphan Athena, whom he raised alongside his own daughter Pallas. Kerényi suggests that "Tritogeneia did not mean that she came into the world on any particular river or lake, but that she was born of the water itself; for the name Triton seems to be associated with water generally." In Ovid's *Metamorphoses*, Athena is occasionally referred to as "Tritonia". Another possible meaning may be "triple-born" or "third-born", which may refer to a triad or to her status as the third daughter of Zeus or the fact she was born from Metis, Zeus, and herself; various legends list her as being the first child after Artemis and Apollo, though other legends identify her as Zeus' first child. Several scholars have suggested a connection to the Rigvedic god Trita, who was sometimes grouped in a body of three mythological poets. Michael Janda has connected the myth of Trita to the scene in the *Iliad* in which the "three brothers" Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide the world between them, receiving the "broad sky", the sea, and the underworld respectively. Janda further connects the myth of Athena being born of the head (i. e. the uppermost part) of Zeus, understanding *Trito-* (which perhaps originally meant "the third") as another word for "the sky". In Janda's analysis of Indo-European mythology, this heavenly sphere is also associated with the mythological body of water surrounding the inhabited world (*cfr.* Triton's mother, Amphitrite). Yet another possible meaning is mentioned in Diogenes Laertius' biography of Democritus, that Athena was called "Tritogeneia" because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her. ### Cult and patronages ### Panhellenic and Athenian cult In her aspect of *Athena Polias*, Athena was venerated as the goddess of the city and the protectress of the citadel. In Athens, the Plynteria, or "Feast of the Bath", was observed every year at the end of the month of Thargelion. The festival lasted for five days. During this period, the priestesses of Athena, or *plyntrídes*, performed a cleansing ritual within the Erechtheion, a sanctuary devoted to Athena and Poseidon. Here Athena's statue was undressed, her clothes washed, and body purified. Athena was worshipped at festivals such as Chalceia as *Athena Ergane*, the patroness of various crafts, especially weaving. She was also the patron of metalworkers and was believed to aid in the forging of armor and weapons. During the late fifth century BC, the role of goddess of philosophy became a major aspect of Athena's cult. As *Athena Promachos*, she was believed to lead soldiers into battle. Athena represented the disciplined, strategic side of war, in contrast to her brother Ares, the patron of violence, bloodlust, and slaughter—"the raw force of war". Athena was believed to only support those fighting for a just cause and was thought to view war primarily as a means to resolve conflict. The Greeks regarded Athena with much higher esteem than Ares. Athena was especially worshipped in this role during the festivals of the Panathenaea and Pamboeotia, both of which prominently featured displays of athletic and military prowess. As the patroness of heroes and warriors, Athena was believed to favor those who used cunning and intelligence rather than brute strength. In her aspect as a warrior maiden, Athena was known as *Parthenos* (Παρθένος "virgin"), because, like her fellow goddesses Artemis and Hestia, she was believed to remain perpetually a virgin. Athena's most famous temple, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, takes its name from this title. According to Karl Kerényi, a scholar of Greek mythology, the name *Parthenos* is not merely an observation of Athena's virginity, but also a recognition of her role as enforcer of rules of sexual modesty and ritual mystery. Even beyond recognition, the Athenians allotted the goddess value based on this pureness of virginity, which they upheld as a rudiment of female behavior. Kerényi's study and theory of Athena explains her virginal epithet as a result of her relationship to her father Zeus and a vital, cohesive piece of her character throughout the ages. This role is expressed in several stories about Athena. Marinus of Neapolis reports that when Christians removed the statue of the goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared in a dream to Proclus, a devotee of Athena, and announced that the *"Athenian Lady"* wished to dwell with him. Athena was also credited with creating the pebble-based form of divination. Those pebbles were called *thriai*, which was also the collective name of a group of nymphs with prophetic powers. Her half-brother Apollo however, angered and spiteful at the practitioners of an art rival to his own, complained to their father Zeus about it, with the pretext that many people took to casting pebbles, but few actually were true prophets. Zeus, sympathizing with Apollo's grievances, discredited the pebble divination by rendering the pebbles useless. Apollo's words became the basis of an ancient Greek idiom. ### Regional cults Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa. The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic cult and often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, such as the passage into citizenship by young men or the passage of young women into marriage. These cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece. Athena was frequently equated with Aphaea, a local goddess of the island of Aegina, originally from Crete and also associated with Artemis and the nymph Britomartis. In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea. Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena Alea were located in the Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea. The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece. The geographer Pausanias was informed that the *temenos* had been founded by Aleus. Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis, where she was venerated as Poliouchos and *Khalkíoikos* ("of the Brazen House", often latinized as *Chalcioecus*). This epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held there may have been made of bronze, that the walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze, or that Athena was the patron of metal-workers. Bells made of terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult. An Ionic-style temple to Athena Polias was built at Priene in the fourth century BC. It was designed by Pytheos of Priene, the same architect who designed the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great and an inscription from the temple declaring his dedication is now held in the British Museum. Mythology --------- ### Birth She was the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, and emerged full-grown from his forehead. There was an alternate story that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena and when she was fully grown she emerged from Zeus' forehead. Being the favorite child of Zeus, she had great power. In the classical Olympian pantheon, Athena was regarded as the favorite child of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead. The story of her birth comes in several versions. The earliest mention is in Book V of the *Iliad*, when Ares accuses Zeus of being biased in favor of Athena because "*autos egeinao*" (literally "you fathered her", but probably intended as "you gave birth to her"). She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. Athena was probably a pre-Hellenic goddess and was later taken over by the Greeks. In the version recounted by Hesiod in his *Theogony*, Zeus married the goddess Metis, who is described as the "wisest among gods and mortal men", and engaged in sexual intercourse with her. After learning that Metis was pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn offspring would try to overthrow him, because Gaia and Ouranos had prophesied that Metis would bear children wiser than their father. In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into letting him swallow her, but it was too late because Metis had already conceived. A later account of the story from the *Bibliotheca* of Pseudo-Apollodorus, written in the second century AD, makes Metis Zeus's unwilling sexual partner, rather than his wife. According to this version of the story, Metis transformed into many different shapes in effort to escape Zeus, but Zeus successfully raped her and swallowed her. After swallowing Metis, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his seventh and present wife, Hera. Then Zeus experienced an enormous headache. He was in such pain that he ordered someone (either Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon, depending on the sources examined) to cleave his head open with the *labrys*, the double-headed Minoan axe. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed. The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena" states in lines 9–16 that the gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance and even Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in the sky. Pindar, in his "Seventh Olympian Ode", states that she "cried aloud with a mighty shout" and that "the Sky and mother Earth shuddered before her." Hesiod states that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and bore Hephaestus by herself, but in *Imagines* 2. 27 (trans. Fairbanks), the third-century AD Greek rhetorician Philostratus the Elder writes that Hera "rejoices" at Athena's birth "as though Athena were her daughter also." The second-century AD Christian apologist Justin Martyr takes issue with those pagans who erect at springs images of Kore, whom he interprets as Athena: "They said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus not from intercourse, but when the god had in mind the making of a world through a word (*logos*) his first thought was Athena." According to a version of the story in a scholium on the *Iliad* (found nowhere else), when Zeus swallowed Metis, she was pregnant with Athena by the Cyclops Brontes. The *Etymologicum Magnum* instead deems Athena the daughter of the Daktyl Itonos. Fragments attributed by the Christian Eusebius of Caesarea to the semi-legendary Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, which Eusebius thought had been written before the Trojan war, make Athena instead the daughter of Cronus, a king of Byblos who visited "the inhabitable world" and bequeathed Attica to Athena. ### Lady of Athens In Homer's *Iliad*, Athena, as a war goddess, inspired and fought alongside the Greek heroes; her aid was synonymous with military prowess. Also in the Iliad, Zeus, the chief god, specifically assigned the sphere of war to Ares, the god of war, and Athena. Athena's moral and military superiority to Ares derived in part from the fact that she represented the intellectual and civilized side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares represented mere blood lust. Her superiority also derived in part from the vastly greater variety and importance of her functions and the patriotism of Homer's predecessors, Ares being of foreign origin. In the Iliad, Athena was the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory. The qualities that led to victory were found on the aegis, or breastplate, that Athena wore when she went to war: fear, strife, defense, and assault. Athena appears in Homer's Odyssey as the tutelary deity of Odysseus, and myths from later sources portray her similarly as the helper of Perseus and Heracles (Hercules). As the guardian of the welfare of kings, Athena became the goddess of good counsel, prudent restraint and practical insight, and war. In a founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Athena competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang up; this gave the Athenians access to trade and water. Athens at its height was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis—but the water was salty and undrinkable. In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's *Georgics*, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. The olive tree brought wood, oil, and food, and became a symbol of Athenian economic prosperity. Robert Graves was of the opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political myths", which reflect the conflict between matriarchal and patriarchal religions. Afterwards, Poseidon was so angry over his defeat that he sent one of his sons, Halirrhothius, to cut down the tree. But as he swung his axe, he missed his aim and it fell in himself, killing him. This was supposedly the origin of calling Athena's sacred olive tree *moria*, for Halirrhotius's attempt at revenge proved fatal (*moros* in Greek). Poseidon in fury accused Ares of murder, and the matter was eventually settled on the Areopagus ("hill of Ares") in favour of Ares, which was thereafter named after the event. Pseudo-Apollodorus records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh. Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool, which she tossed into the dust, impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius. Athena adopted Erichthonius as her son and raised him. The Roman mythographer Hyginus records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born. Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married, but, when Hephaestus was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius. The geographer Pausanias records that Athena placed the infant Erichthonius into a small chest (*cista*), which she entrusted to the care of the three daughters of Cecrops: Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros of Athens. She warned the three sisters not to open the chest, but did not explain to them why or what was in it. Aglauros, and possibly one of the other sisters, opened the chest. Differing reports say that they either found that the child itself was a serpent, that it was guarded by a serpent, that it was guarded by two serpents, or that it had the legs of a serpent. In Pausanias's story, the two sisters were driven mad by the sight of the chest's contents and hurled themselves off the Acropolis, dying instantly, but an Attic vase painting shows them being chased by the serpent off the edge of the cliff instead. Erichthonius was one of the most important founding heroes of Athens and the legend of the daughters of Cecrops was a cult myth linked to the rituals of the Arrhephoria festival. Pausanias records that, during the Arrhephoria, two young girls known as the *Arrhephoroi*, who lived near the temple of Athena Polias, would be given hidden objects by the priestess of Athena, which they would carry on their heads down a natural underground passage. They would leave the objects they had been given at the bottom of the passage and take another set of hidden objects, which they would carry on their heads back up to the temple. The ritual was performed in the dead of night and no one, not even the priestess, knew what the objects were. The serpent in the story may be the same one depicted coiled at Athena's feet in Pheidias's famous statue of the *Athena Parthenos* in the Parthenon. Many of the surviving sculptures of Athena show this serpent. Herodotus records that a serpent lived in a crevice on the north side of the summit of the Athenian Acropolis and that the Athenians left a honey cake for it each month as an offering. On the eve of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, the serpent did not eat the honey cake and the Athenians interpreted it as a sign that Athena herself had abandoned them. Another version of the myth of the Athenian maidens is told in *Metamorphoses* by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD); in this late variant Hermes falls in love with Herse. Herse, Aglaulus, and Pandrosus go to the temple to offer sacrifices to Athena. Hermes demands help from Aglaulus to seduce Herse. Aglaulus demands money in exchange. Hermes gives her the money the sisters have already offered to Athena. As punishment for Aglaulus's greed, Athena asks the goddess Envy to make Aglaulus jealous of Herse. When Hermes arrives to seduce Herse, Aglaulus stands in his way instead of helping him as she had agreed. He turns her to stone. Athena gave her favour to an Attic girl named Myrsine, a chaste girl who outdid all her fellow athletes in both the palaestra and the race. Out of envy, the other athletes murdered her, but Athena took pity in her and transformed her dead body into a myrtle, a plant thereafter as favoured by her as the olive was. An almost exact story was said about another girl, Elaea, who transformed into an olive, Athena's sacred tree. ### Patron of heroes According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's *Bibliotheca*, Athena advised Argos, the builder of the *Argo*, the ship on which the hero Jason and his band of Argonauts sailed, and aided in the ship's construction. Pseudo-Apollodorus also records that Athena guided the hero Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa. She and Hermes, the god of travelers, appeared to Perseus after he set off on his quest and gifted him with tools he would need to kill the Gorgon. Athena gave Perseus a polished bronze shield to view Medusa's reflection rather than looking at her directly and thereby avoid being turned to stone. Hermes gave him an adamantine scythe to cut off Medusa's head. When Perseus swung his blade to behead Medusa, Athena guided it, allowing his scythe to cut it clean off. According to Pindar's *Thirteenth Olympian Ode*, Athena helped the hero Bellerophon tame the winged horse Pegasus by giving him a bit. In ancient Greek art, Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles. She appears in four of the twelve metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicting Heracles's Twelve Labors, including the first, in which she passively watches him slay the Nemean lion, and the tenth, in which she is shown actively helping him hold up the sky. She is presented as his "stern ally", but also the "gentle... acknowledger of his achievements." Artistic depictions of Heracles's apotheosis show Athena driving him to Mount Olympus in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his deification. In Aeschylus's tragedy *Orestes*, Athena intervenes to save Orestes from the wrath of the Erinyes and presides over his trial for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra. When half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes to convict, Athena casts the deciding vote to acquit Orestes and declares that, from then on, whenever a jury is tied, the defendant shall always be acquitted. In *The Odyssey*, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's favour. For the first part of the poem, however, she largely is confined to aiding him only from *afar*, mainly by implanting thoughts in his head during his journey home from Troy. Her guiding actions reinforce her role as the "protectress of heroes," or, as mythologian Walter Friedrich Otto dubbed her, the "goddess of nearness," due to her mentoring and motherly probing. It is not until he washes up on the shore of the island of the Phaeacians, where Nausicaa is washing her clothes that Athena arrives personally to provide more tangible assistance. She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus and plays a role in his eventual escort to Ithaca. Athena appears to Odysseus upon his arrival, disguised as a herdsman; she initially lies and tells him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that he is believed to be dead, but Odysseus lies back to her, employing skillful prevarications to protect himself. Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness, she reveals herself and tells him what he needs to know to win back his kingdom. She disguises him as an elderly beggar so that he will not be recognized by the suitors or Penelope, and helps him to defeat the suitors. Athena also appears to Odysseus's son Telemachus. Her actions lead him to travel around to Odysseus's comrades and ask about his father. He hears stories about some of Odysseus's journey. Athena's push for Telemachus's journey helps him grow into the man role, that his father once held. She also plays a role in ending the resultant feud against the suitors' relatives. She instructs Laertes to throw his spear and to kill Eupeithes, the father of Antinous. * Athena and Heracles on an Attic red-figure kylix, 480–470 BCAthena and Heracles on an Attic red-figure kylix, 480–470 BC * Athena, detail from a silver kantharos with Theseus in Crete (c. 440-435 BC), part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, BulgariaAthena, detail from a silver *kantharos* with Theseus in Crete (c. 440-435 BC), part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria * Silver coin showing Athena with Scylla decorated helmet and Heracles fighting the Nemean lion (Heraclea Lucania, 390-340 BC)Silver coin showing Athena with Scylla decorated helmet and Heracles fighting the Nemean lion (Heraclea Lucania, 390-340 BC) * Paestan red-figure bell-krater (c. 330 BC), showing Orestes at Delphi flanked by Athena and Pylades among the Erinyes and priestesses of Apollo, with the Pythia sitting behind them on her tripodPaestan red-figure bell-krater (c. 330 BC), showing Orestes at Delphi flanked by Athena and Pylades among the Erinyes and priestesses of Apollo, with the Pythia sitting behind them on her tripod ### Punishment myths The Gorgoneion appears to have originated as an apotropaic symbol intended to ward off evil. In a late myth invented to explain the origins of the Gorgon, Medusa is described as having been a young priestess who served in the temple of Athena in Athens. Poseidon lusted after Medusa, and raped her in the temple of Athena, refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand in his way. Upon discovering the desecration of her temple, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for hair whose gaze would turn any mortal to stone. In his *Twelfth Pythian Ode*, Pindar recounts the story of how Athena invented the *aulos*, a kind of flute, in imitation of the lamentations of Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons, after she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. According to Pindar, Athena gave the aulos to mortals as a gift. Later, the comic playwright Melanippides of Melos (c. 480-430 BC) embellished the story in his comedy *Marsyas*, claiming that Athena looked in the mirror while she was playing the aulos and saw how blowing into it puffed up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful death. The aulos was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who was later killed by Apollo for his hubris. Later, this version of the story became accepted as canonical and the Athenian sculptor Myron created a group of bronze sculptures based on it, which was installed before the western front of the Parthenon in around 440 BC. A myth told by the early third-century BC Hellenistic poet Callimachus in his *Hymn* 5 begins with Athena bathing in a spring on Mount Helicon at midday with one of her favorite companions, the nymph Chariclo. Chariclo's son Tiresias happened to be hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring searching for water. He inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck him blind to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to see. Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf and begged Athena to have mercy. Athena replied that she could not restore Tiresias's eyesight, so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the language of the birds and thus foretell the future. Myrmex was a clever and chaste Attic girl who became quickly a favourite of Athena. However when Athena invented the plough, Myrmex went to the Atticans and told them that it was in fact her own invention. Hurt by the girl's betrayal, Athena transformed her into the small insect bearing her name, the ant. The fable of Arachne appears in Ovid's *Metamorphoses* (8 AD) (vi.5–54 and 129–145), which is nearly the only extant source for the legend. The story does not appear to have been well known prior to Ovid's rendition of it and the only earlier reference to it is a brief allusion in Virgil's *Georgics*, (29 BC) (iv, 246) that does not mention Arachne by name. According to Ovid, Arachne (whose name means *spider* in ancient Greek) was the daughter of a famous dyer in Tyrian purple in Hypaipa of Lydia, and a weaving student of Athena. She became so conceited of her skill as a weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena herself. Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming the form of an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the deities. Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill. Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon in the contest for the patronage of Athens. Athena's tapestry also depicted the 12 Olympian gods and defeat of mythological figures who challenged their authority. Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the deities' infidelity, including Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, and with Danaë. It represented the unjust and discrediting behavior of the gods towards mortals. Athena admitted that Arachne's work was flawless, but was outraged at Arachne's offensive choice of subject, which displayed the failings and transgressions of the deities. Finally, losing her temper, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle. Athena then struck Arachne across the face with her staff four times. Arachne hanged herself in despair, but Athena took pity on her and brought her back from the dead in the form of a spider. In a rarer version, surviving in the scholia of an unnamed scholiast on Nicander, whose works heavily influenced Ovid, Arachne is placed in Attica instead and has a brother named Phalanx. Athena taught Arachne the art of weaving and Phalanx the art of war, but when brother and sister laid together in bed, Athena was so disgusted with them that she turned them both into spiders, animals forever doomed to be eaten by their own young. ### Trojan War The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the *Iliad*, but is described in depth in an epitome of the *Cypria*, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle, which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited. She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple. The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision. In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed. Since the Renaissance, however, Western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked. All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes. Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe, and Athena offered fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite promised Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth. This woman was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple. The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War. In Books V–VI of the *Iliad*, Athena aids the hero Diomedes, who, in the absence of Achilles, proves himself to be the most effective Greek warrior. Several artistic representations from the early sixth century BC may show Athena and Diomedes, including an early sixth-century BC shield band depicting Athena and an unidentified warrior riding on a chariot, a vase painting of a warrior with his charioteer facing Athena, and an inscribed clay plaque showing Diomedes and Athena riding in a chariot. Numerous passages in the *Iliad* also mention Athena having previously served as the patron of Diomedes's father Tydeus. When the Trojan women go to the temple of Athena on the Acropolis to plead her for protection from Diomedes, Athena ignores them. Athena also gets into a duel with Ares, the god of the brutal wars, and her male counterpart Ares blames her for encouraging Diomedes to tear his beautiful flesh. He curses her and strikes with all his strength. Athena deflects his blow with her aegis, a powerful shield that even Zeus's thunderbolt and lightning cannot blast through. Athena picked up a massive boulder and threw it at Ares, who immediately crumpled to the ground. Aphrodite, who was a lover of Ares, came down from Olympus to carry Ares away but was struck by Athena's golden spear and fell. Athena taunted the gods who supported Troy, saying that they will too eventually end up like Ares and Aphrodite, which scared them, therefore proving her power and reputation among the other gods. In Book XXII of the *Iliad*, while Achilles is chasing Hector around the walls of Troy, Athena appears to Hector disguised as his brother Deiphobus and persuades him to hold his ground so that they can fight Achilles together. Then, Hector throws his spear at Achilles and misses, expecting Deiphobus to hand him another, but Athena disappears instead, leaving Hector to face Achilles alone without his spear. In Sophocles's tragedy *Ajax*, she punishes Odysseus's rival Ajax the Great, driving him insane and causing him to massacre the Achaeans' cattle, thinking that he is slaughtering the Achaeans themselves. Even after Odysseus himself expresses pity for Ajax, Athena declares, "To laugh at your enemies - what sweeter laughter can there be than that?" (lines 78–9). Ajax later commits suicide as a result of his humiliation. Classical art ------------- Athena appears frequently in classical Greek art, including on coins and in paintings on ceramics. She is especially prominent in works produced in Athens. In classical depictions, Athena is usually portrayed standing upright, wearing a full-length chiton. She is most often represented dressed in armor like a male soldier and wearing a Corinthian helmet raised high atop her forehead. Her shield bears at its centre the aegis with the head of the gorgon (*gorgoneion*) in the center and snakes around the edge. Sometimes she is shown wearing the aegis as a cloak. As Athena Promachos, she is shown brandishing a spear. Scenes in which Athena was represented include her birth from the head of Zeus, her battle with the Gigantes, the birth of Erichthonius, and the Judgement of Paris. The *Mourning Athena* or *Athena Meditating* is a famous relief sculpture dating to around 470-460 BC that has been interpreted to represent Athena Polias. The most famous classical depiction of Athena was the *Athena Parthenos*, a now-lost 11.5 m (38 ft) gold and ivory statue of her in the Parthenon created by the Athenian sculptor Phidias. Copies reveal that this statue depicted Athena holding her shield in her left hand with Nike, the winged goddess of victory, standing in her right. Athena Polias is also represented in a Neo-Attic relief now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which depicts her holding an owl in her hand and wearing her characteristic Corinthian helmet while resting her shield against a nearby *herma*. The Roman goddess Minerva adopted most of Athena's Greek iconographical associations, but was also integrated into the Capitoline Triad. * Attic black-figure exaleiptron of the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus (c. 570–560 BC) by the C PainterAttic black-figure *exaleiptron* of the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus (c. 570–560 BC) by the C Painter * Attic red-figure kylix of Athena Promachos holding a spear and standing beside a Doric column (c. 500-490 BC)Attic red-figure kylix of Athena Promachos holding a spear and standing beside a Doric column (c. 500-490 BC) * Restoration of the polychrome decoration of the Athena statue from the Aphaea temple at Aegina, c. 490 BC (from the exposition "Bunte Götter" by the Munich Glyptothek)Restoration of the polychrome decoration of the Athena statue from the Aphaea temple at Aegina, c. 490 BC (from the exposition "Bunte Götter" by the Munich Glyptothek) * The Mourning Athena relief (c. 470-460 BC)The *Mourning Athena* relief (c. 470-460 BC) * Attic red-figure kylix showing Athena slaying the Giant Enceladus (c. 550–500 BC)Attic red-figure kylix showing Athena slaying the Giant Enceladus (c. 550–500 BC) * Relief of Athena and Nike slaying the Giant Alkyoneus (?) from the Gigantomachy Frieze on the Pergamon Altar (early second century BC)Relief of Athena and Nike slaying the Giant Alkyoneus (?) from the Gigantomachy Frieze on the Pergamon Altar (early second century BC) * Classical mosaic from a villa at Tusculum, 3rd century AD, now at Museo Pio-Clementino, VaticanClassical mosaic from a villa at Tusculum, 3rd century AD, now at Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican * Athena portrait by Eukleidas on a tetradrachm from Syracuse, Sicily c. 400 BCAthena portrait by Eukleidas on a tetradrachm from Syracuse, Sicily c. 400 BC * Mythological scene with Athena (left) and Herakles (right), on a stone palette of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, IndiaMythological scene with Athena (left) and Herakles (right), on a stone palette of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, India * Atena farnese, Roman copy of a Greek original from Phidias' circle, c. 430 AD, Museo Archeologico, Naples*Atena farnese*, Roman copy of a Greek original from Phidias' circle, c. 430 AD, Museo Archeologico, Naples * Athena (2nd century BC) in the art of Gandhara, displayed at the Lahore Museum, PakistanAthena (2nd century BC) in the art of Gandhara, displayed at the Lahore Museum, Pakistan Post-classical culture ---------------------- ### Art and symbolism Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Firmicus, denigrated Athena as representative of all the things that were detestable about paganism; they condemned her as "immodest and immoral". During the Middle Ages, however, many attributes of Athena were given to the Virgin Mary, who, in fourth-century portrayals, was often depicted wearing the Gorgoneion. Some even viewed the Virgin Mary as a warrior maiden, much like Athena Parthenos; one anecdote tells that the Virgin Mary once appeared upon the walls of Constantinople when it was under siege by the Avars, clutching a spear and urging the people to fight. During the Middle Ages, Athena became widely used as a Christian symbol and allegory, and she appeared on the family crests of certain noble houses. During the Renaissance, Athena donned the mantle of patron of the arts and human endeavor; allegorical paintings involving Athena were a favorite of the Italian Renaissance painters. In Sandro Botticelli's painting *Pallas and the Centaur*, probably painted sometime in the 1480s, Athena is the personification of chastity, who is shown grasping the forelock of a centaur, who represents lust. Andrea Mantegna's 1502 painting *Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue* uses Athena as the personification of Graeco-Roman learning chasing the vices of medievalism from the garden of modern scholarship. Athena is also used as the personification of wisdom in Bartholomeus Spranger's 1591 painting *The Triumph of Wisdom* or *Minerva Victorious over Ignorance*. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Athena was used as a symbol for female rulers. In his book *A Revelation of the True Minerva* (1582), Thomas Blennerhassett portrays Queen Elizabeth I of England as a "new Minerva" and "the greatest goddesse nowe on earth". A series of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depict Athena as Marie de' Medici's patron and mentor; the final painting in the series goes even further and shows Marie de' Medici with Athena's iconography, as the mortal incarnation of the goddess herself. The Flemish sculptor Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert (Jan Peter Anton Tassaert) later portrayed Catherine II of Russia as Athena in a marble bust in 1774. During the French Revolution, statues of pagan gods were torn down all throughout France, but statues of Athena were not. Instead, Athena was transformed into the personification of freedom and the republic and a statue of the goddess stood in the center of the Place de la Revolution in Paris. In the years following the Revolution, artistic representations of Athena proliferated. A statue of Athena stands directly in front of the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, and depictions of Athena have influenced other symbols of Western freedom, including the Statue of Liberty and Britannia. For over a century, a full-scale replica of the Parthenon has stood in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1990, the curators added a gilded forty-two-foot (12.5 m) tall replica of Phidias's *Athena Parthenos*, built from concrete and fiberglass. The Great Seal of California bears the image of Athena kneeling next to a brown grizzly bear. Athena has occasionally appeared on modern coins, as she did on the ancient Athenian drachma. Her head appears on the $50 1915-S Panama-Pacific commemorative coin. * Pallas and the Centaur (c. 1482) by Sandro Botticelli*Pallas and the Centaur* (c. 1482) by Sandro Botticelli * Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (1502) by Andrea Mantegna*Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue* (1502) by Andrea Mantegna * Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus (c. 1555–1560) by Paris Bordone*Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus* (c. 1555–1560) by Paris Bordone * Minerva Victorious over Ignorance (c. 1591) by Bartholomeus Spranger*Minerva Victorious over Ignorance* (c. 1591) by Bartholomeus Spranger * Maria de Medici (1622) by Peter Paul Rubens, showing her as the incarnation of Athena*Maria de Medici* (1622) by Peter Paul Rubens, showing her as the incarnation of Athena * Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars (1629) by Peter Paul Rubens*Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars* (1629) by Peter Paul Rubens * Minerva Revealing Ithaca to Ulysses (fifteenth century) by Giuseppe Bottani*Minerva Revealing Ithaca to Ulysses* (fifteenth century) by Giuseppe Bottani * Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter (1706) by René-Antoine Houasse*Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter* (1706) by René-Antoine Houasse * The Combat of Mars and Minerva (1771) by Joseph-Benoît Suvée*The Combat of Mars and Minerva* (1771) by Joseph-Benoît Suvée * Minerva Fighting Mars (1771) by Jacques-Louis David*Minerva Fighting Mars* (1771) by Jacques-Louis David * Minerva of Peace mosaic in the Library of Congress*Minerva of Peace* mosaic in the Library of Congress * Athena on the Great Seal of CaliforniaAthena on the Great Seal of California * Pompeii's Roman fresco shows Ajax dragging Cassandra away from palladium in the fall of Troy, event that provoked Athena's wrath to Greek armies[49]Pompeii's Roman fresco shows Ajax dragging Cassandra away from *palladium* in the fall of Troy, event that provoked Athena's wrath to Greek armies ### Modern interpretations One of Sigmund Freud's most treasured possessions was a small, bronze sculpture of Athena, which sat on his desk. Freud once described Athena as "a woman who is unapproachable and repels all sexual desires - since she displays the terrifying genitals of the Mother." Feminist views on Athena are sharply divided; some feminists regard her as a symbol of female empowerment, while others regard her as "the ultimate patriarchal sell out... who uses her powers to promote and advance men rather than others of her sex." In contemporary Wicca, Athena is venerated as an aspect of the Goddess and some Wiccans believe that she may bestow the "Owl Gift" ("the ability to write and communicate clearly") upon her worshippers. Due to her status as one of the twelve Olympians, Athena is a major deity in Hellenismos, a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world. Athena is a natural patron of universities: At Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, a statue of Athena (a replica of the original bronze one in the arts and archaeology library) resides in the Great Hall. It is traditional at exam time for students to leave offerings to the goddess with a note asking for good luck, or to repent for accidentally breaking any of the college's numerous other traditions. Pallas Athena is the tutelary goddess of the international social fraternity Phi Delta Theta. Her owl is also a symbol of the fraternity. Genealogy --------- | Athena's family tree | | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Uranus | | Gaia | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Uranus' genitals | | Oceanus | | Tethys | | Cronus | | Rhea | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Metis | | | Zeus | | | | | | Hera | | Poseidon | | Hades | | Demeter | | Hestia | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **ATHENA** | | | | | | | | |     a | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |      b | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ares | | Hephaestus | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Leto | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Apollo | | Artemis | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Maia | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hermes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Semele | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dionysus | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dione | | | | | | | | | | | | |     a | | | | | | | | | | | |      b | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aphrodite | | | See also -------- * Athenaeum (disambiguation) * Ambulia, a Spartan epithet used for Athena, Zeus, and Castor and Pollux Bibliography ------------ ### Ancient sources * Apollodorus, *Library, 3,180* * Augustine, *De civitate dei xviii.8–9* * Cicero, *De natura deorum iii.21.53, 23.59* * Eusebius, *Chronicon 30.21–26, 42.11–14* * Homer, *The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes*. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Archived 15 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine. * Homer; *The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes*. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Archived 29 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. * Hesiod, *Theogony*, in *The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White*, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Archived 17 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine. * Lactantius, *Divinae institutions i.17.12–13, 18.22–23* * Livy, *Ab urbe condita libri vii.3.7* * Lucan, *Bellum civile ix.350* * Servius (1881). *In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii*. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. ### Modern sources * Aghion, Irène; Barbillon, Claire; Lissarrague, François (1996), "Minerva", *Gods and Heroes of Classical Antiquity*, Flammarion Infographic Guides, Paris, France and New York City, New York: Flammarion, pp. 192–194, ISBN 978-2-0801-3580-3 * Alexander, Timothy Jay (2007), *The Gods of Reason: An Authentic Theology for Modern Hellenismos* (First ed.), Lulu Press, Inc., ISBN 978-1-4303-2763-9 * Apollodorus of Athens (13 February 2016). *The Library of Apollodorus (Delphi Classics)*. UK: Delphi Classics. ISBN 9781786563712. * Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009), *Etymological Dictionary of Greek*, Leiden and Boston: Brill * Bell, Robert E. 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Athena

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena

**Inanna** is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine law, and political power. She was known by the Sumerians and Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as **Ishtar** (and occasionally the logogram 𒌋𒁯). Her primary title was *"the Queen of Heaven"*, and she was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her early main cult center. In archaic Uruk she was worshiped in three forms, morning Inanna (Inana-UD/hud), evening Inanna (Inanna sig) and princely Inanna (Inanna NUN), the former two reflecting the phases of the planet Venus which she was associated with. Her most prominent symbols included the lion and the eight-pointed star. Her husband was the god Dumuzid (later known as Tammuz), and her *sukkal*, or personal attendant, was the goddess Ninshubur, who later became conflated with the male deities Ilabrat and Papsukkal. Inanna was worshiped in Sumer at least as early as the Uruk period (c. 4000 BCE – 3100 BCE), her cultic activity was relatively localized before the conquest of Sargon of Akkad. During the post-Sargonic era, she became one of the most widely venerated deities in the Sumerian pantheon, with temples across Mesopotamia. The cult of Inanna / Ishtar, which may have been associated with a variety of sexual rites, was continued by the East Semitic-speaking people (Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians) who succeeded and absorbed the Sumerians in the region. She was especially beloved by the Assyrians, who elevated her to become the highest deity in their pantheon, ranking above their own national god Ashur. Inanna / Ishtar is alluded to in the Hebrew Bible, and she greatly influenced the Ugaritic Ashtart and later Phoenician Astarte, who in turn possibly influenced the development of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Her cult continued to flourish until its gradual decline between the first and sixth centuries CE in the wake of Christianity. Inanna appears in more myths than any other Sumerian deity. She also had a uniquely high number of epithets and alternate names, comparable only to Nergal. Many of her myths involve her taking over the domains of other deities. She was believed to have been given the *mes*, which represented all positive and negative aspects of civilization, by Enki, the god of wisdom. She was also believed to have taken over the Eanna temple from An, the god of the sky. Alongside her twin brother Utu (later known as Shamash), Inanna was the enforcer of divine justice; she destroyed Mount Ebih for having challenged her authority, unleashed her fury upon the gardener Shukaletuda after he raped her in her sleep, and tracked down the bandit woman Bilulu and killed her in divine retribution for having murdered Dumuzid. In the standard Akkadian version of the *Epic of Gilgamesh*, Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to become her consort. When he disdainfully refuses, she unleashes the Bull of Heaven, resulting in the death of Enkidu and Gilgamesh's subsequent grapple with his own mortality. Inanna's most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return from the ancient Mesopotamian underworld, ruled by her older sister Ereshkigal. After she reaches Ereshkigal's throne room, the seven judges of the underworld deem her guilty and strike her dead. Three days later, Ninshubur pleads with all the gods to bring Inanna back. All of them refuse her, except Enki, who sends two sexless beings to rescue Inanna. They escort Inanna out of the underworld, but the *galla*, the guardians of the underworld, drag her husband Dumuzid down to the underworld as her replacement. Dumuzid is eventually permitted to return to heaven for half the year, while his sister Geshtinanna remains in the underworld for the other half, resulting in the cycle of the seasons. Etymology --------- Scholars believe that Inanna and Ishtar were originally separate, unrelated deities, but were conflated with one another during the reign of Sargon of Akkad and came to be regarded as effectively the same goddess under two different names. Inanna's name may derive from the Sumerian phrase *nin-an-ak*, meaning "Lady of Heaven", but the cuneiform sign for *Inanna* (𒈹) is not a ligature of the signs *lady* (Sumerian: *nin*; cuneiform: 𒊩𒌆 SAL.TUG2) and *sky* (Sumerian: *an*; cuneiform: 𒀭 AN). These difficulties led some early Assyriologists to suggest that Inanna may have originally been a Proto-Euphratean goddess, who was only later accepted into the Sumerian pantheon. This idea was supported by Inanna's youthfulness, as well as the fact that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, she seems to have initially lacked a distinct sphere of responsibilities. The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists. The name *Ishtar* occurs as an element in personal names from both the pre-Sargonic and post-Sargonic eras in Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia. It is of Semitic derivation and is probably etymologically related to the name of the West Semitic god Attar, who is mentioned in later inscriptions from Ugarit and southern Arabia. The morning star may have been conceived as a male deity who presided over the arts of war and the evening star may have been conceived as a female deity who presided over the arts of love. Among the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, the name of the male god eventually supplanted the name of his female counterpart, but, due to extensive syncretism with Inanna, the deity remained as female, although her name was in the masculine form. Origins and development ----------------------- Inanna has posed a problem for many scholars of ancient Sumer due to the fact that her sphere of power contained more distinct and contradictory aspects than that of any other deity. Two major theories regarding her origins have been proposed. The first explanation holds that Inanna is the result of a syncretism between several previously unrelated Sumerian deities with totally different domains. The second explanation holds that Inanna was originally a Semitic deity who entered the Sumerian pantheon after it was already fully structured, and who took on all the roles that had not yet been assigned to other deities. As early as the Uruk period (c. 4000–3100 BCE), Inanna was already associated with the city of Uruk. During this period, the symbol of a ring-headed doorpost was closely associated with Inanna. The famous Uruk Vase (found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period) depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, including bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm products, and bringing sheep and goats to a female figure facing the ruler. The female stands in front of Inanna's symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost, while the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying the *En*, or high priest of the temple. Seal impressions from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BCE) show a fixed sequence of symbols representing various cities, including those of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, Urum, Arina, and probably Kesh. This list probably reflects the report of contributions to Inanna at Uruk from cities supporting her cult. A large number of similar seals have been discovered from phase I of the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900–2350 BCE) at Ur, in a slightly different order, combined with the rosette symbol of Inanna. These seals were used to lock storerooms to preserve materials set aside for her cult. Various inscriptions in the name of Inanna are known, such as a bead in the name of King Aga of Kish c. 2600 BCE, or a tablet by King Lugal-kisalsi c. 2400 BCE: > > > > For An, king of all the lands, and for Inanna, his mistress, Lugal-kisalsi, king of Kish, built the wall of the courtyard. > > — Inscription of Lugal-kisalsi. During the Akkadian period (c.  2334–2154 BCE), following the conquests of Sargon of Akkad, Inanna and originally independent Ishtar became so extensively syncretized that they became regarded as effectively the same. The Akkadian poet Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, wrote numerous hymns to Inanna, identifying her with Ishtar. As a result of this, the popularity of Inanna/Ishtar's cult skyrocketed. Alfonso Archi, who was involved in early excavations of Ebla, assumes Ishtar was originally a goddess venerated in the Euphrates valley, pointing out that an association between her and the desert poplar is attested in the most ancient texts from both Ebla and Mari. He considers her, a moon god (e.g., Sin) and a sun deity of varying gender (Shamash/Shapash) to be the only deities shared between various early Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia and ancient Syria, who otherwise had different not necessarily overlapping pantheons. Worship ------- Inanna's symbol: the reed ring-postEmblem of goddess Inanna, circa 3000 BCE.Ring posts of Inanna on each side of a temple door, with naked devotee offering libations.On the Warka VaseCuneiform logogram "Inanna"Inanna's symbol is a ring post made of reed, an ubiquitous building material in Sumer. It was often beribboned and positionned at the entrance of temples, and marked the limit between the profane and the sacred realms. The design of the emblem was simplified between 3000-2000 BCE to become the cuneiform logogram for Inanna: 𒈹, generally preceded by the symbol for "deity" 𒀭. Gwendolyn Leick assumes that during the Pre-Sargonic era, the cult of Inanna was rather limited, though other experts argue that she was already the most prominent deity in Uruk and a number of other political centers in the Uruk period. She had temples in Nippur, Lagash, Shuruppak, Zabalam, and Ur, but her main cult center was the Eanna temple in Uruk, whose name means "House of Heaven" (Sumerian: *e2-anna*; cuneiform: 𒂍𒀭 E2.AN). Some researches assume that the original patron deity of this fourth-millennium BCE city was An. After its dedication to Inanna, the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess. Next to Uruk, Zabalam was the most important early site of Inanna worship, as the name of the city was commonly written with the signs MUŠ3 and UNUG, meaning respectively "Inanna" and "sanctuary." It is possible that the city goddess of Zabalam was originally a distinct deity, though one whose cult was absorbed by that of the Urukean goddess very early on. Joan Goodnick Westenholz proposed that a goddess identified by the name Nin-UM (reading and meaning uncertain), associated with Ishtaran in a *zame* hymn, was the original identity of Inanna of Zabalam. In the Old Akkadian period, Inanna merged with the Akkadian goddess Ishtar, associated with the city of Agade. A hymn from that period addresses the Akkadian Ishtar as "Inanna of the Ulmaš" alongside Inanna of Uruk and of Zabalam. The worship of Ishtar and syncretism between her and Inanna was encouraged by Sargon and his successors, and as a result she quickly became one of the most widely venerated deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon. In inscriptions of Sargon, Naram-Sin and Shar-Kali-Sharri Ishtar is the most frequently invoked deity. In the Old Babylonian period, her main cult centers were, in addition to aforementioned Uruk, Zabalam and Agade, also Ilip. Her cult was also introduced from Uruk to Kish. During later times, while her cult in Uruk continued to flourish, Ishtar also became particularly worshipped in the Upper Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria (modern northern Iraq, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey), especially in the cities of Nineveh, Aššur and Arbela (modern Erbil). During the reign of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal, Ishtar rose to become the most important and widely venerated deity in the Assyrian pantheon, surpassing even the Assyrian national god Ashur. Votive objects found in her primary Assyrian temple indicate that she was a popular deity among women. Individuals who went against the traditional gender binary were heavily involved in the cult of Inanna. During Sumerian times, a set of priests known as *gala* worked in Inanna's temples, where they performed elegies and lamentations. Men who became *gala* sometimes adopted female names and their songs were composed in the Sumerian *eme-sal* dialect, which, in literary texts, is normally reserved for the speech of female characters. Some Sumerian proverbs seem to suggest that *gala* had a reputation for engaging in anal sex with men. During the Akkadian Period, *kurgarrū* and *assinnu* were servants of Ishtar who dressed in female clothing and performed war dances in Ishtar's temples. Several Akkadian proverbs seem to suggest that they may have also had homosexual proclivities. Gwendolyn Leick, an anthropologist known for her writings on Mesopotamia, has compared these individuals to the contemporary Indian *hijra*. In one Akkadian hymn, Ishtar is described as transforming men into women. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, it was widely believed that the cult of Inanna involved a "sacred marriage" ritual, in which a king would establish his legitimacy by taking on the role of Dumuzid and engaging in ritual sexual intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna, who took on the role of the goddess. This view, however, has been challenged and scholars continue to debate whether the sacred marriage described in literary texts involved any kind of physical ritual enactment at all and, if so, whether this ritual enactment involved actual intercourse or merely the symbolic representation of intercourse. The scholar of the ancient Near East Louise M. Pryke states that most scholars now maintain, if the sacred marriage was a ritual that was actually acted out, then it involved only symbolic intercourse. The cult of Ishtar was long thought to have involved sacred prostitution, but this is now rejected among many scholars. Hierodules known as *ishtaritum* are reported to have worked in Ishtar's temples, but it is unclear if such priestesses actually performed any sex acts and several modern scholars have argued that they did not. Women across the ancient Near East worshipped Ishtar by dedicating to her cakes baked in ashes (known as *kamān tumri*). A dedication of this type is described in an Akkadian hymn. Several clay cake molds discovered at Mari are shaped like naked women with large hips clutching their breasts. Some scholars have suggested that the cakes made from these molds were intended as representations of Ishtar herself. Iconography ----------- ### Symbols The eight-pointed star was Inanna/Ishtar's most common symbol. Here it is shown alongside the solar disk of her brother Shamash (Sumerian Utu) and the crescent moon of her father Sin (Sumerian Nanna) on a boundary stone of Meli-Shipak II, dating to the twelfth century BCE.Lions were one of Inanna/Ishtar's primary symbols. The lion above comes from the Ishtar Gate, the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon, which was constructed in around 575 BCE under the orders of Nebuchadnezzar II. Inanna/Ishtar's most common symbol was the eight-pointed star, though the exact number of points sometimes varies. Six-pointed stars also occur frequently, but their symbolic meaning is unknown. The eight-pointed star seems to have originally borne a general association with the heavens, but, by the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1830 – c. 1531 BCE), it had come to be specifically associated with the planet Venus, with which Ishtar was identified. Starting during this same period, the star of Ishtar was normally enclosed within a circular disc. During later Babylonian times, slaves who worked in Ishtar's temples were sometimes branded with the seal of the eight-pointed star. On boundary stones and cylinder seals, the eight-pointed star is sometimes shown alongside the crescent moon, which was the symbol of Sin (Sumerian Nanna) and the rayed solar disk, which was a symbol of Shamash (Sumerian Utu). Inanna's cuneiform ideogram was a hook-shaped twisted knot of reeds, representing the doorpost of the storehouse, a common symbol of fertility and plenty. The rosette was another important symbol of Inanna, which continued to be used as a symbol of Ishtar after their syncretism. During the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 – 609 BCE), the rosette may have actually eclipsed the eight-pointed star and become Ishtar's primary symbol. The temple of Ishtar in the city of Aššur was adorned with numerous rosettes. Inanna/Ishtar was associated with lions, which the ancient Mesopotamians regarded as a symbol of power. Her associations with lions began during Sumerian times; a chlorite bowl from the temple of Inanna at Nippur depicts a large feline battling a giant snake and a cuneiform inscription on the bowl reads "Inanna and the Serpent", indicating that the cat is supposed to represent the goddess. During the Akkadian Period, Ishtar was frequently depicted as a heavily armed warrior goddess with a lion as one of her attributes. Doves were also prominent animal symbols associated with Inanna/Ishtar. Doves are shown on cultic objects associated with Inanna as early as the beginning of the third millennium BCE. Lead dove figurines were discovered in the temple of Ishtar at Aššur, dating to the thirteenth century BCE and a painted fresco from Mari, Syria shows a giant dove emerging from a palm tree in the temple of Ishtar, indicating that the goddess herself was sometimes believed to take the form of a dove. ### As the planet Venus Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, which is named after her Roman equivalent Venus. Several hymns praise Inanna in her role as the goddess or personification of the planet Venus. Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has argued that, in many myths, Inanna's movements may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky. In *Inanna's Descent to the Underworld*, unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East. An introductory hymn describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for *Kur*, what could be presumed to be the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West. In *Inanna and Shukaletuda*, Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the Eastern and Western horizons. In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky. Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the Sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as a single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon: the morning and evening star. Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period indicates that the ancient Sumerians knew that the morning and evening stars were the same celestial object. The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature. Modern astrologers recognize the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld as a reference to an astronomical phenomenon associated with retrograde Venus. Seven days before retrograde Venus makes its inferior conjunction with the sun, it disappears from the evening sky. The seven day period between this disappearance and the conjunction itself is seen as the astronomical phenomenon on which the myth of descent was based. After the conjunction, seven more days elapse before Venus appears as the morning star, corresponding to the ascent from the underworld. Inanna in her aspect as Anunītu was associated with the eastern fish of the last of the zodiacal constellations, Pisces. Her consort Dumuzi was associated with the contiguous first constellation, Aries. * Babylonian terracotta relief of Ishtar from Eshnunna (early second millennium BCE)Babylonian terracotta relief of Ishtar from Eshnunna (early second millennium BCE) * Life-sized statue of a goddess, probably Ishtar, holding a vase from Mari, Syria (eighteenth century BC)Life-sized statue of a goddess, probably Ishtar, holding a vase from Mari, Syria (eighteenth century BC) * Terracotta relief of Ishtar with wings from Larsa (second millennium BCE)Terracotta relief of Ishtar with wings from Larsa (second millennium BCE) * Stele showing Ishtar holding a bow from Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum (eighth century BCE)Stele showing Ishtar holding a bow from Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum (eighth century BCE) * Hellenized bas-relief sculpture of Ishtar standing with her servant from Palmyra (third century CE)Hellenized bas-relief sculpture of Ishtar standing with her servant from Palmyra (third century CE) Character --------- The Sumerians worshipped Inanna as the goddess of both warfare and love. Unlike other gods, whose roles were static and whose domains were limited, the stories of Inanna describe her as moving from conquest to conquest. She was portrayed as young and impetuous, constantly striving for more power than she had been allotted. Although she was worshipped as the goddess of love, Inanna was not the goddess of marriage, nor was she ever viewed as a mother goddess. Andrew R. George goes as far as stating that "According to all mythology, Ištar was not [...] temperamentally disposed" towards such functions. Julia M. Asher-Greve has even proposed (by Asher-Greve) that Inanna was significant specifically because she was not a mother goddess. As a love goddess, she was commonly invoked by Mesopotamians in incantations. In *Inanna's Descent to the Underworld*, Inanna treats her lover Dumuzid in a very capricious manner. This aspect of Inanna's personality is emphasized in the later standard Akkadian version of the *Epic of Gilgamesh* in which Gilgamesh points out Ishtar's infamous ill-treatment of her lovers. However, according to assyriologist Dina Katz, the portrayal of Inanna's relationship with Dumuzi in the Descent myth is unusual. Inanna was also worshipped as one of the Sumerian war deities. One of the hymns dedicated to her declares: "She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring, strapping on her sandals." Battle itself was occasionally referred to as the "Dance of Inanna". Epithets related to lions in particular were meant to highlight this aspect of her character. As a war goddess she was sometimes referred to with the name Irnina ("victory"), though this epithet could be applied to other deities as well, in addition to functioning as a distinct goddess linked to Ningishzida rather than to Ishtar. Another epithet highlighting this aspect of Ishtar's nature was Anunitu ("the martial one"). Like Irnina, Anunitu could also be a separate deity, and as such she is first attested in documents from the Ur III period. Assyrian royal curse-formulas invoked both of Ishtar's primary functions at once, invoking her to remove potency and martial valor alike. Mesopotamian texts indicate that traits perceived as heroic (such as a king's ability to lead his troops and to triumph over enemies) and sexual prowess were regarded as interconnected. While Inanna/Ishtar was a goddess, her gender could be ambiguous at times. Gary Beckman states that "ambiguous gender identification" was a characteristic not just of Ishtar herself but of a category of deities he refers to as "Ishtar type" goddesses (such as Shaushka, Pinikir or Ninsianna). A late hymn contains the phrase "she [Ishtar] is Enlil, she is Ninil" which might be a reference to occasionally "dimorphic" character of Ishtar, in addition to serving as an exaltation. A hymn to Nanaya alludes to a male aspect of Ishtar from Babylon alongside a variety of more standard descriptions. However, Ilona Zsolnay only describes Ishtar as a "feminine figure who performed a masculine role" in certain contexts, for example as a war deity. Family ------ Inanna's twin brother was Utu (known as Shamash in Akkadian), the god of the sun and justice. In Sumerian texts, Inanna and Utu are shown as extremely close; some modern authors perceive their relationship as bordering on incestuous. In the myth of her descent into the underworld, Inanna addresses Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld, as her "older sister", but the two goddesses almost never appear together in Sumerian literature and were not placed in the same category in god lists. Due to Hurrian influence, in some neo-Assyrian sources (for example penalty clauses) Ishtar was also associated with Adad, with the relationship mirroring that between Shaushka and her brother Teshub in Hurrian mythology. The most common tradition regarded Nanna and his wife Ningal as her parents. Examples of it are present in sources as diverse as a god list from the Early Dynastic period, a hymn of Ishme-Dagan relaying how Enlil and Ninlil bestowed Inanna's powers upon her, a late syncretic hymn to Nanaya, and an Akkadian ritual from Hattusa. While some authors assert that in Uruk Inanna was usually regarded as the daughter of the sky god An, it is possible that references to him as her father are only referring to his status as an ancestor of Nanna and thus his daughter. In literary texts, Enlil or Enki may be addressed as her fathers but references to major gods being "fathers" can also be examples of the use of this word as an epithet indicating seniority. Dumuzid (later known as Tammuz), the god of shepherds, is usually described as Inanna's husband, but according to some interpretations Inanna's loyalty to him is questionable; in the myth of her descent into the Underworld, she abandons Dumuzid and permits the *galla* demons to drag him down into the underworld as her replacement. In a different myth, *The Return of Dumuzid* Inanna instead mourns over Dumuzid's death and ultimately decrees that he will be allowed to return to Heaven to be with her for one half of the year. Dina Katz notes that the portrayal of their relationship in Inanna's Descent is unusual; it does not resemble the portrayal of their relationship in other myths about Dumuzi's death, which almost never pin the blame for it on Inanna, but rather on demons or even human bandits. A large corpus of love poetry describing encounters between Inanna and Dumuzi has been assembled by researchers. However, local manifestations of Inanna/Ishtar were not necessarily associated with Dumuzi. In Kish, the tutelary deity of the city, Zababa (a war god), was viewed as the consort of a local hypostasis of Ishtar, though after the Old Babylonian period Bau, introduced from Lagash, became his spouse (an example of a couple consisting out of a warrior god and a medicine goddess, common in Mesopotamian mythology) and Ishtar of Kish started to instead be worshiped on her own. Inanna is not usually described as having any offspring, but, in the myth of Lugalbanda and in a single building inscription from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 – c. 2004 BCE), the warrior god Shara is described as her son. She was also sometimes considered the mother of Lulal, who is described in other texts as the son of Ninsun. Wilfred G. Lambert described the relation between Inanna and Lulal as "close but unspecified" in the context of Inanna's Descent. There is also similarly scarce evidence for the love goddess Nanaya being regarded as her daughter (a song, a votive formula and an oath), but it is possible all of these instances merely refer to an epithet indicating closeness between the deities and were not a statement about actual parentage. ### Sukkal Inanna's *sukkal* was the goddess Ninshubur, whose relationship with Inanna is one of mutual devotion. In some texts, Ninshubur was listed right after Dumuzi as a member of Inanna's circle, even before some of her relatives; in one text the phrase "Ninshubur, beloved vizier" appears. In another text Ninshubur is listed even before Nanaya, originally possibly a hypostasis of Inanna herself, in a list of deities from her entourage. In an Akkadian ritual text known from Hittite archives Ishtar's *sukkal* is invoked alongside her family members (Sin, Ningal and Shamash). Other members of Inanna's entourage frequently listed in god lists were the goddesses Nanaya (usually placed right behind Dumuzi and Ninshubur), Kanisurra, Gazbaba and Bizila, all of them also associated with each other in various configurations independently from this context. Syncretism and influence on other deities ----------------------------------------- In addition to the full conflation of Inanna and Ishtar during the reign of Sargon and his successors, she was syncretised with a large number of deities to a varying degree. The oldest known syncretic hymn is dedicated to Inanna, and has been dated to the Early Dynastic period. Many god lists compiled by ancient scribes contained entire "Inanna group" sections enumerating similar goddesses, and tablet IV of the monumental god list *An-Anum* (7 tablets total) is known as the "Ishtar tablet" due to most of its contents being the names of Ishtar's equivalents, her titles and various attendants. Some modern researchers use the term *Ishtar-type* to define specific figures of this variety. Some texts contained references to "all the Ishtars" of a given area. In later periods Ishtar's name was sometimes used as a generic term ("goddess") in Babylonia, while a logographic writing of Inanna was used to spell the title *Bēltu*, leading to further conflations. A possible example of such use of the name is also known from Elam, as a single Elamite inscription written in Akkadian refers to "Manzat-Ishtar," which might in this context mean "the goddess Manzat." ### Specific examples AshtartIn cities like Mari and Ebla, the Eastern and Western Semitic forms of the name (Ishtar and Ashtart) were regarded as basically interchangeable. However, the western goddess evidently lacked the astral character of Mesopotamian Ishtar. Ugaritic god lists and ritual texts equate the local Ashtart with both Ishtar and Hurrian Ishara. IsharaDue to association with Ishtar, the Syrian goddess Ishara started to be regarded as a "lady of love" like her (and Nanaya) in Mesopotamia. However, in Hurro-Hittite context Ishara was associated with the underworld goddess Allani instead and additionally functioned as a goddess of oaths. NanayaA goddess uniquely closely linked to Inanna, as according to assyriologist Frans Wiggermann her name was originally an epithet of Inanna (possibly serving as an appellative, "My Inanna!"). Nanaya was associated with erotic love, but she eventually developed a warlike aspect of her own too ("Nanaya Euršaba"). In Larsa Inanna's functions were effectively split between three separate figures and she was worshiped as part of a trinity consisting out of herself, Nanaya (as a love goddess) and Ninsianna (as an astral goddess). Inanna/Ishtar and Nanaya were often accidentally or intentionally conflated in poetry. NinegalWhile she was initially an independent figure, starting with Old Babylonian period in some texts "Ninegal" is used as a title of Inanna, and in god lists she was a part of the "Inanna group" usually alongside Ninsianna. An example of the usage of "Ninegal" as an epithet can be found in the text designated as Hymn to Inana as Ninegala (Inana D) in the ETCSL. NinisinaA special case of syncretism was that between the medicine goddess Ninisina and Inanna, which occurred for political reasons. Isin at one point lost control over Uruk and identification of its tutelary goddess with Inanna (complete with assigning a similar warlike character to her), who served as a source of royal power, was likely meant to serve as a theological solution of this problem. As a result, in a number of sources Ninisina was regarded as analogous to similarly named Ninsianna, treated as a manifestation of Inanna. It is also possible that a ceremony of "sacred marriage" between Ninisina and the king of Isin had been performed as a result. NinsiannaA Venus deity of varying gender. Ninsianna was referred to as male by Rim-Sin of Larsa (who specifically used the phrase "my king") and in texts from Sippar, Ur, and Girsu, but as "Ishtar of the stars" in god lists and astronomical texts, which also applied Ishtar's epithets related to her role as a personification of Venus to this deity. In some locations Ninsianna was also known as a female deity, in which case her name can be understood as "red queen of heaven." PinikirOriginally an Elamite goddess, recognised in Mesopotamia, and as a result among Hurrians and Hittites, as an equivalent of Ishtar due to similar functions. She was identified specifically as her astral aspect (Ninsianna) in god lists. In a Hittite ritual she was identified by the logogram dIŠTAR and Shamash, Suen and Ningal were referred to as her family; Enki and Ishtar's sukkal were invoked in it as well. in Elam she was a goddess of love and sex and a heavenly deity ("mistress of heaven"). Due to syncretism with Ishtar and Ninsianna Pinikir was referred to as both a female and male deity in Hurro-Hittite sources. ŠauškaHer name was frequently written with the logogram dIŠTAR in Hurrian and Hittite sources, while Mesopotamian texts recognised her under the name "Ishtar of Subartu." Some elements peculiar to her were associated with the Assyrian hypostasis of Ishtar, Ishtar of Nineveh, in later times. Her handmaidens Ninatta and Kulitta were incorporated into the circle of deities believed to serve Ishtar in her temple in Ashur. ### Obsolete theories Some researchers in the past attempted to connect Ishtar to the minor goddess Ashratu, the Babylonian reflection of West Semitic Athirat (Asherah), associated with Amurru, but as demonstrated by Steve A. Wiggins this theory was baseless, as the sole piece of evidence that they were ever conflated or even just confused with each other was the fact Ishtar and Ashratu shared an epithet – however the same epithet was also applied to Marduk, Ninurta, Nergal, and Suen, and no further evidence can be found in sources such as god lists. There is also no evidence that Athtart (Ashtart), the Ugaritic cognate of Ishtar, was ever confused or conflated with Athirat by the Amorites. Sumerian texts -------------- ### Origin myths The poem of *Enki and the World Order* (ETCSL 1.1.3) begins by describing the god Enki and his establishment of the cosmic organization of the universe. Towards the end of the poem, Inanna comes to Enki and complains that he has assigned a domain and special powers to all of the other gods except for her. She declares that she has been treated unfairly. Enki responds by telling her that she already has a domain and that he does not need to assign her one. The myth of "Inanna and the *Huluppu* Tree", found in the preamble to the epic of *Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld* (ETCSL 1.8.1.4), centers around a young Inanna, not yet stable in her power. It begins with a *huluppu* tree, which Kramer identifies as possibly a willow, growing on the banks of the river Euphrates. Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk with the intention to carve it into a throne once it is fully grown. The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm", the *Anzû*-bird, and *Lilitu* (Ki-Sikil-Lil-La-Ke in Sumerian), seen by some as the Sumerian forerunner to the Lilith of Jewish folklore, all take up residence within the tree, causing Inanna to cry with sorrow. The hero Gilgamesh, who, in this story, is portrayed as her brother, comes along and slays the serpent, causing the *Anzû*-bird and Lilitu to flee. Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve its wood into a bed and a throne, which they give to Inanna, who fashions a *pikku* and a *mikku* (probably a drum and drumsticks respectively, although the exact identifications are uncertain), which she gives to Gilgamesh as a reward for his heroism. The Sumerian hymn *Inanna and Utu* contains an etiological myth describing how Inanna became the goddess of sex. At the beginning of the hymn, Inanna knows nothing of sex, so she begs her brother Utu to take her to Kur (the Sumerian underworld), so that she may taste the fruit of a tree that grows there, which will reveal to her all the secrets of sex. Utu complies and, in Kur, Inanna tastes the fruit and becomes knowledgeable. The hymn employs the same motif found in the myth of *Enki and Ninhursag* and in the later Biblical story of Adam and Eve. The poem *Inanna Prefers the Farmer* (ETCSL 4.0.8.3.3) begins with a rather playful conversation between Inanna and Utu, who incrementally reveals to her that it is time for her to marry. She is courted by a farmer named Enkimdu and a shepherd named Dumuzid. At first, Inanna prefers the farmer, but Utu and Dumuzid gradually persuade her that Dumuzid is the better choice for a husband, arguing that, for every gift the farmer can give to her, the shepherd can give her something even better. In the end, Inanna marries Dumuzid. The shepherd and the farmer reconcile their differences, offering each other gifts. Samuel Noah Kramer compares the myth to the later Biblical story of Cain and Abel because both myths center around a farmer and a shepherd competing for divine favor and, in both stories, the deity in question ultimately chooses the shepherd. ### Conquests and patronage *Inanna and Enki* (ETCSL t.1.3.1) is a lengthy poem written in Sumerian, which may date to the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 BCE – c. 2004 BCE); it tells the story of how Inanna stole the sacred *mes* from Enki, the god of water and human culture. In ancient Sumerian mythology, the *mes* were sacred powers or properties belonging to the gods that allowed human civilization to exist. Each *me* embodied one specific aspect of human culture. These aspects were very diverse and the *mes* listed in the poem include abstract concepts such as Truth, Victory, and Counsel, technologies such as writing and weaving, and also social constructs such as law, priestly offices, kingship, and prostitution. The *mes* were believed to grant power over all the aspects of civilization, both positive and negative. In the myth, Inanna travels from her own city of Uruk to Enki's city of Eridu, where she visits his temple, the E-Abzu. Inanna is greeted by Enki's *sukkal*, Isimud, who offers her food and drink. Inanna starts up a drinking competition with Enki. Then, once Enki is thoroughly intoxicated, Inanna persuades him to give her the *mes*. Inanna flees from Eridu in the Boat of Heaven, taking the *mes* back with her to Uruk. Enki wakes up to discover that the mes are gone and asks Isimud what has happened to them. Isimud replies that Enki has given all of them to Inanna. Enki becomes infuriated and sends multiple sets of fierce monsters after Inanna to take back the *mes* before she reaches the city of Uruk. Inanna's *sukkal* Ninshubur fends off all of the monsters that Enki sends after them. Through Ninshubur's aid, Inanna successfully manages to take the *mes* back with her to the city of Uruk. After Inanna escapes, Enki reconciles with her and bids her a positive farewell. It is possible that this legend may represent a historic transfer of power from the city of Eridu to the city of Uruk. It is also possible that this legend may be a symbolic representation of Inanna's maturity and her readiness to become the Queen of Heaven. The poem *Inanna Takes Command of Heaven* is an extremely fragmentary, but important, account of Inanna's conquest of the Eanna temple in Uruk. It begins with a conversation between Inanna and her brother Utu in which Inanna laments that the Eanna temple is not within their domain and resolves to claim it as her own. The text becomes increasingly fragmentary at this point in the narrative, but appears to describe her difficult passage through a marshland to reach the temple while a fisherman instructs her on which route is best to take. Ultimately, Inanna reaches her father An, who is shocked by her arrogance, but nevertheless concedes that she has succeeded and that the temple is now her domain. The text ends with a hymn expounding Inanna's greatness. This myth may represent an eclipse in the authority of the priests of An in Uruk and a transfer of power to the priests of Inanna. Inanna briefly appears at the beginning and end of the epic poem *Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta* (ETCSL 1.8.2.3). The epic deals with a rivalry between the cities of Uruk and Aratta. Enmerkar, the king of Uruk, wishes to adorn his city with jewels and precious metals, but cannot do so because such minerals are only found in Aratta and, since trade does not yet exist, the resources are not available to him. Inanna, who is the patron goddess of both cities, appears to Enmerkar at the beginning of the poem and tells him that she favors Uruk over Aratta. She instructs Enmerkar to send a messenger to the lord of Aratta to ask for the resources Uruk needs. The majority of the epic revolves around a great contest between the two kings over Inanna's favor. Inanna reappears at the end of the poem to resolve the conflict by telling Enmerkar to establish trade between his city and Aratta. ### Justice myths Inanna and her brother Utu were regarded as the dispensers of divine justice, a role which Inanna exemplifies in several of her myths. *Inanna and Ebih* (ETCSL 1.3.2), otherwise known as *Goddess of the Fearsome Divine Powers*, is a 184-line poem written by the Akkadian poet Enheduanna describing Inanna's confrontation with Mount Ebih, a mountain in the Zagros mountain range. The poem begins with an introductory hymn praising Inanna. The goddess journeys all over the entire world, until she comes across Mount Ebih and becomes infuriated by its glorious might and natural beauty, considering its very existence as an outright affront to her own authority. She rails at Mount Ebih, shouting: > Mountain, because of your elevation, because of your height, > > Because of your goodness, because of your beauty, > > Because you wore a holy garment, > > Because An organized(?) you, > > Because you did not bring (your) nose close to the ground, > > Because you did not press (your) lips in the dust. > > Inanna petitions to An, the Sumerian god of the heavens, to allow her to destroy Mount Ebih. An warns Inanna not to attack the mountain, but she ignores his warning and proceeds to attack and destroy Mount Ebih regardless. In the conclusion of the myth, she explains to Mount Ebih why she attacked it. In Sumerian poetry, the phrase "destroyer of Kur" is occasionally used as one of Inanna's epithets. The poem *Inanna and Shukaletuda* (ETCSL 1.3.3) begins with a hymn to Inanna, praising her as the planet Venus. It then introduces Shukaletuda, a gardener who is terrible at his job. All of his plants die, except for one poplar tree. Shukaletuda prays to the gods for guidance in his work. To his surprise, the goddess Inanna sees his one poplar tree and decides to rest under the shade of its branches. Shukaletuda removes her clothes and rapes Inanna while she sleeps. When the goddess wakes up and realizes she has been violated, she becomes furious and determines to bring her attacker to justice. In a fit of rage, Inanna unleashes horrible plagues upon the Earth, turning water into blood. Shukaletuda, terrified for his life, pleads his father for advice on how to escape Inanna's wrath. His father tells him to hide in the city, amongst the hordes of people, where he will hopefully blend in. Inanna searches the mountains of the East for her attacker, but is not able to find him. She then releases a series of storms and closes all roads to the city, but is still unable to find Shukaletuda, so she asks Enki to help her find him, threatening to leave her temple in Uruk if he does not. Enki consents and Inanna flies "across the sky like a rainbow". Inanna finally locates Shukaletuda, who vainly attempts to invent excuses for his crime against her. Inanna rejects these excuses and kills him. Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has cited the story of Shukaletuda as a Sumerian astral myth, arguing that the movements of Inanna in the story correspond with the movements of the planet Venus. He has also stated that, while Shukaletuda was praying to the goddess, he may have been looking toward Venus on the horizon. The text of the poem *Inanna and Bilulu* (ETCSL 1.4.4), discovered at Nippur, is badly mutilated and scholars have interpreted it in a number of different ways. The beginning of the poem is mostly destroyed, but seems to be a lament. The intelligible part of the poem describes Inanna pining after her husband Dumuzid, who is in the steppe watching his flocks. Inanna sets out to find him. After this, a large portion of the text is missing. When the story resumes, Inanna is being told that Dumuzid has been murdered. Inanna discovers that the old bandit woman Bilulu and her son Girgire are responsible. She travels along the road to Edenlila and stops at an inn, where she finds the two murderers. Inanna stands on top of a stool and transforms Bilulu into "the waterskin that men carry in the desert", forcing her to pour the funerary libations for Dumuzid. Descent into the underworld --------------------------- Copy of the Akkadian version of *Ishtar's Descent into the Underworld* from the Library of Assurbanipal, currently held in the British Museum in London, EnglandDepiction of Inanna/Ishtar from the Ishtar Vase, dating to the early second millennium BCE (Mesopotamian, Terracotta with cut, moulded, and painted decoration, from Larsa) Two different versions of the story of Inanna/Ishtar's descent into the underworld have survived: a Sumerian version dating to the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2112 BCE – 2004 BCE) (ETCSL 1.4.1) and a clearly derivative Akkadian version from the early second millennium BCE. The Sumerian version of the story is nearly three times the length of the later Akkadian version and contains much greater detail. ### Sumerian version In Sumerian religion, the *Kur* was conceived of as a dark, dreary cavern located deep underground; life there was envisioned as "a shadowy version of life on earth". It was ruled by Inanna's sister, the goddess Ereshkigal. Before leaving, Inanna instructs her minister and servant Ninshubur to plead with the deities Enlil, Nanna, An, and Enki to rescue her if she does not return after three days. The laws of the underworld dictate that, with the exception of appointed messengers, those who enter it may never leave. Inanna dresses elaborately for the visit; she wears a turban, wig, lapis lazuli necklace, beads upon her breast, the '*pala* dress' (the ladyship garment), mascara, a pectoral, and golden ring, and holds a lapis lazuli measuring rod. Each garment is a representation of a powerful *me* she possesses. Inanna pounds on the gates of the underworld, demanding to be let in. The gatekeeper Neti asks her why she has come and Inanna replies that she wishes to attend the funeral rites of Gugalanna, the "husband of my elder sister Ereshkigal". Neti reports this to Ereshkigal, who tells him: "Bolt the seven gates of the underworld. Then, one by one, open each gate a crack. Let Inanna enter. As she enters, remove her royal garments." Perhaps Inanna's garments, unsuitable for a funeral, along with Inanna's haughty behavior, make Ereshkigal suspicious. Following Ereshkigal's instructions, Neti tells Inanna she may enter the first gate of the underworld, but she must hand over her lapis lazuli measuring rod. She asks why, and is told, "It is just the ways of the underworld." She obliges and passes through. Inanna passes through a total of seven gates, at each one removing a piece of clothing or jewelry she had been wearing at the start of her journey, thus stripping her of her power. When she arrives in front of her sister, she is naked: > After she had crouched down and had her clothes removed, they were carried away. Then she made her sister Erec-ki-gala rise from her throne, and instead she sat on her throne. The Anna, the seven judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her – it was the look of death. They spoke to her – it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her – it was the shout of heavy guilt. The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook. > > Three days and three nights pass, and Ninshubur, following instructions, goes to the temples of Enlil, Nanna, An, and Enki, and pleads with each of them to rescue Inanna. The first three deities refuse, saying Inanna's fate is her own fault, but Enki is deeply troubled and agrees to help. He creates two sexless figures named *gala-tura* and the *kur-jara* from the dirt under the fingernails of two of his fingers. He instructs them to appease Ereshkigal and, when she asks them what they want, ask for the corpse of Inanna, which they must sprinkle with the food and water of life. When they come before Ereshkigal, she is in agony like a woman giving birth. She offers them whatever they want, including life-giving rivers of water and fields of grain, if they can relieve her, but they refuse all of her offers and ask only for Inanna's corpse. The *gala-tura* and the *kur-jara* sprinkle Inanna's corpse with the food and water of life and revive her. *Galla* demons sent by Ereshkigal follow Inanna out of the underworld, insisting that someone else must be taken to the underworld as Inanna's replacement. They first come upon Ninshubur and attempt to take her, but Inanna stops them, insisting that Ninshubur is her loyal servant and that she had rightfully mourned for her while she was in the underworld. They next come upon Shara, Inanna's beautician, who is still in mourning. The demons attempt to take him, but Inanna insists that they may not, because he had also mourned for her. The third person they come upon is Lulal, who is also in mourning. The demons try to take him, but Inanna stops them once again. Finally, they come upon Dumuzid, Inanna's husband. Despite Inanna's fate, and in contrast to the other individuals who were properly mourning her, Dumuzid is lavishly clothed and resting beneath a tree, or upon her throne, entertained by slave-girls. Inanna, displeased, decrees that the *galla* shall take him. The *galla* then drag Dumuzid down to the underworld. Another text known as *Dumuzid's Dream* (ETCSL 1.4.3) describes Dumuzid's repeated attempts to evade capture by the *galla* demons, an effort in which he is aided by the sun-god Utu. In the Sumerian poem *The Return of Dumuzid*, which begins where *The Dream of Dumuzid* ends, Dumuzid's sister Geshtinanna laments continually for days and nights over Dumuzid's death, joined by Inanna, who has apparently experienced a change of heart, and Sirtur, Dumuzid's mother. The three goddesses mourn continually until a fly reveals to Inanna the location of her husband. Together, Inanna and Geshtinanna go to the place where the fly has told them they will find Dumuzid. They find him there and Inanna decrees that, from that point onwards, Dumuzid will spend half of the year with her sister Ereshkigal in the underworld and the other half of the year in Heaven with her, while his sister Geshtinanna takes his place in the underworld. ### Akkadian version This version had two manuscripts found in the Library of Ashurbanipal and a third was found in Asshur, all dating from the first half of the first millennium before the common era. Of the Ninevite version, the first cuneiform version was published in 1873 by François Lenormant, and the transliterated version was published by Peter Jensen in 1901. Its title in Akkadian is *Ana Kurnugê, qaqqari la târi*. The Akkadian version begins with Ishtar approaching the gates of the underworld and demanding the gatekeeper to let her in: > If you do not open the gate for me to come in, > > I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt, > > I shall smash the doorpost and overturn the doors, > > I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living: > > And the dead shall outnumber the living! > > The gatekeeper (whose name is not given in the Akkadian version) hurries to tell Ereshkigal of Ishtar's arrival. Ereshkigal orders him to let Ishtar enter, but tells him to "treat her according to the ancient rites". The gatekeeper lets Ishtar into the underworld, opening one gate at a time. At each gate, Ishtar is forced to shed one article of clothing. When she finally passes the seventh gate, she is naked. In a rage, Ishtar throws herself at Ereshkigal, but Ereshkigal orders her servant Namtar to imprison Ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her. After Ishtar descends to the underworld, all sexual activity ceases on earth. The god Papsukkal, the Akkadian counterpart to Ninshubur, reports the situation to Ea, the god of wisdom and culture. Ea creates an androgynous being called Asu-shu-namir and sends them to Ereshkigal, telling them to invoke "the name of the great gods" against her and to ask for the bag containing the waters of life. Ereshkigal becomes enraged when she hears Asu-shu-namir's demand, but she is forced to give them the water of life. Asu-shu-namir sprinkles Ishtar with this water, reviving her. Then, Ishtar passes back through the seven gates, receiving one article of clothing back at each gate, and exiting the final gate fully clothed. ### Interpretations in modern assyriology Dina Katz, an authority on Sumerian afterlife beliefs and funerary customs, considers the narrative of Inanna's descent to be a combination of two distinct preexisting traditions rooted in broader context of Mesopotamian religion. In one tradition, Inanna was only able to leave the underworld with the help of Enki's trick, with no mention of the possibility of finding a substitute. This part of the myth belongs to the genre of myths about deities struggling to obtain power, glory etc. (such as Lugal-e or Enuma Elish), and possibly served as a representation of Inanna's character as a personification of a periodically vanishing astral body. According to Katz, the fact that Inanna's instructions to Ninshubur contain a correct prediction of her eventual fate, including the exact means of her rescue, show that the purpose of this composition was simply highlighting Inanna's ability to traverse both the heavens and the underworld, much like how Venus was able to rise over and over again. She also points out Inanna's return has parallels in some Udug-hul incantations. Another was simply one of the many myths about the death of Dumuzi (such as *Dumuzi's Dream* or *Inana and Bilulu*; in these myths Inanna is not to blame for his death), tied to his role as an embodiment of vegetation. She considers it possible that the connection between the two parts of the narrative was meant to mirror some well attested healing rituals which required a symbolic substitute of the person being treated. Katz also notes that the Sumerian version of the myth is not concerned with matters of fertility, and points out any references to it (e.g. to nature being infertile while Ishtar is dead) were only added in later Akkadian translations; so was the description of Tammuz's funeral. The purpose of these changes was likely to make the myth closer to cultic traditions linked to Tammuz, namely the annual mourning of his death followed by celebration of a temporary return. According to Katz it is notable that known many copies of the later versions of the myth come from Assyrian cities which were known for their veneration of Tammuz, such as Ashur and Nineveh. ### Other interpretations A number of less scholarly interpretations of the myth arose through the 20th century, many of them rooted in the tradition of Jungian analysis rather than assyriology. Some authors draw comparisons to the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone as well. Monica Otterrmann performed a feminist interpretation of the myth, questioning its interpretation as related to the cycle of nature, claiming that the narratives represent that Inanna's powers were being restricted by the Mesopotamian patriarchy, due to the fact that, according to her, the region was not conducive to fertility. Brandão questions this idea in part, for although Inanna's power is at stake in the Sumerian text, in the Akkadian text the goddess' relationship to fertility and fertilization is at stake. Furthermore, in the Sumerian text Inanna's power is not limited by a man, but by another equally powerful goddess, Ereskigal. Later myths ----------- ### *Epic of Gilgamesh* In the Akkadian *Epic of Gilgamesh*, Ishtar appears to Gilgamesh after he and his companion Enkidu have returned to Uruk from defeating the ogre Humbaba and demands Gilgamesh to become her consort. Gilgamesh refuses her, pointing out that all of her previous lovers have suffered: > Listen to me while I tell the tale of your lovers. There was Tammuz, the lover of your youth, for him you decreed wailing, year after year. You loved the many-coloured Lilac-breasted Roller, but still you struck and broke his wing [...] You have loved the lion tremendous in strength: seven pits you dug for him, and seven. You have loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him you decreed the whip and spur and a thong [...] You have loved the shepherd of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day, he killed kids for your sake. You struck and turned him into a wolf; now his own herd-boys chase him away, his own hounds worry his flanks. > > Infuriated by Gilgamesh's refusal, Ishtar goes to heaven and tells her father Anu that Gilgamesh has insulted her. Anu asks her why she is complaining to him instead of confronting Gilgamesh herself. Ishtar demands that Anu give her the Bull of Heaven and swears that if he does not give it to her, she will "break in the doors of hell and smash the bolts; there will be confusion [i.e., mixing] of people, those above with those from the lower depths. I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living; and the hosts of the dead will outnumber the living." Anu gives Ishtar the Bull of Heaven, and Ishtar sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull and offer its heart to the sun-god Shamash. While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh. Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face, saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side." (Enkidu later dies for this impiety.) Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat. Later in the epic, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the Great Flood, which was sent by the god Enlil to annihilate all life on earth because the humans, who were vastly overpopulated, made too much noise and prevented him from sleeping. Utnapishtim tells how, when the flood came, Ishtar wept and mourned over the destruction of humanity, alongside the Anunnaki. Later, after the flood subsides, Utnapishtim makes an offering to the gods. Ishtar appears to Utnapishtim wearing a lapis lazuli necklace with beads shaped like flies and tells him that Enlil never discussed the flood with any of the other gods. She swears him that she will never allow Enlil to cause another flood and declares her lapis lazuli necklace a sign of her oath. Ishtar invites all the gods except for Enlil to gather around the offering and enjoy. ### *Song of Agushaya* The *Song of Agushaya*, an Akkadian text presumably from the time of Hammurapi, tells a myth mixed with hymnic passages: the war goddess Ishtar is filled with constant wrath and plagues the earth with war and battle. With her roar, she finally even threatens the wise god Ea in Apsû. He appears before the assembly of gods and decides (similar to Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgameš) to create an equal opponent for Ishtar. From the dirt of his fingernails he forms the powerful goddess Ṣaltum ("fight, quarrel"), whom he instructs to confront Ishtar disrespectfully and plague her day and night with her roar. The text section with the confrontation of both goddesses is not preserved, but it is followed by a scene in which Ishtar demands from Ea to call Ṣaltum back, which he does. Subsequently, Ea establishes a festival in which henceforth a "whirl dance" (*gūštû*) is to be performed annually in commemoration of the events. The text ends with the statement that Ishtar's heart has calmed down. ### Other tales A myth about the childhood of the god Ishum, viewed as a son of Shamash, describes Ishtar seemingly temporarily taking care of him, and possibly expressing annoyance at that situation. In a pseudepigraphical Neo-Assyrian text written in the seventh century BCE, but which claims to be the autobiography of Sargon of Akkad, Ishtar is claimed to have appeared to Sargon "surrounded by a cloud of doves" while he was working as a gardener for Akki, the drawer of the water. Ishtar then proclaimed Sargon her lover and allowed him to become the ruler of Sumer and Akkad. In Hurro-Hittite texts the logogram dISHTAR denotes the goddess Šauška, who was identified with Ishtar in god lists and similar documents as well and influenced the development of the late Assyrian cult of Ishtar of Nineveh according to hittitologist Gary Beckman. She plays a prominent role in the Hurrian myths of the Kumarbi cycle. Later influence --------------- ### In antiquity The cult of Inanna/Ishtar may have been introduced to the Kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Manasseh and, although Inanna herself is not directly mentioned in the Bible by name, the Old Testament contains numerous allusions to her cult. Jeremiah 7:18 and Jeremiah 44:15–19 mention "the Queen of Heaven", who is probably a syncretism of Inanna/Ishtar and the West Semitic goddess Astarte. Jeremiah states that the Queen of Heaven was worshipped by women who baked cakes for her. The Song of Songs bears strong similarities to the Sumerian love poems involving Inanna and Dumuzid, particularly in its usage of natural symbolism to represent the lovers' physicality. Song of Songs 6:10 Ezekiel 8:14 mentions Inanna's husband Dumuzid under his later East Semitic name Tammuz, and describes a group of women mourning Tammuz's death while sitting near the north gate of the Temple in Jerusalem. Marina Warner (a literary critic rather than Assyriologist) claims that early Christians in the Middle East assimilated elements of Ishtar into the cult of the Virgin Mary. She argues that the Syrian writers Jacob of Serugh and Romanos the Melodist both wrote laments in which the Virgin Mary describes her compassion for her son at the foot of the cross in deeply personal terms closely resembling Ishtar's laments over the death of Tammuz. However, broad comparisons between Tammuz and other dying gods are rooted in the work of James George Frazer and are regarded as a relic of less rigorous early 20th century Assyriology by more recent publications. The cult of Inanna/Ishtar also heavily influenced the cult of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. The Phoenicians introduced Astarte to the Greek islands of Cyprus and Cythera, where she either gave rise to or heavily influenced the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite took on Inanna/Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation. Furthermore, she was known as Ourania (Οὐρανία), which means "heavenly", a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the Queen of Heaven. Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar to Inanna/Ishtar. Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess; the second-century AD Greek geographer Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as *Aphrodite Areia*, which means "warlike". He also mentions that Aphrodite's most ancient cult statues in Sparta and on Cythera showed her bearing arms. Modern scholars note that Aphrodite's warrior-goddess aspects appear in the oldest strata of her worship and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins. Aphrodite also absorbed Ishtar's association with doves, which were sacrificed to her alone. The Greek word for "dove" was *peristerá*, which may be derived from the Semitic phrase *peraḥ Ištar*, meaning "bird of Ishtar". The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is derived from the story of Inanna and Dumuzid. Classical scholar Charles Penglase has written that Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, resembles Inanna's role as a "terrifying warrior goddess". Others have noted that the birth of Athena from the head of her father Zeus could be derived from Inanna's descent into and return from the Underworld. However, as noted by Gary Beckman, a rather direct parallel to Athena's birth is found in the Hurrian Kumarbi cycle, where Teshub is born from the surgically split skull of Kumarbi, rather than in any Inanna myths. In Mandaean cosmology, one of the names for Venus is *ʿStira*, which is derived from the name Ishtar. Anthropologist Kevin Tuite argues that the Georgian goddess Dali was also influenced by Inanna, noting that both Dali and Inanna were associated with the morning star, both were characteristically depicted nude, (but note that Assyriologists assume the "naked goddess" motif in Mesopotamian art in most cases cannot be Ishtar, and the goddess most consistently depicted as naked was Shala, a weather goddess unrelated to Ishtar) both were associated with gold jewelry, both sexually preyed on mortal men, both were associated with human and animal fertility, (note however that Assyriologist Dina Katz pointed out the references to fertility are more likely to be connected to Dumuzi than Inanna/Ishtar in at least some cases) and both had ambiguous natures as sexually attractive, but dangerous, women. Traditional Mesopotamian religion began to gradually decline between the third and fifth centuries AD as ethnic Assyrians converted to Christianity. Nonetheless, the cult of Ishtar and Tammuz managed to survive in parts of Upper Mesopotamia. In the tenth century AD, an Arab traveler wrote that "All the Sabaeans of our time, those of Babylonia as well as those of Harran, lament and weep to this day over Tammuz at a festival which they, more particularly the women, hold in the month of the same name." Worship of Venus deities possibly connected to Inanna/Ishtar was known in Pre-Islamic Arabia right up until the Islamic period. Isaac of Antioch (d. 406 AD) says that the Arabs worshipped 'the Star' (*kawkabta*), also known as Al-Uzza, which many identify with Venus. Isaac also mentions an Arabian deity named Baltis, which according to Jan Retsö most likely was another designation for Ishtar. In pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions themselves, it appears that the deity known as Allat was also a Venusian deity. Attar, a male god whose name is a cognate of Ishtar's, is a plausible candidate for the role of Arabian Venus deity too on the account of both his name and his epithet "eastern and western." ### Modern relevance In his 1853 pamphlet *The Two Babylons*, as part of his argument that Roman Catholicism is actually Babylonian paganism in disguise, Alexander Hislop, a Protestant minister in the Free Church of Scotland, incorrectly argued that the modern English word *Easter* must be derived from *Ishtar* due to the phonetic similarity of the two words. Modern scholars have unanimously rejected Hislop's arguments as erroneous and based on a flawed understanding of Babylonian religion. Nonetheless, Hislop's book is still popular among some groups of evangelical Protestants and the ideas promoted in it have become widely circulated, especially through the Internet, due to a number of popular Internet memes. Ishtar had a major appearance in *Ishtar and Izdubar*, a book-length poem written in 1884 by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, an American lawyer and businessman, loosely based on the recently translated *Epic of Gilgamesh*. *Ishtar and Izdubar* expanded the original roughly 3,000 lines of the *Epic of Gilgamesh* to roughly 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight cantos. Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and introduced entirely new episodes not found in the original epic. Significantly influenced by Edward FitzGerald's *Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam* and Edwin Arnold's *The Light of Asia*, Hamilton's characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians. In the poem, Izdubar (the earlier misreading for the name "Gilgamesh") falls in love with Ishtar, but, then, "with hot and balmy breath, and trembling form aglow", she attempts to seduce him, leading Izdubar to reject her advances. Several "columns" of the book are devoted to an account of Ishtar's descent into the Underworld. At the conclusion of the book, Izdubar, now a god, is reconciled with Ishtar in Heaven. In 1887, the composer Vincent d'Indy wrote *Symphony Ishtar, variations symphonique, Op. 42*, a symphony inspired by the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum. Inanna has become an important figure in modern feminist theory because she appears in the male-dominated Sumerian pantheon, but is equally as powerful, if not more powerful than, the male deities she appears alongside. Simone de Beauvoir, in her book *The Second Sex* (1949), argues that Inanna, along with other powerful female deities from antiquity, have been marginalized by modern culture in favor of male deities. Tikva Frymer-Kensky has argued that Inanna was a "marginal figure" in Sumerian religion who embodies the "socially unacceptable" archetype of the "undomesticated, unattached woman". Feminist author Johanna Stuckey has argued against this idea, pointing out Inanna's centrality in Sumerian religion and her broad diversity of powers, neither of which seem to fit the idea that she was in any way regarded as "marginal". Assyriologist Julia M. Asher-Greve, who specializes in the study of position of women in antiquity, criticizes Frymer-Kensky's studies of Mesopotamian religion as a whole, highlighting the problems with her focus on fertility, the small selection of sources her works relied on, her view that position of goddesses in the pantheon reflected that of ordinary women in society (so-called "mirror theory"), as well as the fact her works do not accurately reflect the complexity of changes of roles of goddesses in religions of ancient Mesopotamia. Ilona Zsolnay regards Frymer-Kensky's methodology as faulty. #### In Neopaganism and Sumerian reconstructionism Inanna's name is also used to refer to the Goddess in modern Neopaganism and Wicca. Her name occurs in the refrain of the "Burning Times Chant", one of the most widely used Wiccan liturgies. *Inanna's Descent into the Underworld* was the inspiration for the "Descent of the Goddess", one of the most popular texts of Gardnerian Wicca. Paul Thomas, a scholar of new religious movements, has criticized the modern portrayal of Inanna, accusing it of anachronistically imposing modern gender conventions on the ancient Sumerian story, portraying Inanna as a wife and mother, two roles the ancient Sumerians never ascribed to her, while ignoring the more masculine elements of Inanna's cult, particularly her associations with warfare and violence. Gary Beckman, a researcher of religions of ancient Near East, calls neopagan authors "not revivalists, but inventors," and notes that they often incorrectly "view all historically attested female divinities as full or partial manifestations of a single figure," and highlights that while Ishtar did overshadow many other deities, she was never a "single Goddess." In popular culture ------------------ * Features as Gilgamesh's archenemy and a huntress in *SMITE* (2014) under her Ishtar name. * Inanna appears as separate and playable Archer-class, Rider-class, and Avenger-class Servants in *Fate/Grand Order* (2015), under her Ishtar name. Her Avenger-class form is later revealed to be Astarte (stylized in-game as Ashtart), sharing a similar form as Ishtar. * Inanna or Ishtar, sometimes portrayed as entities distinct from each other, appear in various entries of the Megami Tensei franchise. Dates (approximate) ------------------- | | | --- | | **Historical sources** | | **Time** | **Period** | **Source** | | c. 5300–4100 BCE | Ubaid period |   | | c. 4100–2900 BCE | Uruk period | Uruk vase | | c. 2900–2334 BCE | Early Dynastic period |   | | c. 2334–2218 BCE | Akkadian Empire | writings by Enheduanna: *Nin-me-šara*, "The Exaltation of Inanna" *In-nin ša-gur-ra*, "A Hymn to Inanna (Inana C)" *In-nin me-huš-a*, "Inanna and Ebih" *The Temple Hymns* *Hymn to Nanna*, "The Exaltation of Inanna" | | c. 2218–2047 BCE | Gutian Period |   | | c. 2047–1940 BCE | Ur III Period | *Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta* *Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld* *Inanna and Enki* *Inanna's Descent into the Underworld* | See also -------- * Anat * Kali * Lakshmi * Nana (Bactrian goddess) * Isis * Star of Ishtar ### Bibliography * Abdi, Kamyar (2017). "Elamo-Hittitica I: An Elamite Goddess in Hittite Court". *Dabir (Digital Archive of Brief Notes & Iran Review)*. 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Inanna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna

Eight sovereign states have publicly announced successful detonation of nuclear weapons. Five are considered to be **nuclear-weapon states** (**NWS**) under the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons, these are the United States, Russia (the successor of the former Soviet Union), the United Kingdom, France, and China. Of these, the three NATO members, the UK, US, and France, are sometimes termed the P3. Other states that possess nuclear weapons are India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Since the NPT entered into force in 1970, these three states were not parties to the Treaty and have conducted overt nuclear tests. North Korea had been a party to the NPT but withdrew in 2003. Israel is also generally understood to have nuclear weapons, but does not acknowledge it, maintaining a policy of deliberate ambiguity. Israel is estimated to possess somewhere between 75 and 400 nuclear warheads. One possible motivation for *nuclear ambiguity* is deterrence with minimum political cost. States that formerly possessed nuclear weapons are South Africa (developed nuclear weapons but then disassembled its arsenal before joining the NPT) and the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, whose weapons were transferred to Russia. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the worldwide total inventory of nuclear weapons as of 2021 stood at 13,080. Around 30% of these are deployed with operational forces, and more than 90% are owned by either Russia or the United States. In its recent research, SIPRI estimated the total number of nuclear warheads acquired by nuclear states reached 12,512 in January 2023. Approximately 9,576 are kept with military stockpiles. About 3, 844 warheads are deployed with missiles. While 2,000 warheads which are primarily from Russia and United States are maintained for high operational alerts. Statistics and force configuration ---------------------------------- The following is a list of states that have admitted the possession of nuclear weapons or are presumed to possess them, the approximate number of warheads under their control, and the year they tested their first weapon and their force configuration. This list is informally known in global politics as the "Nuclear Club". With the exception of Russia and the United States (which have subjected their nuclear forces to independent verification under various treaties) these figures are estimates, in some cases quite unreliable estimates. In particular, under the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty thousands of Russian and U.S. nuclear warheads are inactive in stockpiles awaiting processing. The fissile material contained in the warheads can then be recycled for use in nuclear reactors. From a high of 70,300 active weapons in 1986, as of 2019[update] there are approximately 3,750 active nuclear warheads and 13,890 total nuclear warheads in the world. Many of the decommissioned weapons were simply stored or partially dismantled, not destroyed. It is also noteworthy that since the dawn of the Atomic Age, the delivery methods of most states with nuclear weapons have evolved—with some achieving a nuclear triad, while others have consolidated away from land and air deterrents to submarine-based forces. Overview of nuclear states and their capacities| Country | Warheads | First Test | CTBT status | Delivery methods | Tests | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Total | Deployed | Date | Site | | United States | 5,244 | 1,670 | 16 July 1945 (*Trinity*) | Alamogordo, New Mexico | Signatory | Nuclear triad | 1,030 | | Russia | 5,889 | 1,674 | 29 August 1949 (*RDS-1*) | Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR | Ratifier | 715 | | United Kingdom | 225 | 120 | 3 October 1952 (*Hurricane*) | Monte Bello Islands, Australia | Sea-based | 45 | | France | 290 | 280 | 13 February 1960 (*Gerboise Bleue*) | Reggane, French Algeria | Sea- and air-based | 210 | | China | 410 | 0 | 16 October 1964 (*596*) | Lop Nur, Xinjiang | Signatory | Nuclear triad | 45 | | India | 164 | 0 | 18 May 1974 (*Smiling Buddha*) | Pokhran**,** Rajasthan | Non-signatory | Nuclear triad | 3 | | Pakistan | 170 | 0 | 28 May 1998 (*Chagai-1*) | Ras Koh Hills, Balochistan | Land- and air-based | 2 | | North Korea | 30 | 0 | 9 October 2006 | Kilju, North Hamgyong | Land- and sea- based | 6 | | Israel | 90 | 0 | 1960–1979 | *Unknown* | Signatory | Suspected nuclear triad | *Unknown* | Recognized nuclear-weapon states -------------------------------- These five states are known to have detonated a nuclear explosive before 1 January 1967 and are thus nuclear weapons states under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. They also happen to be the UN Security Council's (UNSC) permanent members with veto power on UNSC resolutions. ### United States The United States developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II in cooperation with the United Kingdom and Canada as part of the Manhattan Project, out of the fear that Nazi Germany would develop them first. It tested the first nuclear weapon on 16 July 1945 ("Trinity") at 5:30 am, and remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war, devastating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The project expenditure through 1 October 1945 was reportedly $1.845-$2 billion, in nominal terms, roughly 0.8 percent of the US GDP in 1945 and equivalent to about $29 billion in 2020 money. It was the first nation to develop the hydrogen bomb, testing an experimental prototype in 1952 ("Ivy Mike") and a deployable weapon in 1954 ("Castle Bravo"). Throughout the Cold War it continued to modernize and enlarge its nuclear arsenal, but from 1992 on has been involved primarily in a program of stockpile stewardship. The U.S. nuclear arsenal contained 31,175 warheads at its Cold War height (in 1966). During the Cold War, the United States built approximately 70,000 nuclear warheads, more than all other nuclear-weapon states combined. ### Russia (successor to the Soviet Union) The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon ("RDS-1") in 1949. This crash project was developed partially with information obtained via espionage during and after World War II. The Soviet Union was the second nation to have developed and tested a nuclear weapon. The direct motivation for Soviet weapons development was to achieve a balance of power during the Cold War. It tested its first megaton-range hydrogen bomb ("RDS-37") in 1955. The Soviet Union also tested the most powerful explosive ever detonated by humans, ("Tsar Bomba"), with a theoretical yield of 100 megatons, intentionally reduced to 50 when detonated. After its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet weapons entered officially into the possession of the Russian Federation. The Soviet nuclear arsenal contained some 45,000 warheads at its peak (in 1986); the Soviet Union built about 55,000 nuclear warheads since 1949. ### United Kingdom The United Kingdom tested its first nuclear weapon ("Hurricane") in 1952. The UK had provided considerable impetus and initial research for the early conception of the atomic bomb, aided by Austrian, German and Polish physicists working at British universities who had either fled or decided not to return to Nazi Germany or Nazi controlled territories. The UK collaborated closely with the United States and Canada during the Manhattan Project, but had to develop its own method for manufacturing and detonating a bomb as U.S. secrecy grew after 1945. The United Kingdom was the third country in the world, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to develop and test a nuclear weapon. Its programme was motivated to have an independent deterrent against the Soviet Union, while also maintaining its status as a great power. It tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1957 (Operation Grapple), making it the third country to do so after the United States and Soviet Union. The British Armed Forces maintained a fleet of V bomber strategic bombers and ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) equipped with nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The Royal Navy currently maintains a fleet of four *Vanguard*-class ballistic missile submarines equipped with Trident II missiles. In 2016, the UK House of Commons voted to renew the British nuclear weapons system with the *Dreadnought*-class submarine, without setting a date for the commencement of service of a replacement to the current system. ### France France tested its first nuclear weapon in 1960 ("Gerboise Bleue"), based mostly on its own research. It was motivated by the Suez Crisis diplomatic tension in relation to both the Soviet Union and its allies, the United States and United Kingdom. It was also relevant to retain great power status, alongside the United Kingdom, during the post-colonial Cold War (see: Force de frappe). France tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1968 ("Opération Canopus"). After the Cold War, France has disarmed 175 warheads with the reduction and modernization of its arsenal that has now evolved to a dual system based on submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and medium-range air-to-surface missiles (Rafale fighter-bombers). However, new nuclear weapons are in development and reformed nuclear squadrons were trained during Enduring Freedom operations in Afghanistan. France acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992. In January 2006, President Jacques Chirac stated a terrorist act or the use of weapons of mass destruction against France would result in a nuclear counterattack. In February 2015, President François Hollande stressed the need for a nuclear deterrent in "a dangerous world". He also detailed the French deterrent as "fewer than 300" nuclear warheads, three sets of 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and 54 medium-range air-to-surface missiles and urged other states to show similar transparency. ### China China tested its first nuclear weapon device ("596") in 1964 at the Lop Nur test site. The weapon was developed as a deterrent against both the United States and the Soviet Union. Two years later, China had a fission bomb capable of being put onto a nuclear missile. It tested its first hydrogen bomb ("Test No. 6") in 1967, 32 months after testing its first nuclear weapon (the shortest fission-to-fusion development known in history). China is the only NPT nuclear-weapon state to give an unqualified negative security assurance with its "no first use" policy. China acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992. As of 2016, China fielded SLBMs onboard its JL-2 submarines. As of May 2021, China has an estimated total inventory of 350 warheads. The Yearbook published by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in 2023 revealed that China's nuclear warheads stockpile increased by 17% in 2022. According to SIPRI, the Chinese stockpile reached at 410 warheads as of January, 2023. States declaring possession of nuclear weapons ---------------------------------------------- ### India India is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Indian officials rejected the NPT in the 1960s on the grounds that it created a world of nuclear "haves" and "have-nots", arguing that it unnecessarily restricted "peaceful activity" (including "peaceful nuclear explosives"), and that India would not accede to international control of their nuclear facilities unless all other countries engaged in unilateral disarmament of their own nuclear weapons. The Indian position has also asserted that the NPT is in many ways a neo-colonial regime designed to deny security to post-colonial powers. The country tested what is called a "peaceful nuclear explosive" in 1974 (which became known as "Smiling Buddha"). The test was the first test developed after the creation of the NPT, and created new questions about how civilian nuclear technology could be diverted secretly to weapons purposes (dual-use technology). India's secret development caused great concern and anger particularly from nations that had supplied its nuclear reactors for peaceful and power generating needs, such as Canada. After its 1974 test, India maintained that its nuclear capability was primarily "peaceful", but between 1988 and 1990 it apparently weaponized two dozen nuclear weapons for delivery by air. In 1998 India tested weaponized nuclear warheads ("Operation Shakti"), including a thermonuclear device. India adopted a "no first use" policy in 1998. In July 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced plans to conclude an Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. This came to fruition through a series of steps that included India's announced plan to separate its civil and military nuclear programs in March 2006, the passage of the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement by the U.S. Congress in December 2006, the conclusion of a U.S.–India nuclear cooperation agreement in July 2007, approval by the IAEA of an India-specific safeguards agreement, agreement by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to a waiver of export restrictions for India, approval by the U.S. Congress and culminating in the signature of U.S.–India agreement for civil nuclear cooperation in October 2008. The U.S. State Department said it made it "very clear that we will not recognize India as a nuclear-weapon state". The United States is bound by the Hyde Act with India and may cease all cooperation with India if India detonates a nuclear explosive device. The US had further said it is not its intention to assist India in the design, construction or operation of sensitive nuclear technologies through the transfer of dual-use items. In establishing an exemption for India, the Nuclear Suppliers Group reserved the right to consult on any future issues which might trouble it. As of May 2021, India was estimated to have a stockpile of around 160 warheads. ### Pakistan Pakistan is also not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Pakistan covertly developed nuclear weapons over decades, beginning in the late 1970s. Pakistan first delved into nuclear power after the establishment of its first nuclear power plant near Karachi with equipment and materials supplied mainly by western nations in the early 1970s. Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto promised in 1971 that if India could build nuclear weapons then Pakistan would too, according to him: "We will develop Nuclear stockpiles, even if we have to eat grass." It is believed that Pakistan has possessed nuclear weapons since the mid-1980s. The United States continued to certify that Pakistan did not possess such weapons until 1990, when sanctions were imposed under the Pressler Amendment, requiring a cutoff of U.S. economic and military assistance to Pakistan. In 1998, Pakistan conducted its first six nuclear tests at the Ras Koh Hills in response to the five tests conducted by India a few weeks before. In 2004, the Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, a key figure in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, confessed to heading an international black market ring involved in selling nuclear weapons technology. In particular, Khan had been selling gas centrifuge technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Khan denied complicity by the Pakistani government or Army, but this has been called into question by journalists and IAEA officials, and was later contradicted by statements from Khan himself. As of early 2013, Pakistan was estimated to have had a stockpile of around 140 warheads, and in November 2014 it was projected that by 2020 Pakistan would have enough fissile material for 200 warheads. ### North Korea North Korea was a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but announced a withdrawal on 10 January 2003, after the United States accused it of having a secret uranium enrichment program and cut off energy assistance under the 1994 Agreed Framework. In February 2005, North Korea claimed to possess functional nuclear weapons, though their lack of a test at the time led many experts to doubt the claim. In October 2006, North Korea stated that, in response to growing intimidation by the United States, it would conduct a nuclear test to confirm its nuclear status. North Korea reported a successful nuclear test on 9 October 2006 (see 2006 North Korean nuclear test). Most U.S. intelligence officials believed that the test was probably only partially successful with a yield of less than a kiloton. North Korea conducted a second, higher-yield test on 25 May 2009 (see 2009 North Korean nuclear test) and a third test with still-higher yield on 12 February 2013 (see 2013 North Korean nuclear test). North Korea claimed to have conducted its first hydrogen-bomb test on 5 January 2016, though measurements of seismic disturbances indicate that the detonation was not consistent with a hydrogen bomb. On 3 September 2017, North Korea detonated a device, which caused a magnitude 6.1 tremor, consistent with a low-powered thermonuclear detonation; NORSAR estimates the yield at 250 kilotons of TNT. In 2018, North Korea announced a halt in nuclear weapons tests and made a conditional commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula; however, in December 2019, it indicated it no longer considered itself bound by the moratorium. Kim Jong-un officially declared North Korea a nuclear weapons state during a speech on 9 September 2022, the country's foundation day. States indicated to possess nuclear weapons ------------------------------------------- ### Israel Israel is widely believed to have been the sixth country in the world to develop nuclear weapons, but it has not acknowledged its nuclear forces. It had "rudimentary, but deliverable," nuclear weapons available as early as 1966. Israel is not a party to the NPT. Israel engages in strategic ambiguity, saying it would not be the first country to "introduce" nuclear weapons into the region, but refusing to otherwise confirm or deny a nuclear weapons program or arsenal. This policy of "nuclear opacity" has been interpreted as an attempt to get the benefits of deterrence with a minimal political cost. Due to a US ban on funding countries that have weapons of mass destruction, Israel would lose around $2 billion a year in military and other aid from the US if it admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Federation of American Scientists, Israel likely possesses around 80–400 nuclear weapons. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that Israel has approximately 80 intact nuclear weapons, of which 50 are for delivery by Jericho II medium-range ballistic missiles and 30 are gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft. SIPRI also reports that there was renewed speculation in 2012 that Israel may also have developed nuclear-capable submarine-launched cruise missiles. Launch authority ---------------- The decision to use nuclear weapons is always restricted to a single person or small group of people. The United States and France require their respective presidents to approve the use of nuclear weapons. In the US, the Presidential Emergency Satchel is always handled by a nearby aide unless the President is near a command center. The decision rests with the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom. Information from China is unclear, but "the launch of nuclear weapons is commonly believed to rest with the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party." Russia grants such power to the President but may also require approval from the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff. The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces has authority in North Korea. India, Pakistan and Israel have committees for such a decision. Some countries are known to have delegated launch authority to military personnel in the event that the usual launch authority is incapacitated; whether or not the 'pre-delegated' authority exists at any particular time is kept secret. In the United States, some military commanders have been delegated authority to launch nuclear weapons "when the urgency of time and circumstances clearly does not permit a specific decision by the President." Russia has a semi automated Dead Hand system which may allow military commanders to act based on certain pre-defined criteria. British nuclear-armed submarine commanders are issued with "Letters of last resort" written by the Prime Minister containing secret instructions which may or may not give them delegated launch authority. Launch authority of nuclear states| Country | Authority | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | United States United States | President of the United States | See the Presidential Emergency Satchel. | | Russia Russia | President of Russia | Briefcases may also be issued to the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff. | | United Kingdom United Kingdom | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | The Prime Minister and a secretly designated 'second' may order a launch, but this may be challenged by Parliament. | | France France | President of France | | | China China | Central Military Commission | The Chairman of the Central Military Commission is the Supreme Military Commander. | | India India | Prime Minister of India | Nuclear Command Authority includes an Executive Council and a Political Council. | | Pakistan Pakistan | National Command Authority | Requires a consensus of the council's members. | | North Korea North Korea | President of the State Affairs | The president of the State Affairs is the ultimate decisionmaker in regards to North Korea's nuclear arsenal. | | Israel Israel | Prime Minister of Israel | Requires agreement of the Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff. | Nuclear weapons sharing ----------------------- U.S. nuclear weapons in host countries (c. 150 total)| Country | Air base | Custodian | Warheads | | --- | --- | --- | --- | |  Turkey | Incirlik | 39th Air Base Wing | 50 | |  Italy | Aviano | 31st Fighter Wing | 40 | | Ghedi Torre | 52nd Fighter Wing | |  Germany | Büchel | 20 | |  Netherlands | Volkel | 20 | |  Belgium | Kleine Brogel | 20 | Under NATO nuclear weapons sharing, the United States has provided nuclear weapons for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey to deploy and store. This involves pilots and other staff of the "non-nuclear" NATO states practicing, handling, and delivering the U.S. nuclear bombs, and adapting non-U.S. warplanes to deliver U.S. nuclear bombs. However, since all U.S. nuclear weapons are protected with Permissive Action Links, the host states cannot easily arm the bombs without authorization codes from the U.S. Department of Defense. Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga acknowledged the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Italy. U.S. nuclear weapons were also deployed in Canada as well as Greece from 1963 to 1984. However, Canada withdrew three of the four nuclear-capable weapons systems by 1972. The single system retained, the AIR-2 Genie, had a yield of 1.5 kilotons, was designed to strike enemy aircraft as opposed to ground targets, and might not have qualified as a weapon of mass destruction given its limited yield. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement have called on all countries to "refrain from nuclear sharing for military purposes under any kind of security arrangements." The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) has criticized the arrangement for allegedly violating Articles I and II of the NPT, arguing that "these Articles do not permit the NWS to delegate the control of their nuclear weapons directly or indirectly to others." NATO has argued that the weapons' sharing is compliant with the NPT because "the U.S. nuclear weapons based in Europe are in the sole possession and under constant and complete custody and control of the United States." As of April 2019[update], the United States maintained around 150 nuclear weapons in Europe, as reflected in the accompanying table. In June 2022, Russia announced plans for a nuclear weapons sharing agreement with Belarus similar to that the United States has with Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. States formerly possessing nuclear weapons ------------------------------------------ Nuclear weapons have been present in many nations, often as staging grounds under control of other powers. However, in only one instance has a nation given up nuclear weapons after being in full control of them. The fall of the Soviet Union left several former Soviet republics in physical possession of nuclear weapons, though not operational control which was dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. ### South Africa South Africa produced six nuclear weapons in the 1980s, but dismantled them in the early 1990s. In 1979, there was a detection of a putative covert nuclear test in the Indian Ocean, called the Vela incident. It has long been speculated that it was a test by Israel, in collaboration with and with the support of South Africa, though this has never been confirmed. South Africa could not have constructed such a nuclear bomb until November 1979, two months after the "double flash" incident. South Africa acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. ### Former Soviet republics * Belarus had 81 single warhead missiles stationed on its territory after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. They were all transferred to Russia by 1996. In May 1992, Belarus acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On 28 February 2022, Belarus held a constitutional referendum, in which it dropped its non-nuclear status, in light of Belarusian involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In October 2022 Russia announced plans to transfer dual-capable Iskander-M missile systems, although with conventional warheads, and giving Belarusian Su-25s the technical ability to carry nuclear weapons. On 14 June 2023 Belarusian President Lukashenko announced that Russia had delivered nuclear weapons to Belarus that are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs used on Japan during World War Two. * Kazakhstan had 1,400 Soviet-era nuclear weapons on its territory and transferred them all to Russia by 1995, after Kazakhstan acceded to the NPT. * Ukraine had as many as 3,000 nuclear weapons deployed on its territory when it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, equivalent to the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. At the time Ukraine acceded to the NPT in December 1994, Ukraine had agreed to dispose of all nuclear weapons within its territory. The warheads were removed from Ukraine by 1996 and disassembled in Russia. Despite Russia's subsequent and internationally disputed annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine reaffirmed its 1994 decision to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapon state. In connection with their accession to the NPT, all three countries received assurances that their sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity would be respected, as stated in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. This agreement has been violated by Russia since the Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014, during which Russia annexed Crimea, occupied Eastern Ukraine, and in 2022, invaded the remainder of the country with no direct response. ### Stationed countries Up until the 1990s the U.S. had stationed nuclear weapons outside of its territories and sharing countries. #### South Korea #### Taiwan Taiwan was developing capacities to construct nuclear weapons up until the 1970s. During that time the United States stationed some of their arsenal in Taiwan. #### Japan After World War II the U.S. had nuclear weapons stationed in Japan until the 1970s. See also -------- * Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty * Doomsday Clock * Historical nuclear weapons stockpiles and nuclear tests by country * International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons * No first use * Nuclear disarmament * Nuclear latency * Nuclear power * Nuclear program of Iran * Nuclear proliferation * Nuclear terrorism * Nuclear warfare * Nuclear-weapon-free zone Bibliography ------------ * International Institute for Strategic Studies (7 March 2012). Hackett, James (ed.). *The Military Balance 2012*. London, England: Routledge. ISBN 978-1857436426. * Farr, Warner D. (September 1999), *The Third Temple's holy of holies: Israel's nuclear weapons*, The Counterproliferation Papers, Future Warfare Series, vol. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center, Air War College, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, retrieved 2 July 2006. * Philipp C. Bleek, “When Did (and Didn’t) States Proliferate? Chronicling the Spread of Nuclear Weapons,” Discussion Paper (Cambridge, MA: Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, June 2017).

List of states with nuclear weapons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

**Macedonia** (/ˌmæsɪˈdoʊniə/ () *MASS-ih-DOH-nee-ə*; Greek: Μακεδονία, romanized: *Makedonía*, pronounced [maceðoˈni.a] ()) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million (as of 2020). It is highly mountainous, with major urban centres such as Thessaloniki and Kavala being concentrated on its southern coastline. Together with Thrace, along with Thessaly and Epirus occasionally, it is part of Northern Greece. Greek Macedonia encompasses entirely the southern part of the wider region of Macedonia, making up 51% of the total area of that region. Additionally, it widely constitutes Greece's borders with three countries: Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to the northeast. Greek Macedonia incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon, a Greek kingdom ruled by the Argeads, whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. Before the expansion of Macedonia under Philip in the 4th century BC, the kingdom of the Macedonians covered an area corresponding roughly to the administrative regions of Western and Central Macedonia in modern Greece. The name *Macedonia* was later applied to a number of widely-differing administrative areas in the Roman and Byzantine empires. With the gradual conquest of south-eastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps. With the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, the name *Macedonia* was revived in the nineteenth century as a geographical term, and for educated Greeks it corresponded to the ancient historical land. The economic ascent of Thessaloniki and of the other urban centres of Macedonia coincided with the cultural and political renaissance of the Greeks. The leader and coordinator of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia was Emmanouel Pappas from Dovista (in Serres), and the revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia. Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him. The fall and massacre of Naoussa marked the end of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia, and the region remained in the Ottoman empire. In the early 20th century the region was already a national cause, contested among the states of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. After the Macedonian Struggle and the Balkan Wars (in 1912 and 1913), the modern Greek region of Macedonia became part of the modern Greek state in 1912–13, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). It continued as an administrative division of Greece until the reform of 1987, when it was split into the second-level administrative divisions of Western Macedonia and Central Macedonia; while the eastern part, into the Drama-Kavala-Xanthi Super-prefecture until 2010, and part of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace division after 2010. The region is further divided between the third-level administrative divisions of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, and the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia. It also includes the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through the civil administrator of Mount Athos) in its political aspect, and of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in its religious aspect. The region remains an important economic centre for Greece. Macedonia accounts for the majority of Greece's agricultural production and is also a major contributor to the country's industrial and tourism sectors. The metropolis of the region, Thessaloniki is the second-largest city and a major economic, industrial, cultural, commercial and political centre of Greece. Central Macedonia is Greece's fourth-most-popular tourist region and the most popular destination that is not an island. It is home to four UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Aigai (modern day Vergina, about 12 km (7 mi) from Veria), one of the ancient Macedonian capital cities, where the tomb of Philip II of Macedon is located. Pella (about 1 km (0.62 mi) from modern town of Pella and about 7 km (4.3 mi) from Giannitsa), which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great, is also located in the Greek region of Macedonia. Etymology --------- The name *Macedonia* derives from the Greek: Μακεδονία (), a kingdom (later, region) named after the ancient Macedonians, who were the descendants of a Bronze-Age Greek tribe. Their name, Μακεδόνες (*Makedónes*), is cognate to the Ancient Greek adjective μᾰκεδνός (*makednós*), meaning 'tall, slim'. It is traditionally derived from the Indo-European root \*meh₂ḱ-, meaning 'long' or 'slender'. Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes supports the idea that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. However, Beekes' views are not mainstream and De Decker argues that his arguments are insufficient. The region has historically also been known as Македония (Makedonija) in Bulgarian and the local South Slavic dialects, *Makedonya* in Turkish, and *Machedonia* in Aromanian. *Machedonia* is also the name for the region in Megleno-Romanian. History ------- ### Prehistory Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest yet known European humanoid, *Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis*. The *Ouranopithecus macedoniensis* is perhaps the oldest, dating to 9.6–8.7 million years ago. During the early Neolithic period, the settlement of Nea Nikomedeia was developed. In the Late Neolithic period (c. 4500 – c. 3500 BC), trade took place with quite distant regions, indicating rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important innovations was the start of copper working. ### Ancient history According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians. *Macedonia* was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that a branch of the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C. Upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians, triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organised in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in internal Hellenic politics was minimal, even before the rise of Athens. The Macedonians claimed to be Dorian Greeks (Argive Greeks) and there were many Ionians in the coastal regions. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis, Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others, and to the north another tribe dwelt, called the Paeonians. During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea. During the Peloponnesian War, Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Peloponnesian League and the Athenians, and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucydides. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were Dorian, while the Athenians were Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon, was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth. After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and carrying the title of Hegemon of League of Corinth started his long campaign towards the east. After the death of Alexander the Great and the Wars of the Diadochi, Macedonia was a powerful state of Hellenistic Greece. ### Roman period and early Byzantine period Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until the Battle of Pydna (22 June 168 BC), in which the Roman general Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon, ending the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. For a brief period a Macedonian republic called the "Koinon of the Macedonians" was established. It was divided into four administrative districts by the Romans in the hope that this would make revolts more difficult, but this manoeuvre failed. Then in 148 BC, Macedonia was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora, a Paeonian city near the modern city of Veles. Strabo, writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos, Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid. Therefore, ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders (in Greece). To the east, Macedonia ended according to Strabo at the river Strymon, although he mentions that other writers placed Macedonia's border with Thrace at the river Nestos, which is also the present geographical boundary between the two administrative districts of Greece. The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16:9–10) records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a 'man of Macedonia' pleading with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". The passage reports that Paul and his companions responded immediately to the invitation. Subsequently the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly as well as other regions to the north were incorporated into a new Provincia Macedonia, but in 297 AD under a Diocletianic reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris (from 479 to 482 AD Macedonia Secunda). Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo's definition of Macedonia and with the modern administrative district of Greece and had Thessaloniki as its capital, while Macedonia Salutaris had the Paeonian city of Stobi (near Gradsko) as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles' Synecdemon (527–528) and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian. The Slavic, Avar, Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6–7th centuries devastated both provinces with only parts of Macedonia Prima in the coastal areas and nearer Thrace remaining in Byzantine hands, while most of the hinterland was disputed between the Byzantium and Bulgaria. The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the tourma of Macedonia to the province of Thrace. ### Medieval history A new system of administration came into place in 789–802 AD, following the Byzantine empire's recovery from these invasions. The new system was based on administrative divisions called Themata. The region of Macedonia Prima (the territory of modern Greek administrative district of Macedonia) was divided between the Thema of Thessaloniki and the Thema of Strymon, so that only the region of the area from Nestos eastwards continued to carry the name Macedonia, referred to as the Thema of Macedonia or the Thema of "Macedonia in Thrace". The Thema of Macedonia in Thrace had its capital in Adrianople. Familiarity with the Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saints Cyril and Methodius, to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II, all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, was established in the region. It was subdued by the co-founder of the Greek Despotate of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas in 1224, when Greek Macedonia and the city of Thessaloniki were at the heart of the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica. Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, Greek Macedonia remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan. After the Battle of Maritsa (1371), Byzantine rule was reestablished in eastern regions, including Serres. During the 1380s, the region was gradually conquered by the advancing Ottomans, with Serres holding out until 1383, and Thessaloniki until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430 (during the last seven years of which the city was handed over to the Venetians), Thessaloniki and its immediate surrounding area returned to the Ottomans. ### Ottoman rule The capture of Thessaloniki in 1430 threw the Byzantine world into consternation, being regarded correctly as a prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessaloniki: > "While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa, the story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from God, Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it." > > Thessaloniki became a centre of Ottoman administration in the Balkans. While most of Macedonia was ruled by the Ottomans, in Mount Athos the monastic community continued to exist in a state of autonomy. The remainder of the Chalkidiki peninsula also enjoyed an autonomous status: the "Koinon of Mademochoria" was governed by a locally appointed council due to privileges obtained on account of its wealth, coming from the gold and silver mines in the area. ### Modern history There were several uprisings in Macedonia during Ottoman rule, including an uprising after the Battle of Lepanto that ended in massacres of the Greek population, the uprising in Naousa of the armatolos Zisis Karademos in 1705, a rebellion in the area of Grevena by a Klepht called Ziakas (1730–1810). The Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during the Greek War of Independence. The revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia. In the autumn of 1821, Nikolaos Kasomoulis was sent to southern Greece as the "representative of South-East Macedonia", and met Demetrius Ypsilantis. At the beginning of 1822, Anastasios Karatasos and Angelis Gatsos arranged a meeting with other *armatoloi* and decided that the insurrection should be based on three towns: Naoussa, Kastania, and Siatista. In 1854 Theodoros Ziakas, the son of the klepht Ziakas, together with Dimitrios Karatasos, who had been among the captains at the siege of Naousa in 1821, led another uprising in Western Macedonia that has been profusely commemorated in Greek folk song. To strengthen Greek efforts for Macedonia, the Hellenic Macedonian Committee was formed in 1903, under the leadership of Dimitrios Kalapothakis; its members included Ion Dragoumis and Pavlos Melas. Its fighters were known as *Makedonomachoi* ("Macedonian fighters"). Greece helped the Macedonians to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the Young Turk Revolution. The Macedonians fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia. There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating the *Makedonomachoi*, the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes. Greece gained the southern parts of the region (with Thessaloniki), which corresponded to that of ancient Macedonia attributed as part of Greek history and had a strong Greek presence, from the Ottoman Empire after the First Balkan War, and expanded its share in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria. The boundaries of Greek Macedonia were finalised in the Treaty of Bucharest. In World War I, Macedonia became a battlefield. The Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, favoured entering the war on the side of the Entente, while the Germanophile King Constantine I favoured neutrality. Invited by Venizelos, in autumn 1915, the Allies landed forces in Thessaloniki to aid Serbia in its war against Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, but their intervention came too late to prevent the Serbian collapse. The Macedonian front was established, with Thessaloniki at its heart, while in summer 1916 the Bulgarians took over Greek eastern Macedonia without opposition. This provoked a military uprising among pro-Venizelist officers in Thessaloniki, resulting in the establishment of a "Provisional Government of National Defence" in the city, headed by Venizelos, which entered the war alongside the Allies. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Entente and royalist forces the King abdicated, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens in June 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined the war on the side of the Allies. In World War II Macedonia was occupied by the Axis (1941–44), with Germany taking western and central Macedonia with Thessaloniki and Bulgaria occupying and annexing eastern Macedonia. At the beginning of the 19th century, Slavic peasants identified themselves based on belonging to their family, village, or local region, or as "Rum Millet", i.e. members of the Greek-dominated community of Orthodox Christians. The Slavs of Macedonia generally referred to themselves and were known as "Bulgarians". By the middle of the 19th century, peasant communities of Macedonia experienced the formation of deep divisions with rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire. From then, the Slavic speaking communities of northern Greece split into two hostile and opposed groups with two different national identities – Greek and Bulgarian. By the Second World War and following the defeat of Bulgaria, another further split between the Slavic groups occurred. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists who identified as Macedonians (Slavic), joined the communist-dominated rebel Democratic Army of Greece. At the conclusion of the Greek Civil War (1946–49), most Macedonians of Slavic background were evacuated by the Greek Communist Party and forced to flee to the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Some also immigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. Current Greek law still forbids the reentry and restitution of property by Macedonians that are not "Greek by origin." Geography --------- Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous Greek region. The landscape is characterized by variety, since Western and Eastern Macedonia is mountainous with the exception of some fertile valleys, while the Thessaloniki-Giannitsa plain, the largest in Greece, is located in Central Macedonia. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km (50 mi) southwest from Thessaloniki. Some other mountain ranges are Vermio Mountains, Pierian Mountains, Voras Mountains. The islands of Macedonia are Thasos, opposite the coasts of Eastern Macedonia and the port of Kavala, and Ammouliani, opposite the coasts of Central Macedonia, in Chalkidiki. Haliacmon, which flows through Kastoria, Grevena, Kozani, Imathia and Pieria regional units, is the longest river in Greece. Some other rivers are Axios (Vardar), Strymonas, Loudias. Regions and local government ---------------------------- Since 1987 Macedonia has been divided into three regions (Greek: περιφέρειες). These are Western Macedonia, Central Macedonia, and Eastern Macedonia, which is part of the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. These three regions are subdivided into 14 regional units (περιφερειακές ενότητες) which are in turn further divided into municipalities (δήμοι – roughly equivalent to British shires or American Townships). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, while the Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for the coordination and application of the government's policies in all three Macedonian regions. Prior to 1987 Macedonia was a single administrative and geographical unit. The heads of the various administrative units are elected. The last Greek local elections were in 2014, and saw Apostolos Tzitzikostas elected regional governor of Central Macedonia, Giorgos Pavlidis in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and Theodoros Karypidis in Western Macedonia. Tzitzikostas and Pavlidis are members of the centre-right New Democracy party, while Karypidis is an independent. Elections take place in a two-round system, where the two candidates with the most votes face each other in a second round if no one has managed to get a majority of more than 50% of the votes in the first round. Regional councils, mayors, and other officials are also elected in this way. The next local elections will take place in 2019. The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is not an elected position, and is instead appointed at the pleasure of the Prime Minister of Greece. The current Deputy Minister in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is Stavros Kalafatis [el] of New Democracy. The various regions of Greece are also constituencies to the Hellenic Parliament, and Macedonia is represented through its 66 members of parliament. Thessaloniki is split into two constituencies, Thessaloniki A and Thessaloniki B, while Grevena is the smallest constituency with only 1 seat. Thessaloniki A is the second-largest constituency in Greece with 16 MPs. Macedonia is bordered by the neighbouring Greek regions of Thessaly to the south, Thrace (part of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) to the east, and Epirus to the west. It also includes the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos, which has existed as a religious sanctuary since the Middle Ages. The community of the mount Athos is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is inaccessible to women, punishable by a penalty of incarceration of up to twelve months. This has been criticised by the European Parliament. The territory of Mount Athos is a self-governing part of Greece, and the powers of the state are exercised through a governor appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The European Union takes this special status into consideration, particularly on matters of taxation exemption and rights of installation. Macedonia borders the sovereign states of Albania to the north-west, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to the north-east. The table below is a concise list of the various subdivisions of Macedonia: | Map of Macedonia | Subdivisions as of 2011[update] | Capital | Area | Population | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | **West Macedonia** | **Kozani** | **9,451 km2** | **283,689** | | 1. Kastoria | Kastoria | 1,720 km2 | 50,322 | | 2. Florina | Florina | 1,924 km2 | 51,414 | | 3. Kozani | Kozani | 3,516 km2 | 150,196 | | 4. Grevena | Grevena | 2,291 km2 | 31,757 | | | **Central Macedonia** | **Thessaloniki** | **18,811 km2** | **1,882,108** | | 5. Pella | Edessa | 2,506 km2 | 139,680 | | 6. Imathia | Veria | 1,701 km2 | 140,611 | | 7. Pieria | Katerini | 1,516 km2 | 126,698 | | 8. Kilkis | Kilkis | 2,519 km2 | 80,419 | | 9. Thessaloniki | Thessaloniki | 3,683 km2 | 1,110,551 | | 10. Chalkidiki | Polygyros | 2,918 km2 | 105,908 | | 11. Serres | Serres | 3.968 km2 | 176,430 | | | **East Macedonia**(Part of East Macedonia and Thrace) | **Kavala** | **5,579 km2** | **238,785** | | 12. Drama | Drama | 3,468 km2 | 98,287 | | 13. Kavala | Kavala | 1,728 km2 | 124,917 | | 14. Thasos | Thasos | 379 km2 | 13,770 | | | 15. Mount Athos (autonomous) | Karyes | 336 km2 | 1,811 | | Macedonia (total) | Thessaloniki | 34,177 km2 | 2,406,393 | Economy and transport --------------------- The Gross Domestic Product of Macedonia peaked at €41.99 billion ($47.44 billion) in nominal value and €46.87 billion ($52.95 billion) in purchasing power parity just before the Great Recession in 2008; it has since then contracted to its lowest point in 2015, during the Greek government-debt crisis, to €30.85 billion ($34.85 billion) and €38.17 billion ($43.12 billion); a decrease of 26.5%. Greece exited its recession, which began in 2009, in 2016 but data from that year onward is not available for the whole of Macedonia; Central Macedonia grew by 0.57% in real terms that year to €23.85 billion ($26.94 billion), while Western Macedonia contracted by 10.6% to €3.85 billion ($4.35 billion). Almost half of the economy, 49%, is centred in the Thessaloniki regional unit, which remained in a recession in 2015, declining by 0.4%. The recession had an impact on the per capita income of the region, especially when compared with the European Union average. Western Macedonia, the region with the highest per capita income, saw it drop from 83% the EU average in 2008 to 59% in 2016. The per capita income of Macedonia in 2015 was €12,900 in nominal and €15,900 in purchasing power terms. The Macedonian economy is primarily service-based, with services contributing €16.46 billion (60.4%) of the region's gross value added in 2015. The industrial and agricultural sectors contributed €9.06 billion (33.3%) and €1.72 billion (6.3%) respectively. The regional labour force was similarly mostly employed in services (60.4%), with industry and agriculture making up 25.6% and 14.0% of the labour force. Macedonia is home to Greece's richest farmland, and the region accounts for 9,859 square kilometres (3,807 sq mi) of the country's agricultural area (30% of total). Macedonia's agricultural production has historically been dominated by tobacco, with the cash crop being grown in large quantities due to its value. Central and Western Macedonia still produce 41% of Greece's total tobacco, but it only represents 1.4% of these regions' agricultural production value. Nowadays the regional agricultural economy is centered around cereal, fruit, and industrial crops. Overall Central and Western Macedonia account for 25% of the value of Greek agricultural produce (including 41% of fruit and 43% cereal). A brand identity for products made in Macedonia, called "Macedonia the GReat", was launched in 2019 by the Greek government. The European Union considers most of Macedonia to be a less developed region of the Union for its 2014–2020 funding cycle, and so the region has in recent years benefited from a number of megaprojects co-financed by the Greek government and the EU. These included the Egnatia Odos freeway (€5.93 billion) and the Thessaloniki Metro (€1.85 billion) while the railway network has also been partly electrified, allowing Thessaloniki to be linked with Athens in 3.5 hours through a high speed railway. The Thessaloniki Suburban Railway links the regional capital with Florina, in Western Macedonia, and Larissa, in Thessaly. Thessaloniki Airport is the third-busiest in the country, and the Athens–Thessaloniki air route was the EU's tenth busiest in 2016. Macedonia's three other airports are Kavala Airport, Kozani Airport, and Kastoria Airport; the two busiest airports, Thessaloniki and Kavala, are operated by Fraport. The Port of Thessaloniki is Greece's second-largest in domestic freight and fourth-largest in international freight by tonnage, while Kavala is Macedonia's other major port. Macedonia, being a border region of an EU member state, benefits from EU programs promoting cross-border economic collaboration both between members of the Union (Bulgaria), as well as the Republic of North Macedonia, an EU candidate country, and Albania. The EU invested €210 million ($237.24 million) in these three programmes for the 2014–2020 funding cycle. A€10 billion ($11.3 billion) Egnatia Railway crossing Macedonia and linking Alexandroupoli in Western Thrace with Igoumenitsa in Epirus was proposed to the European Commission in 2017 but remains in planning with a projected start date in 2019. If completed, the 565 km (351 mi) railway line will be Europe's largest rail megaproject. Tourism ------- Central Macedonia is the most popular tourist destination in Greece that is not an island, and its fourth overall, outperforming all other regions of the Greek mainland with 9.7 million overnight stays in 2017. There were a further 2.1 million stays in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and 294 thousand in Western Macedonia. Macedonia is a diverse region which allows it to cater to a variety of different types of tourism. The Chalkidiki peninsula is Macedonia's most popular beach destination, combining 550 kilometres (340 mi) of sandy beaches with dense forests. There were 116 Blue Flag beaches in Macedonia in 2018, 85 of which were in Chalkidiki. Additionally, the region was home to three Blue Flag marinas and one sustainable boating tourism operator. Kavala is an important economic centre of Northern Greece, a center of commerce, tourism, fishing and oil-related activities. Pieria combines extensive plains, high mountains and sandy beaches and the region's beauty gives it a great potential for further tourist development. The island of Thasos, lying close to the coast of eastern Macedonia, is another tourist destination. Chalkidiki is home to Mount Athos, which is an important centre of religious tourism. The mountainous interior allows for hiking activities and adventure sports, while ski resorts like Vasilitsa also operate in the winter months. Macedonia is home to four of Greece's 18 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Vergina is best known as the site of ancient Aigai (Αἰγαί, *Aigaí*, Latinized: *Aegae*), the first capital of Macedon. Aigai has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. In 336 BC Philip II was assassinated in Aigai's theatre and his son, Alexander the Great, was proclaimed king. The most important recent finds were made in 1977 when the burial sites of several kings of Macedon were found, including the tomb of Philip II of Macedon. It is also the site of an extensive royal palace. The archaeological museum of Vergina was built to house all the artifacts found at the site and is one of the most important museums in Greece. Pella, which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC, is also located in Central Macedonia, as well as Dion in Pieria and Amphipolis. Philippi, located in eastern Macedonia, is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. These are important poles for cultural tourism. Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments, including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. Apart from being the cultural centre of Macedonia, Thessaloniki is also a hub for urban tourism and gastronomy. Macedonia is also home to various lake and wetland tourist destinations. Culture ------- ### Religion The main religion in the Greek region of Macedonia is Christianity, with majority of population belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church. In early centuries of Christianity, the see of Thessaloniki became the metropolitan diocese of the ancient Roman province of Macedonia. The archbishop of Thessaloniki also became the senior ecclesiastical primate of the entire Eastern Illyricum, and in 535 his jurisdiction was reduced to the administrative territory of the Diocese of Macedonia. In the 8th century, from Rome it came under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and remained the main ecclesiastical centre in the historical region of Macedonia throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the modern times. ### Macedonian cuisine Contemporary Greek Macedonian cooking shares much with general Greek and wider Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes from the Ottoman past. Specific influences include dishes of the Pontic, Aromanian, Armenian and Sephardi Jewish population. The mix of the different people inhabiting the region gave the name to the *Macedonian salad*. ### Macedonian music Music of Macedonia is the music of the geographic region of Macedonia in Greece, which is a part of the music of whole region of Macedonia. Notable element of the local folk music is the use of trumpets and koudounia (called *chálkina* in the local dialect). Demographics ------------ In 2011 the permanent population of the region stood at 2,406,393 residents, a decrease from 2,422,533 in 2001. As of 2017, the population of Macedonia is estimated to have further decreased to 2,382,857. In the 2011 Greek census the capital city, Thessaloniki, had an urban population of 824,676, up from 794,330 in 2001, while its metropolitan population increased to over a million. 281,458 people in Macedonia (or 12% of the population) were born in a foreign country, compared to 11.89% for the whole of Greece. 51.32% of the population was female, and 48.68% male. Like the rest of Greece Macedonia is faced with an aging population; the largest age group in the region is that of the over 70, at 15.59% of the population, while the 0–9 and 10–19 groups combined made up 20.25% of the population. The largest urban centres in Macedonia in 2011 were: |    Largest cities and towns in Macedonia (Greece)Greek census 2011 | | --- | | | Rank | | Pop. | Rank | | Pop. | | | ThessalonikiThessalonikiSerresSerres | 1 | Thessaloniki | 824,676 | 11 | Oraiokastro | 20,852 | KateriniKateriniKavalaKavala | | 2 | Serres | 58,287 | 12 | Naousa | 18,882 | | 3 | Katerini | 55,997 | 13 | Peraia | 18,326 | | 4 | Kavala | 54,027 | 14 | Edessa | 18,229 | | 5 | Drama | 44,823 | 15 | Florina | 14,279 | | 6 | Veria | 43,158 | 16 | Thermi | 16,004 | | 7 | Kozani | 41,066 | 17 | Alexandria | 17,686 | | 8 | Ptolemaida | 32,127 | 18 | Kastoria | 13,387 | | 9 | Giannitsa | 29,789 | 19 | Grevena | 13,137 | | 10 | Kilkis | 22,914 | 20 | Diavata | 9,890 | ### Demographic history The inhabitants of Greek Macedonia are nowadays overwhelmingly ethnic Greeks, and most are also Greek Orthodox Christians. From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, the ethnic composition of the region of Macedonia is characterised by uncertainty both about numbers and identification. The earliest estimation we have is from the Greek consulate of Thessaloniki in 1884, which according to it the nowadays Greek region of Macedonia had 1,073,000 Greeks (Grecophones, Slavophones, Albanophones), 565,000 Muslims, 215,000 Bulgarians and 16,000 Aromanians. The 1904 Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha people were assigned to ethnicity according which church/language they belonged, it recorded 373,227 Greeks in the vilayet of Selânik (Thessaloniki), 261,283 Greeks in the vilayet of Monastir (Bitola) and 13,452 Greeks in the villayet of Kosovo. Of those 648,962 Greeks by church, 307,000 identified as Greek speakers, while about 250,000 as Slavic speakers and 99,000 as "Vlach" (Aromanian or Megleno-Romanian). However, these figures extend to territories both inside and outside of Greek Macedonia. Hugh Poulton, in his *Who Are the Macedonians*, notes that "assessing population figures is problematic" for the territory of Greek Macedonia before its incorporation into the Greek state in 1913. The area's remaining population was principally composed of Ottoman Turks (including non-Turkish Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin) and also a sizeable community of mainly Sephardic Jews (centred in Thessaloniki), and smaller numbers of Romani, Albanians, Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians. When Macedonia was first incorporated in Greece in 1913, however, Greeks were a marginal plurality in the region. The treaties of Neuilly (1919) and Lausanne (1923) mandated a forceful exchange of populations with Bulgaria and Turkey respectively, and some 776,000 Greek refugees (mostly from Turkey) were resettled in Macedonia, displacing 300,000–400,000 non-Greeks who were forced to move as part of the population exchange. The population of ethnic minorities in Macedonia dropped from 48% of the total population in 1920 to 12% in 1928, with the Great Greek Encyclopedia noting in 1934 that those minorities that remained "do not yet possess a Greek national consciousness". The population of Macedonia was greatly affected by the Second World War, as it was militarily occupied by Nazi Germany while its ally, Bulgaria, annexed eastern Macedonia. Germany administered its occupation zone by implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, which saw some 43,000–49,000 of Thessaloniki's 56,000 Jews exterminated in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. In its own zone of annexation, Bulgaria actively persecuted the local Greek population with the help of Bulgarian collaborationists. Further demographic change happened in the aftermath of the Greek Civil War, when many Slavs of Macedonia who fought on the side of the Democratic Army of Greece and fought to separate Greek Macedonia from the rest of Greece under the auspices of Yugoslavia, left Greece. These expatriates were the primary source of ethnic Macedonian irredentism and the appropriation of ancient Macedonian heritage. ### Regional identity Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, *Makedónes* [makeˈðones]) is the term by which ethnic Greeks originating from the region are known. Macedonians came to be of particular importance prior to the Balkan Wars, during the Macedonian Struggle, when they were a minority population inside the multiethnic Ottoman Macedonia. The Macedonians now have a strong regional identity, manifested both in Greece and by emigrant groups in the Greek diaspora. This sense of identity has been highlighted in the context of the Macedonia naming dispute in the aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia, in which Greece objected to its northern neighbour calling itself the "Republic of Macedonia". This objection is the direct result of this regional identity, and a matter of heritage for northern Greeks. A characteristic expression of this self-identification was manifested by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis at a meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2007, declaring that "I myself am a Macedonian, and another two and a half million Greeks are Macedonians". In the early-to-mid 20th century Greece was invaded by Bulgaria three times with the aim of capturing portions Macedonia; during the Second Balkan War, during the First World War, and during the Second World War. Additionally, Nazi Germany had promised Thessaloniki to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis powers. The perceived existence of a foreign danger had a particularly strong effect on the emergence of a distinct regional identity in Macedonia. The representation of the Macedonian Struggle in Penelope Delta's popular 1937 teen novel *Secrets of the Swamp* solidified the image of the chauvinist clash between Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia in the minds of many Greeks. Bulgaria was specifically mentioned as the enemy in Greek Macedonia's unofficial anthem, Famous Macedonia, the reference only being replaced by vague 'Barbarians' with the normalization of Greco-Bulgarian relations in the 1970s. During the same period, Manolis Andronikos made major archaeological discoveries at Aigai, the first capital of ancient Macedonia, which included the tomb of Phillip II, Alexander the Great's father. His discoveries were drawn upon as evidence of ethnic and cultural links between the ancient Macedonians and southern Greek city-states by Greeks in Macedonia. The distinct regional identity of Greek Macedonians is also the product of the fact that it was closer to the centres of power in both the Byzantine and Ottoman period, was considered culturally, politically, and strategically more important than other parts of Greece during these two periods, and also the fact that the region had a far more ethnically and religiously diverse population in both the medieval and Ottoman periods. In the late Byzantine period Greek Macedonia had also been the centre of significant Byzantine successor states, such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the short-lived state established by the rival Byzantine emperor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, and – in parts of western Macedonia – the Despotate of Epirus, all of which helped promote a distinct Greek Macedonian identity. In the contemporary period this is reinforced by Greek Macedonia's proximity to other states in the southern Balkans, the continuing existence of ethnic and religious minorities in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace not found in southern Greece, and the fact that migrants and refugees from elsewhere in the Balkans, southern Russia, and Georgia (including Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks from northeastern Anatolia and the south Caucasus) have usually gravitated to Greek Macedonia rather than southern Greece. ### Languages and minorities Right: The Megleno-Romanian and the Aromanian linguistic area. Left: Map of the Megleno-Romanians settlements. Greek is the majority language throughout Greece today, with an estimated 5% of the population speaking a language other than Greek, and is the only language of administration and education in the region. Greek is spoken universally in Greek Macedonia, even in the border regions where there is a strong presence of languages other than Greek. The Greek government exhibits some tolerance toward the use of minority languages, though Greece is one of the countries which has not signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; a number of court cases have been brought to the attention of the European Parliament regarding the suppression of minority linguistic rights. Apart from Standard Modern Greek, a number of other Greek dialects are spoken in Macedonia. This includes Pontic Greek, a language spoken originally on the shores of the Black Sea in northeastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, as well as a dialect indigenous to Greek Macedonia and other parts of Northern Greece known as *Sarakatsánika* (Greek: Σαρακατσάνικα); spoken by the traditionally transhumant Greek subgroup of Sarakatsani. Macedonia is also home to an array of non-Greek languages. Slavic languages are the most prevalent minority languages in the region, while Aromanian, Arvanitic, Megleno-Romanian, Turkish, and Romani are also spoken. Judaeo-Spanish, also known as *Ladino*, was historically the language of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, although the Holocaust nearly eradicated the city's previously-vibrant Jewish community of 70,000 to a mere 3,000 individuals today. The exact size of the linguistic and ethnic minority groups in Macedonia is not known with any degree of scientific accuracy, as Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since 1951. Aromanians form a minority population throughout much of Macedonia. They largely identify as Greeks and most belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, many refusing to be called a minority group. In the 1951 census they numbered 39,855 in all Greece (the number in Macedonia proper is unknown). Many Aromanian villages can be found along the slopes of the Vermion Mountains and Mount Olympus. Smaller numbers can be found in the Prespes region and near the Gramos mountains. Megleno-Romanians can be found in the Moglena region of Macedonia. The Megleno-Romanian language is traditionally spoken in the 11 Megleno-Romanian villages spread across Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia, including Archangelos, Notia, Lagkadia, and Skra. They are generally adherents to the Orthodox Church while the former majority in Notia was Muslim. Arvanite communities exist in Serres regional unit, while many can also be found in Thessaloniki. There are three Arvanite villages in the Florina regional unit (Drosopigi, Lechovo and Flampouro) with others located in Kilkis and Thessaloniki regional units. Other minority groups include Armenians and Romani. Romani communities are concentrated mainly around the city of Thessaloniki. An uncertain number of them live in Macedonia from the total of about 200,000–300,000 that live scattered on all the regions of Greece. #### Ethnic Macedonian minority and language The Macedonian language, a member of the South Slavic languages closely related to Bulgarian, is today spoken mostly in the regional units of Florina and Pella. Due to the sensitivity of the use of term 'Macedonian', the language is euphemistically referred to as *dópia* (ντόπια, 'local') or *nasi* (Macedonian: наши or naši, 'our (language)'). The exact number of the minority is difficult to know as Greece has not collected data on languages as part of its census since 1951. The 1928 census listed 81,984 speakers of 'Slavomacedonian' in Greece, but internal government documents from the 1930s put the number of Macedonian speakers in the Florina prefecture alone at 80,000 or 61% of the population. A field study conducted in 1993 in these two regions under the auspices of the European Parliament found that of the 74 villages studied, Macedonian was spoken in various degrees of vitality in 49 villages and was the primary language in 15 villages. To a lesser extent Macedonian is also present in the regional units of Kastoria, Imathia, Kilkis, Thessaloniki, Serres, and Drama. The Greek language remains dominant in all regions, even in those where Macedonian and other minority languages are present. The total number of 'slavic speakers' in Greece is estimated to range between as low as 10,000 and as high as 300,000. Greece has had varied policies toward the Macedonian language. In 1925 the Greek government introduced the first Macedonian alphabet book, known as the *Abecedar*, based on the Florina dialect of the language; this never entered classrooms due to opposition from Serbia and Bulgaria, as well as an outcry against it in Greece. Efforts to assimilate resulted in instances of populations rejecting their Slavic language, as in the village of Atropos in 1959, where the villagers took "the oath before God" to cease speaking the local Slavic idiom and to only speak Greek. The Macedonian language has survived despite efforts by Greek authorities to assimilate the population into the Greek majority. The vast number of Macedonian speakers are ethnic Greeks or possess a Greek national consciousness. It is difficult to ascertain the number of those with a different national consciousness, but estimates of the number of people within Greece that possess an ethnic Macedonian national identity range between 5,000–30,000. Greece claims to respect the human rights of all its citizens, including the rights of individuals to self-identify, but also claims its policy of not recognising an ethnic Macedonian minority is based "on solid legal and factual grounds". However, reports by organisations such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the United States Department of State have all concluded that Greek authorities are actively discriminatory against the existence of a Macedonian language, minority, or national identity, even if the situation has improved markedly. An ethnic Macedonian political party, Rainbow, has competed in Greek elections for the European Parliament since 1995. In the 2019 election it received 6,364 votes or 0.11% of the national vote and came 35th in the results table, with most its support coming from Florina where it received 3.33% of the vote. #### Jews of Thessaloniki and other cities Northern Greece has had Jewish communities since ancient times, including the historically-significant and Greek-speaking Romaniote community. During the Ottoman era Thessaloniki became the centre of a Sephardi community which comprised more than half the city's population, as Ottoman authorities invited Jews who had been expelled from Castille in the aftermath of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 to resettle in the Ottoman Empire. The community nicknamed the city *la madre de Israel* (the mother of Israel) and *Jerusalem of the Balkans*, and brought with it the Judaeo-Spanish, or *Ladino*, language which became the mother tongue of Thessaloniki Jews. By the 1680s about 300 families of Sephardi followers of Sabbatai Zevi had converted to Islam, becoming a sect known as the *Dönmeh* (converts), and migrated to Thessaloniki, whose population was by that time majority-Jewish. They established an active community that thrived for about 250 years. Many of their descendants later became prominent in trade. Thessaloniki Jews later became pioneers of socialism and the labour movement in Greece. Between the 15th and early 20th centuries, Thessaloniki was the only city in Europe where Jews were a majority of the population. The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 destroyed much of the city and left 50,000 Jews homeless. Many Jews emigrated to the United States, Palestine, and Paris after the loss of their livelihoods, being unable to wait for the government to create a new urban plan for rebuilding, which was eventually done. The aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War and the expulsion of Greeks from Turkey saw nearly 100,000 ethnic Greeks resettled in Thessaloniki, reducing the proportion of Jews in the total community. Following the demographic shift, Jews made up about 20% of the city's population. During the interwar period, Greece granted the Jews the same civil rights as other Greek citizens. In March 1926, Greece re-emphasised that all citizens of Greece enjoyed equal rights, and a considerable proportion of the city's Jews decided to stay. According to Misha Glenny, such Greek Jews had largely not encountered "anti-Semitism as in its North European form". Though antisemitism was used both by the Metaxas dictatorship and by newspapers such as *Makedonia* as part of the wider mechanism for identifying leftists, Greek Jews were either neutral or supportive of Metaxas. By the 1940s, the great majority of the Jewish Greek community firmly identified as both Greek and Jewish. World War II was disastrous for Greek Jews; the Battle of Greece saw Greek Macedonia occupied by Italy, Bulgaria, and Nazi Germany, with the latter occupying much of Central Macedonia and implementing the Nuremberg Laws against the Jewish population. Greeks of the Resistance and Italian forces (before 1943) tried to protect the Jews and managed to save some. In 1943 the Nazis began actions against the Jews in Thessaloniki, forcing them into a ghetto near the railroad lines and beginning their deportation to concentration camps in German-occupied territories. They deported 56,000 of the city's Jews, by use of 19 Holocaust trains, to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, where 43,000–49,000 of them were killed. Today, a community of around 1,200 remains in the city. Communities of descendants of Thessaloniki Jews – both Sephardic and Romaniote – live in other areas, mainly the United States and Israel. Other cities of Greek Macedonia with significant Jewish population (Romaniote or Sephardi) in the past included Veria, Kavala and Kastoria. See also -------- * Geographic regions of Greece * List of Macedonians (Greek) * Macedonians (Greeks) * Macedonia (ancient kingdom) * Macedonia (region) * Macedonia (terminology) ### Bibliography * Agnew, John (June 2007). "No Borders, No Nations: Making Greece in Macedonia". *Annals of the Association of American Geographers*. Taylor & Francis. **97** (2): 398–422. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00545.x. JSTOR 4620269. S2CID 4780566. * Council of Europe, Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (2001). "Special Regulations for Particular Areas – the Legal Status of Aghion Oros". *Structure and operation of Local and Regional Democracy*. Council of Europe. ISBN 92-871-4644-6. * Elster, Ernestine S.; Renfrew, Colin, eds. (2003). *Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968–1970*. Monumenta Archaeologica 20. Vol. 2. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. ISBN 1-931745-03-X. * Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1994) [1987]. *The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest*. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4. * Renfrew, Colin; Gimbutas, Marija; Elster, Ernestine S., eds. (1986). *Excavations at Sitagroi: a Prehistoric Village in Northeast Greece*. Monumenta Archaeologica 13. Vol. 2. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. ISBN 0-917956-51-6. * Renfrew, Colin (1969). "The Autonomy of the South-east European Copper Age". *Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society*. **35**: 12–47. doi:10.1017/s0079497x00013396. S2CID 131372437. Retrieved 11 May 2009. * Rodden, R.J.; Wardle, K.A., eds. (1996). *Nea Nikomedeia: the Excavation of an Early Neolithic Village in Northern Greece 1961–1963*. Supplementary series 25. Vol. 1. Athens: British School of Athens. * Nesbitt, John; Oikonomides, Nicolas, eds. (1991). *Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea*. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. ISBN 0-88402-194-7. * Roudometof, Victor (2002). *Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question*. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0275976483. * Samsaris, Dimitrios C. (1976). *Historical Geography of Eastern Macedonia during the Antiquity (in Greek)* (PDF). Society for Macedonian Studies,Thessaloniki. ISBN 960-7265-16-5. * Samsaris, Dimitrios C. (1989). *Historical Geography of the Roman province of Macedonia (The Department of Western Macedonia today) (in Greek)* (PDF). Society for Macedonian Studies,Thessaloniki. ISBN 960-7265-01-7. * Souvatzi, Stella G. (2008). *A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece : an Anthropological Approach*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83689-0. * Treadgold, Warren (1995). "The Roman Army's Second Millenium". *Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081*. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3163-2. [*sic*] * Vacalopoulos, Apostolos E. (1973). *History of Macedonia, 1354–1833 (translated by P. Megann)*. Zeno Publishers. ISBN 0-900834-89-7. * Wardle, K.A. (1997). "The Prehistory of Northern Greece: a Geographical Perspective". *Afieroma to N.G.L. Hammond*. Society of Macedonian Studies. ISBN 960-7265-36-X.

Macedonia (Greece)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(Greece)

**Colombia** (/kəˈlʌmbiə/ (), /-ˈlɒm-/; Spanish: [koˈlombja] ()), officially the **Republic of Colombia**, is a country mostly in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub, and other major urbes include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), and has a population of around 52 million. Colombia is the largest Spanish-speaking country in South America. Its cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by mass immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by the African diaspora, as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is the official language, although English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally. Colombia has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La Guajira in 1499, and by the mid-16th century they had colonized much of present-day Colombia, and established the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santa Fé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire was achieved in 1819, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858) and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before becoming a republic—the current Republic of Colombia—in 1886. With the backing of the United States and France, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Beginning in the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability and rule of law, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development. Colombia is recognized for its health system, being the best healthcare in the Americas according to The World Health Organization and 22nd on the planet, In 2022, 26 Colombian hospitals were among the 61 best in Latin America (42% total). Also in 2023, two Colombian hospitals were among the Top 75 of the world. Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries; it has the third-highest level of biodiversity in the world. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands and deserts. It is the only country in South America with coastlines (and islands) along both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Colombia is a key member of major global and regional organizations including the UN, the WTO, the OECD, the OAS, the Pacific Alliance and the Andean Community; it is also a NATO Global Partner. Its diversified economy is the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable long-term growth prospects. Etymology --------- The name "Colombia" is derived from the last name of the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (Latin: *Christophorus Columbus*, Italian: *Cristoforo Colombo*, Spanish: *Cristóbal Colón*). It was conceived as a reference to all of the New World. The name was later adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819, formed from the territories of the old Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and northwest Brazil). When Venezuela, Ecuador, and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, the former Department of Cundinamarca adopted the name "Republic of New Granada". New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was again changed, this time to United States of Colombia, before finally adopting its present name – the Republic of Colombia – in 1886. To refer to this country, the Colombian government uses the terms *Colombia* and *República de Colombia*. History ------- ### Pre-Columbian era Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human civilization from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to the Andes and Amazon basin. The oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 kilometers (62 mi) southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period (18,000–8000 BCE). At Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period (~8000–2000 BCE) have been found. Vestiges indicate that there was also early occupation in the regions of El Abra and Tequendama in Cundinamarca. The oldest pottery discovered in the Americas, found at San Jacinto, dates to 5000–4000 BCE. Indigenous people inhabited the territory that is now Colombia by 12,500 BCE. Nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes at the El Abra, Tibitó and Tequendama sites near present-day Bogotá traded with one another and with other cultures from the Magdalena River Valley. A site including eight miles (13 km) of pictographs that is under study at Serranía de la Lindosa was revealed in November 2020. Their age is suggested as being 12,500 years old (c. 10,480 B.C.) by the anthropologists working on the site because of extinct fauna depicted. That would have been during the earliest known human occupation of the area now known as Colombia. Between 5000 and 1000 BCE, hunter-gatherer tribes transitioned to agrarian societies; fixed settlements were established, and pottery appeared. Beginning in the 1st millennium BCE, groups of Amerindians including the Muisca, Zenú, Quimbaya, and Tairona developed the political system of *cacicazgos* with a pyramidal structure of power headed by *caciques*. The Muisca inhabited mainly the area of what is now the Departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca high plateau (*Altiplano Cundiboyacense*) where they formed the Muisca Confederation. They farmed maize, potato, quinoa, and cotton, and traded gold, emeralds, blankets, ceramic handicrafts, coca and especially rock salt with neighboring nations. The Tairona inhabited northern Colombia in the isolated mountain range of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Quimbaya inhabited regions of the Cauca River Valley between the Western and Central Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Most of the Amerindians practiced agriculture and the social structure of each indigenous community was different. Some groups of indigenous people such as the Caribs lived in a state of permanent war, but others had less bellicose attitudes. ### Colonial period Alonso de Ojeda (who had sailed with Columbus) reached the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. Spanish explorers, led by Rodrigo de Bastidas, made the first exploration of the Caribbean coast in 1500. Christopher Columbus navigated near the Caribbean in 1502. In 1508, Vasco Núñez de Balboa accompanied an expedition to the territory through the region of Gulf of Urabá and they founded the town of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in 1510, the first stable settlement on the continent. Santa Marta was founded in 1525, and Cartagena in 1533. Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led an expedition to the interior in April 1536, and christened the districts through which he passed "New Kingdom of Granada". In August 1538, he founded provisionally its capital near the Muisca cacicazgo of Muyquytá, and named it "Santa Fe". The name soon acquired a suffix and was called Santa Fe de Bogotá. Two other notable journeys by early conquistadors to the interior took place in the same period. Sebastián de Belalcázar, conqueror of Quito, traveled north and founded Cali, in 1536, and Popayán, in 1537; from 1536 to 1539, German conquistador Nikolaus Federmann crossed the Llanos Orientales and went over the Cordillera Oriental in a search for El Dorado, the "city of gold". The legend and the gold would play a pivotal role in luring the Spanish and other Europeans to New Granada during the 16th and 17th centuries. The conquistadors made frequent alliances with the enemies of different indigenous communities. Indigenous allies were crucial to conquest, as well as to creating and maintaining empire. Indigenous peoples in New Granada experienced a decline in population due to conquest as well as Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox, to which they had no immunity. Regarding the land as deserted, the Spanish Crown sold properties to all persons interested in colonized territories, creating large farms and possession of mines. In the 16th century, the nautical science in Spain reached a great development thanks to numerous scientific figures of the Casa de Contratación and nautical science was an essential pillar of the Iberian expansion. In 1542, the region of New Granada, along with all other Spanish possessions in South America, became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with its capital in Lima. In 1547, New Granada became a separate captaincy-general within the viceroyalty, with its capital at Santa Fe de Bogota. In 1549, the Royal Audiencia was created by a royal decree, and New Granada was ruled by the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogotá, which at that time comprised the provinces of Santa Marta, Rio de San Juan, Popayán, Guayana and Cartagena. But important decisions were taken from the colony to Spain by the Council of the Indies. In the 16th century, European slave traders had begun to bring enslaved Africans to the Americas. Spain was the only European power that did not establish factories in Africa to purchase slaves; the Spanish Empire instead relied on the asiento system, awarding merchants from other European nations the license to trade enslaved peoples to their overseas territories. This system brought Africans to Colombia, although many spoke out against the institution. The indigenous peoples could not be enslaved because they were legally subjects of the Spanish Crown. To protect the indigenous peoples, several forms of land ownership and regulation were established by the Spanish colonial authorities: *resguardos*, *encomiendas* and *haciendas*. However, secret anti-Spanish discontentment was already brewing for Colombians since Spain prohibited direct trade between the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included Colombia, and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included the Philippines, the source of Asian products like silk and porcelain which was in demand in the Americas. Illegal trade between Peruvians, Filipinos, and Mexicans continued in secret, as smuggled Asian goods ended up in Córdoba, Colombia, the distribution center for illegal Asian imports, due to the collusion between these peoples against the authorities in Spain. They settled and traded with each other while disobeying the forced Spanish monopoly. The Viceroyalty of New Granada was established in 1717, then temporarily removed, and then re-established in 1739. Its capital was Santa Fé de Bogotá. This Viceroyalty included some other provinces of northwestern South America that had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalties of New Spain or Peru and correspond mainly to today's Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. So, Bogotá became one of the principal administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in the New World, along with Lima and Mexico City, though it remained somewhat backward compared to those two cities in several economic and logistical ways. Great Britain declared war on Spain in 1739, and the city of Cartagena quickly became a top target for the British. A massive British expeditionary force was dispatched to capture the city, but after initial inroads devastating outbreaks of disease crippled their numbers and the British were forced to withdraw. The battle became one of Spain's most decisive victories in the conflict, and secured Spanish dominance in the Caribbean until the Seven Years' War. The 18th-century priest, botanist and mathematician José Celestino Mutis was delegated by Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora to conduct an inventory of the nature of New Granada. Started in 1783, this became known as the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada. It classified plants and wildlife, and founded the first astronomical observatory in the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá. In July 1801 the Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt reached Santa Fe de Bogotá where he met with Mutis. In addition, historical figures in the process of independence in New Granada emerged from the expedition as the astronomer Francisco José de Caldas, the scientist Francisco Antonio Zea, the zoologist Jorge Tadeo Lozano and the painter Salvador Rizo. ### Independence Since the beginning of the periods of conquest and colonization, there were several rebel movements against Spanish rule, but most were either crushed or remained too weak to change the overall situation. The last one that sought outright independence from Spain sprang up around 1810 and culminated in the Colombian Declaration of Independence, issued on 20 July 1810, the day that is now celebrated as the nation's Independence Day. This movement followed the independence of St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) in 1804, which provided some support to an eventual leader of this rebellion: Simón Bolívar. Francisco de Paula Santander also would play a decisive role. A movement was initiated by Antonio Nariño, who opposed Spanish centralism and led the opposition against the Viceroyalty. Cartagena became independent in November 1811. In 1811, the United Provinces of New Granada were proclaimed, headed by Camilo Torres Tenorio. The emergence of two distinct ideological currents among the patriots (federalism and centralism) gave rise to a period of instability. Shortly after the Napoleonic Wars ended, Ferdinand VII, recently restored to the throne in Spain, unexpectedly decided to send military forces to retake most of northern South America. The viceroyalty was restored under the command of Juan Sámano, whose regime punished those who participated in the patriotic movements, ignoring the political nuances of the juntas. The retribution stoked renewed rebellion, which, combined with a weakened Spain, made possible a successful rebellion led by the Venezuelan-born Simón Bolívar, who finally proclaimed independence in 1819. The pro-Spanish resistance was defeated in 1822 in the present territory of Colombia and in 1823 in Venezuela. The territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada became the Republic of Colombia, organized as a union of the current territories of Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, parts of Guyana and Brazil and north of Marañón River. The Congress of Cúcuta in 1821 adopted a constitution for the new Republic. Simón Bolívar became the first President of Colombia, and Francisco de Paula Santander was made Vice President. However, the new republic was unstable and the Gran Colombia ultimately collapsed. Modern Colombia comes from one of the countries that emerged after the dissolution of Gran Colombia, the other two being Ecuador and Venezuela. Colombia was the first constitutional government in South America, and the Liberal and Conservative parties, founded in 1848 and 1849, respectively, are two of the oldest surviving political parties in the Americas. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1851. Internal political and territorial divisions led to the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830. The so-called "Department of Cundinamarca" adopted the name "New Granada", which it kept until 1858 when it became the "Confederación Granadina" (Granadine Confederation). After a two-year civil war in 1863, the "United States of Colombia" was created, lasting until 1886, when the country finally became known as the Republic of Colombia. Internal divisions remained between the bipartisan political forces, occasionally igniting very bloody civil wars, the most significant being the Thousand Days' War (1899–1902). ### 20th century The United States of America's intentions to influence the area (especially the Panama Canal construction and control) led to the separation of the Department of Panama in 1903 and the establishment of it as a nation. The United States paid Colombia $25,000,000 in 1921, seven years after completion of the canal, for redress of President Roosevelt's role in the creation of Panama, and Colombia recognized Panama under the terms of the Thomson–Urrutia Treaty. Colombia and Peru went to war because of territory disputes far in the Amazon basin. The war ended with a peace deal brokered by the League of Nations. The League finally awarded the disputed area to Colombia in June 1934. Soon after, Colombia achieved some degree of political stability, which was interrupted by a bloody conflict that took place between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, a period known as *La Violencia* ("The Violence"). Its cause was mainly mounting tensions between the two leading political parties, which subsequently ignited after the assassination of the Liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. The ensuing riots in Bogotá, known as El Bogotazo, spread throughout the country and claimed the lives of at least 180,000 Colombians. Colombia entered the Korean War when Laureano Gómez was elected president. It was the only Latin American country to join the war in a direct military role as an ally of the United States. Particularly important was the resistance of the Colombian troops at Old Baldy. The violence between the two political parties decreased first when Gustavo Rojas deposed the President of Colombia in a coup d'état and negotiated with the guerrillas, and then under the military junta of General Gabriel París. After Rojas' deposition, the Colombian Conservative Party and Colombian Liberal Party agreed to create the National Front, a coalition that would jointly govern the country. Under the deal, the presidency would alternate between conservatives and liberals every 4 years for 16 years; the two parties would have parity in all other elective offices. The National Front ended "La Violencia", and National Front administrations attempted to institute far-reaching social and economic reforms in cooperation with the Alliance for Progress. Despite the progress in certain sectors, many social and political problems continued, and guerrilla groups were formally created such as the FARC, the ELN and the M-19 to fight the government and political apparatus. Since the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict between government forces, leftist guerrilla groups and right wing paramilitaries. The conflict escalated in the 1990s, mainly in remote rural areas. Since the beginning of the armed conflict, human rights defenders have fought for the respect for human rights, despite staggering opposition. Several guerrillas' organizations decided to demobilize after peace negotiations in 1989–1994. The United States has been heavily involved in the conflict since its beginnings, when in the early 1960s the U.S. government encouraged the Colombian military to attack leftist militias in rural Colombia. This was part of the U.S. fight against communism. Mercenaries and multinational corporations such as Chiquita Brands International are some of the international actors that have contributed to the violence of the conflict. Beginning in the mid-1970s Colombian drug cartels became major producers, processors and exporters of illegal drugs, primarily marijuana and cocaine. On 4 July 1991, a new Constitution was promulgated. The changes generated by the new constitution are viewed as positive by Colombian society. ### 21st century The administration of President Álvaro Uribe (2002–2010) adopted the democratic security policy which included an integrated counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency campaign. The government economic plan also promoted confidence in investors. As part of a controversial peace process, the AUC (right-wing paramilitaries) had ceased to function formally as an organization . In February 2008, millions of Colombians demonstrated against FARC and other outlawed groups. After peace negotiations in Cuba, the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the guerrillas of the FARC-EP announced a final agreement to end the conflict. However, a referendum to ratify the deal was unsuccessful. Afterward, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal in November 2016, which the Colombian congress approved. In 2016, President Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Government began a process of attention and comprehensive reparation for victims of conflict. Colombia shows modest progress in the struggle to defend human rights, as expressed by HRW. A Special Jurisdiction of Peace has been created to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law which occurred during the armed conflict and to satisfy victims' right to justice. During his visit to Colombia, Pope Francis paid tribute to the victims of the conflict. In June 2018, Ivan Duque, the candidate of the right-wing Democratic Center party, won the presidential election. On 7 August 2018, he was sworn in as the new President of Colombia to succeed Juan Manuel Santos. Colombia's relations with Venezuela have fluctuated due to ideological differences between the two governments. Colombia has offered humanitarian support with food and medicines to mitigate the shortage of supplies in Venezuela. Colombia's Foreign Ministry said that all efforts to resolve Venezuela's crisis should be peaceful. Colombia proposed the idea of the Sustainable Development Goals and a final document was adopted by the United Nations. In February 2019, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombian President Ivan Duque had helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their country. Colombia recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country's legitimate president. In January 2020, Colombia rejected Maduro's proposal that the two countries restore diplomatic relations. Protests started on 28 April 2021 when the government proposed a tax bill which would greatly expand the range of the 19 percent value-added tax. The 19 June 2022 election run-off vote ended in a win for former guerrilla, Gustavo Petro, taking 50.47% of the vote compared to 47.27% for independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández. The single-term limit for the country's presidency prevented president Iván Duque from seeking re-election. On 7 August 2022, Petro was sworn in, becoming the country's first leftist president. Geography --------- The geography of Colombia is characterized by its six main natural regions that present their own unique characteristics, from the Andes mountain range region shared with Ecuador and Venezuela; the Pacific Coastal region shared with Panama and Ecuador; the Caribbean coastal region shared with Venezuela and Panama; the *Llanos* (plains) shared with Venezuela; the Amazon rainforest region shared with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador; to the insular area, comprising islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Colombia is bordered to the northwest by Panama, to the east by Venezuela and Brazil, and to the south by Ecuador and Peru; it established its maritime boundaries with neighboring countries through seven agreements on the Caribbean Sea and three on the Pacific Ocean. It lies between latitudes 12°N and 4°S and between longitudes 67° and 79°W. East of the Andes lies the savanna of the *Llanos*, part of the Orinoco River basin, and in the far southeast, the jungle of the Amazon rainforest. Together these lowlands make up over half Colombia's territory, but they contain less than 6% of the population. To the north the Caribbean coast, home to 21.9% of the population and the location of the major port cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena, generally consists of low-lying plains, but it also contains the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, which includes the country's tallest peaks (Pico Cristóbal Colón and Pico Simón Bolívar), and the La Guajira Desert. By contrast the narrow and discontinuous Pacific coastal lowlands, backed by the Serranía de Baudó mountains, are sparsely populated and covered in dense vegetation. The principal Pacific port is Buenaventura. Part of the Ring of Fire, a region of the world subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in the interior of Colombia the Andes are the prevailing geographical feature. Most of Colombia's population centers are located in these interior highlands. Beyond the Colombian Massif (in the southwestern departments of Cauca and Nariño), these are divided into three branches known as *cordilleras* (mountain ranges): the Cordillera Occidental, running adjacent to the Pacific coast and including the city of Cali; the Cordillera Central, running between the Cauca and Magdalena River valleys (to the west and east, respectively) and including the cities of Medellín, Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia; and the Cordillera Oriental, extending northeast to the Guajira Peninsula and including Bogotá, Bucaramanga, and Cúcuta. Peaks in the Cordillera Occidental exceed 4,700 m (15,420 ft), and in the Cordillera Central and Cordillera Oriental they reach 5,000 m (16,404 ft). At 2,600 m (8,530 ft), Bogotá is the highest city of its size in the world. The main rivers of Colombia are Magdalena, Cauca, Guaviare, Atrato, Meta, Putumayo and Caquetá. Colombia has four main drainage systems: the Pacific drain, the Caribbean drain, the Orinoco Basin and the Amazon Basin. The Orinoco and Amazon Rivers mark limits with Colombia to Venezuela and Peru respectively. ### Climate The climate of Colombia is characterized for being tropical presenting variations within six natural regions and depending on the altitude, temperature, humidity, winds and rainfall. Colombia has a diverse range of climate zones, including tropical rainforests, savannas, steppes, deserts and mountain climates. Mountain climate is one of the unique features of the Andes and other high altitude reliefs where climate is determined by elevation. Below 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) in elevation is the warm altitudinal zone, where temperatures are above 24 °C (75.2 °F). About 82.5% of the country's total area lies in the warm altitudinal zone. The temperate climate altitudinal zone located between 1,001 and 2,000 meters (3,284 and 6,562 ft) is characterized for presenting an average temperature ranging between 17 and 24 °C (62.6 and 75.2 °F). The cold climate is present between 2,001 and 3,000 meters (6,565 and 9,843 ft) and the temperatures vary between 12 and 17 °C (53.6 and 62.6 °F). Beyond lies the alpine conditions of the forested zone and then the treeless grasslands of the páramos. Above 4,000 meters (13,123 ft), where temperatures are below freezing, the climate is glacial, a zone of permanent snow and ice. ### Biodiversity and conservation Colombia is one of the megadiverse countries in biodiversity, ranking first in bird species. Colombia is the country with the planet's highest biodiversity, having the highest rate of species by area as well as the largest number of endemisms (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country. About 10% of the species of the Earth live in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird, more than in Europe and North America combined. Colombia has 10% of the world's mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species and 18% of the bird species of the world. As for plants, the country has between 40,000 and 45,000 plant species, equivalent to 10 or 20% of total global species, which is even more remarkable given that Colombia is considered a country of intermediate size. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, lagging only after Brazil which is approximately 7 times bigger. Colombia has about 2,000 species of marine fish and is the second most diverse country in freshwater fish. It is also the country with the most endemic species of butterflies, is first in orchid species, and has approximately 7,000 species of beetles. Colombia is second in the number of amphibian species and is the third most diverse country in reptiles and palms. There are about 1,900 species of mollusks and according to estimates there are about 300,000 species of invertebrates in the country. In Colombia there are 32 terrestrial biomes and 314 types of ecosystems. Protected areas and the "National Park System" cover an area of about 14,268,224 hectares (142,682.24 km2) and account for 12.77% of the Colombian territory. Compared to neighboring countries, rates of deforestation in Colombia are still relatively low. Colombia had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.26/10, ranking it 25th globally out of 172 countries. Colombia is the sixth country in the world by magnitude of total renewable freshwater supply, and still has large reserves of freshwater. ### Bioms and ecosystems in Colombia * Pacific coastPacific coast * Caribbean coastCaribbean coast * DesertsDeserts * PlainsPlains * GrasslandsGrasslands * SteppesSteppes * WetlandsWetlands * Dry forestsDry forests * Gallery forestsGallery forests * Amazon RainforestAmazon Rainforest * Tropical rainforestsTropical rainforests * SavannasSavannas * ChaparralChaparral * Andean forestsAndean forests * PáramosPáramos * GlaciersGlaciers Government and politics ----------------------- The government of Colombia takes place within the framework of a presidential participatory democratic republic as established in the Constitution of 1991. In accordance with the principle of separation of powers, government is divided into three branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. As the head of the executive branch, the President of Colombia serves as both head of state and head of government, followed by the Vice President and the Council of Ministers. The president is elected by popular vote to serve a single four-year term (In 2015, Colombia's Congress approved the repeal of a 2004 constitutional amendment that changed the one-term limit for presidents to a two-term limit). At the provincial level executive power is vested in department governors, municipal mayors and local administrators for smaller administrative subdivisions, such as *corregimientos* or *comunas*. All regional elections are held one year and five months after the presidential election. The legislative branch of government is represented nationally by the Congress, a bicameral institution comprising a 166-seat Chamber of Representatives and a 102-seat Senate. The Senate is elected nationally and the Chamber of Representatives is elected in electoral districts. Members of both houses are elected to serve four-year terms two months before the president, also by popular vote. The judicial branch is headed by four high courts, consisting of the Supreme Court which deals with penal and civil matters, the Council of State, which has special responsibility for administrative law and also provides legal advice to the executive, the Constitutional Court, responsible for assuring the integrity of the Colombian constitution, and the Superior Council of Judicature, responsible for auditing the judicial branch. Colombia operates a system of civil law, which since 2005 has been applied through an adversarial system. Despite a number of controversies, the democratic security policy has ensured that former President Álvaro Uribe remained popular among Colombian people, with his approval rating peaking at 76%, according to a poll in 2009. However, having served two terms, he was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election in 2010. In the run-off elections on 20 June 2010 the former Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos won with 69% of the vote against the second most popular candidate, Antanas Mockus. A second round was required since no candidate received over the 50% winning threshold of votes. Santos won re-election with nearly 51% of the vote in second-round elections on 15 June 2014, beating right-wing rival Óscar Iván Zuluaga, who won 45%. In 2018, Iván Duque won in the second round of the election with 54% of the vote, against 42% for his left-wing rival, Gustavo Petro. His term as Colombia's president ran for four years, beginning on 7 August 2018. In 2022, Colombia elected Gustavo Petro, who became its first leftist leader, and Francia Marquez, who was the first black person elected as vice president. ### Foreign affairs The foreign affairs of Colombia are headed by the President, as head of state, and managed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Colombia has diplomatic missions in all continents. Colombia was one of the four founding members of the Pacific Alliance, which is a political, economic and co-operative integration mechanism that promotes the free circulation of goods, services, capital and persons between the members, as well as a common stock exchange and joint embassies in several countries. Colombia is also a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Andean Community of Nations. Colombia is a global partner of NATO. ### Military The executive branch of government is responsible for managing the defense of Colombia, with the President commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence exercises day-to-day control of the military and the Colombian National Police. Colombia has 455,461 active military personnel. In 2016, 3.4% of the country's GDP went towards military expenditure, placing it 24th in the world. Colombia's armed forces are the largest in Latin America, and it is the second largest spender on its military after Brazil. In 2018, Colombia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Colombian military is divided into three branches: the National Army of Colombia; the Colombian Air Force; and the Colombian Navy. The National Police functions as a gendarmerie, operating independently from the military as the law enforcement agency for the entire country. Each of these operates with their own intelligence apparatus separate from the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI, in Spanish). The National Army is formed by divisions, brigades, special brigades, and special units, the Colombian Navy by the Naval Infantry, the Naval Force of the Caribbean, the Naval Force of the Pacific, the Naval Force of the South, the Naval Force of the East, Colombia Coast Guards, Naval Aviation, and the Specific Command of San Andres y Providencia and the Air Force by 15 air units. The National Police has a presence in all municipalities. ### Administrative divisions Colombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district, which is treated as a department (Bogotá also serves as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca). Departments are subdivided into municipalities, each of which is assigned a municipal seat, and municipalities are in turn subdivided into *corregimientos* in rural areas and into *comunas* in urban areas. Each department has a local government with a governor and assembly directly elected to four-year terms, and each municipality is headed by a mayor and council. There is a popularly elected local administrative board in each of the *corregimientos* or *comunas*. In addition to the capital, four other cities have been designated districts (in effect special municipalities), on the basis of special distinguishing features. These are Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Buenaventura. Some departments have local administrative subdivisions, where towns have a large concentration of population and municipalities are near each other (for example, in Antioquia and Cundinamarca). Where departments have a low population (for example Amazonas, Vaupés and Vichada), special administrative divisions are employed, such as "department *corregimientos*", which are a hybrid of a municipality and a *corregimiento*. Click on a department on the map below to go to its article. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | Department | Capital city | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Flag of the Department of Amazonas Amazonas | Leticia | | 2 | Flag of the Department of Antioquia Antioquia | Medellín | | 3 | Flag of the Department of Arauca Arauca | Arauca | | 4 | Flag of the Department of Atlántico Atlántico | Barranquilla | | 5 | Flag of the Department of Bolívar Bolívar | Cartagena | | 6 | Flag of the Department of Boyacá Boyacá | Tunja | | 7 | Flag of the Department of Caldas Caldas | Manizales | | 8 | Flag of the Department of Caquetá Caquetá | Florencia | | 9 | Flag of the Department of Casanare Casanare   | Yopal | | 10 | Flag of the Department of Cauca Cauca | Popayán | | 11 | Flag of the Department of Cesar Cesar | Valledupar       | | 12 | Flag of the Department of Chocó Chocó | Quibdó | | 13 | Flag of the Department of Córdoba Córdoba | Montería | | 14 | Flag of the Department of Cundinamarca Cundinamarca | Bogotá | | 15 | Flag of the Department of Guainía Guainía | Inírida | | 16 | Flag of the Department of Guaviare Guaviare | San José del Guaviare | | 17 | Flag of the Department of Huila Huila | Neiva | | | | Department | Capital city | | --- | --- | --- | | 18 | Flag of La Guajira La Guajira   | Riohacha | | 19 | Flag of the Department of Magdalena Magdalena | Santa Marta | | 20 | Flag of the Department of Meta Meta | Villavicencio | | 21 | Flag of the Department of Nariño Nariño | Pasto | | 22 | Flag of the Department of Norte de Santander Norte de Santander | Cúcuta | | 23 | Flag of the Department of Putumayo Putumayo | Mocoa | | 24 | Flag of the Department of Quindío Quindío | Armenia | | 25 | Flag of the Department of Risaralda Risaralda | Pereira | | 26 | Flag of the Department of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina San Andrés, Providenciaand Santa Catalina | San Andrés | | 27 | Flag of the Department of Santander Santander | Bucaramanga | | 28 | Flag of the Department of Sucre Sucre | Sincelejo | | 29 | Flag of the Department of Tolima Tolima | Ibagué | | 30 | Flag of the Department of Valle del Cauca Valle del Cauca | Cali | | 31 | Flag of the Department of Vichada Vaupés | Mitú | | 32 | Flag of the Department of Vichada Vichada | Puerto Carreño | | 33 | Flag of Bogotá Bogotá | Bogotá | | Economy ------- Historically an agrarian economy, Colombia urbanized rapidly in the 20th century, by the end of which just 15.8% of the workforce were employed in agriculture, generating just 6.6% of GDP; 19.6% of the workforce were employed in industry and 64.6% in services, responsible for 33.4% and 59.9% of GDP respectively. The country's economic production is dominated by its strong domestic demand. Consumption expenditure by households is the largest component of GDP. Colombia's market economy grew steadily in the latter part of the 20th century, with gross domestic product (GDP) increasing at an average rate of over 4% per year between 1970 and 1998. The country suffered a recession in 1999 (the first full year of negative growth since the Great Depression), and the recovery from that recession was long and painful. However, in recent years growth has been impressive, reaching 6.9% in 2007, one of the highest rates of growth in Latin America. According to International Monetary Fund estimates, in 2012, Colombia's GDP (PPP) was US$500 billion (28th in the world and third in South America). Total government expenditures account for 27.9 percent of the domestic economy. External debt equals 39.9 percent of gross domestic product. A strong fiscal climate was reaffirmed by a boost in bond ratings. Annual inflation closed 2017 at 4.09% YoY (vs. 5.75% YoY in 2016). The average national unemployment rate in 2017 was 9.4%, although the informality is the biggest problem facing the labour market (the income of formal workers climbed 24.8% in 5 years while labor incomes of informal workers rose only 9%). Colombia has free-trade zones (FTZ), such as Zona Franca del Pacifico, located in the Valle del Cauca, one of the most striking areas for foreign investment. The financial sector has grown favorably due to good liquidity in the economy, the growth of credit and the positive performance of the Colombian economy. The Colombian Stock Exchange through the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA) offers a regional market to trade equities. Colombia is now one of only three economies with a perfect score on the strength of legal rights index, according to the World Bank. Colombia is rich in natural resources, and it is heavily dependent on energy and mining exports. Colombia's main exports include mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, fruit and other agricultural products, sugars and sugar confectionery, food products, plastics, precious stones, metals, forest products, chemical goods, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, electronic products, electrical equipment, perfumery and cosmetics, machinery, manufactured articles, textile and fabrics, clothing and footwear, glass and glassware, furniture, prefabricated buildings, military products, home and office material, construction equipment, software, among others. Principal trading partners are the United States, China, the European Union and some Latin American countries. Non-traditional exports have boosted the growth of Colombian foreign sales as well as the diversification of destinations of export thanks to new free trade agreements. Recent economic growth has led to a considerable increase of new millionaires, including the new entrepreneurs, Colombians with a net worth exceeding US$1 billion. In 2017, however, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) reported that 26.9% of the population were living below the poverty line, of which 7.4% were in "extreme poverty". The multidimensional poverty rate stands at 17.0 percent of the population. The Government has also been developing a process of financial inclusion within the country's most vulnerable population. The contribution of tourism to GDP was US$5,880.3bn (2.0% of total GDP) in 2016. Tourism generated 556,135 jobs (2.5% of total employment) in 2016. Foreign tourist visits were predicted to have risen from 0.6 million in 2007 to 4 million in 2017. ### Agriculture and natural resources In agriculture, Colombia is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa. The country also has considerable production of rice, potato and cassava. Although it is not the largest coffee producer in the world (since it is up to Brazil), the country has been able to carry out, for decades, a global marketing campaign to add value to the country's product. Colombian palm oil production is one of the most sustainable on the planet, compared to the largest existing producers. Colombia is also among the 20 largest producers in the world of beef and chicken meat. Colombia is also the 2nd largest flower exporter in the world, after the Netherlands. Colombia is an important exporter of coal and petroleum – in 2020, more than 40% of the country's exports were based on these two products. In 2018 it was the 5th largest coal exporter in the world. In 2019, Colombia was the 20th largest petroleum producer in the world, with 791 thousand barrels/day, exporting a good part of its production – the country was the 19th largest oil exporter in the world in 2020. In mining, Colombia is the world's largest producer of emerald, and in the production of gold, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, beating the record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. Currently, the country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world. ### Energy and transportation The electricity production in Colombia comes mainly from Renewable energy sources. 69.93% is obtained from the hydroelectric generation. Colombia's commitment to renewable energy was recognized in the 2014 *Global Green Economy Index (GGEI)*, ranking among the top 10 nations in the world in terms of greening efficiency sectors. Transportation in Colombia is regulated within the functions of the Ministry of Transport and entities such as the National Roads Institute (INVÍAS) responsible for the Highways in Colombia, the Aerocivil, responsible for civil aviation and airports, the National Infrastructure Agency, in charge of concessions through public–private partnerships, for the design, construction, maintenance, operation, and administration of the transport infrastructure, the General Maritime Directorate (Dimar) has the responsibility of coordinating maritime traffic control along with the Colombian Navy, among others and under the supervision of the Superintendency of Ports and Transport. In 2021, Colombia had 204,389 km (127,001 mi) of roads, 32,280 km (20,058 mi) of which were paved. At the end of 2017, the country had around 2,100 km (1,305 mi) of duplicated highways. Rail transportation in Colombia is dedicated almost entirely to freight shipments and the railway network has a length of 1,700 km of potentially active rails. Colombia has 3,960 kilometers of gas pipelines, 4,900 kilometers of oil pipelines, and 2,990 kilometers of refined-products pipelines. The target of Colombia's government is to build 7,000 km of roads for the 2016–2020 period and reduce travel times by 30 per cent and transport costs by 20 per cent. A toll road concession programme will comprise 40 projects, and is part of a larger strategic goal to invest nearly $50 bn in transport infrastructure, including: railway systems; making the Magdalena river navigable again; improving port facilities; as well as an expansion of Bogotá's airport.[*needs update*] Colombia is a middle-income country. ### Science and technology Colombia has more than 3,950 research groups in science and technology. iNNpulsa, a government body that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation in the country, provides grants to startups, in addition to other services it and institutions provide. Colombia was ranked 67th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021. Co-working spaces have arisen to serve as communities for startups large and small. Organizations such as the Corporation for Biological Research (CIB) for the support of young people interested in scientific work has been successfully developed in Colombia. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture based in Colombia investigates the increasing challenge of global warming and food security. Important inventions related to medicine have been made in Colombia, such as the first external artificial pacemaker with internal electrodes, invented by the electrical engineer Jorge Reynolds Pombo, an invention of great importance for those who suffer from heart failure. Also invented in Colombia were the microkeratome and keratomileusis technique, which form the fundamental basis of what now is known as LASIK (one of the most important techniques for the correction of refractive errors of vision) and the Hakim valve for the treatment of hydrocephalus. Colombia has begun to innovate in military technology for its army and other armies of the world; especially in the design and creation of personal ballistic protection products, military hardware, military robots, bombs, simulators and radar. Some leading Colombian scientists are Joseph M. Tohme, researcher recognized for his work on the genetic diversity of food, Manuel Elkin Patarroyo who is known for his groundbreaking work on synthetic vaccines for malaria, Francisco Lopera who discovered the "Paisa Mutation" or a type of early-onset Alzheimer's, Rodolfo Llinás known for his study of the intrinsic neurons properties and the theory of a syndrome that had changed the way of understanding the functioning of the brain, Jairo Quiroga Puello recognized for his studies on the characterization of synthetic substances which can be used to fight fungus, tumors, tuberculosis and even some viruses and Ángela Restrepo who established accurate diagnoses and treatments to combat the effects of a disease caused by *Paracoccidioides brasiliensis*. Demographics ------------ With an estimated 50 million people in 2020, Colombia is the third-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. At the beginning of the 20th century, Colombia's population was approximately 4 million. Since the early 1970s Colombia has experienced steady declines in its fertility, mortality, and population growth rates. The population growth rate for 2016 is estimated to be 0.9%. About 26.8% of the population were 15 years old or younger, 65.7% were between 15 and 64 years old, and 7.4% were over 65 years old. The proportion of older persons in the total population has begun to increase substantially. Colombia is projected to have a population of 55.3 million by 2050. The population is concentrated in the Andean highlands and along the Caribbean coast, also the population densities are generally higher in the Andean region. The nine eastern lowland departments, comprising about 54% of Colombia's area, have less than 6% of the population. Traditionally a rural society, movement to urban areas was very heavy in the mid-20th century, and Colombia is now one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America. The urban population increased from 31% of the total in 1938 to nearly 60% in 1973, and by 2014 the figure stood at 76%. The population of Bogotá alone has increased from just over 300,000 in 1938 to approximately 8 million today. In total seventy-two cities now have populations of 100,000 or more (2015). As of 2012[update] Colombia has the world's largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs), estimated to be up to 4.9 million people. The life expectancy is 74.8 years in 2015 and infant mortality is 13.1 per thousand in 2016. In 2015, 94.58% of adults and 98.66% of youth are literate and the government spends about 4.49% of its GDP on education. ### Languages More than 99.2% of Colombians speak Spanish, also called Castilian; 65 Amerindian languages, two Creole languages, the Romani language and Colombian Sign Language are also used in the country. English has official status in the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. Including Spanish, a total of 101 languages are listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database. The specific number of spoken languages varies slightly since some authors consider as different languages what others consider to be varieties or dialects of the same language. Best estimates recorded 71 languages that are spoken in-country today – most of which belong to the Chibchan, Tucanoan, Bora–Witoto, Guajiboan, Arawakan, Cariban, Barbacoan, and Saliban language families. There are currently about 850,000 speakers of native languages. ### Ethnic groups Human biological diversity and ethnicity-**2018 Census**   White and Mestizo (87.58%)  Afro-Colombian (includes Mixed) (6.68%)  Amerindian (4.31%)  Not Stated (1.35%)  Raizal (0.06%)  Palenquero (0.02%)  Romani (0.01%) Colombia is ethnically diverse, its people descending from the original Amerindian inhabitants, Spanish colonists, Africans originally brought to the country as slaves, and 20th-century immigrants from Europe and the Middle East, all contributing to a diverse cultural heritage. The demographic distribution reflects a pattern that is influenced by colonial history. Whites live all throughout the country, mainly in urban centers and the burgeoning highland and coastal cities. The populations of the major cities also include mestizos. Mestizo *campesinos* (people living in rural areas) also live in the Andean highlands where some Spanish conquerors mixed with the women of Amerindian chiefdoms. Mestizos include artisans and small tradesmen that have played a major part in the urban expansion of recent decades. The 2018 census reported that the "non-ethnic population", consisting of whites and mestizos (those of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry), constituted 87.6% of the national population. 6.7% is of African ancestry. Indigenous Amerindians constitute 4.3% of the population. Raizal people constitute 0.06% of the population. Palenquero people constitute 0.02% of the population. 0.01% of the population are Roma. The Federal Research Division estimated that the 86% of the population that did not consider themselves part of one of the ethnic groups indicated by the 2006 census was divided into 49% Mestizo or of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, and 37% White, mainly of Spanish lineage, but there is also a large population of Middle East descent; in some sectors of society there is a considerable input of German and Italian ancestry. People with African ancestry in Colombia are concentrated mostly in coastal areas.Amerindian population of Colombia by municipality in 2005. Many of the Indigenous peoples experienced a reduction in population during the Spanish rule and many others were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remainder currently represents over eighty distinct cultures. Reserves (*resguardos*) established for indigenous peoples occupy 30,571,640 hectares (305,716.4 km2) (27% of the country's total) and are inhabited by more than 800,000 people. Some of the largest indigenous groups are the Wayuu, the Paez, the Pastos, the Emberá and the Zenú. The departments of La Guajira, Cauca, Nariño, Córdoba and Sucre have the largest indigenous populations. The Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (ONIC), founded at the first National Indigenous Congress in 1982, is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia. In 1991, Colombia signed and ratified the current international law concerning indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989. Sub-Saharan Africans were brought as slaves, mostly to the coastal lowlands, beginning early in the 16th century and continuing into the 19th century. Large Afro-Colombian communities are found today on the Pacific Coast. Numerous Jamaicans migrated mainly to the islands of San Andres and Providencia. A number of other Europeans and North Americans migrated to the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including people from the former USSR during and after the Second World War. Many immigrant communities have settled on the Caribbean coast, in particular recent immigrants from the Middle East and Europe. Barranquilla (the largest city of the Colombian Caribbean) and other Caribbean cities have the largest populations of Lebanese, Palestinian, and other Levantines. There are also important communities of Romanis and Jews. There is a major migration trend of Venezuelans, due to the political and economic situation in Venezuela. In August 2019, Colombia offered citizenship to more than 24,000 children of Venezuelan refugees who were born in Colombia. ### Religion The National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) does not collect religious statistics, and accurate reports are difficult to obtain. However, based on various studies and a survey, about 90% of the population adheres to Christianity, the majority of which (70.9%–79%) are Roman Catholic, while a significant minority (16.7%) adhere to Protestantism (primarily Evangelicalism). Some 4.7% of the population is atheist or agnostic, while 3.5% claim to believe in God but do not follow a specific religion. 1.8% of Colombians adhere to Jehovah's Witnesses and Adventism and less than 1% adhere to other religions, such as the Baháʼí Faith, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Indigenous religions, Hare Krishna movement, Rastafari movement, Eastern Orthodox Church, and spiritual studies. The remaining people either did not respond or replied that they did not know. In addition to the above statistics, 35.9% of Colombians reported that they did not practice their faith actively. While Colombia remains a mostly Roman Catholic country by baptism numbers, the 1991 Colombian constitution guarantees freedom of religion and all religious faiths and churches are equally free before the law. ### Health The overall life expectancy in Colombia at birth is 79.3 years (76.7 years for males and 81.9 years for females). Healthcare reforms have led to massive improvements in the healthcare systems of the country, with health standards in Colombia improving very much since the 1980s. The new system has widened population coverage by the social and health security system from 21% (pre-1993) to 96% in 2012. A study conducted by *América Economía* magazine ranked 21 Colombian health care institutions among the top 44 in Latin America, amounting to 48 percent of the total. In 2017, the government declared a cancer research and treatment center as a Project of National Strategic Interest. ### Education The educational experience of many Colombian children begins with attendance at a preschool academy until age five (*Educación preescolar*). Basic education (*Educación básica*) is compulsory by law. It has two stages: Primary basic education (*Educación básica primaria*) which goes from first to fifth grade – children from six to ten years old, and Secondary basic education (*Educación básica secundaria*), which goes from sixth to ninth grade. Basic education is followed by Middle vocational education (*Educación media vocacional*) that comprises the tenth and eleventh grades. It may have different vocational training modalities or specialties (academic, technical, business, and so on.) according to the curriculum adopted by each school. After the successful completion of all the basic and middle education years, a high-school diploma is awarded. The high-school graduate is known as a *bachiller*, because secondary basic school and middle education are traditionally considered together as a unit called *bachillerato* (sixth to eleventh grade). Students in their final year of middle education take the ICFES test (now renamed Saber 11) to gain access to higher education (*Educación superior*). This higher education includes undergraduate professional studies, technical, technological and intermediate professional education, and post-graduate studies. Technical professional institutions of Higher Education are also opened to students holder of a qualification in Arts and Business. This qualification is usually awarded by the SENA after a two years curriculum. *Bachilleres* (high-school graduates) may enter into a professional undergraduate career program offered by a university; these programs last up to five years (or less for technical, technological and intermediate professional education, and post-graduate studies), even as much to six to seven years for some careers, such as medicine. In Colombia, there is not an institution such as college; students go directly into a career program at a university or any other educational institution to obtain a professional, technical or technological title. Once graduated from the university, people are granted a (professional, technical or technological) diploma and licensed (if required) to practice the career they have chosen. For some professional career programs, students are required to take the Saber-Pro test, in their final year of undergraduate academic education. Public spending on education as a proportion of gross domestic product in 2015 was 4.49%. This represented 15.05% of total government expenditure. The primary and secondary gross enrolment ratios stood at 113.56% and 98.09% respectively. School-life expectancy was 14.42 years. A total of 94.58% of the population aged 15 and older were recorded as literate, including 98.66% of those aged 15–24. ### Crime Colombia has a high crime rate due to being a center for the cultivation and trafficking of cocaine. The Colombian conflict began in the mid-1960s and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between Colombian governments, paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and left-wing guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN), fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Two of the most important international actors that have contributed to the Colombian conflict are multinational companies and the United States. Elements of all the armed groups have been involved in drug trafficking. In a country where state capacity has always been weak in some regions, the result has been a grinding war on multiple fronts, with the civilian population caught in the crossfire and often deliberately targeted for "collaborating". Human rights advocates blame paramilitaries for massacres, "disappearances", and cases of torture and forced displacement. Rebel groups are behind assassinations, kidnapping and extortion. In 2011, President Juan Manuel Santos launched the "Borders for Prosperity" plan to fight poverty and combat violence from illegal armed groups along Colombia's borders through social and economic development. The plan received praise from the International Crisis Group. Colombia registered a homicide rate of 24.4 per 100,000 in 2016, the lowest since 1974. The 40-year low in murders came the same year that the government signed a peace agreement with the FARC. The murder rate further decreased to 22.6 in 2020, although still among the highest in the world, it decreased 73% from 84.2 in 1991. In the 1980s and 1990s it regularly ranked as number one in homicide rate. Since the beginning of the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela and the mass emigration of Venezuelans during the Bolivarian diaspora, desperate Venezuelans have resorted to crime and have been recruited into gangs in order to survive. Venezuelan women have also resorted to prostitution in order to make a living in Colombia. ### Urbanization Colombia is a highly urbanized country with 77.1% of the population living in urban areas. The largest cities in the country are Bogotá, with 7,387,400 inhabitants, Medellín, with 2,382,399 inhabitants, Cali, with 2,172,527 inhabitants, and Barranquilla, with 1,205,284 inhabitants. |    Largest cities or towns in ColombiaAccording to the 2018 Census | | --- | | | Rank | Name | Department | Pop. | Rank | Name | Department | Pop. | | | BogotáBogotáMedellínMedellín | 1 | Bogotá | Distrito Capital | 7,387,400 | 11 | Ibagué | Tolima | 492,554 | CaliCaliBarranquillaBarranquilla | | 2 | Medellín | Antioquia | 2,382,399 | 12 | Villavicencio | Meta | 492,052 | | 3 | Cali | Valle del Cauca | 2,172,527 | 13 | Santa Marta | Magdalena | 455,299 | | 4 | Barranquilla | Atlántico | 1,205,284 | 14 | Valledupar | Cesar | 431,794 | | 5 | Cartagena | Bolívar | 876,885 | 15 | Manizales | Caldas | 405,234 | | 6 | Cúcuta | Norte de Santander | 685,445 | 16 | Montería | Córdoba | 388,499 | | 7 | Soacha | Cundinamarca | 655,025 | 17 | Pereira | Risaralda | 385,838 | | 8 | Soledad | Atlántico | 602,644 | 18 | Neiva | Huila | 335,994 | | 9 | Bucaramanga | Santander | 570,752 | 19 | Pasto | Nariño | 308,095 | | 10 | Bello | Antioquia | 495,483 | 20 | Armenia | Quindío | 287,245 | Culture ------- Colombia lies at the crossroads of Latin America and the broader American continent, and as such has been hit by a wide range of cultural influences. Native American, Spanish and other European, African, American, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern influences, as well as other Latin American cultural influences, are all present in Colombia's modern culture. Urban migration, industrialization, globalization, and other political, social and economic changes have also left an impression. Many national symbols, both objects and themes, have arisen from Colombia's diverse cultural traditions and aim to represent what Colombia, and the Colombian people, have in common. Cultural expressions in Colombia are promoted by the government through the Ministry of Culture. ### Literature Colombian literature dates back to pre-Columbian era; a notable example of the period is the epic poem known as the *Legend of Yurupary*. In Spanish colonial times, notable writers include Juan de Castellanos (*Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias*), Hernando Domínguez Camargo and his epic poem to San Ignacio de Loyola, Pedro Simón, Juan Rodríguez Freyle (*El Carnero*), Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita, and the nun Francisca Josefa de Castillo, representative of mysticism. Post-independence literature linked to Romanticism highlighted Antonio Nariño, José Fernández Madrid, Camilo Torres Tenorio and Francisco Antonio Zea. In the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century the literary genre known as *costumbrismo* became popular; great writers of this period were Tomás Carrasquilla, Jorge Isaacs and Rafael Pombo (the latter of whom wrote notable works of children's literature). Within that period, authors such as José Asunción Silva, José Eustasio Rivera, León de Greiff, Porfirio Barba-Jacob and José María Vargas Vila developed the modernist movement. In 1872, Colombia established the Colombian Academy of Language, the first Spanish language academy in the Americas. Candelario Obeso wrote the groundbreaking *Cantos Populares de mi Tierra* (1877), the first book of poetry by an Afro-Colombian author. Between 1939 and 1940 seven books of poetry were published under the name *Stone and Sky* in the city of Bogotá that significantly influenced the country; they were edited by the poet Jorge Rojas. In the following decade, Gonzalo Arango founded the movement of "nothingness" in response to the violence of the time; he was influenced by nihilism, existentialism, and the thought of another great Colombian writer: Fernando González Ochoa. During the boom in Latin American literature, successful writers emerged, led by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez and his magnum opus, *One Hundred Years of Solitude*, Eduardo Caballero Calderón, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, and Álvaro Mutis, a writer who was awarded the Cervantes Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. Other leading contemporary authors are Fernando Vallejo, William Ospina (Rómulo Gallegos Prize) and Germán Castro Caycedo. ### Visual arts Work of the painter and sculptor Fernando BoteroMural by Santiago Martínez DelgadoVargas Swamp Lancers, artwork by Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt Colombian art has over 3,000 years of history. Colombian artists have captured the country's changing political and cultural backdrop using a range of styles and mediums. There is archeological evidence of ceramics being produced earlier in Colombia than anywhere else in the Americas, dating as early as 3,000 BCE. The earliest examples of gold craftsmanship have been attributed to the Tumaco people of the Pacific coast and date to around 325 BCE. Roughly between 200 BCE and 800 CE, the San Agustín culture, masters of stonecutting, entered its "classical period". They erected raised ceremonial centers, sarcophagi, and large stone monoliths depicting anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms out of stone. Colombian art has followed the trends of the time, so during the 16th to 18th centuries, Spanish Catholicism had a huge influence on Colombian art, and the popular baroque style was replaced with rococo when the Bourbons ascended to the Spanish crown. More recently, Colombian artists Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martínez Delgado started the Colombian Murial Movement in the 1940s, featuring the neoclassical features of Art Deco. Since the 1950s, the Colombian art started to have a distinctive point of view, reinventing traditional elements under the concepts of the 20th century. Examples of this are the Greiff portraits by Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo, showing what the Colombian art could do with the new techniques applied to typical Colombian themes. Carlos Correa, with his paradigmatic "Naturaleza muerta en silencio" (silent dead nature), combines geometrical abstraction and cubism. Alejandro Obregón is often considered as the father of modern Colombian painting, and one of the most influential artist in this period, due to his originality, the painting of Colombian landscapes with symbolic and expressionist use of animals, (specially the Andean condor). Fernando Botero, Omar Rayo, Enrique Grau, Édgar Negret, David Manzur, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, Oscar Murillo, Doris Salcedo and Oscar Muñoz are some of the Colombian artists featured at the international level. The Colombian sculpture from the sixteenth to 18th centuries was mostly devoted to religious depictions of ecclesiastic art, strongly influenced by the Spanish schools of sacred sculpture. During the early period of the Colombian republic, the national artists were focused in the production of sculptural portraits of politicians and public figures, in a plain neoclassicist trend. During the 20th century, the Colombian sculpture began to develop a bold and innovative work with the aim of reaching a better understanding of national sensitivity. Colombian photography was marked by the arrival of the daguerreotype. Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros was who brought the daguerreotype process to Colombia in 1841. The Piloto public library has Latin America's largest archive of negatives, containing 1.7 million antique photographs covering Colombia 1848 until 2005. The Colombian press has promoted the work of the cartoonists. In recent decades, fanzines, internet and independent publishers have been fundamental to the growth of the comic in Colombia. ### Architecture Throughout the times, there have been a variety of architectural styles, from those of indigenous peoples to contemporary ones, passing through colonial (military and religious), Republican, transition and modern styles. Ancient habitation areas, longhouses, crop terraces, roads as the Inca road system, cemeteries, hypogeums and necropolises are all part of the architectural heritage of indigenous peoples. Some prominent indigenous structures are the preceramic and ceramic archaeological site of Tequendama, Tierradentro (a park that contains the largest concentration of pre-Columbian monumental shaft tombs with side chambers), the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America, located in San Agustín, Huila, Lost city (an archaeological site with a series of terraces carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads, and several circular plazas), and the large villages mainly built with stone, wood, cane, and mud. Architecture during the period of conquest and colonization is mainly derived of adapting European styles to local conditions, and Spanish influence, especially Andalusian and Extremaduran, can be easily seen. When Europeans founded cities two things were making simultaneously: the dimensioning of geometrical space (town square, street), and the location of a tangible point of orientation. The construction of forts was common throughout the Caribbean and in some cities of the interior, because of the dangers posed to Spanish colonial settlements from English, French and Dutch pirates and hostile indigenous groups. Churches, chapels, schools, and hospitals belonging to religious orders have a great urban influence. Baroque architecture is used in military buildings and public spaces. Marcelino Arroyo, Francisco José de Caldas and Domingo de Petrés were great representatives of neo-classical architecture. The National Capitol is a great representative of romanticism. Wood was extensively used in doors, windows, railings, and ceilings during the colonization of Antioquia. The Caribbean architecture acquires a strong Arabic influence. The Teatro Colón in Bogotá is a lavish example of architecture from the 19th century. The quintas houses with innovations in the volumetric conception are some of the best examples of the Republican architecture; the Republican action in the city focused on the design of three types of spaces: parks with forests, small urban parks and avenues and the Gothic style was most commonly used for the design of churches. Deco style, modern neoclassicism, eclecticism folklorist and art deco ornamental resources significantly influenced the architecture of Colombia, especially during the transition period. Modernism contributed with new construction technologies and new materials (steel, reinforced concrete, glass and synthetic materials) and the topology architecture and lightened slabs system also have a great influence. The most influential architects of the modern movement were Rogelio Salmona and Fernando Martínez Sanabria. The contemporary architecture of Colombia is designed to give greater importance to the materials, this architecture takes into account the specific natural and artificial geographies and is also an architecture that appeals to the senses. The conservation of the architectural and urban heritage of Colombia has been promoted in recent years. ### Music Colombia has a vibrant collage of talent that touches a full spectrum of rhythms. Musicians, composers, music producers and singers from Colombia are recognized internationally such as Shakira, Juanes, Carlos Vives and others. Colombian music blends European-influenced guitar and song structure with large gaita flutes and percussion instruments from the indigenous population, while its percussion structure and dance forms come from Africa. Colombia has a diverse and dynamic musical environment. Guillermo Uribe Holguín, an important cultural figure in the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Luis Antonio Calvo and Blas Emilio Atehortúa are some of the greatest exponents of the art music. The Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most active orchestras in Colombia. Caribbean music has many vibrant rhythms, such as cumbia (it is played by the maracas, the drums, the gaitas and guacharaca), porro (it is a monotonous but joyful rhythm), mapalé (with its fast rhythm and constant clapping) and the "vallenato", which originated in the northern part of the Caribbean coast (the rhythm is mainly played by the caja, the guacharaca, and accordion). The music from the Pacific coast, such as the currulao, is characterized by its strong use of drums (instruments such as the native marimba, the conunos, the bass drum, the side drum, and the cuatro guasas or tubular rattle). An important rhythm of the south region of the Pacific coast is the contradanza (it is used in dance shows due to the striking colours of the costumes). Marimba music, traditional chants and dances from the Colombia South Pacific region are on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Important musical rhythms of the Andean Region are the danza (dance of Andean folklore arising from the transformation of the European contredance), the bambuco (it is played with guitar, tiple and mandolin, the rhythm is danced by couples), the pasillo (a rhythm inspired by the Austrian waltz and the Colombian "danza", the lyrics have been composed by well-known poets), the guabina (the tiple, the bandola and the requinto are the basic instruments), the sanjuanero (it originated in Tolima and Huila Departments, the rhythm is joyful and fast). Apart from these traditional rhythms, salsa music has spread throughout the country, and the city of Cali is considered by many salsa singers to be 'The New Salsa Capital of the World'. The instruments that distinguish the music of the Eastern Plains are the harp, the cuatro (a type of four-stringed guitar) and maracas. Important rhythms of this region are the joropo (a fast rhythm and there is also tapping as a result of its flamenco ancestry) and the galeron (it is heard a lot while cowboys are working). The music of the Amazon region is strongly influenced by the indigenous religious practices. Some of the musical instruments used are the manguaré (a musical instrument of ceremonial type, consisting of a pair of large cylindrical drums), the quena (melodic instrument), the rondador, the congas, bells, and different types of flutes. The music of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina is usually accompanied by a mandolin, a tub-bass, a jawbone, a guitar and maracas. Some popular archipelago rhythms are the Schottische, the Calypso, the Polka and the Mento. ### Popular culture Theater was introduced in Colombia during the Spanish colonization in 1550 through zarzuela companies. Colombian theater is supported by the Ministry of Culture and a number of private and state owned organizations. The Ibero-American Theater Festival of Bogotá is the cultural event of the highest importance in Colombia and one of the biggest theater festivals in the world. Other important theater events are: The Festival of Puppet The Fanfare (Medellín), The Manizales Theater Festival, The Caribbean Theatre Festival (Santa Marta) and The Art Festival of Popular Culture "Cultural Invasion" (Bogotá). Although the Colombian cinema is young as an industry, more recently the film industry was growing with support from the Film Act passed in 2003. Many film festivals take place in Colombia, but the two most important are the Cartagena Film Festival, which is the oldest film festival in Latin America, and the Bogotá Film Festival. Some important national circulation newspapers are *El Tiempo* and *El Espectador*. Television in Colombia has two privately owned TV networks and three state-owned TV networks with national coverage, as well as six regional TV networks and dozens of local TV stations. Private channels, RCN and Caracol are the highest-rated. The regional channels and regional newspapers cover a department or more and its content is made in these particular areas. Colombia has three major national radio networks: Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia, a state-run national radio; Caracol Radio and RCN Radio, privately owned networks with hundreds of affiliates. There are other national networks, including Cadena Super, Todelar, and Colmundo. Many hundreds of radio stations are registered with the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications. ### Cuisine Colombia's varied cuisine is influenced by its diverse fauna and flora as well as the cultural traditions of the ethnic groups. Colombian dishes and ingredients vary widely by region. Some of the most common ingredients are: cereals such as rice and maize; tubers such as potato and cassava; assorted legumes; meats, including beef, chicken, pork and goat; fish; and seafood. Colombia cuisine also features a variety of tropical fruits such as cape gooseberry, feijoa, arazá, dragon fruit, mangostino, granadilla, papaya, guava, mora (blackberry), lulo, soursop and passionfruit. Colombia is one of the world's largest consumers of fruit juices. Among the most representative appetizers and soups are patacones (fried green plantains), sancocho de gallina (chicken soup with root vegetables) and ajiaco (potato and corn soup). Representative snacks and breads are pandebono, arepas (corn cakes), aborrajados (fried sweet plantains with cheese), torta de choclo, empanadas and almojábanas. Representative main courses are bandeja paisa, lechona tolimense, mamona, tamales and fish dishes (such as arroz de lisa), especially in coastal regions where kibbeh, suero, costeño cheese and carimañolas are also eaten. Representative side dishes are papas chorreadas (potatoes with cheese), remolachas rellenas con huevo duro (beets stuffed with hard-boiled egg) and arroz con coco (coconut rice). Organic food is a current trend in big cities, although in general across the country the fruits and veggies are very natural and fresh. Representative desserts are buñuelos, natillas, Maria Luisa cake, bocadillo made of guayaba (guava jelly), cocadas (coconut balls), casquitos de guayaba (candied guava peels), torta de natas, obleas, flan de mango, roscón, milhoja, manjar blanco, dulce de feijoa, dulce de papayuela, torta de mojicón, and esponjado de curuba. Typical sauces (salsas) are hogao (tomato and onion sauce) and Colombian-style ají. Some representative beverages are coffee (Tinto), champús, cholado, lulada, avena colombiana, sugarcane juice, aguapanela, aguardiente, hot chocolate and fresh fruit juices (often made with water or milk). ### Sports Tejo is Colombia's national sport and is a team sport that involves launching projectiles to hit a target. But of all sports in Colombia, football is the most popular. Colombia was the champion of the 2001 Copa América, in which they set a new record of being undefeated, conceding no goals and winning each match. Colombia has been awarded "mover of the year" twice. Colombia is a hub for roller skaters. The national team is a perennial powerhouse at the World Roller Speed Skating Championships. Colombia has traditionally been very good in cycling and a large number of Colombian cyclists have triumphed in major competitions of cycling. Baseball is popular in cities like Cartagena and Barranquilla. Of those cities have come good players like: Orlando Cabrera, Édgar Rentería, who was champion of the World Series in 1997 and 2010 and others who have played in Major League Baseball. Colombia was world amateur champion in 1947 and 1965. Boxing is one of the sports that has produced more world champions for Colombia. Motorsports also occupies an important place in the sporting preferences of Colombians; Juan Pablo Montoya is a race car driver known for winning 7 Formula One events. Colombia also has excelled in sports such as BMX, judo, shooting sport, taekwondo, wrestling, high diving and athletics, also has a long tradition in weightlifting and bowling. See also -------- * Index of Colombia-related articles * Outline of Colombia * Crime in Colombia 1. ↑ IPA transcription of "*República de Colombia*": Spanish pronunciation: [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]. 2. ↑ Balboa is best known for being the first European to see the Pacific Ocean in 1513, which he called *Mar del Sur* (or "Sea of the South") and would facilitate Spanish exploration and settlement of South America. 3. ↑ A royal decree of 1713 approved the legality of Palenque de San Basilio founded by runaway slaves as a refuge in the seventeenth century. The people of San Basilio fought against slavery, thereby giving rise to the first free place in the Americas. Its main leader was Benkos Biohó, who was born in West Africa. 4. ↑ Peter Claver was a Spaniard who traveled to Cartagena in 1610 and was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1616. Claver cared for African slaves for thirty-eight years, defending their lives and the dignity. 5. ↑ Héctor Abad was a prominent medical doctor, university professor, and human rights leader whose holistic vision of healthcare led him to found the Colombian National School of Public Health. The increasing violence and human rights abuses of the 1970s and 1980s led him to fight for social justice in his community. 6. ↑ Javier de Nicoló was a Salesian priest who grew up in war-torn Italy and arrived in Colombia a year after the bogotazo. He developed a program that has offered more than 40,000 young people the education and moral support they needed to become productive citizens. External links -------------- ### General information * Colombia at Britannica.com * Lamoureux, Andrew Jackson; Edmundson, George (1911). "Colombia". *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 700–713. * Colombia at *UCB Libraries GovPubs* * Colombia at Curlie * Colombia. *The World Factbook*. Central Intelligence Agency. * Key Development Forecasts for Colombia from International Futures * Official investment portal * Official Colombia Tourism Website * Study Spanish in Colombia * (in Spanish) National Administrative Department of Statistics ### Government * (in Spanish) Colombia Online Government website ### Culture * (in Spanish) Ministry of Culture ### Geography * (in Spanish) National parks of Colombia * Wikimedia Atlas of Colombia 4°N 72°W / 4°N 72°W / 4; -72

Colombia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia

**Aligarh** ( (); formerly known as **Allygarh**, and **Koil**) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies 342 kilometres (213 mi) northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately 130 kilometres (81 mi) southeast of the capital, New Delhi. The cities and districts which adjoin Aligarh are: Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Sambhal, Badaun, Kasganj, Hathras, Etah and Mathura. As of 2011, Aligarh is the 53rd most populous city in India. The recorded history of Aligarh begins with the establishment of the Aligarh Fort in the 16th century. It is notable as the seat of Aligarh Muslim University, which was founded here as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875, initiating the Aligarh Movement. History ------- Written references to the city commence only from 12th century onward; however, archeological records suggest that the town used to be inhabited by Jains. The area of Aligarh before the Ghurid conquest of the region, was under the sway of Dor Rajputs in twelfth century. In 1194, Qutb-ud-din Aibak had mounted a successful invasion of the region and Hisam-ud-din Ulbak was installed as the first Muslim governor; court-historian Hasan Nizami noted Kol to be "one of the most celebrated fortresses of Hind". Beginning the 13th century, the place featured — as Kol or Koil — in multiple Persian (as well as non-Persian) Sultanate sources as a center of economic prominence esp. for production of distilled wine. By the mid-13th century, the town commanded enough importance for (would-be Sultan) Ghiyas ud din Balban to erect a minaret. Under the Khiljis and Tughlaqs, the prominence continued unabated; it had become an *iqta* by the times of Alauddin Khalji. Kol is mentioned in Ibn Battuta's *Rihla*, when Ibn Battuta, along with 15 ambassadors representing Ukhaantu Khan, emperor of the Mongol Chinese Yuan dynasty, travelled to Kol city en route to the coast at Cambay (in Gujarat) in 1341. According to Battuta, it would appear that the district was then in a very disturbed state since the escort of the Emperor's embassy had to assist in relieving Jalali from an attacking body of Hindus and lost an officer in the fight. Ibn Batuta calls Kol "a fine town surrounded by mango groves". From these same groves the environs of Kol would appear to have acquired the name *Sabzabad* or "the green country". In the reign of Akbar, Kol was made a Sirkar and included the *dasturs* of Marahra, Kol ba Haveli, Thana Farida and Akbarabad. Akbar and Jahangir visited Kol on hunting expeditions. Jahangir clearly mentions the forest of Kol, where he killed wolves. During the time of Ibrahim Lodhi, Muhammad, son of Umar, was the governor of Kol. He built a fort at Kol and named the city Muhammadgarh, after himself, in 1524–25. Sabit Khan, who was then the governor of this region, rebuilt the old Lodhi fort and named the town Sabitgarh, after himself. The ruler of Koil was Bargujar King Bahadur Singh who, in 1753, rose against the destruction of Hindu temples. The Jat ruler, Surajmal, with consent of Safdar Jang, occupied the fort of Koil. Bahadur Singh continued the battle from another fort and died fighting in what is known as the "Battle of Ghasera". It was renamed Ramgarh and Rao Durjan Singh Ponia of Bijauli was made the kiledar of the fort. When a Persian Mughal Shia commander, Najaf Khan, captured Ramgarh, he renamed it and gave it its present name of Aligarh. Aligarh Fort (also called Aligarh Qila), as it stands today, was built by French engineers under the control of French officers Benoît de Boigne and Perron. ### Battle of Aligarh (1803) The Battle of Aligarh was fought on 1 September 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) at Aligarh Fort. The British 76th Regiment, now known as the Duke of Wellington's Regiment besieged the fort, which was under the control of the French officer Perron, and established British rule. In 1804, the Aligarh district was formed by the union of the second, third and fourth British divisions with the addition of Anupshahr from Muradabad and Sikandra Rao from Etawa. On 1 August 1804, Claude Russell was appointed the first Collector of the new district. Administration -------------- Aligarh district is divided into five tehsils, namely Kol Tehsil, Khair Tehsil, Atrauli, Gabhana and Iglas. These tehsils are further divided into 12 blocks. The city is administered by Nagar Nigam Aligarh (Municipal Corporation), which is responsible for performing civic administrative functions administered by Mayor and Municipal Commissioner (PCS Officer). Infrastructure development of the city is looked after by the Aligarh Development Authority (ADA) administered by Divisional Commissioner (chairman) and vice-chairman (PCS Officer). Aligarh is the headquarters of Aligarh Police Range and Aligarh Division. A DIG looks after Aligarh for legal condition and law; a Commissioner looks for four districts of Aligarh Division (Aligarh, Etah, Hathras, Kasganj). Demographics ------------ | Religions in Aligarh city (2011) | | --- | | Religion | | Percent | | Hindus |   | 55.36% | | Muslims |   | 42.64% | | Christians |   | 0.53% | | Distribution of religions | According to the 2011 Census, Aligarh has a total population of 874,408, of which 461,772 are males and 412,636 are females. Population in the age range 0–6 years is 119,543. The literacy rate is 59.15%, of which the male literacy rate is 63.42% and female literacy rate is 54.37%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Aligarh was 68.5%, of which male literacy rate was 62.9% and the female literacy rate was 70.8%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have a population of 138,184 and 332 respectively. There were 147363 households in Aligarh as of 2011. The city lies in the cultural region of Braj. * Sunni Muslim, AligarhSunni Muslim, Aligarh * Shia Muslim, AligarhShia Muslim, Aligarh Geography --------- ### Location Aligarh is located at the coordinates 27°53′N 78°05′E / 27.88°N 78.08°E / 27.88; 78.08. It has an elevation of approximately 178 metres (587 feet). The city is in the middle portion of the doab, the land between the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers. The Grand Trunk Road passes through it via NH-91 is 134 km from capital of India. Climate ------- Aligarh has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen *BSh*) a little too dry to be a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (*Cwa*). Summers start in April and are hot with temperatures peaking in May. The average temperature range is 28–38 °C (82–100 °F). The monsoon season starts in late June, continuing until early October, bringing high humidity. Aligarh gets most of its annual rainfall of 800 millimetres (31 in) during these months. Temperatures then decrease, and winter sets in December, and continues until February. Temperatures range between 2–11 °C (36–52 °F). Winters in Aligarh are generally mild, but 2011–12 experienced the lowest temperature of 1 °C. The fog and cold snaps are extreme. | Climate data for Aligarh (1981-2010, extremes 1932-2011) | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 30.7(87.3) | 33.3(91.9) | 41.7(107.1) | 44.8(112.6) | 47.5(117.5) | 46.7(116.1) | 44.5(112.1) | 42.1(107.8) | 40.2(104.4) | 41.7(107.1) | 36.1(97.0) | 32.8(91.0) | 47.5(117.5) | | Average high °C (°F) | 19.8(67.6) | 23.5(74.3) | 30.3(86.5) | 37.0(98.6) | 40.1(104.2) | 39.2(102.6) | 35.3(95.5) | 33.4(92.1) | 33.6(92.5) | 32.8(91.0) | 27.9(82.2) | 22.3(72.1) | 31.3(88.3) | | Average low °C (°F) | 7.1(44.8) | 9.5(49.1) | 14.3(57.7) | 19.9(67.8) | 24.2(75.6) | 26.3(79.3) | 26.0(78.8) | 25.2(77.4) | 23.5(74.3) | 18.4(65.1) | 12.6(54.7) | 8.3(46.9) | 18.0(64.4) | | Record low °C (°F) | 0.0(32.0) | 1.7(35.1) | 3.9(39.0) | 10.9(51.6) | 15.5(59.9) | 18.6(65.5) | 19.9(67.8) | 19.9(67.8) | 14.8(58.6) | 11.0(51.8) | 2.9(37.2) | 1.2(34.2) | 0.0(32.0) | | Average rainfall mm (inches) | 13.4(0.53) | 15.4(0.61) | 9.1(0.36) | 9.8(0.39) | 29.0(1.14) | 65.8(2.59) | 207.4(8.17) | 234.5(9.23) | 112.2(4.42) | 19.7(0.78) | 4.3(0.17) | 7.2(0.28) | 727.7(28.65) | | Average rainy days | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 9.0 | 10.4 | 5.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 38.3 | | Average relative humidity (%) (at 17:30 IST) | 64 | 56 | 46 | 32 | 34 | 46 | 67 | 75 | 67 | 53 | 57 | 61 | 55 | | Source: India Meteorological Department | Economy ------- The city is an agricultural trade centre. Agricultural product processing and manufacturing are important. Aligarh is an important business center of Uttar Pradesh and is most famous for its lock industry. Aligarh locks are exported across the world. In 1870, Johnson & Co. was the first English lock firm in Aligarh. In 1890, the company initiated production of locks on a small scale here. Aligarh is famous for its brass hardware and sculpture. Today, the city holds thousands of manufacturers, exporters, and suppliers involved in the brass, bronze, iron and aluminum industries. Indian Diecasting Industries which manufactures aluminum and zinc die-casting parts is located at Sasni Gate in Aligarh. Harduaganj Thermal Power Station (also referred as Kasimpur Power House) is 15 km from the city. Narora Atomic Power Station is located 50 km from Aligarh. Aligarh hosts Heinz-sauce manufacturing unit in Manzurgarhi, Satha sugar mill on the Aligarh-Kasimpur Power House route and a cement factory of UltraTech Cement company. Wave Distillery, making Kingfisher beer, is located at Atrauli in Aligarh. Education --------- Aligarh is a major educational hub, housing over 100 independent schools, colleges and educational institutions. Notable tertiary institutions include: * ACN College of Engineering and Management Studies * Aligarh College of Engineering and Technology * Aligarh Muslim University * Jamia Al Barkaat Aligarh * Mangalayatan University Art and craft ------------- Aligarh is associated with an applique and embroidery art known as *phool patti ka kaam*. Locations --------- ### Cultural landmarks Aligarh has several popular landmarks. Most notable few of them are Aligarh Fort, Jama Masjid, Khereshwar Temple which is the birthplace of Swami Shri Haridas Ji, Dor fortress (1524), which is now in ruins, lies at the city's centre; its site is in the area now called Upper Fort (Balai Qila) and is occupied by an 18th-century mosque. The area Shah Jamal is very famous for a Sufi saint Syed Shah Jamal is also known as Shamsul Arifeen, of whom the tomb is located at Shahjamal area and surrounded by a graveyard. The Sufi Saint is mentioned by Ibn Battuta in his book *The Travels of Ibn Battuta*. The saint is said to be of Sufi Chishtiya order. The Annual Cultural Exhibition, popularly known as Numaish, is held at the exhibition ground in January and February. The land Numaish Ground was donated by Nawab Rehmat Ullah Khan Sherwani. The cultural shows take place at three grand stages (Kohinoor, Krishnanjali and Muktakash). In all, more than 150 stage events featuring artists from across India take place during a period of 28–30 days. Historical places ----------------- * Shekha Jheel, Bird Sanctuary * Maulana Azad Library, AMU (Estd 1875) * Sir Syed Masjid in Aligarh Muslim University's campus. ### Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is one of the oldest central universities. It was established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Madrasatul Uloom Musalmanan-e-Hind in 1875–78 which later became Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO College). It was designed to train Muslims for government services in India and prepare them for advanced training in British universities. The Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. It is famous for its Law, Medical, and Engineering College. ### Museums Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences maintains 'Museum on History of Medicine and Sciences' and 'Museum on Arts, Culture and Orientalism'. It was established by a family Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman and Syed Ziaur Rahman at the heart of the city and near a busy market of Dodhpur. Transport --------- ### By rail Aligarh Junction railway station is the primary station for Aligarh city and is a major stop on the Delhi-Kolkata route. It is an A-Class railway station. It is one of the oldest railway station of this route. It connects Aligarh to the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, north-east and most of Uttar Pradesh, and important stations of cities such as New Delhi railway station, Mumbai Central, Kolkata, Bhopal Junction railway station, Indore, Jammu, Gwalior, Lucknow, Jhansi, Puri, Kanpur Central railway station, Etawah Junction railway station, Tundla Junction railway station, Agra Cantonment railway station and Varanasi. Aligarh railway station handles over 136 trains daily (in both directions) and serves around 204,000 passengers every day. Aligarh has one Branch Railway Line to Bareily. Aligarh City has following railway stations: * Aligarh Junction: an A-Class Railway Station * Somna (Gabhana) railway station * Mahrawal railway station * Kalua railway station * Daudkhan railway station * Mandrak railway station * Harduaganj railway station (Satha, near Kasimpur Power House) * Manjoorgarhi railway station (Chherat) ### By road Aligarh is 140 km from New Delhi. It is one of the Division of UPSRTC. Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses serve cities all over the state and cities in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. Aligarh City has three UPSRTC bus stations: * Aligarh Depot(Old Bus Station/Gandhi Park Bus Station) bus station * Masoodabad(esta. 2000) (Budh Vihar Bus Station/New Bus Station/Workshop Bus Station/Raghuveerpuri Bus Station) Depot bus station(non-functional from 2018 to 2021)(now functioning since 2021 post renovation into a well facilitated Bus Station) * ISBT Rasualabad Sarsaul (New Bus Station/Sootmill Bus Station)(functioning since 2018 due to sudden non-functioning of Massodabaad Bus Station during 2018-2021 period) There are buses plying from Aligarh to Delhi at frequent intervals via 1) Khair, Tappal, Palval, Faridabad, Delhi - The route is under construction between Khair and Palval and should be strictly avoided by cars. No toll charges. 2) Khair, Tappal, Yamuna expressway, Noida, Greater Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon - Best and recommended route for Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon. Toll Charges are ₹120 between Aligarh and Delhi. 3) Old GT Road, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Delhi - NH 91 - It is a 4-lane highway. Toll charges are ₹190. Following Highways are connected to Aligarh: * National Highway 91 - It connects Kolkata to national capital New Delhi. Ghaziabad-Bulandshahr-Aligarh section is a 4-Lane Highway. * National Highway 93 - It connects Moradabad to Taj Nagri Agra via Aligarh. Aligarh-Agra section is constructed as Brijbhoomi Expressway. * Yamuna Expressway - It is a 6-Lane Expressway connecting Greater Noida with Agra. Aligarh City has Mahanagar Bus Service (City Bus Service) which provides local transport to Aligarh. * Route-1 J N Medical-Uperkot * Route-2 Gandhi Park-Sarsaul * Route-3 Ghantarbagh-Quarsi * Route-4 Gandhi Park-Boner * Route-5 Etah Chungi-Collectrate Apart from this an Electronic Bus Service has been running within the city since January 2022. ### By air The nearest international airport from Aligarh is Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. It is 140 km from Aligarh. Aligarh Airport, in Dhanipur, is under construction on NH 91. Dhanipur Air Strip is used as Flying Club. The Government of Uttar Pradesh signed a memorandum of understanding with the Airports Authority of India in February 2014 for the development of the airport. The land acquisition for airport will be initiated soon and after its development flight operations will be started under regional connectivity scheme. Notable people -------------- ### Businessmen and entrepreneurs * Sheela Gautam, founder of Sheela Foam Limited-Sleepwell * Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm * Khwaja Abdul Hamied, Pharmacist, founder of Cipla * ### Educationalists * Ziauddin Ahmad, mathematician, M.L.A. (Central), Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Movement. He established several institution including J.N. Medical College * Roshan Ara Bokhari, dancer, choreographer and dance teacher * Masud Husain Khan, linguist, the fifth Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and the first Professor Emeritus in Social Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University * Syed Ahmad Khan founder of Aligarh Muslim University ### Writers, poets and publishers * A.R. Akela, Dalit author and publisher, owner of "Anand Sahitya Sadan * Syed Amin Ashraf, Urdu poet and professor of English at AMU * Qurratulain Hyder, Padma Bhushan, Urdu novelist, writer, and journalist * Akhlaq Mohammed Khan, pen name Shaharyar, Urdu poet, Bollywood lyricist and served as Professor at Aligarh Muslim University * Munshi Nawal Kishore, book publisher * Jainendra Kumar, Hindi writer * Gopaldas Neeraj, poet, recipient of Padma Bhushan * Saghar Nizami, Urdu Poet * Prem Kishore Patakha, Hindi Humorous Poet * Maitreyi Pushpa, Hindi fiction writer * Rameshraj Tewarikar, Hindi Tewari poet, Editor:′ Tewari-Paksha (tri-monthly) ### Historians * Irfan Habib, eminent Indian historian and Professor Emeritus at Aligarh Muslim University * Mohammad Habib (1895–1971), noted Indian historian and served as Professor Emeritus at Aligarh Muslim University ### Film actors * Shamim Ara, Pakistani film actress * Bharat Bhushan, Bollywood actor, scriptwriter and producer * Aadesh Chaudhary, Indian television actor * Nitin Chauhaan, Indian television actor * Ravindra Jain, Bollywood music director * Alka Nupur, former actress, kathak dancer * Chandrachur Singh, Bollywood actor * Hasan Zaidi, Indian television actor * Zarina, Indian artist ### Sports persons * Piyush Chawla, Indian cricketer * Zafar Iqbal, Former hockey captain of India * Annu Raj Singh, international shooter * Rinku Singh, Indian Cricketer ### Politicians * Mukta Raja, MLA of Aligarh * Zafar Alam ex-MLA from Aligarh (Assembly constituency) * Dalbir Singh Chaudhary, MLA from Baruli vidhansabha constituency * Mohammad Furqan, Mayor of Aligarh * Satish Kumar Gautam, MP from Aligarh (Lok Sabha constituency) * Sheela Gautam, ex MP & ex Chairperson of Sleepwell * Zameer Ullah Khan ex-MLA from Koil (Assembly constituency) and Aligarh (Assembly constituency) * Jamal Khwaja, ex MP * Sanjeev Raja, ex MLA * Bijendra Singh, ex MP * Chaudhary Sunil Singh, ex MLC * Kalyan Singh, ex governor and ex Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh * Rajendra Singh, ex Agriculture and Irrigation Minister, Govt of Uttar Pradesh * Sandeep Singh, MLA Atrauli, grandson of former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh * Thakur Jaivir Singh, ex MLA (Now MLC) * Roohi Zuberi, advocate ### Medical professionals * Khwaja Abdul Hamied, Pharmacist, founder of Cipla (pharmaceutical company) * Prerna Kohli, clinical psychologist, social worker and author * Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Unani physician and author * Syed Ziaur Rahman, pharmacologist, researcher and author * Ashok Seth, an Indian interventional cardiologist ### Social activists * Jai Kishan Das, a close associate of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan See also -------- * Jamia Millia Islamia Further reading --------------- * Aligarh in My Days (Interviews of former Vice-Chancellors of Aligarh Muslim University), Ed. Syed Ziaur Rahman, Non-Resident Students' Centre, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 1997. * Atkinson, Edward (2010) [1875]. *Descriptive And Historical Account of the Aligarh District*. Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1-147-42719-6.

Aligarh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aligarh

**Meat** is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, rabbits, pigs, and cattle. This eventually led to their use in meat production on an industrial scale in slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat. It is edible raw but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with, and decomposition by, bacteria and fungi. Meat is important to the food industry, economies, and cultures around the world. There are nonetheless people who choose to not eat meat (vegetarians) or any animal products (vegans), for reasons such as taste preferences, ethics, environmental concerns, health concerns or religious dietary rules. Terminology ----------- The word *meat* comes from the Old English word *mete*, which referred to food in general. The term is related to *mad* in Danish, *mat* in Swedish and Norwegian, and *matur* in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean 'food'. The word *mete* also exists in Old Frisian (and to a lesser extent, modern West Frisian) to denote important food, differentiating it from *swiets* (sweets) and *dierfied* (animal feed). Most often, *meat* refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal. *Meat* is sometimes also used in a more restrictive sense to mean the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) raised and prepared for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish, other seafood, insects, poultry, or other animals. In the context of food, *meat* can also refer to "the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (such as a husk or shell)", for example, *coconut meat*. In English, there are also specialized terms for the meat of particular animals. These terms originated with the Norman conquest of England in 1066: while the animals retained their English names, their meat as brought to the tables of the invaders was referred to them with the Norman French words for the respective animal. In time, these appellations came to be used by the entire population. | Meat of... | ...is called: | Etymology | | --- | --- | --- | | Pigs | Pork | Norman French *porc* (pig) | | Cattle | Beef | Norman French *boeuf* (cattle) | | Sheep | Mutton | Norman French *mouton* (sheep) | | Calves | Veal | Norman French *veau* (calf) | | Domesticated birds | Poultry | Norman French *poule* (domestic fowl) | | Goats | Chevon | Old French *chèvre* (goat) | | Deer | Venison | Old French *venesoun* (meat of large game) | History ------- ### Hunting and farming Paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the organized hunting of large animals such as bison and deer. The domestication of animals, of which we have evidence dating back to the end of the last glacial period (c. 10,000 BCE), allowed the systematic production of meat and the breeding of animals with a view to improving meat production. Animals that are now principal sources of meat were domesticated in conjunction with the development of early civilizations: * Sheep, originating from western Asia, were domesticated with the help of dogs prior to the establishment of settled agriculture, likely as early as the 8th millennium BCE. Several breeds of sheep were established in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt by 3500–3000 BCE. Today, more than 200 sheep-breeds exist. * Cattle were domesticated in Mesopotamia after settled agriculture was established about 5000 BCE, and several breeds were established by 2500 BCE. Modern domesticated cattle fall into the groups *Bos taurus* (European cattle) and *Bos taurus indicus* (zebu), both descended from the now-extinct aurochs. The breeding of beef cattle, cattle optimized for meat production as opposed to animals best suited for work or dairy purposes, began in the middle of the 18th century. * Domestic pigs, which are descended from wild boars, are known to have existed about 2500 BCE in modern-day Hungary and in Troy; earlier pottery from Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) and Egypt depicts wild pigs. Pork sausages and hams were of great commercial importance in Greco-Roman times. Pigs continue to be bred intensively as they are being optimized to produce meat best suited for specific meat products. * Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans. The most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild bezoar ibex of the Zagros Mountains is the likely original ancestor of probably all domestic goats today. Neolithic farmers began to herd wild goats primarily for easy access to milk and meat, as well as to their dung, which was used as fuel; and their bones, hair, and sinew were used for clothing, building, and tools. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years Before Present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran. Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Jericho, Choga Mami, Djeitun, and Çayönü, dating the domestication of goats in Western Asia at between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago. Studies of DNA evidence suggests 10,000 years ago as the domestication date. * Chicken were domesticated around 6000 BC in Southeast Asia, according to genomic analysis, and spread to China and India 2000–3000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000 BCE, China by 6000 BCE and India by 2000 BCE. Other animals are or have been raised or hunted for their flesh. The type of meat consumed varies much between different cultures, changes over time, depending on factors such as tradition and the availability of the animals. The amount and kind of meat consumed also varies by income, both between countries and within a given country. * Deer are hunted for their meat (venison) in various regions. * Horses are commonly eaten in France, Italy, Germany and Japan, among other countries. Horses and other large mammals such as reindeer were hunted during the late Paleolithic in western Europe. * Dogs are consumed in China, South Korea and Vietnam. Dogs are also occasionally eaten in the Arctic regions. Historically, dog meat has been consumed in various parts of the world, such as Hawaii, Japan, Switzerland and Mexico. * Cats are consumed in Southern China, Peru and sometimes also in Northern Italy. * Guinea pigs are raised for their flesh in the Andes. * Whales and dolphins are hunted, partly for their flesh, in Japan, Alaska, Siberia, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and by two small communities in Indonesia. **Biomass of mammals on Earth**   Livestock, mostly cattle and pigs (60%)  Humans (36%)  Wild mammals (4%) Modern agriculture employs a number of techniques, such as progeny testing, to speed artificial selection by breeding animals to rapidly acquire the qualities desired by meat producers. For instance, in the wake of well-publicised health concerns associated with saturated fats in the 1980s, the fat content of United Kingdom beef, pork and lamb fell from 20–26 percent to 4–8 percent within a few decades, due to both selective breeding for leanness and changed methods of butchery. Methods of genetic engineering aimed at improving the meat production qualities of animals are now also becoming available. Even though it is a very old industry, meat production continues to be shaped strongly by the evolving demands of customers. The trend towards selling meat in pre-packaged cuts has increased the demand for larger breeds of cattle, which are better suited to producing such cuts. Even more animals not previously exploited for their meat are now being farmed, especially the more agile and mobile species, whose muscles tend to be developed better than those of cattle, sheep or pigs. Examples are the various antelope species, the zebra, water buffalo and camel, as well as non-mammals, such as the crocodile, emu and ostrich. Another important trend in contemporary meat production is organic farming which, while providing no organoleptic benefit to meat so produced, meets an increasing demand for organic meat. ### Culture For most of human history, meat was a largely unquestioned part of the human diet. Only in the 20th century did it begin to become a topic of discourse and contention in society, politics and wider culture. Consumption ----------- Number of Land Animals Killed for Meat in 2013| Animals | Number Killed | | --- | --- | | Chickens | 61,171,973,510 | | Ducks | 2,887,594,480 | | Pigs | 1,451,856,889 | | Rabbits | 1,171,578,000 | | Geese | 687,147,000 | | Turkeys | 618,086,890 | | Sheep | 536,742,256 | | Goats | 438,320,370 | | Cattle | 298,799,160 | | Rodents | 70,371,000 | | Pigeons and other birds | 59,656,000 | | Buffalo | 25,798,819 | | Horses | 4,863,367 | | Donkeys and mules | 3,478,300 | | Camels and other camelids | 3,298,266 | Meat consumption varies worldwide, depending on cultural or religious preferences, as well as economic conditions. Vegetarians and vegans choose not to eat meat because of taste preferences, ethical, economic, environmental, religious, or health concerns that are associated with meat production and consumption. While meat consumption in most industrialized countries is at high, stable levels...... meat consumption in emerging economies is on the rise.Per capita annual meat consumption by regionTotal annual meat consumption by regionTotal annual meat consumption by type of meat According to the analysis of the FAO, the overall consumption for white meat between 1990 and 2009 has dramatically increased. Poultry meat has increased by 76.6% per kilo per capita and pig meat by 19.7%. Bovine meat has decreased from 10.4 kg (22 lb 15 oz) per capita in 1990 to 9.6 kg (21 lb 3 oz) per capita in 2009. Overall, diets that include meat are the most common worldwide according to the results of a 2018 Ipsos MORI study of 16–64 years olds in 28 countries. Ipsos states "An omnivorous diet is the most common diet globally, with non-meat diets (which can include fish) followed by over a tenth of the global population." Approximately 87% of people include meat in their diet in some frequency. 73% of meat eaters included it in their diet regularly and 14% consumed meat only occasionally or infrequently. Estimates of the non-meat diets were also broken down. About 3% of people followed vegan diets, where consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy are abstained from. About 5% of people followed vegetarian diets, where consumption of meat is abstained from, but egg and/or dairy consumption is not strictly restricted. About 3% of people followed pescetarian diets, where consumption of the meat of land animals is abstained from, fish meat and other seafood is consumed, and egg and/or dairy consumption may or may not be strictly restricted. ### History A bioarchaeological (specifically, isotopic analysis) study of early medieval England found, based on the funerary record, that high-meat protein diets were extremely rare, and that (contrary to previously held assumptions) elites did not consume more meat than non-elites, and men did not consume more meat than women. In the nineteenth century meat consumption in Britain was the highest in Europe, exceeded only by that in British colonies. In the 1830s consumption per head in Britain was about 34 kilograms (75 lb) a year, rising to 59 kilograms (130 lb) in 1912. In 1904 laborers were found to consume 39 kilograms (87 lb) a year while aristocrats ate 140 kilograms (300 lb). There were estimated to be 43,000 meat purveyor establishments in Britain in 1910, with "possibly more money invested in the meat industry than in any other British business" except the finance industry. The US was a meat importing country by 1926. Truncated lifespan as a result of intensive breeding allowed more meat to be produced from fewer animals. The world cattle population was about 600 million in 1929, with 700 million sheep and goats and 300 million pigs. According to a study, the average lifespan of livestock pigs is ~2 years (7% of "maximum expected lifespan"). For dairy cattle the lifespan is ~5 years (27%). Animal growth and development ----------------------------- Agricultural science has identified several factors bearing on the growth and development of meat in animals. ### Genetics | Trait | Heritability | | --- | --- | | Reproductive efficiency | 2–10% | | Meat quality | 15–30% | | Growth | 20–40% | | Muscle/fat ratio | 40–60% | Several economically important traits in meat animals are heritable to some degree (see the adjacent table) and can thus be selected for by animal breeding. In cattle, certain growth features are controlled by recessive genes which have not so far been controlled, complicating breeding. One such trait is dwarfism; another is the doppelender or "double muscling" condition, which causes muscle hypertrophy and thereby increases the animal's commercial value. Genetic analysis continues to reveal the genetic mechanisms that control numerous aspects of the endocrine system and, through it, meat growth and quality. Genetic engineering techniques can shorten breeding programs significantly because they allow for the identification and isolation of genes coding for desired traits, and for the reincorporation of these genes into the animal genome. To enable such manipulation, research is ongoing (as of 2006[update]) to map the entire genome of sheep, cattle and pigs. Some research has already seen commercial application. For instance, a recombinant bacterium has been developed which improves the digestion of grass in the rumen of cattle, and some specific features of muscle fibres have been genetically altered. Experimental reproductive cloning of commercially important meat animals such as sheep, pig or cattle has been successful. Multiple asexual reproduction of animals bearing desirable traits is anticipated, although this is not yet practical on a commercial scale. ### Environment Heat regulation in livestock is of great economic significance, because mammals attempt to maintain a constant optimal body temperature. Low temperatures tend to prolong animal development and high temperatures tend to retard it. Depending on their size, body shape and insulation through tissue and fur, some animals have a relatively narrow zone of temperature tolerance and others (e.g. cattle) a broad one. Static magnetic fields, for reasons still unknown, also retard animal development. ### Nutrition The quality and quantity of usable meat depends on the animal's *plane of nutrition*, i.e., whether it is over- or underfed. Scientists disagree about how exactly the plane of nutrition influences carcass composition. The composition of the diet, especially the amount of protein provided, is also an important factor regulating animal growth. Ruminants, which may digest cellulose, are better adapted to poor-quality diets, but their ruminal microorganisms degrade high-quality protein if supplied in excess. Because producing high-quality protein animal feed is expensive (see also *Environmental impact* below), several techniques are employed or experimented with to ensure maximum utilization of protein. These include the treatment of feed with formalin to protect amino acids during their passage through the rumen, the recycling of manure by feeding it back to cattle mixed with feed concentrates, or the partial conversion of petroleum hydrocarbons to protein through microbial action. In plant feed, environmental factors influence the availability of crucial nutrients or micronutrients, a lack or excess of which can cause a great many ailments. In Australia, for instance, where the soil contains limited phosphate, cattle are being fed additional phosphate to increase the efficiency of beef production. Also in Australia, cattle and sheep in certain areas were often found losing their appetite and dying in the midst of rich pasture; this was at length found to be a result of cobalt deficiency in the soil. Plant toxins are also a risk to grazing animals; for instance, sodium fluoroacetate, found in some African and Australian plants, kills by disrupting the cellular metabolism. Certain man-made pollutants such as methylmercury and some pesticide residues present a particular hazard due to their tendency to bioaccumulate in meat, potentially poisoning consumers. ### Animal welfare The welfare of egg laying hens in battery cages (top) can be compared with the welfare of free range hens (middle and bottom) which are given access to the outdoors. However, animal welfare groups argue that the vast majority of free-range hens are still intensively confined (bottom) and are rarely able to go outdoors. A major concern for the welfare of farmed animals is factory farming in which large numbers of animals are reared in confinement at high stocking densities. Issues include the limited opportunities for natural behaviors, for example, in battery cages, veal and gestation crates, instead producing abnormal behaviors such as tail-biting, cannibalism, and feather pecking, and routine invasive procedures such as beak trimming, castration, and ear notching. More extensive methods of farming, e.g. free range, can also raise welfare concerns such as the mulesing of sheep, predation of stock by wild animals, and biosecurity. Farmed animals are artificially selected for production parameters which sometimes impinge on the animals' welfare. For example, broiler chickens are bred to be very large to produce the greatest quantity of meat per animal. Broilers bred for fast growth have a high incidence of leg deformities because the large breast muscles cause distortions of the developing legs and pelvis, and the birds cannot support their increased body weight. As a consequence, they frequently become lame or suffer from broken legs. The increased body weight also puts a strain on their hearts and lungs, and ascites often develops. In the UK alone, up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transport before reaching the slaughterhouse. Another concern about the welfare of farmed animals is the method of slaughter, especially ritual slaughter. While the killing of animals need not necessarily involve suffering, the general public considers that killing an animal reduces its welfare. This leads to further concerns about premature slaughtering such as chick culling by the laying hen industry, in which males are slaughtered immediately after hatching because they are superfluous; this policy occurs in other farmed animal industries such as the production of goat and cattle milk, raising the same concerns. A 2023 report by the Animal Welfare Institute found that animal welfare claims by companies selling meat and poultry products lack adequate substantiation in roughly 85% of analyzed cases. Livestock animals have shown relatively high intelligence which may raise animal ethics rationale for safeguarding their well-being. Pigs in particular are considered by some to be the smartest known domesticated animal in the world (e.g. more intelligent than pet dogs) which not only experience pain but also have notable depths, levels and/or variety/diversity of emotions (including boredom), cognition, intelligence, and/or sentience. Complications include that without or reduced meat production, many livestock animals may never live (see also: natalism), and that their life (relative timespan of existence) is typically short – in the case of pigs ~7% of their "maximum expected lifespan". ### Human intervention Meat producers may seek to improve the fertility of female animals through the administration of gonadotrophic or ovulation-inducing hormones. In pig production, sow infertility is a common problem – possibly due to excessive fatness. No methods currently exist to augment the fertility of male animals. Artificial insemination is now routinely used to produce animals of the best possible genetic quality, and the efficiency of this method is improved through the administration of hormones that synchronize the ovulation cycles within groups of females. Growth hormones, particularly anabolic agents such as steroids, are used in some countries to accelerate muscle growth in animals. This practice has given rise to the beef hormone controversy, an international trade dispute. It may also decrease the tenderness of meat, although research on this is inconclusive, and have other effects on the composition of the muscle flesh. Where castration is used to improve control over male animals, its side effects are also counteracted by the administration of hormones. Myostatin-based muscle hypertrophy has also been used. Sedatives may be administered to animals to counteract stress factors and increase weight gain. The feeding of antibiotics to certain animals has been shown to improve growth rates also. This practice is particularly prevalent in the US, but has been banned in the EU, partly because it causes antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic microorganisms. Biochemical composition ----------------------- Numerous aspects of the biochemical composition of meat vary in complex ways depending on the species, breed, sex, age, plane of nutrition, training and exercise of the animal, as well as on the anatomical location of the musculature involved. Even between animals of the same litter and sex there are considerable differences in such parameters as the percentage of intramuscular fat. ### Main constituents Adult mammalian muscle flesh consists of roughly 75 percent water, 19 percent protein, 2.5 percent intramuscular fat, 1.2 percent carbohydrates and 2.3 percent other soluble non-protein substances. These include nitrogenous compounds, such as amino acids, and inorganic substances such as minerals. Muscle proteins are either soluble in water (sarcoplasmic proteins, about 11.5 percent of total muscle mass) or in concentrated salt solutions (myofibrillar proteins, about 5.5 percent of mass). There are several hundred sarcoplasmic proteins. Most of them – the glycolytic enzymes – are involved in the glycolytic pathway, i.e., the conversion of stored energy into muscle power. The two most abundant myofibrillar proteins, myosin and actin, are responsible for the muscle's overall structure. The remaining protein mass consists of connective tissue (collagen and elastin) as well as organelle tissue. Fat in meat can be either adipose tissue, used by the animal to store energy and consisting of "true fats" (esters of glycerol with fatty acids), or intramuscular fat, which contains considerable quantities of phospholipids and of unsaponifiable constituents such as cholesterol. ### Red and white Meat can be broadly classified as "red" or "white" depending on the concentration of myoglobin in muscle fibre. When myoglobin is exposed to oxygen, reddish oxymyoglobin develops, making myoglobin-rich meat appear red. The redness of meat depends on species, animal age, and fibre type: Red meat contains more narrow muscle fibres that tend to operate over long periods without rest, while white meat contains more broad fibres that tend to work in short fast bursts. Generally, the meat of adult mammals such as cows, sheep, and horses is considered red, while chicken and turkey breast meat is considered white. Nutritional information ----------------------- **Typical nutritional content of 110 g (4 oz; 1⁄4 lb) of meat**| Source | Energy: kJ (kcal) | Protein | Carbs | Fat | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fish | 460–590 (110–140) | 20–25 g | 0 g | 1–5 g | | Chicken breast | 670 (160) | 28 g | 0 g | 7 g | | Lamb | 1,000 (250) | 30 g | 0 g | 14 g | | Steak (beef top round) | 880 (210) | 36 g | 0 g | 7 g | | Steak (beef T-bone) | 1,900 (450) | 25 g | 0 g | 35 g | | Dog (various cuts) | 1,100 (270) | 20 g | 0 g | 22 g | | Horse (strip steak) | 590 (140) | 25 g | 0 g | 7 g | | Pork loin | 1,010 (242) | 14 g | 0 g | 30 g | | Rabbit (domesticated) | 900 (215) | 32 g | 0 g | 9 g | All muscle tissue is very high in protein, containing all of the essential amino acids, and in most cases is a good source of zinc, vitamin B12, selenium, phosphorus, niacin, vitamin B6, choline, riboflavin and iron. Several forms of meat are also high in vitamin K. Muscle tissue is very low in carbohydrates and does not contain dietary fiber. While taste quality may vary between meats, the proteins, vitamins, and minerals available from meats are generally consistent. The fat content of meat can vary widely depending on the species and breed of animal, the way in which the animal was raised, including what it was fed, the anatomical part of the body, and the methods of butchering and cooking. Wild animals such as deer are typically leaner than farm animals, leading those concerned about fat content to choose game such as venison. Decades of breeding meat animals for fatness is being reversed by consumer demand for meat with less fat. The fatty deposits that exist with the muscle fibers in meats soften meat when it is cooked and improve the flavor through chemical changes initiated through heat that allow the protein and fat molecules to interact. The fat, when cooked with meat, also makes the meat seem juicier. The nutritional contribution of the fat is mainly calories as opposed to protein. As fat content rises, the meat's contribution to nutrition declines. In addition, there is cholesterol associated with fat surrounding the meat. The cholesterol is a lipid associated with the kind of saturated fat found in meat. The increase in meat consumption after 1960 is associated with, though not definitively the cause of, significant imbalances of fat and cholesterol in the human diet. The table in this section compares the nutritional content of several types of meat. While each kind of meat has about the same content of protein and carbohydrates, there is a very wide range of fat content. Production ---------- World production of meat, main itemsWorld production of main meat items, main producers (2019)From FAO's World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021 Meat is produced by killing an animal and cutting flesh out of it. These procedures are called slaughter and butchery, respectively. There is ongoing research into producing meat *in vitro*; that is, outside of animals. ### Transport Upon reaching a predetermined age or weight, livestock are usually transported *en masse* to the slaughterhouse. Depending on its length and circumstances, this may exert stress and injuries on the animals, and some may die *en route*. Unnecessary stress in transport may adversely affect the quality of the meat. In particular, the muscles of stressed animals are low in water and glycogen, and their pH fails to attain acidic values, all of which results in poor meat quality. Consequently, and also due to campaigning by animal welfare groups, laws and industry practices in several countries tend to become more restrictive with respect to the duration and other circumstances of livestock transports. ### Slaughter Animals are usually slaughtered by being first stunned and then exsanguinated (bled out). Death results from the one or the other procedure, depending on the methods employed. Stunning can be effected through asphyxiating the animals with carbon dioxide, shooting them with a gun or a captive bolt pistol, or shocking them with electric current. In most forms of ritual slaughter, stunning is not allowed. Draining as much blood as possible from the carcass is necessary because blood causes the meat to have an unappealing appearance and is a breeding ground for microorganisms. The exsanguination is accomplished by severing the carotid artery and the jugular vein in cattle and sheep, and the anterior vena cava in pigs. The act of slaughtering animals for meat, or of raising or transporting animals for slaughter, may engender both psychological stress and physical trauma in the people involved. Additionally, slaughterhouse workers are exposed to noise of between 76 and 100 dB from the screams of animals being killed. 80 dB is the threshold at which the wearing of ear protection is recommended. ### Dressing and cutting After exsanguination, the carcass is dressed; that is, the head, feet, hide (except hogs and some veal), excess fat, viscera and offal are removed, leaving only bones and edible muscle. Cattle and pig carcases, but not those of sheep, are then split in half along the mid ventral axis, and the carcase is cut into wholesale pieces. The dressing and cutting sequence, long a province of manual labor, is progressively being fully automated. ### Conditioning Under hygienic conditions and without other treatment, meat can be stored at above its freezing point (–1.5 °C) for about six weeks without spoilage, during which time it undergoes an aging process that increases its tenderness and flavor. During the first day after death, glycolysis continues until the accumulation of lactic acid causes the pH to reach about 5.5. The remaining glycogen, about 18 g per kg, is believed to increase the water-holding capacity and tenderness of the flesh when cooked. *Rigor mortis* sets in a few hours after death as ATP is used up, causing actin and myosin to combine into rigid actomyosin and lowering the meat's water-holding capacity, causing it to lose water ("weep"). In muscles that enter *rigor* in a contracted position, actin and myosin filaments overlap and cross-bond, resulting in meat that is tough on cooking – hence again the need to prevent pre-slaughter stress in the animal. Over time, the muscle proteins denature in varying degree, with the exception of the collagen and elastin of connective tissue, and *rigor mortis* resolves. Because of these changes, the meat is tender and pliable when cooked just after death or after the resolution of *rigor*, but tough when cooked during *rigor.* As the muscle pigment myoglobin denatures, its iron oxidates, which may cause a brown discoloration near the surface of the meat. Ongoing proteolysis also contributes to conditioning. Hypoxanthine, a breakdown product of ATP, contributes to the meat's flavor and odor, as do other products of the decomposition of muscle fat and protein. ### Additives When meat is industrially processed in preparation of consumption, it may be enriched with additives to protect or modify its flavor or color, to improve its tenderness, juiciness or cohesiveness, or to aid with its preservation. Meat additives include the following: * Salt is the most frequently used additive in meat processing. It imparts flavor but also inhibits microbial growth, extends the product's shelf life and helps emulsifying finely processed products, such as sausages. Ready-to-eat meat products normally contain about 1.5 to 2.5 percent salt. Salt water or similar substances may also be injected into poultry meat to improve the taste and increase the weight, in a process called plumping. * Nitrite is used in curing meat to stabilize the meat's color and flavor, and inhibits the growth of spore-forming microorganisms such as *C. botulinum*. The use of nitrite's precursor nitrate is now limited to a few products such as dry sausage, prosciutto or parma ham. * Phosphates used in meat processing are normally alkaline polyphosphates such as sodium tripolyphosphate. They are used to increase the water-binding and emulsifying ability of meat proteins, but also limit lipid oxidation and flavor loss, and reduce microbial growth. * Erythorbate or its equivalent ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is used to stabilize the color of cured meat. * Sweeteners such as sugar or corn syrup impart a sweet flavor, bind water and assist surface browning during cooking in the Maillard reaction. * Seasonings impart or modify flavor. They include spices or oleoresins extracted from them, herbs, vegetables and essential oils. * Flavorings such as monosodium glutamate impart or strengthen a particular flavor. * Tenderizers break down collagens to make the meat more palatable for consumption. They include proteolytic enzymes, acids, salt and phosphate. * Dedicated antimicrobials include lactic, citric and acetic acid, sodium diacetate, acidified sodium chloride or calcium sulfate, cetylpyridinium chloride, activated lactoferrin, sodium or potassium lactate, or bacteriocins such as nisin. * Antioxidants include a wide range of chemicals that limit lipid oxidation, which creates an undesirable "off flavor", in precooked meat products. * Acidifiers, most often lactic or citric acid, can impart a tangy or tart flavor note, extend shelf-life, tenderize fresh meat or help with protein denaturation and moisture release in dried meat. They substitute for the process of natural fermentation that acidifies some meat products such as hard salami or prosciutto. ### Misidentification With the rise of complex supply chains, including cold chains, in developed economies, the distance between the farmer or fisherman and customer has grown, increasing the possibility for intentional and unintentional misidentification of meat at various points in the supply chain. In 2013, reports emerged across Europe that products labelled as containing beef actually contained horse meat. In February 2013 a study was published showing that about one-third of raw fish are misidentified across the United States. ### Imitation Various forms of imitation meat have been created for people who wish not to eat meat but still want to taste its flavor and texture. Meat imitates are typically some form of processed soybean (tofu, tempeh), but they can also be based on wheat gluten, pea protein isolate, or even fungi (quorn). Environmental impact -------------------- Various environmental effects are associated with meat production. Among these are greenhouse gas emissions, fossil energy use, water use, water quality changes, and effects on grazed ecosystems. The livestock sector may be the largest source of water pollution (due to animal wastes, fertilizers, pesticides), and it contributes to emergence of antibiotic resistance. It accounts for over 8% of global human water use. It is a significant driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystems, as it causes deforestation and requires large amounts of land for pasture and feed crops, ocean dead zones, land degradation, pollution, overfishing and climate change. The occurrence, nature and significance of environmental effects varies among livestock production systems. Grazing of livestock can be beneficial for some wildlife species, but not for others. Targeted grazing of livestock is used as a food-producing alternative to herbicide use in some vegetation management. ### Land use Meat production is by far the biggest cause of land use, as it accounts for nearly 40% of the global land surface. Just in the contiguous United States, 34% of its land area (265 million hectares or 654 million acres) are used as pasture and rangeland, mostly feeding livestock, not counting 158 million hectares (391 million acres) of cropland (20%), some of which is used for producing feed for livestock. Roughly 75% of deforested land around the globe is used for livestock pasture. Deforestation from practices like slash-and-burn releases CO2 and removes the carbon sink of grown tropical forest ecosystems which substantially mitigate climate change. The land use is a major pressure on pressure on fertile soils which is important for global food security. ### Climate change The rising global consumption of carbon-intensive meat products has "exploded the global carbon footprint of agriculture," according to some top scientists. Meat production is responsible for 14.5% and possibly up to 51% of the world's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.[*needs update*] Some nations show very different impacts to counterparts within the same group, with Brazil and Australia having emissions over 200% higher than the average of their respective income groups and driven by meat consumption. According to the *Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production* report produced by United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel for sustainable resource management, a worldwide transition in the direction of a meat and dairy free diet is indispensable if adverse global climate change were to be prevented. A 2019 report in *The Lancet* recommended that global meat (and sugar) consumption be reduced by 50 percent to mitigate climate change. Meat consumption in Western societies needs to be reduced by up to 90% according to a 2018 study published in *Nature*. The 2019 special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for significantly reducing meat consumption, particularly in wealthy countries, in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change. ### Biodiversity loss Meat consumption is considered one of the primary contributors of the sixth mass extinction. A 2017 study by the World Wildlife Fund found that 60% of global biodiversity loss is attributable to meat-based diets, in particular from the vast scale of feed crop cultivation needed to rear tens of billions of farm animals for human consumption puts an enormous strain on natural resources resulting in a wide-scale loss of lands and species. Currently, livestock make up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%). In November 2017, 15,364 world scientists signed a Warning to Humanity calling for, among other things, drastically diminishing our per capita consumption of meat and "dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods". The 2019 *Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services*, released by IPBES, also recommended reductions in meat consumption in order to mitigate biodiversity loss. A 2021 Chatham House report asserted that a significant shift towards plant-based diets would free up the land to allow for the restoration of ecosystems and thriving biodiversity. A July 2018 study in *Science* says that meat consumption is set to rise as the human population increases along with affluence, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions and further reduce biodiversity. ### Reducing environmental impact The environmental impact of meat production can be reduced by conversion of human-inedible residues of food crops. Manure from meat-producing livestock is used as fertilizer; it may be composted before application to food crops. Substitution of animal manures for synthetic fertilizers in crop production can be environmentally significant, as between 43 and 88 MJ of fossil fuel energy are used per kg of nitrogen in manufacture of synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers. ### Reducing meat consumption The IPCC and many others, including scientific reviews of the literature and data on the topic, have concluded that meat production has to be reduced substantially for any sufficient mitigation of climate change and, at least initially, largely through shifts towards plant-based diets in cases (e.g. countries) where meat consumption is high. A review names broad potential measures such as "restrictions or fiscal mechanisms". Personal Carbon Allowances that allow a certain amount of free meat consumption per person would be a form of restriction, meat taxes would be a type of fiscal mechanism. Meat can be replaced by, for example, high-protein iron-rich low-emission legumes and common fungi, but there are also dietary supplements (e.g. of vitamin B12 and zinc) and/or fortified foods, cultured meat, microbial foods, mycoprotein, meat substitutes, and other alternatives. Farms can be transitioned to meet new demands, workers can enter relevant job retraining programs, and land previously used for meat production can be rewilded. The biologists Rodolfo Dirzo, Gerardo Ceballos, and Paul R. Ehrlich emphasize that it is the "massive planetary monopoly of industrial meat production that needs to be curbed" while respecting the cultural traditions of indigenous peoples, for whom meat is an important source of protein. Spoilage and preservation ------------------------- The spoilage of meat occurs, if untreated, in a matter of hours or days and results in the meat becoming unappetizing, poisonous or infectious. Spoilage is caused by the practically unavoidable infection and subsequent decomposition of meat by bacteria and fungi, which are borne by the animal itself, by the people handling the meat, and by their implements. Meat can be kept edible for a much longer time – though not indefinitely – if proper hygiene is observed during production and processing, and if appropriate food safety, food preservation and food storage procedures are applied. Without the application of preservatives and stabilizers, the fats in meat may also begin to rapidly decompose after cooking or processing, leading to an objectionable taste known as warmed over flavor. Methods of preparation ---------------------- Fresh meat can be cooked for immediate consumption, or be processed, that is, treated for longer-term preservation and later consumption, possibly after further preparation. Fresh meat cuts or processed cuts may produce iridescence, commonly thought to be due to spoilage but actually caused by structural coloration and diffraction of the light. A common additive to processed meats for both preservation and the prevention of discoloration is sodium nitrite. This substance is a source of health concerns because it may form carcinogenic nitrosamines when heated. Meat is prepared in many ways, as steaks, in stews, fondue, or as dried meat like beef jerky. It may be ground then formed into patties (as hamburgers or croquettes), loaves, or sausages, or used in loose form (as in "sloppy joe" or Bolognese sauce). Some meat is cured by smoking, which is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood. In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is more often used now, and beech to a lesser extent. In North America, hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and fruit-tree woods are commonly used for smoking. Meat can also be cured by pickling, preserving in salt or brine (see salted meat and other curing methods). Other kinds of meat are marinated and barbecued, or simply boiled, roasted, or fried. Meat is generally eaten cooked, but many recipes call for raw beef, veal or fish (tartare). Steak tartare is a meat dish made from finely chopped or minced raw beef or horse meat. Meat is often spiced or seasoned, particularly with meat products such as sausages. Meat dishes are usually described by their source (animal and part of body) and method of preparation (e.g., a beef rib). Meat is a typical base for making sandwiches. Popular varieties of sandwich meat include ham, pork, salami and other sausages, and beef, such as steak, roast beef, corned beef, pepperoni, and pastrami. Meat can also be molded or pressed (common for products that include offal, such as haggis and scrapple) and canned. Health ------ There is concern and debate regarding the potential association of meat, in particular red and processed meat, with a variety of health risks. The *2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans* asked men and teenage boys to increase their consumption of vegetables or other underconsumed foods (fruits, whole grains, and dairy) while reducing intake of protein foods (meats, poultry, and eggs) that they currently overconsume. ### Contamination Various toxic compounds can contaminate meat, including heavy metals, mycotoxins, pesticide residues, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs). Processed, smoked and cooked meat may contain carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Toxins may be introduced to meat as part of animal feed, as veterinary drug residues, or during processing and cooking. Often, these compounds can be metabolized in the body to form harmful by-products. Negative effects depend on the individual genome, diet, and history of the consumer. Any chemical's toxicity is also dependent on the dose and timing of exposure. ### Cancer There are concerns about a relationship between the consumption of meat, in particular processed and red meat, and increased cancer risk. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialized agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), classified processed meat (e.g., bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages) as, "*carcinogenic to humans* (Group 1), based on *sufficient evidence* in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer." IARC also classified red meat as "*probably carcinogenic to humans* (Group 2A), based on *limited evidence* that the consumption of red meat causes cancer in humans and *strong* mechanistic evidence supporting a carcinogenic effect." Cancer Research UK, National Health Service (NHS) and the National Cancer Institute have stated that red and processed meat intake increases risk of bowel cancer. The American Cancer Society in their "Diet and Physical Activity Guideline", stated "evidence that red and processed meats increase cancer risk has existed for decades, and many health organizations recommend limiting or avoiding these foods." The Canadian Cancer Society have stated that "eating red and processed meat increases cancer risk". A 2021 review found an increase of 11–51% risk of multiple cancer per 100g/d increment of red meat, and an increase of 8-72% risk of multiple cancer per 50g/d increment of processed meat. ### Bacterial contamination Bacterial contamination has been seen with meat products. A 2011 study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute showed that nearly half (47%) of the meat and poultry in U.S. grocery stores were contaminated with *S. aureus*, with more than half (52%) of those bacteria resistant to antibiotics. A 2018 investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and *The Guardian* found that around 15 percent of the US population suffers from foodborne illnesses every year. The investigation also highlighted unsanitary conditions in US-based meat plants, which included meat products covered in excrement and abscesses "filled with pus". ### Diabetes A 2022 review found that consumption of 100 g/day of red meat and 50 g/day of processed meat were associated with an increased risk of diabetes. Diabetes UK advises people to limit their intake of red and processed meat. ### Infectious diseases Meat production and trade substantially increases risks for infectious diseases, including of pandemics – "directly through increased contact with wild and farmed animals [(zoonosis)] or indirectly through its impact on the environment (e.g., biodiversity loss, water use, climate change)". For example, avian influenza from poultry meat production can be a threat to human health. Furthermore, the use of antibiotics in meat production contributes to antimicrobial resistance – which contributes to millions of deaths – and makes it harder to control infectious diseases. ### Changes in consumer behavior In response to changing prices as well as health concerns about saturated fat and cholesterol (see lipid hypothesis), consumers have altered their consumption of various meats. A USDA report points out that consumption of beef in the United States between 1970 and 1974 and 1990–1994 dropped by 21%, while consumption of chicken increased by 90%. During the same period of time, the price of chicken dropped by 14% relative to the price of beef. From 1995 to 1996, beef consumption increased due to higher supplies and lower prices. ### Cooking Meat can transmit certain diseases, but complete cooking and avoiding recontamination reduces this possibility. Several studies published since 1990 indicate that cooking muscle meat creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are thought to increase cancer risk in humans. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute published results of a study which found that human subjects who ate beef rare or medium-rare had less than one third the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate beef medium-well or well-done. While eating muscle meat raw may be the only way to avoid HCAs fully, the National Cancer Institute states that cooking meat below 100 °C (212 °F) creates "negligible amounts" of HCAs. Also, microwaving meat before cooking may reduce HCAs by 90%. Nitrosamines, present in processed and cooked foods, have been noted as being carcinogenic, being linked to colon cancer. Also, toxic compounds called PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, present in processed, smoked and cooked foods, are known to be carcinogenic. ### Heart disease A 2012 review found that processed red meat increases risk of coronary heart disease, whilst unprocessed red meat has a smaller increase or no risk. The review concluded that that neither unprocessed red nor processed meat consumption is beneficial for cardiometabolic health. A 2021 review concluded that, except for poultry, at 50 g/day unprocessed red and processed meat appear to be risk factors for ischemic heart disease, increasing the risk by about 9 and 18% respectively. A 2022 review found that high consumption of red meat was associated with a 15 % increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Sociology --------- Meat is part of the human diet in most cultures, where it often has symbolic meaning and important social functions. Some people choose not to eat meat (vegetarianism) or any food made from animals (veganism). The reasons for not eating all or some meat may include ethical objections to killing animals for food, health concerns, environmental concerns or religious dietary laws. ### Ethics Ethical issues regarding the consumption of meat include objecting to the act of killing animals or to the agricultural practices used in meat production. Reasons for objecting to killing animals for consumption may include animal rights, environmental ethics, or an aversion to inflicting pain or harm on other sentient creatures. Some people, while not vegetarians, refuse to eat the flesh of certain animals (such as cows, pigs, cats, dogs, horses, or rabbits) due to cultural or religious traditions. #### Philosophy The founders of Western philosophy disagreed about the ethics of eating meat. Plato's *Republic* has Socrates describe the ideal state as vegetarian. Pythagoras believed that humans and animals were equal and therefore disapproved of meat consumption, as did Plutarch, whereas Zeno and Epicurus were vegetarian but allowed meat-eating in their philosophy. Conversely, Aristotle's *Politics* assert that animals, as inferior beings, exist to serve humans, including as food. Augustine drew on Aristotle to argue that the universe's natural hierarchy allows humans to eat animals, and animals to eat plants. Enlightenment philosophers were likewise divided. Descartes wrote that animals are merely animated machines, and Kant considered them inferior beings for lack of discernment; means rather than ends. But Voltaire and Rousseau disagreed. The latter argued that meat-eating is a social rather than a natural act, because children are not interested in meat. Later philosophers examined the changing practices of eating meat in the modern age as part of a process of detachment from animals as living beings. Norbert Elias, for instance, noted that in medieval times cooked animals were brought to the table whole, but that since the Renaissance only the edible parts are served, which are no longer recognizably part of an animal. Modern eaters, according to Noëlie Vialles, demand an "ellipsis" between meat and dead animals; for instance, calves' eyes are no longer considered a delicacy as in the Middle Ages, but provoke disgust. Even in the English language, distinctions emerged between animals and their meat, such as between cattle and beef, pigs and pork. Fernand Braudel wrote that since the European diet of the 15th and 16th century was particularly heavy in meat, European colonialism helped export meat-eating across the globe, as colonized peoples took up the culinary habits of their colonizers, which they associated with wealth and power. ### Religious traditions The religion of Jainism has always opposed eating meat, and there are also schools of Buddhism and Hinduism that condemn the eating of meat. Jewish dietary rules (*Kashrut*) allow certain (*kosher*) meat and forbid other (*treif*). The rules include prohibitions on the consumption of unclean animals (such as pork, shellfish including mollusca and crustacea, and most insects), and mixtures of meat and milk. Similar rules apply in Islamic dietary laws: The Quran explicitly forbids meat from animals that die naturally, blood, the meat of swine (porcine animals, pigs), and animals dedicated to other than Allah (either undedicated or dedicated to idols) which are haram as opposed to halal. Sikhism forbids meat of slowly slaughtered animals ("kutha") and prescribes killing animals with a single strike ("jhatka"), but some Sikh groups oppose eating any meat. ### Psychology Research in applied psychology has investigated practices of meat eating in relation to morality, emotions, cognition, and personality characteristics. Psychological research suggests meat eating is correlated with masculinity, support for social hierarchy, and reduced openness to experience. Research into the consumer psychology of meat is relevant both to meat industry marketing and to advocates of reduced meat consumption. ### Gender Unlike most other food, meat is not perceived as gender-neutral, and is particularly associated with men and masculinity. Sociological research, ranging from African tribal societies to contemporary barbecues, indicates that men are much more likely to participate in preparing meat than other food. This has been attributed to the influence of traditional male gender roles, in view of a "male familiarity with killing" (Goody) or roasting being more violent as opposed to boiling (Lévi-Strauss). By and large, at least in modern societies, men also tend to consume more meat than women, and men often prefer red meat whereas women tend to prefer chicken and fish. See also -------- * Alligator meat * Bushmeat * Carnism * Culinary name * Dog meat * Food industry * Food science * Gristle * List of domesticated meat animals * List of meat dishes * List of foods * Meat Atlas * Meat on the bone * Meat-free days * Mechanically separated meat * Mystery meat * Roadkill cuisine * Tendon * Cat meat

Meat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat

A **horseshoe** is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toenail, although much larger and thicker. However, there are also cases where shoes are glued. Horseshoes are available in a wide variety of materials and styles, developed for different types of horse and for the work they do. The most common materials are steel and aluminium, but specialized shoes may include use of rubber, plastic, magnesium, titanium, or copper. Steel tends to be preferred in sports in which a strong, long-wearing shoe is needed, such as polo, eventing, show jumping, and western riding events. Aluminium shoes are lighter, making them common in horse racing where a lighter shoe is desired, and often facilitate certain types of movement; they are often favored in the discipline of dressage. Some horseshoes have "caulkins", "caulks", or "calks": protrusions at the toe or heels of the shoe, or both, to provide additional traction. The fitting of horseshoes is a professional occupation, conducted by a farrier, who specializes in the preparation of feet, assessing potential lameness issues, and fitting appropriate shoes, including remedial features where required. In some countries, such as the UK, horseshoeing is legally restricted to people with specific qualifications and experience. In others, such as the United States, where professional licensing is not legally required, professional organizations provide certification programs that publicly identify qualified individuals. When kept as a talisman, a horseshoe is said to bring good luck. A stylized variation of the horseshoe is used for a popular throwing game, horseshoes. History ------- Since the early history of domestication of the horse, working animals were found to be exposed to many conditions that created breakage or excessive hoof wear. Ancient people recognized the need for the walls (and sometimes the sole) of domestic horses' hooves to have additional protection over and above any natural hardness. An early form of hoof protection was seen in ancient Asia, where horses' hooves were wrapped in rawhide, leather, or other materials for both therapeutic purposes and protection from wear. From archaeological finds in Great Britain, the Romans appeared to have attempted to protect their horses' feet with a strap-on, solid-bottomed "hipposandal" that has a slight resemblance to the modern hoof boot. Historians differ on the origin of the horseshoe. Because iron was a valuable commodity, and any worn out items were generally reforged and reused, it is difficult to locate clear archaeological evidence. Although some credit the Druids, there is no hard evidence to support this claim. In 1897 four bronze horseshoes with what are apparently nail holes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated around 400 BC. The assertion by some historians that the Romans invented the "mule shoes" sometime after 100 BC is supported by a reference by Catullus who died in 54 BC. However, these references to use of horseshoes and muleshoes in Rome may have been to the "hipposandal"—leather boots, reinforced by an iron plate, rather than to nailed horseshoes. Existing references to the nailed shoe are relatively late, first known to have appeared around AD 900, but there may have been earlier uses given that some have been found in layers of dirt. There are no extant references to nailed horseshoes prior to the reign of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, and by 973 occasional references to them can be found. The earliest clear written record of iron horseshoes is a reference to "crescent figured irons and their nails" in AD 910. There is very little evidence of any sort that suggests the existence of nailed-on shoes prior to AD 500 or 600, though there is a find dated to the fifth century AD of a horseshoe, complete with nails, found in the tomb of the Frankish King Childeric I at Tournai, Belgium. Around 1000 AD, cast bronze horseshoes with nail holes became common in Europe. A design with a scalloped outer rim and six nail holes was common. According to Gordon Ward the scalloped edges were created by double punching the nail holes causing the edges to bulge. The 13th and 14th centuries brought the widespread manufacturing of iron horseshoes. By the time of the Crusades (1096–1270), horseshoes were widespread and frequently mentioned in various written sources. In that period, due to the value of iron, horseshoes were even accepted in lieu of coin to pay taxes. By the 13th century, shoes were forged in large quantities and could be bought ready made. Hot shoeing, the process of shaping a heated horseshoe immediately before placing it on the horse, became common in the 16th century. From the need for horseshoes, the craft of blacksmithing became "one of the great staple crafts of medieval and modern times and contributed to the development of metallurgy." A treatise titled "No Foot, No Horse" was published in England in 1751. In 1835, the first U.S. patent for a horseshoe manufacturing machine capable of making up to 60 horseshoes per hour was issued to Henry Burden. In mid-19th-century Canada, marsh horseshoes kept horses from sinking into the soft intertidal mud during dike-building. In a common design, a metal horseshoe holds a flat wooden shoe in place. ### China In China, iron horseshoes became common during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), prior to which rattan and leather shoes were used to preserve animal hooves. Evidence of the preservation of horse hooves in China dates to the Warring States period (476–221 BC), during which Zhuangzi recommended shaving horse hooves to keep them in good shape. The Discourses on Salt and Iron in 81 BC mentions using leather shoes, but it is not clear if they were used for protecting horse hooves or to aid in mounting the horse. Remnants of iron horseshoes have been found in what is now northeast China, but the tombs date to the Goguryeo period in 414 AD. A mural in the Mogao Caves dated to 584 AD depicts a man caring for a horse's hoof, which some speculate might be depicting horseshoe nailing, but the mural is too eroded to tell clearly. The earliest reference to iron horseshoes in China dates to 938 AD during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. A monk named Gao Juhui sent to the Western Regions writes that the people in Ganzhou (now Zhangye) taught him how to make "horse hoof *muse*", which had four holes in it that connected to four holes in the horse's hoof, and were thus put together. They also recommended using yak skin shoes for camel hooves. Iron horseshoes however did not become common for another three centuries. Zhao Rukuo writes in *Zhu Fan Zhi*, finished in 1225, that the horses of the Arabs and Persians used metal for horse shoes, implying that horses in China did not. After the establishment of the Yuan dynasty in 1271 AD, iron horseshoes became more common in northern China. When Thomas Blakiston travelled up the Yangtze, he noted that in Sichuan "cattle wore straw shoes to prevent their slipping on the wet ground" while in northern China, "horses and cattle are shod with iron shoes and nails." The majority of Chinese horseshoe discoveries have been in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Sichuan, and Tibet. Reasons for use --------------- ### Environmental changes linked to domestication Many changes brought about by the domestication of the horse have led to a need for shoes for numerous reasons, mostly linked to management that results in horses' hooves hardening less and being more vulnerable to injury. In the wild, a horse may travel up to 50 miles (80 km) per day to obtain adequate forage. While horses in the wild cover large areas of terrain, they usually do so at relatively slow speeds, unless being chased by a predator. They also tend to live in arid steppe climates. The consequence of slow but nonstop travel in a dry climate is that horses' feet are naturally worn to a small, smooth, even, and hard state. The continual stimulation of the sole of the foot keeps it thick and hard. However, in domestication, the manner in which horses are used differ from what they would encounter in their natural environment. Domesticated horses are brought to colder and wetter areas than their ancestral habitat. These softer and heavier soils soften the hooves and make them prone to splitting, making hoof protection necessary. Consequently, it was in northern Europe that the nailed horseshoe arose in its modern form . ### Physical stresses requiring horseshoes * Abnormal stress: Horses' hooves can become quite worn out when subjected to the added weight and stress of a rider, pack load, cart, or wagon. * Corrective shoeing: The shape, weight, and thickness of a horseshoe can significantly affect the horse's gait. Farriers may forge custom shoes to help horses with bone or musculature problems in their legs, or fit commercially available remedial shoes. * Traction: Traction devices such as borium for ice, horse shoe studs for muddy or slick conditions, calks, carbide-tipped road nails and rims are useful for performance horses such as eventers, show jumpers, polo ponies, and other horses that perform at high speeds, over changing terrain, or in less-than-ideal footing. * Gait manipulation: Some breeds such as the Saddlebred, Tennessee Walking Horse, and other gaited horses are judged on their high-stepping movement. Special shoeing can help enhance their natural movement. * Racing horses with weakness in their foot or leg require specialized horseshoes. Horseshoeing theories and debates --------------------------------- Domestic horses do not always require shoes. When possible, a "barefoot" hoof, at least for part of every year, is a healthy option for most horses. However, horseshoes have their place and can help prevent excess or abnormal hoof wear and injury to the foot. Many horses go without shoes year round, some using temporary protection such as hoof boots for short-term use. Process of shoeing ------------------ Shoeing, when performed correctly, causes no pain to the animal. Farriers trim the insensitive part of the hoof, which is the same area into which they drive the nails. This is analogous to a manicure on a human fingernail, only on a much larger scale. Before beginning to shoe, the farrier removes the old shoe using pincers (shoe pullers) and trims the hoof wall to the desired length with nippers, a sharp pliers-like tool, and the sole and frog of the hoof with a hoof knife. Shoes do not allow the hoof to wear down as it naturally would in the wild, and it can then become too long. The coffin bone inside the hoof should line up straight with both bones in the pastern. If the excess hoof is not trimmed, the bones will become misaligned, which would place stress on the legs of the animal. Shoes are then measured to the foot and bent to the correct shape using a hammer, anvil, forge, and other modifications, such as taps for shoe studs, are added. Farriers may either cold shoe, in which they bend the metal shoe without heating it, or hot shoe, in which they place the metal in a forge before bending it. Hot shoeing can be more time consuming, and requires the farrier to have access to a forge; however, it usually provides a better fit, as the mark made on the hoof from the hot shoe can show how even it lies. It also allows the farrier to make more modifications to the shoe, such as drawing toe- and quarter-clips. The farrier must take care not to hold the hot shoe against the hoof too long, as the heat can damage the hoof. Hot shoes are placed in water to cool them. The farrier then nails the shoes on by driving the nails into the hoof wall at the white line of the hoof. The nails are shaped in such a way that they bend outward as they are driven in, avoiding the sensitive inner part of the foot, so they emerge on the sides of the hoof. When the nail has been completely driven, the farrier cuts off the sharp points and uses a clincher (a form of tongs made especially for this purpose) or a clinching block with hammer to bend the rest of the nail so it is almost flush with the hoof wall. This prevents the nail from getting caught on anything, and also helps to hold the nail, and therefore the shoe, in place. The farrier then uses a rasp (large file), to smooth the edge where it meets the shoe and eliminate any sharp edges left from cutting off the nails. * A hot horseshoe in a forgeA hot horseshoe in a forge * Farrier toolsFarrier tools * Nailing on the shoeNailing on the shoe * The nails driven through the hoof, but not yet bent downwardsThe nails driven through the hoof, but not yet bent downwards In culture ---------- ### Superstition Horseshoes have long been considered lucky. They were originally made of iron, a material that was believed to ward off evil spirits, and traditionally were held in place with seven nails, seven being the luckiest number. The superstition acquired a further Christian twist due to a legend surrounding the tenth-century saint Dunstan, who worked as a blacksmith before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. The legend recounts that, one day, the Devil walked into Dunstan's shop and asked him to shoe his horse. Dunstan pretended not to recognize him, and agreed to the request; but rather than nailing the shoe to the horse's hoof, he nailed it to the Devil's own foot, causing him great pain. Dunstan eventually agreed to remove the shoe, but only after extracting a promise that the Devil would never enter a household with a horseshoe nailed to the door. Opinion is divided as to which way up the horseshoe ought to be nailed. Some say the ends should point up, so that the horseshoe catches the luck, and that the ends pointing down allow the good luck to be lost; others say they should point down, so that the luck is poured upon those entering the home. Superstitious sailors believe that nailing a horseshoe to the mast will help their vessel avoid storms. ### Heraldry In heraldry, horseshoes most often occur as canting charges, such as in the arms of families with names like Farrier, Marshall, and Smith. A horseshoe (together with two hammers) also appears in the arms of Hammersmith and Fulham, a borough in London. The flag of Rutland, England's smallest historic county, consists of a golden horseshoe laid over a field scattered with acorns. This refers to an ancient tradition in which every noble visiting Oakham, Rutland's county town, presents a horseshoe to the Lord of the Manor, which is then nailed to the wall of Oakham Castle. Over the centuries, the Castle has amassed a vast collection of horseshoes, the oldest of which date from the 15th century. ### Monuments and structures A massive golden horseshoe structure is erected over the shopping mall of the Tuuri village in Alavus, a town of Finland. It is one of the most famous monuments in the locality; however, it stands at number three in Reuters' list of world's ugliest buildings and monuments. ### Sport The sport of horseshoes involves a horseshoe being thrown as close as possible to a rod in order to score points. As far as it is known, the sport is as old as horseshoes themselves. While traditional horseshoes can still be used, most organized versions of the game use specialized sport horseshoes, which do not fit on horses' hooves. See also -------- * Farrier * Horse care * Horse hoof * Laminitis * Natural hoof care  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Horse-shoes". *Encyclopædia Britannica* (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Horseshoe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe

**Cornwall** (/ˈkɔːrnwɔːl, -wəl/; Cornish: *Kernow* [ˈkɛrnɔʊ]) is ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by Devon, and to the south by the English Channel. The city of Truro is administrative centre. The county is rural, with an area of 3,562 square kilometres (1,375 sq mi) and population of 568,210. The largest settlements are Falmouth (23,061), Newquay (20,342), St Austell (19,958), and Truro (18,766). With the exception of the Isles of Scilly, which has a unique local authority, Cornwall is governed by Cornwall Council, a unitary authority. The Cornish nationalist movement disputes the constitutional status of Cornwall and seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula. Its coastline is characterised by steep cliffs and, to the south, several rias, including those at the mouths of the rivers Fal and Fowey. It includes the southernmost point on Great Britain, Lizard Point, and forms a large part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The AONB also includes Bodmin Moor, an upland outcrop of the Cornubian batholith granite formation. The county contains many short rivers; the longest is the Tamar, which forms the border with Devon. Cornwall had a minor Roman presence, and later the Cornovii tribe formed a subregion of the Brittonic kingdom of Dumnonia. In the sixth century the Britons in the South West increasingly came into conflict with the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, eventually being pushed west of the Tamar; by the Norman Conquest Cornwall was administered as part of England, though it retained its own culture. The remainder of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period were relatively settled, with Cornwall developing its tin mining industry and becoming a duchy in 1337. During the Industrial Revolution the tin and copper mines were expanded and then declined, with china clay extraction becoming a major industry. Railways were built, leading to a growth of tourism in the 20th century. During this period the Cornish language went into steep decline, but is now being revived. Name ---- The modern English name **Cornwall** is a compound of two ancient demonyms coming from two different language groups: * **Corn-** originates from the Proto-Celtic "\*karnos" ("horn" or "headland"), and is cognate with the English word "horn" (both deriving from the Proto-Indo-European \*ker-). An Iron Age tribe that occupied the Cornish peninsula, the *Cornovii* ("peninsula people") may have also existed. * **-wall** derives from the Old English exonym "*wealh*", meaning "foreigner" (i.e. a Welsh person). In the Cornish language, Cornwall is **Kernow** which stems from the same Proto-Celtic root. History ------- ### Prehistory, Roman and post-Roman periods Humans reoccupied Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then by Bronze Age people. According to John T. Koch and others, Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age formed part of a maritime trading-networked culture which researchers have dubbed the Atlantic Bronze Age and which extended over the areas of present-day Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, and Portugal. During the British Iron Age, Cornwall, like all of Britain (modern England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man), was inhabited by a Celtic people known as the Britons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Brittany. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including Cornish, Welsh, Breton, Cumbric and Pictish. The first written account of Cornwall comes from the 1st-century BC Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain: > The inhabitants of that part of Britain called *Belerion* (or Land's End) from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilised in their manner of life. They prepare the tin, working very carefully the earth in which it is produced ... Here then the merchants buy the tin from the natives and carry it over to Gaul, and after travelling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône. > > The identity of these merchants is unknown. It has been theorised that they were Phoenicians, but there is no evidence for this. Professor Timothy Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that the Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organised by local merchants, by sea and then overland through France, passing through areas well outside Phoenician control." Isotopic evidence suggests that tin ingots found off the coast of Haifa, Israel, came from Cornwall. Tin, required for the production of bronze, was a relatively rare and precious commodity in the Bronze Age – hence the interest shown in Devon and Cornwall's tin resources. (For further discussion of tin mining see the section on the economy below.) In the first four centuries AD, during the time of Roman dominance in Britain, Cornwall was rather remote from the main centres of Romanisation – the nearest being Isca Dumnoniorum, modern-day Exeter. However, the Roman road system extended into Cornwall with four significant Roman sites based on forts: Tregear near Nanstallon was discovered in the early 1970s, two others were found at Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel in 2007, and a third fort near Calstock was also discovered early in 2007. In addition, a Roman-style villa was found at Magor Farm, Illogan in 1935. However, after 410 AD, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the Cornovii tribe as part of the Brittonic kingdom of Dumnonia (which also included present-day Devonshire and the Scilly Isles), including the territory of one Marcus Cunomorus, with at least one significant power base at Tintagel in the early 6th century. "King" Mark of Cornwall is a semi-historical figure known from Welsh literature, from the Matter of Britain, and, in particular, from the later Norman-Breton medieval romance of Tristan and Yseult, where he appears as a close relative of King Arthur, himself usually considered to be born of the Cornish people in folklore traditions derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century *Historia Regum Britanniae*. Archaeology supports ecclesiastical, literary and legendary evidence for some relative economic stability and close cultural ties between the sub-Roman Westcountry, South Wales, Brittany, the Channel Islands, and Ireland through the fifth and sixth centuries. ### Conflict with Wessex The Battle of Deorham in 577 saw the separation of Dumnonia (and therefore Cornwall) from Wales, following which the Dumnonii often came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of Wessex. The *Annales Cambriae* report that in AD 722 the Britons of Cornwall won a battle at "Hehil". It seems likely that the enemy the Cornish fought was a West Saxon force, as evidenced by the naming of King Ine of Wessex and his kinsman Nonna in reference to an earlier Battle of Llongborth in 710. The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* stated in 815 (adjusted date) "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." this has been interpreted to mean a raid from the Tamar to Land's End, and the end of Cornish independence. However, the *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* states that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at Gafulforda. The Cornish giving battle here, and the later battle at Hingston Down, casts doubt on any claims of control Wessex had at this stage. In 838, the Cornish and their Danish allies were defeated by Egbert in the Battle of Hingston Down at Hengestesdune. In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall, Dumgarth, is said to have drowned. Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the north eastern part of Cornwall; notably Alfred the Great who had acquired a few estates. William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the River Tamar. While elements of William's story, like the burning of Exeter, have been cast in doubt by recent writers Athelstan did re-establish a separate Cornish Bishop and relations between Wessex and the Cornish elite improved from the time of his rule. Eventually King Edgar was able to issue charters the width of Cornwall, and frequently sent emissaries or visited personally as seen by his appearances in the Bodmin Manumissions. ### Breton–Norman period One interpretation of the Domesday Book is that by this time the native Cornish landowning class had been almost completely dispossessed and replaced by English landowners, particularly Harold Godwinson himself. However, the Bodmin manumissions show that two leading Cornish figures nominally had Saxon names, but these were both glossed with native Cornish names. In 1068, Brian of Brittany may have been created Earl of Cornwall, and naming evidence cited by medievalist Edith Ditmas suggests that many other post-Conquest landowners in Cornwall were Breton allies of the Normans, the Bretons being descended from Britons who had fled to what is today Brittany during the early years of the Anglo-Saxon conquest. She also proposed this period for the early composition of the Tristan and Iseult cycle by poets such as Béroul from a pre-existing shared Brittonic oral tradition. Soon after the Norman conquest most of the land was transferred to the new Breton–Norman aristocracy, with the lion's share going to Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of King William and the largest landholder in England after the king with his stronghold at Trematon Castle near the mouth of the Tamar. ### Later medieval administration and society Subsequently, however, Norman absentee landlords became replaced by a new Cornish-Norman ruling class including scholars such as Richard Rufus of Cornwall. These families eventually became the new rulers of Cornwall, typically speaking Norman French, Breton-Cornish, Latin, and eventually English, with many becoming involved in the operation of the Stannary Parliament system, the Earldom and eventually the Duchy of Cornwall. The Cornish language continued to be spoken and acquired a number of characteristics establishing its identity as a separate language from Breton. #### Stannary parliaments The stannary parliaments and stannary courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon (in the Dartmoor area). The stannary courts administered equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines. The separate and powerful government institutions available to the tin miners reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the English economy during the Middle Ages. Special laws for tin miners pre-date written legal codes in Britain, and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Cornwall and Devon from any jurisdiction other than the stannary courts in all but the most exceptional circumstances. #### Piracy and smuggling Cornish piracy was active during the Elizabethan era on the west coast of Britain. Cornwall is well known for its wreckers who preyed on ships passing Cornwall's rocky coastline. During the 17th and 18th centuries Cornwall was a major smuggling area. ### Heraldry In later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as "West Wales" to distinguish it from "North Wales" (the modern nation of Wales). The name appears in the *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* in 891 as *On Corn walum*. In the Domesday Book it was referred to as *Cornualia* and in c. 1198 as *Cornwal*. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as *Cornubia* (first appears in a mid-9th-century deed purporting to be a copy of one dating from c. 705), and as *Cornugallia* in 1086. Physical geography ------------------ Cornwall forms the tip of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and is therefore exposed to the full force of the prevailing winds that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is composed mainly of resistant rocks that give rise in many places to tall cliffs. Cornwall has a border with only one other county, Devon, which is formed almost entirely by the River Tamar, and the remainder (to the north) by the Marsland Valley. ### Coastal areas The north and south coasts have different characteristics. The north coast on the Celtic Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, is more exposed and therefore has a wilder nature. The prosaically named *High Cliff*, between Boscastle and St Gennys, is the highest sheer-drop cliff in Cornwall at 223 metres (732 ft). However, there are also many extensive stretches of fine golden sand which form the beaches important to the tourist industry, such as those at Bude, Polzeath, Watergate Bay, Perranporth, Porthtowan, Fistral Beach, Newquay, St Agnes, St Ives, and on the south coast Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth and the large beach at Praa Sands further to the south-west. There are two river estuaries on the north coast: Hayle Estuary and the estuary of the River Camel, which provides Padstow and Rock with a safe harbour. The seaside town of Newlyn is a popular holiday destination, as it is one of the last remaining traditional Cornish fishing ports, with views reaching over Mount's Bay. The south coast, dubbed the "Cornish Riviera", is more sheltered and there are several broad estuaries offering safe anchorages, such as at Falmouth and Fowey. Beaches on the south coast usually consist of coarser sand and shingle, interspersed with rocky sections of wave-cut platform. Also on the south coast, the picturesque fishing village of Polperro, at the mouth of the Pol River, and the fishing port of Looe on the River Looe are both popular with tourists. ### Inland areas The interior of the county consists of a roughly east–west spine of infertile and exposed upland, with a series of granite intrusions, such as Bodmin Moor, which contains the highest land within Cornwall. From east to west, and with approximately descending altitude, these are Bodmin Moor, Hensbarrow north of St Austell, Carnmenellis to the south of Camborne, and the Penwith or Land's End peninsula. These intrusions are the central part of the granite outcrops that form the exposed parts of the Cornubian batholith of south-west Britain, which also includes Dartmoor to the east in Devon and the Isles of Scilly to the west, the latter now being partially submerged. The intrusion of the granite into the surrounding sedimentary rocks gave rise to extensive metamorphism and mineralisation, and this led to Cornwall being one of the most important mining areas in Europe until the early 20th century. It is thought tin was mined here as early as the Bronze Age, and copper, lead, zinc and silver have all been mined in Cornwall. Alteration of the granite also gave rise to extensive deposits of China Clay, especially in the area to the north of St Austell, and the extraction of this remains an important industry. The uplands are surrounded by more fertile, mainly pastoral farmland. Near the south coast, deep wooded valleys provide sheltered conditions for flora that like shade and a moist, mild climate. These areas lie mainly on Devonian sandstone and slate. The north east of Cornwall lies on Carboniferous rocks known as the Culm Measures. In places these have been subjected to severe folding, as can be seen on the north coast near Crackington Haven and in several other locations. ### Lizard Peninsula The geology of the Lizard peninsula is unusual, in that it is mainland Britain's only example of an ophiolite, a section of oceanic crust now found on land. Much of the peninsula consists of the dark green and red Precambrian serpentinite, which forms spectacular cliffs, notably at Kynance Cove, and carved and polished serpentine ornaments are sold in local gift shops. This ultramafic rock also forms a very infertile soil which covers the flat and marshy heaths of the interior of the peninsula. This is home to rare plants, such as the Cornish Heath, which has been adopted as the county flower. ### Hills and high points Settlements and transport ------------------------- Cornwall's only city, and the home of the council headquarters, is Truro. Nearby Falmouth is notable as a port. St Just in Penwith is the westernmost town in England, though the same claim has been made for Penzance, which is larger. St Ives and Padstow are today small vessel ports with a major tourism and leisure sector in their economies. Newquay on the north coast is another major urban settlement which is known for its beaches and is a popular surfing destination, as is Bude further north, but Newquay is now also becoming important for its aviation-related industries. Camborne is the county's largest town and more populous than the capital Truro. Together with the neighbouring town of Redruth, it forms the largest urban area in Cornwall, and both towns were significant as centres of the global tin mining industry in the 19th century; nearby copper mines were also very productive during that period. St Austell is also larger than Truro and was the centre of the china clay industry in Cornwall. Until four new parishes were created for the St Austell area on 1 April 2009 St Austell was the largest settlement in Cornwall. Cornwall borders the county of Devon at the River Tamar. Major roads between Cornwall and the rest of Great Britain are the A38 which crosses the Tamar at Plymouth via the Tamar Bridge and the town of Saltash, the A39 road (Atlantic Highway) from Barnstaple, passing through North Cornwall to end in Falmouth, and the A30 which connects Cornwall to the M5 motorway at Exeter, crosses the border south of Launceston, crosses Bodmin Moor and connects Bodmin, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle and Penzance. Torpoint Ferry links Plymouth with Torpoint on the opposite side of the Hamoaze. A rail bridge, the Royal Albert Bridge built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1859), provides the other main land transport link. The city of Plymouth, a large urban centre in south west Devon, is an important location for services such as hospitals, department stores, road and rail transport, and cultural venues, particularly for people living in east Cornwall. Cardiff and Swansea, across the Bristol Channel, have at some times in the past been connected to Cornwall by ferry, but these do not operate now. The Isles of Scilly are served by ferry (from Penzance) and by aeroplane, having its own airport: St Mary's Airport. There are regular flights between St Mary's and Land's End Airport, near St Just, and Newquay Airport; during the summer season, a service is also provided between St Mary's and Exeter Airport, in Devon. Ecology ------- ### Flora and fauna Cornwall has varied habitats including terrestrial and marine ecosystems. One noted species in decline locally is the Reindeer lichen, which species has been made a priority for protection under the national UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Botanists divide Cornwall and Scilly into two vice-counties: West (1) and East (2). The standard flora is by F. H. Davey *Flora of Cornwall* (1909). Davey was assisted by A. O. Hume and he thanks Hume, his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of that Flora, publication of which was financed by him. ### Climate Cornwall has a temperate Oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb), with mild winters and cool summers. Cornwall has the mildest and one of the sunniest climates of the United Kingdom, as a result of its oceanic setting and the influence of the Gulf Stream. The average annual temperature in Cornwall ranges from 11.6 °C (52.9 °F) on the Isles of Scilly to 9.8 °C (49.6 °F) in the central uplands. Winters are among the warmest in the country due to the moderating effects of the warm ocean currents, and frost and snow are very rare at the coast and are also rare in the central upland areas. Summers are, however, not as warm as in other parts of southern England. The surrounding sea and its southwesterly position mean that Cornwall's weather can be relatively changeable. Cornwall is one of the sunniest areas in the UK. It has more than 1,541 hours of sunshine per year, with the highest average of 7.6 hours of sunshine per day in July. The moist, mild air coming from the southwest brings higher amounts of rainfall than in eastern Great Britain, at 1,051 to 1,290 mm (41.4 to 50.8 in) per year. However, this is not as much as in more northern areas of the west coast. The Isles of Scilly, for example, where there are on average fewer than two days of air frost per year, is the only area in the UK to be in the Hardiness zone 10. The islands have, on average, less than one day of air temperature exceeding 30 °C per year and are in the AHS Heat Zone 1. Extreme temperatures in Cornwall are particularly rare; however, extreme weather in the form of storms and floods is common. Culture ------- ### Language #### Cornish language Cornish, a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic language family, is a revived language that died out as a first language in the late 18th century. It is closely related to the other Brythonic languages, Breton and Welsh, and less so to the Goidelic languages. Cornish has no legal status in the UK. There has been a revival of the language by academics and optimistic enthusiasts since the mid-19th century that gained momentum from the publication in 1904 of Henry Jenner's *Handbook of the Cornish Language*. It is a social networking community language rather than a social community group language. Cornwall Council encourages and facilitates language classes within the county, in schools and within the wider community. In 2002, Cornish was named as a UK regional language in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. As a result, in 2005 its promoters received limited government funding. Several words originating in Cornish are used in the mining terminology of English, such as costean, gossan, gunnies, kibbal, kieve and vug. #### English dialect The Cornish language and culture influenced the emergence of particular pronunciations and grammar not used elsewhere in England. The Cornish dialect is spoken to varying degrees; however, someone speaking in broad Cornish may be practically unintelligible to one not accustomed to it. Cornish dialect has generally declined, as in most places it is now little more than a regional accent and grammatical differences have been eroded over time. Marked differences in vocabulary and usage still exist between the eastern and western parts of Cornwall. ### Flag Saint Piran's Flag is the national flag and ancient banner of Cornwall, and an emblem of the Cornish people. It is regarded as the county flag by Cornwall Council. The banner of Saint Piran is a white cross on a black background (in terms of heraldry 'sable, a cross argent'). According to legend Saint Piran adopted these colours from seeing the white tin in the black coals and ashes during his discovery of tin. The Cornish flag is an exact reverse of the former Breton black cross national flag and is known by the same name "Kroaz Du". ### Arts and media Since the 19th century, Cornwall, with its unspoilt maritime scenery and strong light, has sustained a vibrant visual art scene of international renown. Artistic activity within Cornwall was initially centred on the art-colony of Newlyn, most active at the turn of the 20th century. This Newlyn School is associated with the names of Stanhope Forbes, Elizabeth Forbes, Norman Garstin and Lamorna Birch. Modernist writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf lived in Cornwall between the wars, and Ben Nicholson, the painter, having visited in the 1920s came to live in St Ives with his then wife, the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, at the outbreak of the Second World War. They were later joined by the Russian emigrant Naum Gabo, and other artists. These included Peter Lanyon, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Bryan Wynter and Roger Hilton. St Ives also houses the Leach Pottery, where Bernard Leach, and his followers championed Japanese inspired studio pottery. Much of this modernist work can be seen in Tate St Ives. The Newlyn Society and Penwith Society of Arts continue to be active, and contemporary visual art is documented in a dedicated online journal. Local television programmes are provided by BBC South West & ITV West Country. Radio programmes are produced by BBC Radio Cornwall in Truro for the entire county, Heart West, Source FM for the Falmouth and Penryn areas, Coast FM for west Cornwall, Radio St Austell Bay for the St Austell area, NCB Radio for north Cornwall & Pirate FM. ### Music Cornwall has a folk music tradition that has survived into the present and is well known for its unusual folk survivals such as Mummers Plays, the Furry Dance in Helston played by the famous Helston Town Band, and Obby Oss in Padstow. Newlyn is home to a food and music festival that hosts live music, cooking demonstrations, and displays of locally caught fish. As in other former mining districts of Britain, male voice choirs and brass bands, such as *Brass on the Grass* concerts during the summer at Constantine, are still very popular in Cornwall. Cornwall also has around 40 brass bands, including the six-times National Champions of Great Britain, Camborne Youth Band, and the bands of Lanner and St Dennis. Cornish players are regular participants in inter-Celtic festivals, and Cornwall itself has several inter-Celtic festivals such as Perranporth's Lowender Peran folk festival. Contemporary musician Richard D. James (also known as Aphex Twin) grew up in Cornwall, as did Luke Vibert and Alex Parks, winner of Fame Academy 2003. Roger Taylor, the drummer from the band Queen was also raised in the county, and currently lives not far from Falmouth. The American singer-songwriter Tori Amos now resides predominantly in North Cornwall not far from Bude with her family. The lutenist, composer and festival director Ben Salfield lives in Truro. Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac was born in Redruth. ### Literature Cornwall's rich heritage and dramatic landscape have inspired numerous writers. #### Fiction Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, author of many novels and works of literary criticism, lived in Fowey: his novels are mainly set in Cornwall. Daphne du Maurier lived at Menabilly near Fowey and many of her novels had Cornish settings: *The Loving Spirit*, *Jamaica Inn*, *Rebecca*, *Frenchman's Creek*, *The King's General* (partially), *My Cousin Rachel*, *The House on the Strand* and *Rule Britannia*. She is also noted for writing *Vanishing Cornwall*. Cornwall provided the inspiration for *The Birds*, one of her terrifying series of short stories, made famous as a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Conan Doyle's *The Adventure of the Devil's Foot* featuring Sherlock Holmes is set in Cornwall. Winston Graham's series *Poldark*, Kate Tremayne's Adam Loveday series, Susan Cooper's novels *Over Sea, Under Stone* and *Greenwitch*, and Mary Wesley's *The Camomile Lawn* are all set in Cornwall. Writing under the pseudonym of Alexander Kent, Douglas Reeman sets parts of his Richard Bolitho and Adam Bolitho series in the Cornwall of the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, particularly in Falmouth. Gilbert K. Chesterton placed the action of many of his stories there. Medieval Cornwall is the setting of the trilogy by Monica Furlong, *Wise Child*, *Juniper* and *Colman*, as well as part of Charles Kingsley's *Hereward the Wake*. Hammond Innes's novel, *The Killer Mine*; Charles de Lint's novel *The Little Country*; and Chapters 24–25 of J. K. Rowling's *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* take place in Cornwall (Shell Cottage, on the beach outside the fictional village of Tinworth). David Cornwell, who wrote espionage novels under the name John le Carré, lived and worked in Cornwall. Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding was born in St Columb Minor in 1911, and returned to live near Truro from 1985 until his death in 1993. D. H. Lawrence spent a short time living in Cornwall. Rosamunde Pilcher grew up in Cornwall, and several of her books take place there. St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall (under the fictional name of Mount Polbearne) is the setting of the Little Beach Street Bakery series by Jenny Colgan, who spent holidays in Cornwall as a child. The book series includes *Little Beach Street Bakery* (2014), *Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery* (2015), *Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery* (2016), and *Sunrise by the Sea* (2021). In the *Paddington Bear* novels by Michael Bond the title character is said to have landed at an unspecified port in Cornwall having travelled in a lifeboat aboard a cargo ship from darkest Peru. From here he travels to London on a train and eventually arrives at Paddington Station. #### Poetry The late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman was famously fond of Cornwall and it featured prominently in his poetry. He is buried in the churchyard at St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick. Charles Causley, the poet, was born in Launceston and is perhaps the best known of Cornish poets. Jack Clemo and the scholar A. L. Rowse were also notable Cornishmen known for their poetry; The Rev. R. S. Hawker of Morwenstow wrote some poetry which was very popular in the Victorian period. The Scottish poet W. S. Graham lived in West Cornwall from 1944 until his death in 1986. The poet Laurence Binyon wrote "For the Fallen" (first published in 1914) while sitting on the cliffs between Pentire Point and The Rumps and a stone plaque was erected in 2001 to commemorate the fact. The plaque bears the inscription "FOR THE FALLEN / Composed on these cliffs, 1914". The plaque also bears below this the fourth stanza (sometimes referred to as "The Ode") of the poem: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them #### Other literary works Cornwall produced a substantial number of passion plays such as the Ordinalia during the Middle Ages. Many are still extant, and provide valuable information about the Cornish language. See also Cornish literature Colin Wilson, a prolific writer who is best known for his debut work *The Outsider* (1956) and for *The Mind Parasites* (1967), lived in Gorran Haven, a small village on the southern Cornish coast. The writer D. M. Thomas was born in Redruth but lived and worked in Australia and the United States before returning to his native Cornwall. He has written novels, poetry, and other works, including translations from Russian. Thomas Hardy's drama *The Queen of Cornwall* (1923) is a version of the Tristan story; the second act of Richard Wagner's opera *Tristan und Isolde* takes place in Cornwall, as do Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas *The Pirates of Penzance* and *Ruddigore*. Clara Vyvyan was the author of various books about many aspects of Cornish life such as *Our Cornwall*. She once wrote: "The Loneliness of Cornwall is a loneliness unchanged by the presence of men, its freedoms a freedom inexpressible by description or epitaph. Your cannot say Cornwall is this or that. Your cannot describe it in a word or visualise it in a second. You may know the country from east to west and sea to sea, but if you close your eyes and think about it no clear-cut image rises before you. In this quality of changefulness have we possibly surprised the secret of Cornwall's wild spirit—in this intimacy the essence of its charm? Cornwall!". A level of *Tomb Raider: Legend*, a game dealing with Arthurian Legend, takes place in Cornwall at a museum above King Arthur's tomb. The adventure game *The Lost Crown* is set in the fictional town of Saxton, which uses the Cornish settlements of Polperro, Talland and Looe as its model. The fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer takes place in Cornwall. *The Mousehole Cat*, a children's book written by Antonia Barber and illustrated by Nicola Bayley, is set in the Cornish village Mousehole and based on the legend of Tom Bawcock and the continuing tradition of Tom Bawcock's Eve. ### Sports The main sports played in Cornwall are rugby, football and cricket. Athletes from Truro have done well in Olympic and Commonwealth Games fencing, winning several medals. Surfing is popular, particularly with tourists, thousands of whom take to the water throughout the summer months. Some towns and villages have bowling clubs, and a wide variety of British sports are played throughout Cornwall. Cornwall is also one of the few places in England where shinty is played; the English Shinty Association is based in Penryn. The Cornwall County Cricket Club plays as one of the minor counties of English cricket. Truro, and all of the towns and some villages have football clubs belonging to the Cornwall County Football Association, and some clubs have teams competing higher within the English football league pyramid. Of these, the highest ranked — by two flights — is Truro City F.C., who will be playing in the National League South in the 2023–24 season. Other notable Cornish teams include Mousehole A.F.C., Helston Athletic F.C., and Falmouth Town F.C. #### Rugby football Viewed as an "important identifier of ethnic affiliation", rugby union has become a sport strongly tied to notions of Cornishness. and since the 20th century, rugby union has emerged as one of the most popular spectator and team sports in Cornwall (perhaps the most popular), with professional Cornish rugby footballers being described as a "formidable force", "naturally independent, both in thought and deed, yet paradoxically staunch English patriots whose top players have represented England with pride and passion". In 1985, sports journalist Alan Gibson made a direct connection between the love of rugby in Cornwall and the ancient parish games of hurling and wrestling that existed for centuries before rugby officially began. Among Cornwall's native sports are a distinctive form of Celtic wrestling related to Breton wrestling, and Cornish hurling, a kind of mediaeval football played with a silver ball (distinct from Irish Hurling). Cornish Wrestling is Cornwall's oldest sport and as Cornwall's native tradition it has travelled the world to places like Victoria, Australia and Grass Valley, California following the miners and gold rushes. Cornish hurling now takes place at St. Columb Major, St Ives, and less frequently at Bodmin. In rugby league, Cornwall R.L.F.C., founded in 2021, will represent the county in the professional league system. The semi-pro club will start in the third tier RFL League 1. At an amateur level, the county is represented by Cornish Rebels. #### Surfing and watersports Due to its long coastline, various maritime sports are popular in Cornwall, notably sailing and surfing. International events in both are held in Cornwall. Cornwall hosted the Inter-Celtic Watersports Festival in 2006. Surfing in particular is very popular, as locations such as Bude and Newquay offer some of the best surf in the UK. Pilot gig rowing has been popular for many years and the World championships takes place annually on the Isles of Scilly. On 2 September 2007, 300 surfers at Polzeath beach set a new world record for the highest number of surfers riding the same wave as part of the Global Surf Challenge and part of a project called Earthwave to raise awareness about global warming. #### Fencing As its population is comparatively small, and largely rural, Cornwall's contribution to British national sport in the United Kingdom has been limited; the county's greatest successes have come in fencing. In 2014, half of the men's GB team fenced for Truro Fencing Club, and 3 Truro fencers appeared at the 2012 Olympics. ### Cuisine Cornwall has a strong culinary heritage. Surrounded on three sides by the sea amid fertile fishing grounds, Cornwall naturally has fresh seafood readily available; Newlyn is the largest fishing port in the UK by value of fish landed, and is known for its wide range of restaurants. Television chef Rick Stein has long operated a fish restaurant in Padstow for this reason, and Jamie Oliver chose to open his second restaurant, Fifteen, in Watergate Bay near Newquay. *MasterChef* host and founder of Smiths of Smithfield, John Torode, in 2007 purchased Seiners in Perranporth. One famous local fish dish is Stargazy pie, a fish-based pie in which the heads of the fish stick through the piecrust, as though "star-gazing". The pie is cooked as part of traditional celebrations for Tom Bawcock's Eve, but is not generally eaten at any other time. Cornwall is perhaps best known though for its pasties, a savoury dish made with pastry. Today's pasties usually contain a filling of beef steak, onion, potato and swede with salt and white pepper, but historically pasties had a variety of different fillings. "Turmut, 'tates and mate" (i.e. "Turnip, potatoes and meat", turnip being the Cornish and Scottish term for swede, itself an abbreviation of 'Swedish Turnip', the British term for rutabaga) describes a filling once very common. For instance, the licky pasty contained mostly leeks, and the herb pasty contained watercress, parsley, and shallots. Pasties are often locally referred to as *oggies*. Historically, pasties were also often made with sweet fillings such as jam, apple and blackberry, plums or cherries. The wet climate and relatively poor soil of Cornwall make it unsuitable for growing many arable crops. However, it is ideal for growing the rich grass required for dairying, leading to the production of Cornwall's other famous export, clotted cream. This forms the basis for many local specialities including Cornish fudge and Cornish ice cream. Cornish clotted cream has Protected Geographical Status under EU law, and cannot be made anywhere else. Its principal manufacturer is A. E. Rodda & Son of Scorrier. Local cakes and desserts include Saffron cake, Cornish heavy (*hevva*) cake, Cornish fairings biscuits, figgy 'obbin, Cream tea and whortleberry pie. There are also many types of beers brewed in Cornwall—those produced by Sharp's Brewery, Skinner's Brewery, Keltek Brewery and St Austell Brewery are the best known—including stouts, ales and other beer types. There is some small scale production of wine, mead and cider. Politics and administration --------------------------- ### Cornish national identity Cornwall is recognised by Cornish and Celtic political groups as one of six Celtic nations, alongside Brittany, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. (The Isle of Man Government and the Welsh Government also recognise Asturias and Galicia.) Cornwall is represented, as one of the Celtic nations, at the *Festival Interceltique de Lorient*, an annual celebration of Celtic culture held in Brittany. Cornwall Council consider Cornwall's unique cultural heritage and distinctiveness to be one of the area's major assets. They see Cornwall's language, landscape, Celtic identity, political history, patterns of settlement, maritime tradition, industrial heritage, and non-conformist tradition, to be among the features making up its "distinctive" culture. However, it is uncertain exactly how many of the people living in Cornwall consider themselves to be Cornish; results from different surveys (including the national census) have varied. In the 2001 census, 7 per cent of people in Cornwall identified themselves as Cornish, rather than British or English. However, activists have argued that this underestimated the true number as there was no explicit "Cornish" option included in the official census form. Subsequent surveys have suggested that as many as 44 per cent identify as Cornish. Many people in Cornwall say that this issue would be resolved if a Cornish option became available on the census. The question and content recommendations for the 2011 census provided an explanation of the process of selecting an ethnic identity which is relevant to the understanding of the often quoted figure of 37,000 who claimed Cornish identity. The 2021 census found that 17% of people in Cornwall identified as being Cornish (89,000), with 14% of people in Cornwall identifying as Cornish-only (80,000). Again there was no tick-box provided, and "Cornish" had to be written-in as "Other". On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people have been granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. ### Local politics Cornwall forms two local government districts; Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The district of Cornwall is governed by Cornwall Council, a unitary authority based at Lys Kernow in Truro, and the Council of the Isles of Scilly governs the archipelago from Hugh Town. The Crown Court is based at the Courts of Justice in Truro. Magistrates' Courts are found in Truro (but at a different location to the Crown Court) and at Bodmin. The Isles of Scilly form part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall, and have, at times, been served by the same county administration. Since 1890 they have been administered by their own unitary authority, the Council of the Isles of Scilly. They are grouped with Cornwall for other administrative purposes, such as the National Health Service and Devon and Cornwall Police. Before reorganisation on 1 April 2009, council functions throughout the rest of Cornwall were organised in two tiers, with Cornwall County Council and district councils for its six districts, Caradon, Carrick, Kerrier, North Cornwall, Penwith, and Restormel. While projected to streamline services, cut red tape and save around £17 million a year, the reorganisation was met with wide opposition, with a poll in 2008 showing 89% disapproval from Cornish residents. The first elections for the unitary authority were held on 4 June 2009. The council has 123 seats; the largest party (in 2017) is the Conservatives, with 46 seats. The Liberal Democrats are the second-largest party, with 37 seats, with the Independents the third-largest grouping with 30. Before the creation of the unitary council, the former county council had 82 seats, the majority of which were held by the Liberal Democrats, elected at the 2005 county council elections. The six former districts had a total of 249 council seats, and the groups with greatest numbers of councillors were Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independents. ### Parliament and national politics Following a review by the Boundary Commission for England taking effect at the 2010 general election, Cornwall is divided into six county constituencies to elect MPs to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Before the 2010 boundary changes Cornwall had five constituencies, all of which were won by Liberal Democrats at the 2005 general election. In the 2010 general election Liberal Democrat candidates won three constituencies and Conservative candidates won three other constituencies. At the 2015 general election all six Cornish seats were won by Conservative candidates; all these Conservative MPs retained their seats at the 2017 general election, and the Conservatives won all six constituencies again at the 2019 general election. Until 1832, Cornwall had 44 MPs—more than any other county—reflecting the importance of tin to the Crown. Most of the increase in numbers of MPs came between 1529 and 1584 after which there was no change until 1832. Although Cornwall does not have a designated government department, in 2007 while Leader of the Opposition David Cameron created a Shadow Secretary of State for Cornwall. The position was not made into a formal UK Cabinet position when Cameron entered government following the 2010 United Kingdom general election ### Devolution movement Cornish nationalists have organised into two political parties: Mebyon Kernow, formed in 1951, and the Cornish Nationalist Party. In addition to the political parties, there are various interest groups such as the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament and the Celtic League. The Cornish Constitutional Convention was formed in 2000 as a cross-party organisation including representatives from the private, public and voluntary sectors to campaign for the creation of a Cornish Assembly, along the lines of the National Assembly for Wales, Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. Between 5 March 2000 and December 2001, the campaign collected the signatures of 41,650 Cornish residents endorsing the call for a devolved assembly, along with 8,896 signatories from outside Cornwall. The resulting petition was presented to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Emergency services ------------------ * Devon and Cornwall Police * Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service * South Western Ambulance Service * Cornwall Air Ambulance * HM Coastguard * Cornwall Search & Rescue Team * British Transport Police Economy ------- Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of the United Kingdom in terms of per capita GDP and average household incomes. At the same time, parts of the county, especially on the coast, have high house prices, driven up by demand from relatively wealthy retired people and second-home owners. The GVA per head was 65% of the UK average for 2004. The GDP per head for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly was 79.2% of the EU-27 average for 2004, the UK per head average was 123.0%. In 2011, the latest available figures, Cornwall's (including the Isles of Scilly) measure of wealth was 64% of the European average per capita. Historically mining of tin (and later also of copper) was important in the Cornish economy. The first reference to this appears to be by Pytheas: *see above*. Julius Caesar was the last classical writer to mention the tin trade, which appears to have declined during the Roman occupation. The tin trade revived in the Middle Ages and its importance to the Kings of England resulted in certain privileges being granted to the tinners; the Cornish rebellion of 1497 is attributed to grievances of the tin miners. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin trade again fell into decline. Other primary sector industries that have declined since the 1960s include china clay production, fishing and farming. Today, the Cornish economy depends heavily on its tourist industry, which makes up around a quarter of the economy. The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level show that there is great variation in poverty and prosperity in Cornwall with some areas among the poorest in England and others among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32,482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation (2006) ranged from 819th (part of Penzance East) to 30,899th (part of Saltash Burraton in Caradon), where the lower number represents the greater deprivation. Cornwall is one of two UK areas designated as 'less developed regions' which qualify for Cohesion Policy grants from the European Union. It was granted Objective 1 status by the European Commission for 2000 to 2006, followed by further rounds of funding known as 'Convergence Funding' from 2007 to 2013 and 'Growth Programme' for 2014 to 2020. ### Tourism Cornwall has a tourism-based seasonal economy which is estimated to contribute up to[*clarification needed*] 24% of Cornwall's gross domestic product. In 2011 tourism brought £1.85 billion into the Cornish economy. Cornwall's unique culture, spectacular landscape and mild climate make it a popular tourist destination, despite being somewhat distant from the United Kingdom's main centres of population. Surrounded on three sides by the English Channel and Celtic Sea, Cornwall has many miles of beaches and cliffs; the South West Coast Path follows a complete circuit of both coasts. Other tourist attractions include moorland, country gardens, museums, historic and prehistoric sites, and wooded valleys. Five million tourists visit Cornwall each year, mostly drawn from within the UK. Visitors to Cornwall are served by the airport at Newquay, whilst private jets, charters and helicopters are also served by Perranporth airfield; nightsleeper and daily rail services run between Cornwall, London and other regions of the UK. Newquay and Porthtowan are popular destinations for surfers. In recent years, the Eden Project near St Austell has been a major financial success, drawing one in eight of Cornwall's visitors in 2004. In the summer of 2018, due to the recognition of its beaches and weather through social media and the marketing of travel companies, Cornwall received about 20 per cent more visitors than the usual 4.5 million figure. The sudden rise and demand of tourism in Cornwall caused multiple traffic and safety issues in coastal areas. In October 2021, Cornwall was longlisted for the UK City of Culture 2025, but failed to make the March 2022 shortlist. ### Fishing Other industries include fishing, although this has been significantly re-structured by EU fishing policies (as of 2010[update] the Southwest Handline Fishermen's Association has started to revive the fishing industry). ### Agriculture Agriculture, once an important part of the Cornish economy, has declined significantly relative to other industries. However, there is still a strong dairy industry, with products such as Cornish clotted cream. ### Mining Mining of tin and copper was also an industry, but today the derelict mine workings survive only as a World Heritage Site. However, the Camborne School of Mines, which was relocated to Penryn in 2004, is still a world centre of excellence in the field of mining and applied geology and the grant of World Heritage status has attracted funding for conservation and heritage tourism. China clay extraction has also been an important industry in the St Austell area, but this sector has been in decline, and this, coupled with increased mechanisation, has led to a decrease in employment in this sector, although the industry still employs around 2,133 people in Cornwall, and generates over £80 million to the local economy. In March 2016, a Canadian company, Strongbow Exploration, had acquired, from administration, a 100% interest in the South Crofty tin mine and the associated mineral rights in Cornwall with the aim of reopening the mine and bringing it back to full production. Work is currently ongoing to build a water filtration plant in order to dewater the mine. ### Internet Cornwall is the landing point for twenty-two of the world's fastest high-speed undersea and transatlantic fibre optic cables, making Cornwall an important hub within Europe's Internet infrastructure. The Superfast Cornwall project completed in 2015, and saw 95% of Cornish houses and businesses connected to a fibre-based broadband network, with over 90% of properties able to connect with speeds above 24 Mbit/s. ### Aerospace The county's newest industry is aviation: Newquay Airport is the home of a growing business park with Enterprise Zone status, known as Aerohub. Also a space launch facility, Spaceport Cornwall, has been established at Newquay, in partnership with Goonhilly satellite tracking station near Helston in south Cornwall. Demographics ------------ Cornwall's population was 537,400 in the 2011 census, with a population density of 144 people per square kilometre, ranking it 40th and 41st, respectively,[*clarification needed*] among the 47 counties of England. Cornwall's population was 95.7% White British and has a relatively high rate of population growth. At 11.2% in the 1980s and 5.3% in the 1990s, it had the fifth-highest population growth rate of the counties of England. The natural change has been a small population decline, and the population increase is due to inward migration into Cornwall. According to the 1991 census, the population was 469,800. Cornwall has a relatively high retired population, with 22.9% of pensionable age, compared with 20.3% for the United Kingdom as a whole. This may be due partly to Cornwall's rural and coastal geography increasing its popularity as a retirement location, and partly to outward migration of younger residents to more economically diverse areas.[*original research?*] Education --------- Over 10,000 students attend Cornwall's two universities, Falmouth University and the University of Exeter (including Camborne School of Mines). Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries and arts, while the University Of Exeter has two campuses in Cornwall, Truro and Penryn, the latter shared with Falmouth. Penryn campus is home to educational departments such as the rapidly growing Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC), the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), and the Institute of Cornish Studies. Cornwall has a comprehensive education system, with 31 state and eight independent secondary schools. There are three further education colleges: Truro and Penwith College, Cornwall College and Callywith College which opened in September 2017. The Isles of Scilly only has one school, while the former Restormel district has the highest school population, and school year sizes are around 200, with none above 270. Before the introduction of comprehensive schools there were a number of grammar schools and secondary modern schools, e.g. the schools that later became Sir James Smith's School and Wadebridge School. There are also primary schools in many villages and towns: e.g. St Mabyn Church of England Primary School. See also -------- * Christianity in Cornwall * Index of Cornwall-related articles * Outline of Cornwall – overview of the wide range of topics covered by this subject * Tamar Valley AONB * Duchy of Cornwall Sources ------- * Clegg, David (2005). *Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly: the complete guide* (2nd ed.). Leicester: Matador. ISBN 1-904744-99-0. * Halliday, Frank Ernest (1959). *A History of Cornwall*. London: Gerald Duckworth. ISBN 0-7551-0817-5. A second edition was published in 2001 by the House of Stratus, Thirsk: the original text new illustrations and an afterword by Halliday's son * Payton, Philip (2004). *Cornwall: A History* (2nd ed.). Fowey: Cornwall Editions Ltd. ISBN 1-904880-00-2. Further reading --------------- * Balchin, W. G. V. (1954). *Cornwall: an illustrated essay on the history of the landscape (The Making of the English Landscape)*. London: Hodder and Stoughton. * Boase, George Clement; Courtney, William Prideaux (1874–1882). *Bibliotheca Cornubiensis: a catalogue of the writings, both manuscript and printed, of Cornishmen, and of works relating to the county of Cornwall, with biographical memoranda and copious literary references*. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. 3 vols. * du Maurier, Daphne (1967). *Vanishing Cornwall*. London: Doubleday. (illustrated edition Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1981, ISBN 0-575-02844-0, photographs by Christian Browning) * Ellis, Peter Berresford (1974). *The Cornish Language and its Literature*. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Books. ISBN 0-7100-7928-1. (Available online on Google Books). * Graves, Alfred Perceval (1928). *The Celtic Song Book: Being Representative Folk Songs of the Six Celtic Nations*. London: Ernest Benn. (Available online on Digital Book Index) * Koch, John T. (2006). *Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia*. London: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7. (Available online on Google Books). * Payton, Philip (1996). *Cornwall*. Fowey: Alexander Associates. ISBN 1-899526-60-9. * Stoyle, Mark (2001). "BBC – History – The Cornish: A Neglected Nation?". *BBC History website*. BBC. Retrieved 25 May 2009. * Stansfield-Cudworth, R. E. (2009). *Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses*. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-77344-714-1. * Stansfield-Cudworth, R. E. (2013), "The Duchy of Cornwall and the Wars of the Roses: Patronage, Politics, and Power, 1453–1502", *Cornish Studies*, 2nd Series, **21**: 104–50, doi:10.1386/corn.21.1.104\_1 * Stoyle, Mark (2002). *West Britons: Cornish Identities and the Early Modern British State*. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 0-85989-688-9. * Williams, Michael, ed. (1973). *My Cornwall*. St Teath: Bossiney Books. ISBN 0-85989-688-9. (eleven chapters by various hands, including three previously published essays)

Cornwall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall

The **Faroe Islands** (/ˈfɛəroʊ/ *FAIR-oh*), or simply the **Faroes** (Faroese: *Føroyar* [ˈfœɹjaɹ] (); Danish: *Færøerne* [ˈfeɐ̯ˌøˀɐnə]), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located 320 kilometres (200 mi) north-northwest of the United Kingdom, and about halfway between Norway (580 kilometres (360 mi) away) and Iceland (430 kilometres (270 mi) away). The islands form part of the Kingdom of Denmark, along with mainland Denmark and Greenland. The islands have a total area of about 1,400 square kilometres (540 sq mi) with a population of 54,000 as of June 2022. The capital and largest city is Tórshavn. The terrain is rugged, and the subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) is windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Temperatures for such a northerly climate are moderated by the Gulf Stream, averaging above freezing throughout the year, hovering around 12 °C (54 °F) in summer and 5 °C (41 °F) in winter. The northerly latitude also results in perpetual civil twilight during summer nights and very short winter days. Between 1035 and 1814, the Faroe Islands were part of the Kingdom of Norway, which was in a personal union with Denmark from 1380. In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel transferred Norway to Sweden, whereas Denmark kept its Atlantic territories, which included the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. While part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroe Islands have been self-governing since 1948, controlling most areas apart from military defence, policing, justice, currency, and foreign affairs. Because the Faroe Islands are not part of the same customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands have an independent trade policy, and can establish trade agreements with other states. The Faroes have an extensive bilateral free trade agreement with Iceland, known as the Hoyvík Agreement. In the Nordic Council, they are represented as part of the Danish delegation. In certain sports, the Faroe Islands field their own national teams. They did not become a part of the European Economic Community in 1973, instead keeping the autonomy over their own fishing waters. Etymology --------- In Faroese, the name appears as *Føroyar*. *Oyar* represents the plural of *oy*, older Faroese for 'island'. Due to sound changes, the modern Faroese word for island is *oyggj*. The first element, *før*, may reflect an Old Norse word *fær* ('sheep'), although this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroese now uses the word *seyður* (from Old Norse *sauðr*) to mean 'sheep'. Another possibility is that the Irish monks, who settled the island around 625, had already given the islands a name related to the Gaelic word *fearann*, meaning 'land' or 'estate'. This name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added *oyar* (islands). The name thus translates as either 'Islands of Sheep' or 'Land Islands'. In English, it may be seen as a tautology to say *the Faroe Islands*, since the *oe* comes from an element meaning 'island'. This is seen in the BBC Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called *Faeroes*. The name is also rarely spelled *Faeroe*. History ------- There is some evidence of settlement on the Faroe Islands before Norse Viking settlers arrived in the ninth century AD. Archeologists found burnt grains of domesticated barley and peat ash deposited in two phases; the first dated between the mid-fourth and mid-sixth centuries, and another between the late-sixth and late-eighth centuries. Researchers have also found sheep DNA in lake-bed sediments, which were dated to around the year 500. Barley and sheep had to have been brought to the islands by humans. As Scandinavians did not begin using the sail until about 750, it is unlikely they could have reached the Faroes before then, and it is more likely the settlers came from Great Britain or Ireland. Archaeologist Mike Church noted that Dicuil, an Irish monk of the early ninth century, may have mentioned the Faroes. Dicuil wrote in his geographical work *De mensura orbis terrae* that there were *heremitae ex nostra Scotia* ("hermits from our land of Ireland/Scotland") who had lived on the northerly islands of Britain for almost a hundred years until the Vikings arrived. Church suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland, or Scandinavia, or possibly from all three. According to a ninth-century voyage tale, the Irish saint Brendan visited islands resembling the Faroes in the sixth century. This association, however, is not conclusive. Norsemen settled the islands c. 800, bringing Old West Norse, which evolved into the modern Faroese language. According to Icelandic sagas such as *Færeyjar Saga*, one of the best known men in the island was Tróndur í Gøtu, a descendant of Scandinavian chiefs who had settled in Dublin, Ireland. Tróndur led the battle against Sigmund Brestisson, the Norwegian monarchy and the Norwegian church. The Norse and Norse–Gael settlers probably did not come directly from Scandinavia, but rather from Norse communities surrounding the Irish Sea, Northern Isles, and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, including the Shetland and Orkney islands. A traditional name for the islands in Irish, *Na Scigirí*, possibly refers to the *(Eyja-)Skeggjar* "(Island-)Beards", a nickname given to island dwellers. According to the *Færeyinga saga*, more emigrants left Norway who did not approve of the monarchy of Harald Fairhair (ruled c. 872 to 930). These people settled the Faroes around the end of the ninth century. Early in the eleventh century, Sigmundur Brestisson (961–1005) – whose clan had flourished in the southern islands before invaders from the northern islands almost exterminated it – escaped to Norway. He was sent back to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway from 995 to 1000. Sigmundur introduced Christianity, forcing Tróndur í Gøtu to convert or face beheading and, although Sigmundur was subsequently murdered, Norwegian taxation was upheld. Norwegian control of the Faroes continued until 1814, although, when the Kingdom of Norway (872–1397) entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark, this gradually resulted in Danish control of the islands. The Protestant Reformation in the form of Lutheranism reached the Faroes in 1538. When the union between Denmark and Norway was dissolved as a result of the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark retained possession of the Faroe Islands (along with Greenland and Iceland); Norway itself was joined in a union with Sweden. Following the turmoil caused by the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), in 1816, the Faroe Islands became a county within the Danish Kingdom. As part of its mercantilist economic policy, Denmark maintained a monopoly over trade with the Faroe Islands and forbade their inhabitants trading with others (e.g. the geographically close Britain). The trade monopoly in the Faroe Islands was abolished in 1856, after which the area developed as a modern fishing nation with its own fishing fleet. The national awakening from 1888 initially arose from a struggle to maintain the Faroese language and was thus culturally oriented, but after 1906 it became more political with the foundation of political parties within the Faroe Islands. In the first year of the Second World War, on 12 April 1940, British troops occupied the Faroe Islands in Operation Valentine. Nazi Germany had invaded Denmark and commenced the invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940 under Operation Weserübung. In 1942–1943, the British Royal Engineers, under the command of lieutenant colonel William Law, built the first and only airport in the Faroe Islands, Vágar Airport. Following the war, control of the islands reverted to Denmark, but Danish rule had been undermined, and Iceland's full independence served as a precedent and a model in the mind of many Faroese. The 1946 Faroese independence referendum resulted in 50.73% in favour of independence to 49.27% against. The Faroe Islands subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946; however, this declaration was annulled by Denmark on 20 September on the grounds that a majority of the Faroese voters had not supported independence and King Christian X of Denmark dissolved the Faroese Løgting on 24 September. The dissolution of the Løgting took place in November, followed by the Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 in which the parties in favour of full independence received a total of 5,396 votes while the parties opposed to it received a total of 7,488 votes. As a reaction to the growing movements in favour of self-government and independence, Denmark finally granted the Faroe Islands home-rule with a high degree of local autonomy in 1948. In 1973 the Faroe Islands declined to join Denmark in entering the European Economic Community (which later became the European Union). Following the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 1990s, the Faroes experienced considerable economic difficulties. Geography --------- The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of 18 major islands (and a total of 779 islands, islets, and skerries) about 655 kilometres (407 mi) off the coast of Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Iceland and Norway, the closest neighbours being the Northern Isles and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Its coordinates are 62°00′N 06°47′W / 62.000°N 6.783°W / 62.000; -6.783. Distance from the Faroe Islands to: * Rona, Scotland (uninhabited): 260 kilometres (160 mi) * Shetland (Foula), Scotland: 285 kilometres (177 mi) * Orkney (Westray), Scotland: 300 kilometres (190 mi) * Scotland (mainland): 320 kilometres (200 mi) * Iceland: 450 kilometres (280 mi) * Norway: 590 kilometres (370 mi) * Ireland: 670 kilometres (420 mi) * Denmark: 990 kilometres (620 mi) The islands cover an area of 1,399 square kilometres (540 sq. mi) and have small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres (694 mi) of coastline. The only significant uninhabited island is Lítla Dímun. The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly cliffs. The highest point is Slættaratindur in northern Eysturoy, 882 metres (2,894 ft) above sea level. The Faroe Islands are made up of an approximately six-kilometres-thick succession of mostly basaltic lava that was part of the great North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene period. The lavas were erupted during the opening of the North Atlantic ocean, which began about 60 million years ago, and what is today the Faroe Islands was then attached to Greenland. The lavas are underlain by circa 30 km of unidentified ancient continental crust. ### Climate The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate according to the Köppen climate classification: Cfc, with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas may have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the climate of the islands is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of landmass-induced warm or cold airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0 °C or 37 to 39 °F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5 °C or 49 to 51 °F). The islands are windy, cloudy, and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100 mph (160 km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system. The climate varies greatly over small distances, due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography, and winds. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover may last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever. Tórshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow also is seen at a much higher frequency than on outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year. The collection of meteorological data on the Faroe Islands began in 1867. Winter recording began in 1891, and the warmest winter occurred in 2016–17 with an average temperature of 6.1 °C (43 °F). | Climate data for Tórshavn (1981–2010, extremes 1961–2010) | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 11.6(52.9) | 12.0(53.6) | 12.3(54.1) | 18.3(64.9) | 19.7(67.5) | 20.0(68.0) | 20.2(68.4) | 22.0(71.6) | 19.5(67.1) | 15.2(59.4) | 14.7(58.5) | 13.2(55.8) | 22.0(71.6) | | Average high °C (°F) | 5.8(42.4) | 5.6(42.1) | 6.0(42.8) | 7.3(45.1) | 9.2(48.6) | 11.1(52.0) | 12.8(55.0) | 13.1(55.6) | 11.5(52.7) | 9.3(48.7) | 7.2(45.0) | 6.2(43.2) | 8.8(47.8) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.0(39.2) | 3.6(38.5) | 4.0(39.2) | 5.2(41.4) | 7.0(44.6) | 9.0(48.2) | 10.7(51.3) | 11.0(51.8) | 9.6(49.3) | 7.5(45.5) | 5.5(41.9) | 4.3(39.7) | 6.8(44.2) | | Average low °C (°F) | 1.7(35.1) | 1.3(34.3) | 1.7(35.1) | 3.0(37.4) | 5.1(41.2) | 7.1(44.8) | 9.0(48.2) | 9.2(48.6) | 7.6(45.7) | 5.4(41.7) | 3.4(38.1) | 2.1(35.8) | 4.7(40.5) | | Record low °C (°F) | −8.8(16.2) | −11.0(12.2) | −9.2(15.4) | −9.9(14.2) | −3.0(26.6) | 0.0(32.0) | 1.5(34.7) | 1.5(34.7) | −0.6(30.9) | −4.5(23.9) | −7.2(19.0) | −10.5(13.1) | −11.0(12.2) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 157.7(6.21) | 115.2(4.54) | 131.6(5.18) | 89.5(3.52) | 63.3(2.49) | 57.5(2.26) | 74.3(2.93) | 96.0(3.78) | 119.5(4.70) | 147.4(5.80) | 139.3(5.48) | 135.3(5.33) | 1,321.3(52.02) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 26 | 23 | 26 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 273 | | Average snowy days | 8.3 | 6.6 | 8.0 | 4.4 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 8.2 | 44.0 | | Average relative humidity (%) | 89 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 89 | 89 | 88 | 89 | 88 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 14.5 | 36.7 | 72.8 | 108.6 | 137.8 | 128.6 | 103.6 | 100.9 | 82.7 | 53.4 | 21.1 | 7.8 | 868.2 | | Source: Danish Meteorological Institute (humidity 1961–1990, precipitation days 1961–1990, snowy days 1961–1990) | #### Flora The Faroes belong to the Faroe Islands boreal grasslands ecoregion. The natural vegetation of the Faroe Islands is dominated by arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers, grasses, moss, and lichen. Most of the lowland area is grassland and some is heath, dominated by shrubby heathers, mainly *Calluna vulgaris*. Among the herbaceous flora that occur in the Faroe Islands is the cosmopolitan marsh thistle, *Cirsium palustre*. Although there are no trees native to the Faroe Islands, a limited number of species have been successfully introduced to the region, in particular trees from the Magellanic subpolar forests region of Chile. Conditions in the Magellanic subpolar forests are similar to those in the Faroe Islands, with cold summers and near-continuous subpolar winds. The following species from Tierra del Fuego, *Drimys winteri*, *Nothofagus antarctica*, *Nothofagus pumilio*, and *Nothofagus betuloides*, have been successfully introduced to the Faroe Islands. A non-Chilean species that has been introduced is the black cottonwood, also known as the California poplar (*Populus trichocarpa*). A collection of Faroese marine algae resulting from a survey sponsored by NATO, the British Museum (Natural History) and the Carlsberg Foundation, is preserved in the Ulster Museum (catalogue numbers: F3195–F3307). It is one of ten exsiccatae sets. A few small plantations consisting of plants collected from similar climates such as Tierra del Fuego in South America and Alaska thrive on the islands. #### Fauna The bird fauna of the Faroe Islands is dominated by seabirds and birds attracted to open land such as heather, probably because of the lack of woodland and other suitable habitats. Many species have developed special Faroese sub-species: common eider, Common starling, Eurasian wren, common murre, and black guillemot. The pied raven, a colour morph of the North Atlantic subspecies of the common raven, was endemic to the Faroe Islands, but now has become extinct. Only a few species of wild land mammals are found in the Faroe Islands today, all introduced by humans. Three species are thriving on the islands today: mountain hare (*Lepus timidus*), brown rat (*Rattus norvegicus*), and the house mouse (*Mus musculus*). Apart from these, there is a local domestic sheep breed, the Faroe sheep (depicted on the coat of arms), and there once was a variety of feral sheep, which survived on Lítla Dímun until the mid-nineteenth century. Grey seals (*Halichoerus grypus*) are common around the shorelines away from human habitations. Several species of cetacea live in the waters around the Faroe Islands. Best known are the long-finned pilot whales (*Globicephala melaena*), which still are hunted by the islanders in accordance with longstanding local tradition. Orcas (*Orcinus orca*) are regular visitors around the islands. The domestic animals of the Faroe Islands are a result of 1,200 years of isolated breeding. As a result, many of the islands' domestic animals are found nowhere else in the world. Faroese domestic breeds include Faroe pony, Faroe cow, Faroe sheep, Faroese goose, and Faroese duck. ### Geology The islands were built up during a period characterised by high volcanic activity in the Early Palaeogene around 50-60 million years ago. The islands are built up in layers of different lava flows (basalt) alternating with thin layers of volcanic ash (tuff). The soft ash and the hard basalt thus lie layer upon layer in narrow and thick strips. The soft tuff or ash zones erode away relatively quickly, and the hard lump of basalt above the eroded tuff falls away, forming the first terrace. Volcanic activity has varied over millions of years, with periods of quiescence and various periods of quiet eruptive fissures and explosive volcanism. In a few places, mainly on Suðuroy, thin layers of coal are present, which are the remains of swamp forests from the time between volcanic eruptions. The plateau has therefore been divided into different basalt series according to the course of volcanism and the age sequence of the layers. There are major differences in the shape of the islands' terraces. The lowest and oldest series are thick lava deposits that can be seen on the southern part of Suðuroy, Mykines, Tindhólmur and the western side of Vágar. The basalts of the lower basalt series are often pillared, which is shown by elongated, angular and regular pillars in the mountain side. Very regular vertical columns are found on northern Mykines, where they can be up to 30 metres (98 ft) high. The middle basalt series consists of thin lava flows with a highly porous interlayer. This series has very little resistance to crumbling and weathering. As these erosion processes are more severe at higher altitudes than lower down, the lowlands are filled with weathering material from the heights, often resulting in a characteristic curved landscape shape. This can be clearly seen on Vágar, the northernmost part of Streymoy and on the north-western part of Eysturoy. Glacial activity has reduced plateau surfaces, especially on the northern islands, where the surfaces have been reduced to a series of narrower or wider zig-zag rows along the length of the islands. The phenomenon is particularly pronounced on the islands of Kunoy, Kalsoy and Borðoy, where an eastward and a westward ice mass have eroded the intervening mountain range into a narrow ridge. Government and politics ----------------------- Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark since 1972Mette Frederiksen, Danish Prime Minister since 2019Aksel V. Johannesen, Faroese Prime Minister since 2022 The Faroe Islands are a self-governing country under the external sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Faroese government holds executive power in local government affairs. The head of the government is called the *Løgmaður* ("Chief Justice") and serves as Prime Minister and head of the Faroese Government. Any other member of the cabinet is called a *landsstýrismaður/ráðharri* ("Male Minister of the Faroese Government") or *landsstýriskvinna/ráðfrú* ("Female Minister of the Faroese Government"). The Faroese parliament – the *Løgting* ("Law Thing") – dates back to the early days of settlement and claims to be one of the longest functioning parliaments in the world, alongside the Icelandic Althing and the Manx Tynwald. The parliament currently has 33 members. Elections are held at municipal and national levels, additionally electing two members to the Folketing. Until 2007, there were seven electoral districts, which were abolished on 25 October of that year in favour of a single nationwide district. ### Administrative divisions Administratively, the islands are divided into 29 municipalities (*kommunur*) within which there are 120 or so settlements. There are also the six traditional s*ýslur*: Norðoyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vágar, Sandoy, and Suðuroy. While no longer of any legal significance, the term is still commonly used to indicate a geographical region. In earlier times, each *sýsla* had its own assembly, the so-called *várting* ("spring assembly"). ### Relationship with Denmark The Faroe Islands have been under Norwegian-Danish control since 1388. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish–Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland remained Danish possessions. From ancient times the Faroe Islands had a parliament (*Løgting*), which was abolished in 1816, and the Faroe Islands were to be governed as an ordinary Danish amt (county), with the Amtmand as its head of government. In 1851, the *Løgting* was reinstated, but, until 1948, served mainly as an advisory body. The islands are home to a notable independence movement that has seen an increase in popular support within recent decades. At the end of World War II, some of the population favoured independence from Denmark, and on 14 September 1946, an independence referendum was held on the question of secession. It was a consultative referendum, the parliament not being bound to follow the people's vote. This was the first time that the Faroese people had been asked whether they favoured independence or wanted to continue within the Danish kingdom. The result of the vote was only a slight majority in favour of secession. The Speaker of the Løgting, together with the majority, initiated the process of becoming an independent state. The minority of the Løgting left in protest, regarding these actions as illegal. One parliament member, Jákup í Jákupsstovu, was shunned by his own party, the Social Democratic Party, for having joined the majority of the Løgting. The Speaker of the Løgting declared the Faroe Islands independent on 18 September 1946. On 25 September 1946, a Danish prefect announced to the Løgting that the king, rejecting the majority vote, had dissolved the parliament and ordered new elections. A parliamentary election was held a few months later, in which the political parties that favoured remaining in the Danish kingdom increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition. Based on this, they chose to reject secession. Instead, a compromise was reached and the Folketing passed a home-rule law that went into effect in 1948. The Faroe Islands' status as a Danish *amt* was thereby brought to an end; the Faroe Islands were given a high degree of self-governance, supported by a financial subsidy from Denmark to recompense expenses the islands have on Danish services. In protest against the new Home Rule Act, Republic (Tjóðveldi), was founded. As of 2021, the islanders were evenly split between those favouring independence and those who prefer to continue as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Within both camps there is a wide range of opinions. Of those who favour independence, some are in favour of an immediate unilateral declaration of independence. Others see independence as something to be attained gradually and with the full consent of the Danish government and the Danish nation. In the unionist camp, there are also many who foresee and welcome a gradual increase in autonomy even while strong ties with Denmark are maintained. Two attempts have been made to draft a separate Faroese constitution. The first time in 2011, when the then prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen denounced it as incompatible with Denmark's constitution, stating that if the Faroe Islands wished to continue with the move, they must declare independence. A second attempt was made in 2015, facing similar criticisms before eventually being withdrawn without a vote. ### Relationship with the European Union As explicitly asserted by both treaties of the European Union, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union. The Faroes are not grouped with the EU when it comes to international trade; for instance, when the EU and Russia imposed reciprocal trade sanctions on each other over the war in Donbas in 2014, the Faroes began exporting significant amounts of fresh salmon to Russia. Moreover, a protocol to the treaty of accession of Denmark to the European Communities stipulates that Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not considered Danish nationals within the meaning of the treaties. Hence, Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union (though other EU nationals living there remain EU citizens). The Faroes are not covered by the Schengen Agreement, but there are no border checks when travelling between the Faroes and any Schengen country (the Faroes have been part of the Nordic Passport Union since 1966, and since 2001 there have been no permanent border checks between the Nordic countries and the rest of the Schengen Area as part of the Schengen agreement). ### Relationship with international organisations The Faroe Islands are not fully independent, but they do have political relations directly with other countries through agreement with Denmark. The Faroe Islands are a member of some international organisations as though they were an independent country. The Faroes have associate membership in the Nordic Council but have expressed wishes for full membership. The Faroe Islands are a member of several international sports federations like UEFA, FIFA in football and FINA in swimming and EHF in handball and have their own national teams. They also have their own telephone country code, +298, Internet country code top-level domain, .fo, banking code FO and postal code system. The Faroe Islands make their own agreements with other countries regarding trade and commerce. When the European Union imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation in 2014, the Faroe Islands were not a part of the embargo because they are not a part of EU, and the islands had just themselves experienced a year of embargo from the EU including Denmark against the islands; the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Johannesen went to Moscow to negotiate the trade between Russia and the Faroe Islands. The Faroese minister of fisheries negotiates with the EU and other countries regarding the rights to fish. In mid-2005, representatives of the Faroe Islands raised the possibility of their territory joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). According to Article 56 of the EFTA Convention, only states may become members of the EFTA. The Faroes are an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and not a sovereign state in their own right. Consequently, they considered the possibility that the "Kingdom of Denmark in respect of the Faroes" could join the EFTA, though the Danish Government has stated that this mechanism would not allow the Faroes to become a separate member of the EEA because Denmark was already a party to the EEA Agreement. The Government of Denmark officially supports new membership of the EFTA with effect for the Faroe Islands. Demographics ------------ Historical population| Year | Pop. | ±% | | --- | --- | --- | | 1327 | 4,000 | —     | | 1350 | 2,000 | −50.0% | | 1769 | 4,773 | +138.6% | | 1801 | 5,225 | +9.5% | | 1834 | 6,928 | +32.6% | | 1850 | 8,137 | +17.5% | | 1880 | 11,220 | +37.9% | | 1900 | 15,230 | +35.7% | | 1925 | 22,835 | +49.9% | | 1950 | 31,781 | +39.2% | | 1975 | 40,441 | +27.2% | | 1985 | 45,749 | +13.1% | | 1995 | 43,358 | −5.2% | | 2000 | 46,196 | +6.5% | | 2006 | 48,219 | +4.4% | | 2011 | 48,346 | +0.3% | | 2016 | 49,554 | +2.5% | | 2020 | 52,110 | +5.2% | | 2011 data 2019: | The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of Norse and Celtic descent. Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic. There is a gender deficit of about 2,000 women owing to migration. As a result, some Faroese men have married women from the Philippines and Thailand, whom they met through such channels as online dating websites, and arranged for them to emigrate to the islands. This group of approximately three hundred women make up the largest ethnic minority in the Faroes. The total fertility rate of the Faroe Islands is one of the highest in Europe. The 2015 fertility rate was 2.409 children born per woman. The 2011 census shows that of the 48,346 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (17,441 private households in 2011), 43,135 were born in the Faroe Islands, 3,597 were born elsewhere in the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark proper or Greenland), and 1,614 were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. People were also asked about their nationality, including Faroese. Children under 15 were not asked about their nationality. 97% said that they were ethnic Faroese, which means that many of those who were born in either Denmark or Greenland consider themselves as ethnic Faroese. The other 3% of those older than 15 said they were not Faroese: 515 were Danish, 433 were from other European countries, 147 came from Asia, 65 from Africa, 55 from the Americas, 23 from Russia. If the first inhabitants of the Faroe Islands were Irish monks, they must have lived as a very small group of settlers. Later, when the Vikings colonised the islands, there was a considerable increase in the population. However, it never exceeded 5,000 until the 19th century. Around 1349, about half the population perished in the Black Death plague. Only with the rise of the deep-sea fishery (and thus independence from agriculture in the islands' harsh terrain) and with general progress in the health service was rapid population growth possible in the Faroes. Beginning in the 19th century, the population increased tenfold in 200 years. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Faroe Islands entered a deep economic crisis leading to heavy emigration; however, this trend reversed in subsequent years to a net immigration. This has been in the form of a population replacement as young Faroese women leave and are replaced with Asian/Pacific brides. In 2011, there were 2,155 more men than women between the age of 0 to 59 in the Faroe Islands. The Faroese population is spread across most of the area; it was not until recent decades that significant urbanisation occurred. Industrialisation has been remarkably decentralised. Nevertheless, villages with poor harbour facilities have fallen short in the development from agriculture to fishing, and in the most peripheral agricultural areas, also known as Útoyggjar ("Outer Islands"), there are few young people. In recent decades, the village-based social structure has given way to a rise in interconnected "centres" that are better able to provide goods and services than the badly connected periphery. Shops and services are relocating en masse from the villages into the centres, and slowly but steadily the Faroese population is concentrating in and around the centres. In the 1990s, the government abandoned the old national policy of developing the villages (*Bygdamenning*), and instead began a process of regional development (*Økismenning*). The term "region" referred to the large islands of the Faroes. Nevertheless, the government was unable to press through the structural reform of merging small rural municipalities to create sustainable, decentralised entities that could drive forward regional development. As regional development has been difficult on the administrative level, the government has instead invested heavily in infrastructure, interconnecting the regions. ### Language As stipulated in section 11 (§ 11) in the 1948 Home Rule Act, Faroese is the primary and official language of the country, whereas Danish is taught in schools and can be used by the Faroese government in public relations, with public services providing Danish translations of documents on request. Faroese belongs to the North Germanic language branch and is descended from Old Norse, being most closely related to Icelandic. Due to its geographic isolation, it has preserved more conservative grammatical features that have been lost in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. It is the only language alongside Icelandic and Elfdalian to preserve the letter Ð, though unlike the others, it is not pronounced. Faroese sign language was officially adopted as a national language in 2017. ### Religion According to the *Færeyinga saga*, Sigmundur Brestisson brought Christianity to the islands in 999. However, archaeology at a site in Toftanes, Leirvík, named Bønhústoftin (English: prayer-house ruin) and over a dozen slabs from Ólansgarður in the small island of Skúvoy which in the main display encircled linear and outline crosses, suggest that Celtic Christianity may have arrived at least 150 years earlier. The Faroe Islands' Church Reformation was completed on 1 January 1540. According to official statistics from 2019, 79.7% of the Faroese population are members of the state church, the Church of the Faroe Islands (Fólkakirkjan), following a form of Lutheranism. The Fólkakirkjan became an independent church in 2007; previously it had been a diocese within the Church of Denmark. Faroese members of the clergy who have had historical importance include Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (1819–1909), Fríðrikur Petersen (1853–1917) and, perhaps most significantly, Jákup Dahl (1878–1944), who had a great influence in ensuring that the Faroese language was spoken in the church instead of Danish. Participation in churches is more prevalent among the Faroese population than among most other Scandinavians. In the late 1820s, the Christian Evangelical religious movement, the Plymouth Brethren, was established in England. In 1865, a member of this movement, William Gibson Sloan, travelled to the Faroes from Shetland. At the turn of the 20th century, the Faroese Plymouth Brethren numbered thirty. Today, around 10% of the Faroese population are members of the Open Brethren community (*Brøðrasamkoman*). About 3% belong to the Charismatic Movement. There are several charismatic churches around the islands, the largest of which, called Keldan (The Spring), has about 200 to 300 members. About 2% belong to other Christian groups. The Adventists operate a private school in Tórshavn. Jehovah's Witnesses also have four congregations with a total of 121 members. The Roman Catholic congregation has about 270 members and falls under the jurisdiction of Denmark's Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen. The municipality of Tórshavn has an old Franciscan school. Unlike Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, the Faroes have no organised Heathen community. The best-known church buildings in the Faroe Islands include Tórshavn Cathedral, Olaf II of Norway's Church and the Magnus Cathedral in Kirkjubøur; the Vesturkirkjan and the St. Mary's Church, both of which are situated in Tórshavn; the church of Fámjin; the octagonal church in Haldórsvík; Christianskirkjan in Klaksvík; and also the two pictured here. In 1948, Victor Danielsen completed the first Bible translation into Faroese from different modern languages. Jacob Dahl and Kristian Osvald Viderø (Fólkakirkjan) completed the second translation in 1961. The latter was translated from the original Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Faroese. According to the 2011 Census, there were 33,018 Christians (95.44%), 23 Muslims (0.07%), 7 Hindus (0.02%), 66 Buddhists (0.19%), 12 Jews (0.03%), 13 Baháʼís (0.04%), 3 Sikhs (0.01%), 149 others (0.43%), 85 with more than one belief (0.25%), and 1,397 with no religion (4.04%). ### Education The levels of education in the Faroe Islands are primary, secondary and higher education. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are few private schools in the Faroe Islands. Education is compulsory for 9 years between the ages of 7 and 16. Compulsory education consists of seven years of primary education and two years of lower secondary education; it is public, free of charge, provided by the respective municipalities, and is called the Fólkaskúli in Faroese. The Fólkaskúli also provides optional preschool education as well as the tenth year of education that is a prerequisite to getting admitted to upper secondary education. Students that complete compulsory education are allowed to continue education in a vocational school, where they can have job-specific training and education. Since the fishing industry is an important part of Faroe Islands' economy, maritime schools are an important part of Faroese education. Upon completion of the tenth year of Fólkaskúli, students can continue to upper secondary education which consists of several different types of schools. Higher education is offered at the University of the Faroe Islands; a part of Faroese youth moves abroad to pursue higher education, mainly in Denmark. Other forms of education comprise adult education and music schools. The structure of the Faroese educational system bears resemblances with its Danish counterpart. In the 12th century, education was provided by the Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands. The Church of Denmark took over education after the Protestant Reformation. Modern educational institutions started operating in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and developed throughout the twentieth century. The status of the Faroese language in education was a significant issue for decades, until it was accepted as a language of instruction in 1938. Initially education was administered and regulated by Denmark. In 1979 responsibilities on educational issues started transferring to the Faroese authorities, a procedure which was completed in 2002. The Ministry of Education, Research and Culture has the jurisdiction of educational responsibility in the Faroe Islands. Since the Faroe Islands is a part of the Danish Realm, education in the Faroe Islands is influenced and has similarities with the Danish educational system; there is an agreement on educational cooperation between the Faroe Islands and Denmark. In 2012 the public spending on education was 8.1% of GDP. The municipalities are responsible for the school buildings for children's education in Fólkaskúlin from age 1st grade to 9th or 10th grade (age 7 to 16). In November 2013 1,615 people, or 6.8% of the total number of employees, were employed in the education sector. Of the 31,270 people aged 25 and above 1,717 (5.5%) have gained at least a master's degrees or a Ph.D., 8,428 (27%) have gained a B.Sc. or a diploma, 11,706 (37.4%) have finished upper secondary education while 9,419 (30.1%) has only finished primary school and have no other education. There is no data on literacy in the Faroe Islands, but the CIA Factbook states that it is probably as high as in Denmark proper, i.e. 99%. The majority of students in upper secondary schools are women, although men represent the majority in higher education institutions. In addition, most young Faroese people who relocate to other countries to study are women. Out of 8,535 holders of bachelor degrees, 4,796 (56.2%) have had their education in the Faroe Islands, 2,724 (31.9%) in Denmark, 543 in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 94 (1.1%) in Norway, 80 in the United Kingdom and the rest in other countries. Out of 1,719 holders of master's degrees or PhDs, 1,249 (72.7%) have had their education in Denmark, 87 (5.1%) in the United Kingdom, 86 (5%) in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 64 (3.7%) in the Faroe Islands, 60 (3.5%) in Norway and the rest in other countries (mostly EU and Nordic). Since there is no medical school in the Faroe Islands, all medical students have to study abroad; as of 2013[update], out of a total of 96 medical students, 76 studied in Denmark, 19 in Poland, and 1 in Hungary. Economy ------- Economic troubles caused by a collapse of the Faroese fishing industry in the early 1990s brought high unemployment rates of 10 to 15% by the mid-1990s. Unemployment decreased in the later 1990s, down to about 6% at the end of 1998. By June 2008 unemployment had declined to 1.1%, before rising to 3.4% in early 2009. In December 2019 the unemployment reached a record low 0.9%. Nevertheless, the almost total dependence on fishing and fish farming means that the economy remains vulnerable. One of the biggest private companies of the Faroe Islands is the salmon farming company Bakkafrost, which is the largest of the four salmon farming companies in the Faroe Islands and the eighth biggest in the world. In 2011, 13% of the Faroe Islands' national income consists of economic aid from Denmark, corresponding to roughly 5% of GDP. Since 2000, the government has fostered new information technology and business projects to attract new investment. The introduction of Burger King in Tórshavn was widely publicized as a sign of the globalization of Faroese culture. It remains to be seen whether these projects will succeed in broadening the islands' economic base. The islands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but this should not necessarily be taken as a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries after leaving high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to fill newly developed positions on the Faroes. Nonetheless, in 2008 the Faroes were able to make a $52 million loan to Iceland in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On 5 August 2009, two opposition parties introduced a bill in the *Løgting* to adopt the euro as the national currency, pending a referendum. The euro was not adopted. ### Transport By road, the main islands are connected by bridges and tunnels. Government-owned Strandfaraskip Landsins provides public bus and ferry service to the main towns and villages. There are no railways. By air, Scandinavian Airlines and the government-owned Atlantic Airways both have scheduled international flights to Vágar Airport, the islands' only airport. Atlantic Airways also provides helicopter service to each of the islands. All civil aviation matters are controlled from the Civil Aviation Administration Denmark. By sea, Smyril Line operates a regular international passenger, car and freight service linking the Faroe Islands with Seyðisfjörður, Iceland and Hirtshals, Denmark. Because of the rugged terrain, road transport in the Faroe Islands was not as extensive as in other parts of the world. This has now changed, and the infrastructure has been developed extensively. Some 80 percent of the population of the islands is connected by tunnels through the mountains and between the islands, bridges and causeways that link together the three largest islands and three other islands to the northeast. While the other two large islands to the south, Sandoy and Suðuroy, are connected to the main area with ferries, the small islands Koltur and Stóra Dímun have no ferry connection, only a helicopter service. Other small islands—Mykines to the west, Kalsoy, Svínoy and Fugloy to the north, Hestur west of Streymoy, and Nólsoy east of Tórshavn—have smaller ferries and some of these islands also have a helicopter service. In February 2014 all the political parties of the *Løgting* agreed on making two new subsea tunnels, one between Streymoy and Eysturoy (the Eysturoyartunnilin) and one between Streymoy and Sandoy (Sandoyartunnilin). The plan was that both tunnels should open in 2021 and not be private. The work to dig the Eysturoy-tunnel started on 1 March 2016 above the village of Hvítanes near Tórshavn, and it opened for traffic in late 2020. The Sandoyartunnilin is now expected to open in late 2023. Culture ------- The culture of the Faroe Islands has its roots in the Nordic culture. The Faroe Islands were long isolated from the main cultural phases and movements that swept across parts of Europe. This means that they have maintained a great part of their traditional culture. The language spoken is Faroese, which is one of three insular North Germanic languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Norwegians outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. Although a rich spoken tradition survived, for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally. These works were split into the following divisions: *sagnir* (historical), *ævintýr* (stories) and *kvæði* (ballads), often set to music and the medieval chain dance. These were eventually written down in the 19th century. ### Faroese literature Faroese written literature has developed only in the past 100–200 years. This is mainly because of the islands' isolation, and also because the Faroese language did not have a standardised writing system. The Danish language was also encouraged at the expense of Faroese. Nevertheless, the Faroes have produced several authors and poets. A rich centuries-old oral tradition of folk tales and Faroese folk songs accompanied the Faroese chain dance. The people learned these songs and stories by heart, and told or sang them to each other, teaching the younger generations too. This kind of literature was gathered in the 19th century and early 20th century. The Faroese folk songs, in Faroese called *kvæði*, are still in use although not so large-scale as earlier. The first Faroese novel, *Bábelstornið* by Regin í Líð, was published in 1909; the second novel was published 18 years later. In the period 1930 to 1940 a writer from the village Skálavík on Sandoy island, Heðin Brú, published three novels: *Lognbrá* (1930), *Fastatøkur* (1935) and *Feðgar á ferð* (English title: *The old man and his sons*) (1940). *Feðgar á ferð* has been translated into several other languages. Martin Joensen from Sandvík wrote about life on Faroese fishing vessels; he published the novels *Fiskimenn* (1946) and *Tað lýsir á landi* (1952). Well-known poets from the early 20th century are among others the two brothers from Tórshavn: Hans Andrias Djurhuus (1883–1951) and Janus Djurhuus (1881–1948); other well known poets from this period and the mid 20th century are Poul F. Joensen (1898–1970), Regin Dahl (1918–2007), and Tummas Napoleon Djurhuus (1928–71). Their poems are popular even today and can be found in Faroese song books and school books. Jens Pauli Heinesen (1932–2011), a school teacher from Sandavágur, was the most productive Faroese novelist; he published 17 novels. Steinbjørn B. Jacobsen (1937–2012), a schoolteacher from Sandvík, wrote short stories, plays, children's books and even novels. Most Faroese writers write in Faroese; two exceptions are William Heinesen (1900–91) and Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen (1900–38). Women were not so visible in the early Faroese literature except for Helena Patursson (1864–1916), but in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of the 21st century female writers like Ebba Hentze (born 1933) wrote children's books, short stories, etc. Guðrið Helmsdal published the first modernistic collection of poems, *Lýtt lot*, in 1963, which at the same time was the first collection of Faroese poems written by a woman. Her daughter, Rakel Helmsdal (born 1966), is also a writer, best known for her children's books, for which she has won several prizes and nominations. Other female writers are the novelists Oddvør Johansen (born 1941), Bergtóra Hanusardóttir (born 1946) and novelist/children's books writers Marianna Debes Dahl (born 1947), and Sólrun Michelsen (born 1948). Other modern Faroese writers include Gunnar Hoydal (born 1941), Hanus Kamban (born 1942), Jógvan Isaksen (born 1950), Jóanes Nielsen (born 1953), Tóroddur Poulsen and Carl Jóhan Jensen (born 1957). Some of these writers have been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize two to six times, but have never won it. The only Faroese writer who writes in Faroese who has won the prize is the poet Rói Patursson (born 1947), who won the prize in 1986 for *Líkasum*. In 2007 the first ever Faroese/German anthology "From Janus Djurhuus to Tóroddur Poulsen – Faroese Poetry during 100 Years", edited by Paul Alfred Kleinert, including a short history of Faroese literature was published in Leipzig,. In the 21st century, some new writers had success in the Faroe Islands and abroad. Bárður Oskarsson (born 1972) is a children's book writer and illustrator; his books won prizes in the Faroes, Germany and the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize (2006). Though not born in the Faroe Islands, Matthew Landrum, an American poet and editor for *Structo* magazine, has written a collection of poems about the Islands. Sissal Kampmann (born 1974) won the Danish literary prize Klaus Rifbjerg's Debutant Prize (2012), and Rakel Helmsdal has won Faroese and Icelandic awards; she has been nominated for the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (representing Iceland, wrote the book together with and Icelandic and a Swedish writer/illustrator). Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs (born 1974) had success with her first novel *Skriva í sandin* for teenagers; the book was awarded and nominated both in the Faroes and in other countries. She won the Nordic Children's Book Prize (2011) for this book, White Raven Deutsche Jugendbibliothek (2011) and nominated the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (2013). ### Music The Faroe Islands have an active music scene, with live music being a regular part of the Islands' life and many Faroese being proficient at a number of instruments. Multiple Danish Music Award winner Teitur Lassen calls the Faroes home and is arguably the islands' most internationally well-known musical export. The Islands have their own orchestra (the classical ensemble Aldubáran) and many different choirs; the best-known of these is Havnarkórið. The best-known local Faroese composers are Sunleif Rasmussen and Kristian Blak, who is also head of the record company Tutl. The first Faroese opera was by Sunleif Rasmussen. It is entitled *Í Óðamansgarði* (The Madman's Garden) and was premiered on 12 October 2006 at the Nordic House. The opera is based on a short story by the writer William Heinesen. Young Faroese musicians who have gained much popularity recently are Eivør Pálsdóttir, Høgni Reistrup, Høgni Lisberg, HEIÐRIK (Heiðrik á Heygum), Guðrið Hansdóttir and Brandur Enni. In 2023, Reiley became the first Faroese person to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest. Well-known bands include Týr, Hamferð, The Ghost, Boys in a Band, 200, and SIC. A festival of contemporary and classical music, *Summartónar*, is held each summer. The G! Festival in Norðragøta in July and Summarfestivalurin in Klaksvík in August are both large, open-air music festivals for popular music with both local and international musicians participating. Havnar Jazzfelag was established 21 November 1975, and is still active. Currently Havnar Jazzfelag is arranging VetrarJazz amongst other jazz festivals in The Faroe Islands. ### The Nordic House in the Faroe Islands The Nordic House in the Faroe Islands (Faroese: *Norðurlandahúsið*) is the most important cultural institution in the Faroes. Its aim is to support and promote Scandinavian and Faroese culture, locally and in the Nordic region. Erlendur Patursson (1913–86), Faroese member of the Nordic Council, raised the idea of a Nordic cultural house in the Faroe Islands. A Nordic competition for architects was held in 1977, in which 158 architects participated. Winners were Ola Steen from Norway and Kolbrún Ragnarsdóttir from Iceland. By staying true to folklore, the architects built the Nordic House to resemble an enchanted hill of elves. The house opened in Tórshavn in 1983. The Nordic House is a cultural organization under the Nordic Council. The Nordic House is run by a steering committee of eight, of whom three are Faroese and five from other Nordic countries. There is also a local advisory body of fifteen members, representing Faroese cultural organizations. The House is managed by a director appointed by the steering committee for a four-year term. ### Traditional food Traditional Faroese food is mainly based on meat, seafood and potatoes and uses few fresh vegetables. Mutton of the Faroe sheep is the basis of many meals, and one of the most popular treats is *skerpikjøt*, well-aged, wind-dried, quite chewy mutton. The drying shed, known as a *hjallur*, is a standard feature in many Faroese homes, particularly in small towns and villages. Other traditional foods are *ræst kjøt* (semi-dried mutton) and *ræstur fiskur* (matured fish). Another Faroese specialty is *tvøst og spik*, made from pilot whale meat and blubber. (A parallel meat/fat dish made with offal is *garnatálg*.) The tradition of consuming meat and blubber from pilot whales arises from the fact that a single kill can provide many meals. Fresh fish also features strongly in the traditional local diet, as do seabirds, such as Faroese puffins, and their eggs. Dried fish is also commonly eaten. There are two breweries in the Faroe Islands. Föroya Bjór has produced beer since 1888 with exports mainly to Iceland and Denmark. Okkara Bryggjarí was founded in 2010. A local specialty is *fredrikk*, a special brew made in Nólsoy. Production of hard alcohol such as snaps is forbidden in the Faroe Islands, and so Faroese akvavit is produced abroad. Since the friendly British occupation, the Faroese have been fond of British food, in particular British-style chocolate such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, which is found in many of the island's shops. ### Whaling There are records of drive hunts in the Faroe Islands dating from 1584. Whaling in the Faroe Islands is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the commission's legal authority to regulate cetacean hunts. Hundreds of long-finned pilot whales (*Globicephala melaena*) could be killed in a year, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called *grindadráp* in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level; anyone can participate. When a whale pod by chance is spotted near land the participating hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats and then slowly and quietly begin to drive the whales towards the chosen authorised bay. When a pod of whales has been stranded the killing is begun. Faroese animal welfare legislation, which also applies to whaling, requires that animals are killed as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. A regulation spinal lance is used to sever the spinal cord, which also severs the major blood supply to the brain, ensuring both loss of consciousness and death within seconds. The spinal lance has been introduced as preferred standard equipment for killing pilot whales and has been shown to reduce killing time to 1–2 seconds. This "grindadráp" is legal and provides food for many people in the Faroe Islands. However, a study has found whale meat and blubber to currently be contaminated with mercury and not recommended for human consumption, as too much may cause such adverse health effects as birth defects of the nervous system, high blood pressure, damaged immune system, increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and Diabetes mellitus type 2: > Therefore we recommend that adults eat no more than one to two meals a month. Women who plan to become pregnant within three months, pregnant women, and nursing women should abstain from eating pilot whale meat. Pilot whale liver and kidneys should not be eaten at all. > > Animal rights groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society criticize it as being cruel and unnecessary, since it is no longer necessary as a food source for the Faroese people. The sustainability of the Faroese pilot whale hunt has been discussed, but with a long-term average catch of around 800 pilot whales on the Faroe Islands a year the hunt is not considered to have a significant impact on the pilot whale population. There are an estimated 128,000 pilot whales in the Northeast Atlantic, and Faroese whaling is therefore considered a sustainable catch by the Faroese government. Annual records of whale drives and strandings of pilot whales and other small cetaceans provide over 400 years of documentation, including statistics, and represents one of the most comprehensive historical records of wildlife utilization anywhere in the world. On 12 September 2021, a super-pod of over 1,420 white-sided dolphins were killed, an event that has caused significant debate in the Faroe Islands and internationally. The UK Government declined to suspend its free-trade agreement with the Faroese, having been called upon by conservationists to do so. ### Sports The Faroe Islands have competed in every biennial Island Games since they were established in 1985. The games were hosted by the islands in 1989 and Faroes won the Island Games in 2009. Football is by far the biggest sports activity on the islands, with 7,000 registered players out of the whole population of 52,000. Ten football teams contest the Faroe Islands Premier League, currently ranked 51st by UEFA's League coefficient. The Faroe Islands are a full member of UEFA and the Faroe Islands national football team competes in the UEFA European Football Championship qualifiers. The Faroe Islands is also a full member of FIFA and therefore the Faroe Islands football team also competes in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The Faroe Islands won its first ever competitive match when the team defeated Austria 1–0 in a UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying. The nation's biggest success in football came in 2014 after defeating Greece 1–0, a result that was considered "the biggest shock of all time" in football thanks to a 169-place distance between the teams in the FIFA World Rankings when the match was played. The team climbed 82 places to 105 on the FIFA ranking after the 1–0 win against Greece. The team went on to defeat Greece again on 13 June 2015 by a score of 2–1. On 9 July 2015 the national football team of the Faroes climbed another 28 places up on the FIFA ranking. Recently, Faroe Islands achieved another famous victory by beating Turkey 2–1 in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C, although this shock win did not prevent Turkey from achieving promotion to League B. The Faroe Islands men's national handball team won the first two editions of the IHF Emerging Nations Championship, in 2015 and 2017. The Faroe Islands are a full member of FINA and compete under their own flag at World Championships, European Championships and World Cup events. The Faroese swimmer Pál Joensen (born 1990) won a bronze medal at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) and four silver medals at the European Championships (2010, 2013 and 2014), all medals won in the men's longest and second longest distance, the 1500- and 800-metre freestyle, short and long course. The Faroe Islands also compete in the Paralympics and have won 1 gold, 7 silver, and 5 bronze medals since the 1984 Summer Paralympics. Two Faroese athletes have competed at the Olympics, but under the Danish flag, since the Olympic Committee does not allow the Faroe Islands to compete under its own flag. The two Faroese who have competed are the swimmer Pál Joensen in 2012 and the rower Katrin Olsen. Olsen competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in double sculler light weight together with Juliane Rasmussen. Another Faroese rower, who is a member of the Danish National rowing team, is Sverri Sandberg Nielsen, who currently competes in single sculler, heavy weight; he has also competed in double sculler. He is the current Danish record holder in the men's indoor rowing, heavy weight; he broke a nine-year-old record in January 2015 and improved it in January 2016. He has also competed at the 2015 World Rowing Championships making it to the semifinal; he competed at the 2015 World Rowing Championship under-23 and made it to the final where he placed fourth. The Faroe Islands applied to the IOC for full membership in 1984, but as of 2017[update] the Faroe Islands are still not a member of the IOC. At the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Faroe Islands were not allowed to compete under the Faroese flag; they were, however, allowed to compete under the Ligue Européenne de Natation flag. Before this, the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen had a meeting with the IOC president Thomas Bach in Lausanne on 21 May 2015 to discuss Faroese membership in the IOC. Faroese people are very active in sports; they have domestic competitions in football, handball, volleyball, badminton, swimming, outdoor rowing (Faroese kappróður) and indoor rowing in rowing machines, horse riding, shooting, table tennis, judo, golf, tennis, archery, gymnastics, cycling, triathlon, running, and other competitions in athletics. During 2014, the Faroe Islands was given the opportunity to compete in the Electronic Sports European Championship (ESEC) in esports. 5 players, all of Faroese nationality, faced Slovenia in the first round, eventually getting knocked out with a 0–2 score. At the 2016 Baku Chess Olympiad, the Faroe Islands got their first chess grandmaster. Helgi Ziska won his third GM norm, and thus won the title of chess grandmaster. The Faroe Islands was given another chance to compete internationally in esports, this time at the 2018 Northern European Minor Championship. The team captain was Rókur Dam Norðoy. ### Clothing Faroese handicrafts are mainly based on materials available to local villages—mainly wool. Garments include sweaters, scarves, and gloves. Faroese jumpers have distinct Nordic patterns; each village has some regional variations handed down from mother to daughter. There has recently been a strong revival of interest in Faroese knitting, with young people knitting and wearing updated versions of old patterns emphasized by strong colours and bold patterns. This appears to be a reaction to the loss of traditional lifestyles, and as a way to maintain and assert cultural tradition in a rapidly-changing society. Many young people study and move abroad, and this helps them maintain cultural links with their specific Faroese heritage. There has also been a great interest in Faroese sweaters from the TV series *The Killing*, where the main actress (Detective Inspector Sarah Lund, played by Sofie Gråbøl) wears Faroese sweaters. Lace knitting is a traditional handicraft. The most distinctive trait of Faroese lace shawls is the centre-back gusset shaping. Each shawl consists of two triangular side panels, a trapezoid-shaped back gusset, an edge treatment, and usually shoulder shaping. These are worn by all generations of women, particularly as part of the traditional Faroese costume as an overgarment. The traditional Faroese national dress is also a local handicraft that people spend a lot of time, money, and effort to assemble. It is worn at weddings and traditional dancing events, and on feast days. The cultural significance of the garment should not be underestimated, both as an expression of local and national identity and a passing on and reinforcing of traditional skills that bind local communities together. A young Faroese person is normally handed down a set of children's Faroese clothes that have passed from generation to generation. Children are confirmed at age 14, and normally start to collect the pieces to make an adult outfit, which is considered as a rite of passage. Traditionally the aim would have been to complete the outfit by the time a young person was ready to marry and wear the clothes at the ceremony—though it is mainly only men who do this now. Each piece is intricately hand-knitted, dyed, woven or embroidered to the specifications of the wearer. For example, the man's waistcoat is put together by hand in bright blue, red or black fine wool. The front is then intricately embroidered with colourful silk threads, often by a female relative. The motifs are often local Faroese flowers or herbs. After this, a row of Faroese-made solid silver buttons are sewn on the outfit. Women wear embroidered silk, cotton or wool shawls and pinafores that can take months to weave or embroider with local flora and fauna. They are also adorned with a handwoven black and red ankle-length skirt, knitted black and red jumper, a velvet belt, and black 18th century style shoes with silver buckles. The outfit is held together by a row of solid silver buttons, silver chains and locally-made silver brooches and belt buckles, often fashioned with Viking style motifs. Both men's and women's national dress are extremely costly and can take many years to assemble. Women in the family often work together to assemble the outfits, including knitting the close-fitting jumpers, weaving and embroidering, sewing and assembling the national dress. This tradition binds together families, passes on traditional crafts, and reinforces the Faroese culture of traditional village life in the context of a modern society. ### Archives The National Archives of the Faroe Islands (Faroese: Tjóðskjalasavnið) is located in Tórshavn. Their main task is to collect, organize, record and preserve the archival records (documents) of the authorities, in order to make them available to the public in the future. In this context, the National Archives supervises the register (diary) and archives of the public authorities. Currently, there are no other permanent archives in the Faroe Islands, but since the end of 2017, the national government has provided financial support for a three-year pilot project under the name "Tvøroyrar Skjalasavn", which aims to collect private archives from the area. ### Libraries The National Library of the Faroe Islands (in Faroese: Føroya Landsbókasavn) is based in Tórshavn and its main task is to collect, record, preserve and disseminate knowledge of literature related to the Faroe Islands. The National Library also functions as a research library and public library. In addition to the National Library, there are 15 municipal libraries and 11 school libraries in the Faroe Islands. ### Museums and galleries The Faroe Islands has numerous museums and galleries. Føroya Fornminnissavn, Historical Museum; Listasavn Førøya, Faroese Museum of Art; Náttúrugripasavnið, Faroese Museum of Natural History; Norðurlandahúsið, House of the North; Heima á Garði, Hoyvík, Open Air Museum in Hoyvík; Føroya Sjósavn, Faroese Aquarium in Argir; Galerie Focus, Glarsmiðjan; Listagluggin, Art Gallery. ### Visual arts Faroese visual art is of great importance for the memory of Faroese national identity, as well as for the dissemination of the Faroese visual universe. The different periods and expressions of the visual arts meet and complement each other, but can also create a tension between the past and the present form of expression. Faroese stamps designed by Faroese artists are currently on offer. The first Faroese art exhibition was held in Tórshavn in 1927. ### Artists visiting the Faroe Islands In 1890, the German painter Alf Bachmann visited the Faroe Islands. In 1995, the German artist Ingo Kühl painted watercolours in Gjógv, after which the nine-part Faroe Islands picture cycle was created, which was exhibited in the Royal Danish Embassy in Berlin in 2003/2004. ### Cinema Faroese filmmakers have made several short films in particular in recent decades, and Katrin Ottarsdóttir, among others, has directed three feature films, several shorts and documentaries since her debut in 1989 with Rhapsody of the Atlantic. In 2012, the Faroese Geytin Film Award was established. These are two film awards that are presented once a year at a film festival at the Nordic House in Tórshavn in December. Filmmakers enter their films and a committee selects up to 10 films, which are screened at the event at the Nordic House. The main prize, worth DKK 25,000 and a statuette, is called Geytin and is awarded by the Nordic House, while the second prize, the Audience Award (Áskoðaravirðislønin), is worth DKK 15,000 and is awarded by the Thorshavn City Council. Sakaris Stórá won the first Geytin in December 2012 with the film Summarnátt (Summer Night). In February 2014, his film Vetrarmorgun (Winter Morning) won three awards at the Berlinale. In 2012, Annika á Lofti won the Audience Award.In 2013, Olaf Johannessen won a Robert for Best Supporting Actor in the TV series Forbrydelsen III. In 2013 Dávur Djurhuus Geytin won for the short film Terminal, while Jónfinn Stenberg won the Audience Award for the short film Munch. In 2014, the same person won both film awards, as Heiðrikur á Heygum won both the Geytin and the Audience Award for the 30-minute horror film Skuld (Guilt) Andrias Høgenni won both awards at the Geytin in 2016 for the short film A Crack. In 2019, he won the top prize at Geytin for the short film Ikki illa meint. The same film, which was his graduation film in Super 16, was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, Semaine de la Critique, and also won Danish film awards such as the Robert for Best Short Film and the fiction award at the Ekko Shortlist Awards. In 2014, the Faroese Ministry of Culture received a grant in the Finance Act to provide financial support for Faroese films. In 2017, Filmshúsið was established. Filmshúsið is located in Sjóvinnuhúsið in Tórshavn. They will guide and assist the Faroese film community and market Faroese films abroad and assist film productions. The Klippfisk film workshop is also located in Sjóvinnuhúsið. Klippfisk is supported by the municipality of Tórshavn and works with young film talent, including organizing the annual Nóllywood film school for teenagers. Nóllywood is held on the island of Nólsoy, usually during the summer vacations. ### Public holidays *Ólavsøka* is on 29 July; it commemorates the death of Saint Olaf. The celebrations are held in Tórshavn, starting on the evening of the 28th and continuing until the 31st. 28 July is a half working day for the members of some of the labour unions, while Ólavsøkudagur (St Olaf's Day) on 29 July is a full holiday for most but not all union members. The official celebration starts on the 29th, with the opening of the Faroese Parliament, a custom that dates back 900 years. This begins with a service held in Tórshavn Cathedral; all members of parliament as well as civil and church officials walk to the cathedral in a procession. All of the parish ministers take turns giving the sermon. After the service, the procession returns to the parliament for the opening ceremony. Other celebrations are marked by different kinds of sports competitions, the rowing competition (in Tórshavn Harbour) being the most popular, art exhibitions, pop concerts, and the famous Faroese dance in Sjónleikarhúsið and on Vaglið outdoor singing on 29 July (continuing after midnight on 30 July). The celebrations have many facets, and only a few are mentioned here. Many people also mark the occasion by wearing the national Faroese dress. * New Year's Day, 1 January. * Maundy Thursday * Good Friday * Easter Sunday * Easter Monday * Flag day, 25 April. * General/Great Prayer Day (Dýri biðidagur), 4th Friday after Easter. * Ascension Day * Whit Sunday * Whit Monday * Constitution Day, 5 June (half-day holiday). * St. Olav's Eve, 28 July (half-day holiday for some workers' unions). * St. Olav's Day, 29 July (full holiday for some workers' unions). * Christmas Eve, 24 December. * Christmas Day, 25 December. * Boxing Day, 26 December. * New Year's Eve, 31 December (half-day holiday). See also -------- * Outline of the Faroe Islands * Faroese Dane * Faroese language conflict * Gøtudanskt accent * + List of Faroese people + museums + regions + towns + tunnels + media * Faroe–Soviet Friendship Association * The Unity of the Realm + Greenland ### Other similar territories * Åland (Finland) * Svalbard (Norway) Further reading --------------- * Ecott, Tim 'The Land of Maybe: A Faroe Islands Year' (Short Books, UK 2020) * Gaffin, Dennis (1996). 'In Place: Spatial and Social Order in a Faeroe Islands Community' (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press) * Irvine, David Edward Guthrie (1982). "Seaweed of the Faroes 1: The flora". *Bull. Br. Mus. (Nat. Hist.)*. **10** (3): 109–131. * Miller, James. *The North Atlantic Front: Orkney, Shetland, Faroe and Iceland at War* (2004) * Tittley, I.; Farnham, W.F.; Gray, P.W.G. (1982). "Seaweeds of the Faroes 2: Sheltered fjords and sounds". *Bull. Br. Mus. (Nat. Hist.)*. **10**: 133–151. * James Proctor, Faroe Islands. Bradt Travel Guides, 2019.ISBN 978-1784776329 62°00′N 06°47′W / 62.000°N 6.783°W / 62.000; -6.783

Faroe Islands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands

**Basil** (/ˈbæzəl/, also US: /ˈbeɪzəl/; ***Ocimum basilicum*** /ˈɒsɪməm bəˈzɪlɪkəm/, also called **great basil**, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also known as **sweet basil** or **Genovese basil**. Basil is native to tropical regions from Central Africa to Southeast Asia. In temperate climates basil is treated as an annual plant, however, basil can be grown as a short-lived perennial or biennial in warmer horticultural zones with tropical or Mediterranean climates. There are many varieties of basil including sweet basil, Thai basil (*O. basilicum* var. *thyrsiflora*), and Mrs. Burns' Lemon (*O. basilicum var. citriodora*). *O. basilicum* can cross-pollinate with other species of the *Ocimum* genus, producing hybrids such as lemon basil (*O. × citriodorum*) and African blue basil (*O. × kilimandscharicum*). Etymology --------- The name "basil" comes from the Latin *basilius*, and the Greek βασιλικόν φυτόν (*basilikón phytón*), meaning "royal/kingly plant", possibly because the plant was believed to have been used in production of royal perfumes. Basil is likewise sometimes referred to in French as *"l'herbe royale"* ('the royal herb'). The Latin name has been confused with basilisk, as it was supposed to be an antidote to the basilisk's venom. Description ----------- Basil is an annual, or sometimes perennial, herb used for its leaves. Depending on the variety, plants can reach heights of between 30 and 150 cm (1 and 5 ft). Its leaves are richly green and ovate, but otherwise come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes depending on cultivar. Leaf sizes range from 3 to 11 cm (1 to 4+1⁄2 in) long, and between 1 and 6 cm (1⁄2 and 2+1⁄2 in) wide. Basil grows a thick, central taproot. Its flowers are small and white, and grow from a central inflorescence, or spike, that emerges from the central stem atop the plant. Unusual among Lamiaceae, the four stamens and the pistil are not pushed under the upper lip of the corolla, but lie over the inferior lip. After entomophilous pollination, the corolla falls off and four round achenes develop inside the bilabiate calyx. ### Phytochemistry The various basils have such distinct scents because the volatile aromatic compounds vary with cultivars. The essential oil from European basil contains high concentrations of linalool and methyl chavicol (estragole), in a ratio of about 3:1. Other constituents include: 1,8-cineole, eugenol, and myrcene, among others. The clove scent of sweet basil is derived from eugenol. The aroma profile of basil includes 1,8-cineole and methyl eugenol. In this species eugenol is synthesised from coniferyl acetate and NADPH. Some of these are useful as insect repellents, see § Insect repellent below. ### Distribution and habitat Basil is native to India and other tropical regions stretching from Africa to South East Asia, but has now become globalized due to human cultivation. Taxonomy -------- The exact taxonomy of basil is uncertain due to the immense number of cultivars, its ready polymorphy, and frequent cross-pollination (resulting in new hybrids) with other members of the genus *Ocimum* and within the species. *Ocimum basilicum* has at least 60 varieties, which further complicates taxonomy. ### Cultivars Most basils are cultivars of sweet basil. Most basil varieties have green leaves, but a few are purple, such as, 'Purple Delight'. * Anise basil, Licorice basil, or Persian basil (*O. basilicum* 'Liquorice') * Cinnamon basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Cinnamon') * Dark opal basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Dark Opal') * Genovese basil or Sweet Basil (*Ocimum basilicum*) * Globe basil, dwarf basil, French basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Minimum') * Lettuce leaf basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Crispum') * Napolitano basil, also known as Napoletano basil, Neapolitan basil, Mammoth basil, Bolloso Napoletano basil, Napolitano Mammoth-Leafed basil, or Italian Large-Leaf basil (*Ocimum basilicum*) * Purple basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Purpurescens') * Rubin basil (*Ocimum basilicum* 'Rubin') * Thai basil (*Ocimum basilicum thyrsifolium*) ### Hybrids * African blue basil (*Ocimum basilicum × O. kilimandscharicum*) * Lemon basil (*Ocimum basilicum × O. americanum*) * Spice basil (*Ocimum basilicum × O. americanum*), which is sometimes sold as holy basil * Greek basil (*Ocimum basilicum var. minimum*) ### Similar species Some similar species in the same genus may be commonly called "basil", although they are not varieties of *Ocimum basilicum*. * Camphor basil, African basil (*O. kilimandscharicum*) * Clove basil, also African basil (*Ocimum gratissimum*) * Holy basil (*Ocimum tenuiflorum*, formerly known as *O. sanctum*) Cultivation ----------- ### Growing conditions Basil is sensitive to cold, with best growth in hot, dry conditions. It behaves as an annual if there is any chance of a frost. However, due to its popularity, basil is cultivated in many countries around the world. Production areas include countries in the Mediterranean area, those in the temperate zone, and others in subtropical climates.[*page needed*] In Northern Europe, Canada, the northern states of the U.S., and the South Island of New Zealand, basil grows best if sown under glass in a peat pot, then planted out in late spring/early summer (when there is little chance of a frost); however, it can also thrive when planted outside in these climates. Additionally, it may be sown in soil once chance of frost is past. It fares best in well-drained soil with direct exposure to the sun. Although basil grows best outdoors, it can be grown indoors in a pot and, like most herbs, will do best on a sun-facing windowsill, kept away from extremely cold drafts. A greenhouse or row cover is ideal if available. It can, however, even be grown in a basement under fluorescent lights. Supplemental lighting produces greater biomass and phenol production, with red + blue specifically increasing growth and flower bud production. UV-B increases the volatiles in *O. basilicum* essential oil, which has not been reproducible in other plants, and so may be unique to the genus or even to this species. Basil plants require regular watering, but not as much attention as is needed in other climates. If its leaves have wilted from lack of water, it will recover if watered thoroughly and placed in a sunny location. Yellow leaves towards the bottom of the plant are an indication that the plant has been stressed; usually this means that it needs less water, or less or more fertilizer. Basil can be propagated reliably from cuttings with the stems of short cuttings suspended in water for two weeks or until roots develop. ### Pruning, flowering, and seeding Once a stem produces flowers, foliage production stops on that stem, the stem becomes woody, and essential oil production declines. To prevent this, a basil-grower may pinch off any flower stems before they are fully mature. Because only the blooming stem is so affected, some stems can be pinched for leaf production, while others are left to bloom for decoration or seeds. Picking the leaves off the plant helps promote growth, largely because the plant responds by converting pairs of leaflets next to the topmost leaves into new stems. Once the plant is allowed to flower, it may produce seed pods containing small black seeds, which can be saved and planted the following year. If allowed to go to seed, a basil plant will grow back the next year. ### Diseases Basil suffers from several plant pathogens that can ruin the crop and reduce yield. Fusarium wilt is a soil-borne fungal disease that will quickly kill younger basil plants. Seedlings may be killed by *Pythium* damping off. A common foliar disease of basil is gray mold caused by *Botrytis cinerea*; it can cause infections post-harvest and is capable of killing the entire plant. Black spot can be seen on basil foliage and is caused by the fungi genus *Colletotrichum*. Downy mildew caused by *Peronospora belbahrii* is a significant disease, as first reported in Italy in 2004. It was reported in the U.S. in 2007 and 2008. Non-pathogenic bacteria found on basil include *Novosphingobium* species. Uses ---- ### Culinary Basil is most commonly used fresh in recipes. In general, it is added last, as cooking quickly destroys the flavor. The fresh herb can be kept for a short time in plastic bags in the refrigerator, or for a longer period in the freezer, after being blanched quickly in boiling water. #### Leaves and flowers The most commonly used Mediterranean basil cultivars are "Genovese", "Purple Ruffles", "Mammoth", "Cinnamon", "Lemon", "Globe", and "African Blue". Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto, an Italian sauce with olive oil and basil as its primary ingredients. Many national cuisines use fresh or dried basils in soups and other foods, such as to thicken soups. Basil is commonly steeped in cream or milk to create flavor in ice cream or chocolate truffles. Lemon basil has a strong lemony smell and flavor due to the presence of citral. It is widely used in Indonesia, where it is called *kemangi* and served raw as an accompaniment to meat or fish. #### Seeds When soaked in water, the seeds of several basil varieties become gelatinous, and are used in Asian drinks and desserts such as the Indian *faluda*, the Iranian *sharbat-e-rihan*, or *hột é*. In Kashmir, the Ramadan fast is often broken with *babre beole*, a sharbat made with basil seeds. ### Folk medicine Basil is used in folk medicine practices, such as those of Ayurveda or traditional Chinese medicine. ### Toxicity to pests and pathogens #### Insecticide and insect repellent Studies of the essential oil have shown insecticidal and insect-repelling properties, including potential toxicity to mosquitos. The essential oil is found by Huignard et al. 2008 to inhibit electrical activity by decreasing action potential amplitude, by shortening the post hyperpolarization phase, and reducing the action frequency of action potentials. In Huignard's opinion this is due to the linalool and estragole, the amplitude reduction due to linalool, and the phase shortening due to both. *Callosobruchus maculatus*, a pest which affects cowpea, is repelled by the essential oil. The essential oil mixed with kaolin is both an adulticide and an ovicide, effective for three months in against *C. maculatus* in cowpea. The thrips *Frankliniella occidentalis* and *Thrips tabaci* are repelled by *O. basilicum*, making this useful as an insect repellent in other crops. The pests *Sitophilus oryzae*, *Stegobium paniceum*, *Tribolium castaneum*, and *Bruchus chinensis* are evaluated by Deshpande et al. 1974 and '77. #### Nematicide The essential oil is found by Malik et al. 1987 and Sangwan et al. 1990 to be nematicidal against *Tylenchulus semipenetrans*, *Meloidogyne javanica*, *Anguina tritici*, and *Heterodera cajani*. #### Bacterial and fungal inhibition The essential oil of the leaf and/or terminal shoot is effective against a large number of bacterial species including *Lactiplantibacillus plantarum* and *Pseudomonas* spp. The essential oil of leaf and/or terminal shoot is also effective against a large number of fungal species including *Aspergillus* spp., *Candida* spp., *Mucor* spp., and *Geotrichum candidum*. Culture ------- There are many rituals and beliefs associated with basil. The ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks believed basil would open the gates of heaven for a person passing on. Jewish folklore suggests it adds strength while fasting. However, Herbalist Nicholas Culpeper saw basil as a plant of dread and suspicion.[*why?*] In Portugal, dwarf bush basil is traditionally presented in a pot, together with a poem and a paper carnation, to a sweetheart, on the religious holidays of John the Baptist (see Saint John's Eve § Portugal) and Saint Anthony of Padua. In Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century *Decameron*, the fifth story of the narrative's fourth day involves a pot of basil as a central plot device. This famous story inspired John Keats to write his 1814 poem "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil", which was in turn the inspiration for two paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: John Everett Millais's *Isabella* in 1849 and in 1868 the *Isabella and the Pot of Basil* by William Holman Hunt. Basil has religious significance in the Greek Orthodox Church, where it is used to sprinkle holy water. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox Church and Romanian Orthodox Church use basil (Bulgarian: босилек, *bosilek*; Serbian: босиљак, *bosiljak*; Macedonian: босилек, *bosilek*) to prepare holy water and pots of basil are often placed below church altars. Some Greek Orthodox Christians even avoid eating it due to its association with the legend of the Elevation of the Holy Cross. See also -------- * Basileus * List of basil cultivars

Basil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil

**Wrocław** (Polish: [ˈvrɔt͡swaf] (); Latin: *Vratislavia*; German: *Breslau*, pronounced [ˈbʁɛslaʊ] (); Lower Silesian: *Brassel*) is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Sudeten Mountains to the south. As of 2022[update], the official population of Wrocław is 673,923 making it the third largest city in Poland. Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia. Today, it is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The history of the city dates back over 1,000 years; at various times, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany. Wrocław became part of Poland again in 1945 as part of the so-called Recovered Territories, the result of extensive territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Wrocław is a university city with a student population of over 130,000, making it one of the most youth-oriented cities in the country. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the University of Wrocław, previously Breslau University, has produced nine Nobel Prize laureates and is renowned for its high quality of teaching. Wrocław also possesses numerous historical landmarks, including the Main Market Square, Cathedral Island, Wrocław Opera, the National Museum and the Centennial Hall, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is also home to the Wrocław Zoo, which was established in 1865, making it the oldest zoological garden in Poland. In 1989, 1995 and 2019 Wrocław hosted the European Youth Meetings of the Taizé Community, the Eucharistic Congress in 1997, and the 2012 European Football Championship. In 2016, the city was a European Capital of Culture and the World Book Capital. Also in that year, Wrocław hosted the Theatre Olympics, World Bridge Games and the European Film Awards. In 2017, the city was host to the IFLA Annual Conference and the World Games. In 2019, it was named a UNESCO City of Literature. Wrocław is classified as a Gamma global city by GaWC. It was placed among the top 100 cities in the world for the Mercer Quality of Living Survey 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and in the top 100 of the smartest cities in the world in the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2017 and 2019 report. In February 2021, *fDi Intelligence* published a report, "Global Cities of the Future 2021/2022", in which Wrocław was classified in 1st place among all medium and small cities in the world. Etymology --------- The origin of the city's name is disputed. The city was believed to be named after Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia from the Czech Přemyslid dynasty, who supposedly ruled the region between 915 and 921. However, modern scholars, especially Polish historians, dispute this theory as recent archeological studies proved that the city, even if Vratislav ruled over the area, was not founded until at least 20 years after his death. They suggest that founder of the city might have simply been a local prince who only shared the popular West Slavic name with the Bohemian Duke. Another evidence against the Czech origin is that the oldest surviving documents containing the recorded name, like the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the early 11th century, which records the city's name as *Wrotizlava* and *Wrotizlaensem*, which all include characteristic to Old Polish *-ro-,* unlike the Old Czech *-ra-*. In the Polish language, the city's name *Wrocław* derives from the given name Wrocisław, which is the Polish equivalent of the Czech Vratislav. Also, the earliest variations of this name in the Old Polish language would have used the letter <l> instead of <ł>. The Old Czech language version of the name was used in Latin documents, as *Vratislavia* or *Wratislavia*. The city's first municipal seal was inscribed with *Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie*. By the 15th century, the Early New High German variations of the name, *Breslau*, first began to be used. Despite the noticeable differences in spelling, the numerous German forms were still based on the original West Slavic name of the city, with the *-Vr-* sound being replaced over time by *-Br-*, and the suffix *-slav-* replaced with *-slau-*. These variations included *Wrotizla*, *Vratizlau*, *Wratislau*, *Wrezlau*, *Breßlau* or *Bresslau* among others. A Prussian description from 1819 mentions two names of the city - Polish and German - stating *"Breslau (polnisch Wraclaw)”.* In other languages, the city's name is: modern Czech: *Vratislav*, Hungarian: *Boroszló*, Hebrew: ורוצלב (*Vrotsláv*), Yiddish: ברעסלוי (*Bresloi*), Silesian: *Wrocław*, Silesian German: *Brassel* and Latin: *Wratislavia*, *Vratislavia* or *Budorgis*. People born or resident in the city are known as "Wrocławians" (Polish: *wrocławianie*). During the German era, the demonym was "Breslauer". History ------- In ancient times, there was a place called Budorigum at or near the site of Wrocław. It was already mapped on Claudius Ptolemy's map of AD 142–147. Settlements in the area existed from the 6th century onward during the migration period. The Ślężans, a West Slavic tribe, settled on the Oder river and erected a fortified gord on Ostrów Tumski. Wrocław originated at the intersection of two trade routes, the Via Regia and the Amber Road. Archeological research conducted in the city indicates that it was founded around 940. In 985, Duke Mieszko I of Poland conquered Silesia, and constructed new fortifcations on Ostrów. The town was mentioned by Thietmar explicitly in the year 1000 AD in connection with its promotion to an episcopal see during the Congress of Gniezno. ### Middle Ages Church of Saint GilesChurch of Saint Giles seen from aboveChurch of Saint Giles (pl) erected in the 1220s at Ostrów Tumski, the oldest section of Wrocław During Wrocław's early history, control over it changed hands between the Duchy of Bohemia (1038–1054), the Duchy of Poland and the Kingdom of Poland (985–1038 and 1054–1320). Following the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Poland, the Piast dynasty ruled the Duchy of Silesia. One of the most important events during this period was the foundation of the Diocese of Wrocław by the Polish Duke and from 1025, King Bolesław the Brave in 1000. Along with the Bishoprics of Kraków and Kołobrzeg, Wrocław was placed under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland, founded by Pope Sylvester II through the intercession of Polish Duke Bolesław I the Brave and Emperor Otto III in 1000, during the Gniezno Congress. In the years 1034–1038 the city was affected by the pagan reaction in Poland. The city became a commercial centre and expanded to Wyspa Piasek (Sand Island), and then onto the left bank of the River Oder. Around 1000, the town had about 1,000 inhabitants. In 1109 during the Polish-German war, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German advance into Poland. The medieval chronicle, *Gesta principum Polonorum* (1112–1116) by Gallus Anonymus, named Wrocław, along with Kraków and Sandomierz, as one of three capitals of the Polish Kingdom. Also, the *Tabula Rogeriana*, a book written by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154, describes Wrocław as one of the Polish cities, alongside Kraków, Gniezno, Sieradz, Łęczyca and Santok. By 1139, a settlement belonging to Governor Piotr Włostowic (also known as Piotr Włast Dunin) was built, and another on the left bank of the River Oder, near the present site of the university. While the city was largely Polish, it also had communities of Bohemians (Czechs), Germans, Walloons and Jews. In the 13th century, Wrocław was the political centre of the divided Polish kingdom. In April 1241, during the First Mongol invasion of Poland, the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and burnt down for strategic reasons. During the battles with the Mongols Wrocław Castle was successfully defended by Henry II the Pious. After the Mongol invasion the town was partly populated by German settlers who, in the ensuing centuries, gradually became its dominant population. The city, however, retained its multi-ethnic character, a reflection of its importance as a trading post on the junction of the Via Regia and the Amber Road. With the influx of settlers, the town expanded and in 1242 came under German town law. The city council used both Latin and German, and the early forms of the name *Breslau*, the German name of the city, appeared for the first time in its written records. Polish gradually ceased to be used in the town books, while it survived in the courts until 1337, when it was banned by the new rulers, the german speaking House of Luxembourgs. The enlarged town covered around 60 hectares (150 acres), and the new main market square, surrounded by timber-frame houses, became the trade centre of the town. The original foundation, Ostrów Tumski, became its religious centre. The city gained Magdeburg rights in 1261. While the Polish Piast dynasty remained in control of the region, the ability of the city council to govern itself independently increased. In 1274 prince Henry IV Probus gave the city its staple right. In the 13th century, two Polish monarchs were buried in Wrocław churches founded by them, Henry II the Pious in the St. Vincent church and Henryk IV Probus in the Holy Cross church. Wrocław, which for 350 years had been mostly under Polish hegemony, fell in 1335, after the death of Henry VI the Good, to John of Luxembourg. His son Emperor Charles IV in 1348 formally incorporated the city into the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1342 and 1344, two fires destroyed large parts of the city. In 1387 the city joined the Hanseatic League. On 5 June 1443, the city was rocked by an earthquake, estimated at ca. 6 on the Richter scale, which destroyed or seriously damaged many of its buildings. Between 1469 and 1490, Wrocław was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, and king Matthias Corvinus was said to have had a Vratislavian mistress who bore him a son. In 1474, after almost a century, the city left the Hanseatic League. Also in 1474, the city was besieged by combined Polish-Czech forces. However, in November 1474, Kings Casimir IV of Poland, his son Vladislaus II of Bohemia, and Matthias Corvinus of Hungary met in the nearby village of Muchobór Wielki (present-day a district of Wrocław), and in December 1474 a ceasefire was signed according to which the city remained under Hungarian rule. The following year was marked by the publication in Wrocław of the *Statuta Synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensium* (1475) by Kasper Elyan, the first ever Incunable in Polish, containing the proceedings and prayers of the Wrocław bishops. ### Renaissance and the Reformation In the 16th century, the Breslauer Schöps beer style was created in Breslau. The Protestant Reformation reached the city in 1518 and it converted to the new rite. However, starting in 1526 Silesia was ruled by the Catholic House of Habsburg. In 1618, it supported the Bohemian Revolt out of fear of losing the right to religious freedom. During the ensuing Thirty Years' War, the city was occupied by Saxon and Swedish troops and lost thousands of inhabitants to the plague. The Emperor brought in the Counter-Reformation by encouraging Catholic orders to settle in the city, starting in 1610 with the Franciscans, followed by the Jesuits, then Capuchins, and finally Ursuline nuns in 1687. These orders erected buildings that shaped the city's appearance until 1945. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, however, it was one of only a few Silesian cities to stay Protestant. The Polish Municipal school opened in 1666 and lasted until 1766. Precise record-keeping of births and deaths by the city fathers led to the use of their data for analysis of mortality, first by John Graunt and then, based on data provided to him by Breslau professor Caspar Neumann, by Edmond Halley. Halley's tables and analysis, published in 1693, are considered to be the first true actuarial tables, and thus the foundation of modern actuarial science. During the Counter-Reformation, the intellectual life of the city flourished, as the Protestant bourgeoisie lost some of its dominance to the Catholic orders as patrons of the arts. ### Enlightenment period The city became the centre of German Baroque literature and was home to the First and Second Silesian school of poets. In the 1740s the Kingdom of Prussia annexed the city and most of Silesia during the War of the Austrian Succession. Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa ceded most of the territory in the Treaty of Breslau in 1742 to Prussia. Austria attempted to recover Silesia during the Seven Years' War at the Battle of Breslau, but they were unsuccessful. The Venetian Italian adventurer, Giacomo Casanova, stayed in Breslau in 1766. ### Napoleonic Wars During the Napoleonic Wars, it was occupied by the Confederation of the Rhine army. The fortifications of the city were levelled, and monasteries and cloisters were seized. The Protestant Viadrina European University at Frankfurt an der Oder was relocated to Breslau in 1811, and united with the local Jesuit University to create the new Silesian Frederick-William University (German: *Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität*, now the University of Wrocław). The city became a centre of the German Liberation movement against Napoleon, and a gathering place for volunteers from all over Germany. The city was the centre of Prussian mobilisation for the campaign which ended at the Battle of Leipzig. ### Industrial age The Confederation of the Rhine had increased prosperity in Silesia and in the city. The removal of fortifications opened room for the city to expand beyond its former limits. Breslau became an important railway hub and industrial centre, notably for linen and cotton manufacture and the metal industry. The reconstructed university served as a major centre of science; Johannes Brahms later wrote his Academic Festival Overture to thank the university for an honorary doctorate awarded in 1879. In 1821, the (Arch)Diocese of Breslau withdrew from dependence on the Polish archbishopric of Gniezno, and Breslau became an exempt see. On 10 October 1854, the Jewish Theological Seminary opened. The institution was the first modern rabbinical seminary in Central Europe. In 1863 the brothers Karl and Louis Stangen founded the travel agency Stangen, the second travel agency in the world. The city was an important centre of the Polish secret resistance movement and the seat of a Polish uprising committee before and during the January Uprising of 1863–1864 in the Russian Partition of Poland. Local Poles took part in Polish national mourning after the Russian massacre of Polish protesters in Warsaw in February 1861, and also organized several patriotic Polish church services throughout 1861. Secret Polish correspondence, weapons, and insurgents were transported through the city. After the outbreak of the uprising in 1863, the Prussian police carried out mass searches of Polish homes, especially those of Poles who had recently come to the city. The city's inhabitants, both Poles and Germans, excluding the German aristocracy, largely sympathized with the uprising, and some Germans even joined local Poles in their secret activities. In June 1863 the city was officially confirmed as the seat of secret Polish insurgent authorities. In January 1864, the Prussian police arrested a number of members of the Polish insurgent movement. The Unification of Germany in 1871 turned Breslau into the sixth-largest city in the German Empire. Its population more than tripled to over half a million between 1860 and 1910. The 1900 census listed 422,709 residents. In 1890, construction began of Breslau Fortress as the city's defenses. Important landmarks were inaugurated in 1910, the *Kaiser bridge* (today Grunwald Bridge) and the *Technical University*, which now houses the Wrocław University of Technology. The 1900 census listed 98% of the population as German-speakers, with 5,363 Polish-speakers (1.3%), and 3,103 (0.7%) as bilingual in German and Polish. The population was 58% Protestant, 37% Catholic (including at least 2% Polish) and 5% Jewish (totaling 20,536 in the 1905 census). The Jewish community of Breslau was among the most important in Germany, producing several distinguished artists and scientists. From 1912, the head of the university's Department of Psychiatry and director of the Clinic of Psychiatry (*Königlich Psychiatrischen und Nervenklinik*) was Alois Alzheimer and, that same year, professor William Stern introduced the concept of IQ. In 1913, the newly built Centennial Hall housed an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the historical German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon and the first award of the Iron Cross. The Centennial Hall was built by Max Berg (1870–1947), since 2006 it is part of the world heritage of UNESCO. The central station (by Wilhelm Grapow, 1857) was one of the biggest in Germany and one of the first stations with electrified railway services. Since 1900 modern department stores like Barasch (today "Feniks") or Petersdorff (built by architect Erich Mendelsohn) were erected. Following the First World War, Breslau became the capital of the newly created Prussian Province of Lower Silesia of the Weimar Republic in 1919. After the war the Polish community began holding masses in Polish at the Church of Saint Anne, and, as of 1921, at St. Martin's and a Polish School was founded by Helena Adamczewska. In 1920 a Polish consulate was opened on the Main Square. In August 1920, during the Polish Silesian Uprising in Upper Silesia, the Polish Consulate and School were destroyed, while the Polish Library was burned down by a mob. The number of Poles as a percentage of the total population fell to just 0.5% after the re-emergence of Poland as a state in 1918, when many moved to Poland. Antisemitic riots occurred in 1923. The city boundaries were expanded between 1925 and 1930 to include an area of 175 km2 (68 sq mi) with a population of 600,000. In 1929, the Werkbund opened *WuWa* (German: *Wohnungs- und Werkraumausstellung*) in Breslau-Scheitnig, an international showcase of modern architecture by architects of the Silesian branch of the Werkbund. In June 1930, Breslau hosted the *Deutsche Kampfspiele*, a sporting event for German athletes after Germany was excluded from the Olympic Games after World War I. The number of Jews remaining in Breslau fell from 23,240 in 1925 to 10,659 in 1933. Up to the beginning of World War II, Breslau was the largest city in Germany east of Berlin. Known as a stronghold of left wing liberalism during the German Empire, Breslau eventually became one of the strongest support bases of the Nazi Party, which in the 1932 elections received 44% of the city's vote, their third-highest total in all Germany. KZ Dürrgoy, one of the first concentration camps in Nazi Germany, was set up in the city in 1933. After Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor in 1933, political enemies of the Nazis were persecuted, and their institutions closed or destroyed. The Gestapo began actions against Polish and Jewish students (see: Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau), Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. Arrests were made for speaking Polish in public, and in 1938 the Nazi-controlled police destroyed the Polish cultural centre. In June 1939, Polish students were expelled from the university. Also many other people seen as "undesirable" by Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps. A network of concentration camps and forced labour camps was established around Breslau to serve industrial concerns, including FAMO, Junkers, and Krupp. Tens of thousand of forced laborers were imprisoned there. The last big event organized by the National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise, called Deutsches Turn-und-Sportfest (Gym and Sports Festivities), took place in Breslau from 26 to 31 July 1938. The Sportsfest was held to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon's invasion. ### Second World War During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II, in September 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of local Polish activists and banned Polish organizations, and the city was made the headquarters of the southern district of the *Selbstschutz*, whose task was to persecute Poles. For most of the war, the fighting did not affect the city. During the war, the Germans opened the graves of medieval Polish monarchs and local dukes to carry out anthropological research for propaganda purposes, wanting to demonstrate German "racial purity". The remains were transported to other places by the Germans, and they have not been found to this day. In 1941 the remnants of the pre-war Polish minority in the city, as well as Polish slave labourers, organised a resistance group called Olimp. The organisation gathered intelligence, carrying out sabotage and organising aid for Polish slave workers. In September 1941 the city's 10,000 Jews were expelled from their homes and soon deported to concentration camps. Few survived the Holocaust. As the war continued, refugees from bombed-out German cities, and later refugees from farther east, swelled the population to nearly one million, including 51,000 forced labourers in 1944, and 9,876 Allied PoWs. At the end of 1944 an additional 30,000–60,000 Poles were moved into the city after the Germans crushed the Warsaw Uprising. During the war the Germans operated four subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the city. Approximately 3,400–3,800 men were imprisoned in three subcamps, among them Poles, Russians, Italians, Frenchmen, Ukrainians, Czechs, Belgians, Yugoslavs, Chinese, and about 1,500 Jewish women were imprisoned in the fourth camp. Many prisoners died, and the remaining were evacuated to the main camp of Groß-Rosen in January 1945. There were also three subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp, and two Nazi prisons in the city, including a youth prison, with multiple forced labour subcamps. In 1945, the city became part of the front lines and was the site of the brutal Siege of Breslau. Adolf Hitler had in 1944 declared Breslau to be a fortress (Festung), to be held at all costs. An attempted evacuation of the city took place in January 1945, with 18,000 people freezing to death in icy snowstorms of −20 °C (−4 °F) weather. In February 1945, the Soviet Army approached the city and the German Luftwaffe began an airlift to the besieged garrison. A large area of the city centre was demolished and turned into an airfield by the defenders. By the end of the three-month siege in May 1945, half the city had been destroyed. Breslau was the last major city in Germany to surrender, capitulating only two days before the end of the war in Europe. Civilian deaths amounted to as many as 80,000. In August the Soviets placed the city under the control of German communists. Following the Yalta Conference held in February 1945 where the new geopolitics of Central Europe were decided, the terms of the Potsdam Conference decreed that with almost all of Lower Silesia, the city would become part of Poland in exchange for Poland's loss of the city of Lwów along with the massive territory of Kresy in the east, which was annexed by the Soviet Union. The Polish name of Wrocław was declared official. There had been discussion among the Western Allies to place the southern Polish-German boundary on the Glatzer Neisse, which meant post-war Germany would have been allowed to retain approximately half of Silesia, including those parts of Breslau that lay on the west bank of the Oder. However, the Soviet government insisted the border be drawn at the Lusatian Neisse farther west. ### 1945–present Following World War II, the region became part of Poland under territorial changes defined by the Potsdam Agreement. The town's inhabitants who had not fled, or who had safely returned to their home town after the war officially had ended, were expelled between 1945 and 1949 in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement and were settled in the Soviet occupation zone or in the Allied Occupation Zones in the remainder of Germany. The city's last pre-war German school was closed in 1963. The Polish population was dramatically increased by the resettlement of Poles, partly due to postwar population transfers during the forced deportations from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union in the east region, some of whom came from Lviv (*Lwów*), Volhynia, and the Vilnius Region. However, despite the prime role given to re-settlers from the Kresy, in 1949, only 20% of the new Polish population actually themselves were refugees. A small German minority (about 1,000 people, or 2% of the population) remains in the city, so that today the relation of Polish to German population is the reverse of what it was a hundred years ago. Traces of the German past, such as inscriptions and signs, were removed. In 1948, Wrocław organized the Recovered Territories Exhibition and the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace. Picasso's lithograph, *La Colombe* (The Dove), a traditional, realistic picture of a pigeon, without an olive branch, was created on a napkin at the Monopol Hotel in Wrocław during the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace. In 1963, Wrocław was declared a closed city because of a smallpox epidemic. In 1982, during martial law in Poland, the anti-communist underground organizations Fighting Solidarity and Orange Alternative were founded in Wrocław. Wrocław's dwarves, made of bronze, famously grew out of and commemorate Orange Alternative. In 1983 and 1997, Pope John Paul II visited the city. PTV Echo, the first non-state television station in Poland and in the post-communist countries, began to broadcast in Wrocław on 6 February 1990. In May 1997, Wrocław hosted the 46th International Eucharistic Congress. In July 1997, the city was heavily affected by the Millenium Flood, the worst flooding in post-war Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. About one-third of the area of the city was flooded. The smaller Widawa River also flooded the city simultaneously, worsening the damage. An earlier, equally devastating flood of the Oder river had taken place in 1903. A small part of the city was also flooded during the flood of 2010. From 2012 to 2015, the Wrocław water node was renovated and redeveloped to prevent further flooding. Municipal Stadium in Wrocław, opened in 2011, hosted three matches in Group A of the UEFA Euro 2012 championship. In 2016, Wrocław was declared the European Capital of Culture. In 2017, Wrocław hosted the 2017 World Games. Wrocław won the *European Best Destination* title in 2018. Wrocław is now a unique European city of mixed heritage, with architecture influenced by Saxon, Bohemian, Austrian, and Prussian traditions, such as Silesian Gothic and its Baroque style of court builders of Habsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach). Wrocław has a number of notable buildings by German modernist architects including the famous Centennial Hall (*Hala Stulecia* or *Jahrhunderthalle*; 1911–1913) designed by Max Berg. Geography --------- Wrocław is located in the three mesoregions of the Silesian Lowlands (Wrocław Plain, Wrocław Valley, Oleśnica Plain) at an elevation of around 105–156 metres (Gajowe Hill and Maślickie Hill) above sea level. The city lies on the Oder River and its four tributaries, which supply it within the city limits – Bystrzyca, Oława, Ślęza and Widawa. In addition, the Dobra River and many streams flow through the city. The city has a sewage treatment plant on the Janówek estate. ### Flora and fauna There are 44 city parks and public green spaces covering around 800 hectares. The most notable are *Szczytnicki Park*, *Park Południowy* (South Park) and *Anders Park*. In addition, Wrocław University runs an historical Botanical garden (founded in 1811), with a salient Alpine garden, a lake and a valley. In Wrocław, the presence of over 200 species of birds has been registered, of which over 100 have nesting places there. As in other large Polish cities, the most numerous are pigeons. Other common species are the sparrow, tree sparrow, siskin, rook, crow, jackdaw, magpie, swift, martin, swallow, kestrel, mute swan, mallard, coot, merganser, black-headed gull, great tit, blue tit, long-tailed tit, greenfinch, hawfinch, collared dove, common wood pigeon, fieldfare, redwing, common starling, grey heron, white stork, common chaffinch, blackbird, jay, nuthatch, bullfinch, cuckoo, waxwing, lesser spotted woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, white-backed woodpecker, white wagtail, blackcap, black redstart, old world flycatcher, emberizidae, goldfinch, western marsh harrier, little bittern, common moorhen, reed bunting, remiz, great reed warbler, little crake, little ringed plover and white-tailed eagle. In addition, the city is periodically plagued by the brown rat, especially in the Market Square and in the vicinity of eateries. Otherwise, due to the proximity of wooded areas, there are hedgehogs, foxes, wild boar, bats, martens, squirrels, deer, hares, beavers, polecats, otters, badgers, weasels, stoats and raccoon dogs. There are also occasional sightings of escaped muskrat, american mink and raccoon. ### Air pollution Air pollution is a considerable issue in Wrocław. In a report by French *Respire* organization, from 2014, Wrocław was ranked the eighth most polluted European city, with 166 days of bad air quality per year. Heavy air pollution mainly occurs in the colder months, during autumn and winter. According to Wrocław University research from 2017, high concentration of particular matters (PM2.5 and PM 10) in the air causes 942 premature deaths of Wrocław inhabitants per year. Air pollution also causes 3297 cases of bronchitis among Wrocław's children per year. Approximately 84% of residents believe that air pollution is a serious social problem, according to a poll from May 2017, and 73% of people believe that air quality is poor. In 2012, there were 71 days, when the PM10 standards, set by Cleaner Air For Europe Directive, were exceeded. In 2014, there were 104 such days. In 2014, the inhabitants founded an organization called the Lower Silesian Smog Alert (*Dolnośląski Alarm Smogowy, DAS*), to address the air pollution problem. Its goals are to educate the public and to reduce emission of harmful substances. ### Climate According to the Köppen climate classification, Wrocław has an oceanic climate (*Cfb*), bordering on a humid continental climate (*Dfb*) using the 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm. The position of Wrocław in the Silesian Lowlands, which are themselves located just north of the Sudetes and to the southwest of the Trzebnickie Hills, creates a favourable environment for accumulation of heat in the Oder river valley between Wrocław and Opole. Wrocław is therefore the warmest city in Poland, among those tracked by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), with the mean annual temperature of 9.7 °C (49 °F). The city experiences relatively mild and dry winters, but with the skies frequently overcast; summers are warm and generally sunny, however, that is the period when most precipitation occurs, which often falls during thunderstorms. The city also sometimes experiences foehn-like conditions, particularly when the wind blows from the south or the south-west. In addition to that, the temperatures in the city centre often tend to be higher than on the outskirts due to the urban heat island effect. Snow may fall in any month from October to May but normally does so in winter; the snow cover of at least 1 cm (0.39 in) stays on the ground for an average of 27.5 days per year – one of the lowest in Poland. The highest temperature in Wrocław recognised by IMGW was noted on 8 August 2015 (37.9 °C (100 °F)), though thermometers at the meteorological station managed by the University of Wrocław indicated 38.9 °C (102 °F) on that day. The lowest temperature was recorded on 11 February 1956 (−32 °C (−26 °F)). | Climate data for Wrocław (Copernicus Airport), elevation: 120 m, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1951–present | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 18.0(64.4) | 20.6(69.1) | 25.2(77.4) | 30.0(86.0) | 32.4(90.3) | 36.9(98.4) | 37.4(99.3) | 38.9(102.0) | 35.3(95.5) | 28.1(82.6) | 20.9(69.6) | 16.4(61.5) | 38.9(102.0) | | Mean maximum °C (°F) | 10.8(51.4) | 12.7(54.9) | 18.2(64.8) | 24.3(75.7) | 27.8(82.0) | 31.5(88.7) | 32.8(91.0) | 32.5(90.5) | 27.6(81.7) | 22.8(73.0) | 16.2(61.2) | 11.4(52.5) | 34.3(93.7) | | Average high °C (°F) | 3.0(37.4) | 4.7(40.5) | 9.0(48.2) | 15.3(59.5) | 20.0(68.0) | 23.4(74.1) | 25.6(78.1) | 25.4(77.7) | 20.0(68.0) | 14.3(57.7) | 8.3(46.9) | 4.1(39.4) | 14.4(57.9) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | 0.0(32.0) | 1.1(34.0) | 4.3(39.7) | 9.7(49.5) | 14.3(57.7) | 17.7(63.9) | 19.7(67.5) | 19.3(66.7) | 14.5(58.1) | 9.6(49.3) | 4.8(40.6) | 1.1(34.0) | 9.7(49.5) | | Average low °C (°F) | −3.3(26.1) | −2.5(27.5) | 0.0(32.0) | 3.8(38.8) | 8.3(46.9) | 12.0(53.6) | 13.9(57.0) | 13.4(56.1) | 9.4(48.9) | 5.2(41.4) | 1.3(34.3) | −2.1(28.2) | 5.0(41.0) | | Mean minimum °C (°F) | −14.6(5.7) | −11.4(11.5) | −7.3(18.9) | −3.5(25.7) | 1.9(35.4) | 6.0(42.8) | 8.7(47.7) | 7.0(44.6) | 2.4(36.3) | −2.8(27.0) | −6.4(20.5) | −11.5(11.3) | −16.8(1.8) | | Record low °C (°F) | −30.0(−22.0) | −32.0(−25.6) | −23.8(−10.8) | −8.1(17.4) | −4.0(24.8) | 0.2(32.4) | 3.6(38.5) | 2.1(35.8) | −3.0(26.6) | −9.3(15.3) | −18.2(−0.8) | −24.4(−11.9) | −32.0(−25.6) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 28.3(1.11) | 25.6(1.01) | 35.0(1.38) | 31.2(1.23) | 59.6(2.35) | 65.4(2.57) | 91.4(3.60) | 59.5(2.34) | 48.4(1.91) | 37.6(1.48) | 31.4(1.24) | 27.9(1.10) | 541.1(21.30) | | Average extreme snow depth cm (inches) | 4.6(1.8) | 4.5(1.8) | 2.7(1.1) | 0.4(0.2) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.0(0.0) | 0.2(0.1) | 1.5(0.6) | 3.0(1.2) | 4.6(1.8) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 15.50 | 12.99 | 13.50 | 10.90 | 13.03 | 12.97 | 14.00 | 11.80 | 11.30 | 12.27 | 13.17 | 14.77 | 156.19 | | Average snowy days (≥ 0.0 cm) | 12.4 | 9.1 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 2.4 | 6.4 | 34.9 | | Average relative humidity (%) | 83.7 | 80.1 | 75.3 | 68.0 | 69.8 | 69.8 | 69.9 | 70.5 | 76.8 | 81.6 | 85.5 | 84.9 | 76.3 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 58.8 | 82.2 | 129.2 | 202.6 | 245.5 | 247.6 | 257.4 | 250.8 | 170.1 | 118.5 | 66.9 | 52.8 | 1,882.5 | | Source 1: IMGW (normals, except humidity) | | Source 2: Meteomodel.pl (humidity and extremes) | | Climate data for Wrocław (Copernicus Airport), elevation: 120 m, 1961–1990 normals | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Average high °C (°F) | 1.3(34.3) | 3.2(37.8) | 7.9(46.2) | 13.6(56.5) | 18.8(65.8) | 22.0(71.6) | 23.4(74.1) | 23.2(73.8) | 19.3(66.7) | 14.1(57.4) | 7.4(45.3) | 3.0(37.4) | 13.1(55.6) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.8(28.8) | −0.5(31.1) | 3.2(37.8) | 8.0(46.4) | 13.1(55.6) | 16.5(61.7) | 17.7(63.9) | 17.2(63.0) | 13.4(56.1) | 8.9(48.0) | 3.9(39.0) | 0.2(32.4) | 8.3(47.0) | | Average low °C (°F) | −5.3(22.5) | −4.0(24.8) | −0.9(30.4) | 2.8(37.0) | 7.1(44.8) | 10.7(51.3) | 12.0(53.6) | 11.6(52.9) | 8.7(47.7) | 4.6(40.3) | 0.6(33.1) | −3.1(26.4) | 3.7(38.7) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 28(1.1) | 26(1.0) | 26(1.0) | 39(1.5) | 64(2.5) | 80(3.1) | 84(3.3) | 78(3.1) | 48(1.9) | 40(1.6) | 43(1.7) | 34(1.3) | 590(23.1) | | Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 7.3 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 9.7 | 8.4 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 9.2 | 8.6 | 99.3 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 49.0 | 65.0 | 107.0 | 142.0 | 198.0 | 194.0 | 205.0 | 197.0 | 139.0 | 108.0 | 52.0 | 39.0 | 1,495 | | Source: NOAA | Government and politics ----------------------- Wrocław is the capital city of Lower Silesian Voivodeship, a province (voivodeship) created in 1999. It was previously the capital of Wrocław Voivodeship. The city is a separate urban gmina and city-county. It is also the seat of Wrocław County, which adjoins but does not include the city. ### Districts Wrocław was previously subdivided into five boroughs (dzielnica): * Fabryczna ("Factory Quarter") * Krzyki, (German: *Krietern*, meaning "Wranglers") * Psie Pole (German: *Hundsfeld*, "Dogs' Field", named after the Battle of Psie Pole) * Stare Miasto (Old Town) * Śródmieście (Midtown) Since 1990, the city has been divided into 48 district quarters (*osiedle*) – Bieńkowice, Biskupin-Sępolno-Dąbie-Bartoszowice, Borek, Brochów, Gaj, Gajowice, Gądów-Popowice Płd., Grabiszyn-Grabiszynek, Huby, Jagodno, Jerzmanowo-Jarnołtów-Strachowice-Osiniec, Karłowice-Różanka, Klecina, Kleczków, Kowale, Krzyki-Partynice, Księże, Kuźniki, Leśnica, Lipa Piotrowska, Maślice, Muchobór Mały, Muchobór Wielki, Nadodrze, Nowy Dwór, Ołbin, Ołtaszyn, Oporów, Osobowice-Rędzin, Pawłowice, Pilczyce-Kozanów-Popowice Płn., Plac Grunwaldzki, Polanowice-Poświętne-Ligota, Powstańców Śląskich, Pracze Odrzańskie, Przedmieście Oławskie, Przedmieście Świdnickie, Psie Pole-Zawidawie, Sołtysowice, Stare Miasto, Strachocin-Swojczyce-Wojnów, Szczepin, Świniary, Tarnogaj, Widawa, Wojszyce, Zacisze-Zalesie-Szczytniki, and Żerniki. ### Municipal government Wrocław is currently governed by the city's mayor and a municipal legislature known as the city council. The city council is made up of 39 councilors and is directly elected by the city's inhabitants. The remit of the council and president extends to all areas of municipal policy and development planning, up to and including development of local infrastructure, transport and planning permission. However, it is not able to draw taxation directly from its citizens, and instead receives its budget from the Polish national government whose seat is in Warsaw. The city's current mayor is Jacek Sutryk, who has served in this position since 2018. The first mayor of Wrocław after the war was Bolesław Drobner, appointed to the position on 14 March 1945, even before the surrender of Festung Breslau. Economy ------- Wrocław is the second-wealthiest of the large cities in Poland after Warsaw. The city is also home to the largest number of leasing and debt collection companies in the country, including the largest European Leasing Fund as well as numerous banks. Due to the proximity of the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic, Wrocław and the region of Lower Silesia is a large import and export partner with these countries. Wrocław is one of the most innovative cities in Poland with the largest number of R&D centers, due to the cooperation between the municipality, business sector and numerous universities. Currently, in Wrocław there are many organizations that are dealing with innovation–research institutions and technology transfer offices, incubators, technology and business parks, business support organizations, companies, start-ups and co-working spaces. The complex and varied infrastructure available in Wrocław facilitates the creation of innovative products and services and enables conducting research projects. The city has the biggest number of R&D centers in Poland, with many co-working spaces and business incubators offering great support to start a project fast and without high costs or too much paperwork. Wrocław's industry manufactures buses, railroad cars, home appliances, chemicals, and electronics. The city houses factories and development centres of many foreign and domestic corporations, such as WAGO Kontakttechnik, Siemens, Bosch, Whirlpool Corporation, Nokia Networks, Volvo, HP, IBM, Google, Opera Software, Bombardier Transportation, WABCO and others. Wrocław is also the location of offices for large Polish companies including Getin Holding, AmRest, Polmos, and MCI Management SA. Additionally, Kaufland Poland has its main headquarters in the city. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the city has had a developing high-tech sector. Many high-tech companies are located in the Wrocław Technology Park, such as Baluff, CIT Engineering, Caisson Elektronik, ContiTech, Ericsson, Innovative Software Technologies, IBM, IT-MED, IT Sector, LiveChat Software, Mitsubishi Electric, Maas, PGS Software, Technology Transfer Agency Techtra and Vratis. In Biskupice Podgórne (Community Kobierzyce) there are factories of LG (LG Display, LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG Innotek), Dong Seo Display, Dong Yang Electronics, Toshiba, and many other companies, mainly from the electronics and home appliances sectors, while the Nowa Wieś Wrocławska factory and distribution centre of Nestlé Purina and factories a few other enterprises. The city is the seat of Wrocław Research Centre EIT+, which contains, inter alia, geological research laboratories to the unconventional and Lower Silesian Cluster of Nanotechnology. The logistics centres DHL, FedEx and UPS are based in Wrocław. Furthermore, it is a major centre for the pharmaceutical industry (U.S. Pharmacia, Hasco-Lek, Galena, Avec Pharma, 3M, Labor, S-Lab, Herbapol, and Cezal). Wrocław is home to Poland's largest shopping mall – Bielany Avenue (pl. Aleja Bielany) and Bielany Trade Center, located in Bielany Wrocławskie where stores such as Auchan, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, Makro, Tesco, IKEA, Jula, OBI, Castorama, Black Red White, Poco, E. Wedel, Cargill, Prologis and Panattoni can be found. In February 2013, Qatar Airways launched its Wrocław European Customer Service. ### Major corporations * 3M * Akwawit–Polmos S.A. – Wratislavia vodka plant * The Bank of New York Mellon * Bombardier Transportation Poland * BSH – Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte * CD Projekt * CH Robinson Worldwide * Crédit Agricole Poland * Credit Suisse * Deichmann * DeLaval Operations Poland * DHL * Dolby Labs * Ernst & Young * Fantasy Expo – owner CD-Action * Gigaset Communications * Google * Hewlett-Packard * IBM * Kaufland Poland * KGHM Polska Miedź * LiveChat Software * LG Electronics * McKinsey & Company * Microsoft * National Bank of Poland * Nokia Networks * Olympus Business Services Europe * Opera Software * Parker Hannifin * PZ Cussons Poland * PZU * QAD * Qatar Airways * Qiagen * Robert Bosch GmbH * SAP Poland * Santander Consumer Bank * Siemens * Südzucker * Techland * Tieto * UBS * UPS * United Technologies Corporation * Viessmann * Volvo Poland * WABCO Poland * Whirlpool Poland ### Shopping malls * Wroclavia * Galeria Dominikańska * Arkady Wrocławskie * Galeria Handlowa Sky Tower * Pasaż Grunwaldzki * Centrum Handlowe Borek * Tarasy Grabiszyńskie * Magnolia Park * Wrocław Fashion Outlet * Factoria Park * Centrum Handlowe Korona * Renoma, a 1930s department store of architectural interest over and above its shopping value * Feniks * Wrocław Market Hall * Marino * Park Handlowy Młyn * Family Point * Ferio Gaj * Aleja Bielany in Bielany Wrocławskie (suburb of Wrocław) – the largest shopping mall in Poland Transport --------- Wrocław is a major transport hub, situated at the crossroad of many routes linking Western and Central Europe with the rest of Poland. The city is skirted on the south by the A4 highway, which is part of the European route E40, extending from the Polish-German to the Polish-Ukrainian border across southern Poland. The 672-kilometre highway beginning at Jędrzychowice connects Lower Silesia with Opole and the industrial Upper Silesian metropolis, Kraków, Tarnów and Rzeszów. It also provides easy access to German cities such as Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg and with the A18 highway Berlin, Hamburg. The toll-free A8 bypass (Wrocław ring road) around the west and north of the city connects the A4 highway with three major routes – S5 expressway leading to Poznań, Bydgoszcz; the S8 express road towards Oleśnica, Łódź, Warsaw, Białystok; and the National Road 8 to Prague, Brno and other townships in the Czech Republic. Traffic congestion is a significant issue in Wrocław as in most Polish cities; in early 2020 it was ranked as the fifth-most congested city in Poland, and 41st in the world. On average, a car driver in Wrocław annually spends seven days and two hours in a traffic jam. Roadblocks, gridlocks and narrow cobblestone streets around the Old Town are considerable obstacles for drivers. The lack of parking space is also a major setback; private lots or on-street pay bays are the most common means of parking. A study in 2019 has revealed that there are approximately 130 vehicles per each parking spot, and the search for an unoccupied bay takes on average eight minutes. ### Aviation The city is served by Copernicus Airport Wrocław (coded WRO), situated around 10 kilometres southwest from the central precinct. The airport handles passenger flights with LOT Polish Airlines, Buzz, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Eurowings, Air France, KLM, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines and air cargo connections. In 2019 over a 3.5 million passengers passed through the airport, placing it fifth on the list of busiest airports in Poland. Among the permanent and traditional destinations are Warsaw, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Zürich and Budapest. Low-cost flights are common among British, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian travellers, based on the number of destinations. Seasonal charter flights are primarily targeted at Polish holidaymakers travelling to Southern Europe and North Africa. ### Rail and bus The main rail station is Wrocław Główny, which is the largest railway station in Poland by the number of passengers served (21,2 million passengers a year), and perhaps the most important railroad junction alongside Warsaw Central station. The station is supported by PKP Intercity, Polregio, Koleje Dolnośląskie and Leo Express. There are direct connections to Szczecin, Poznań, and to Warsaw Central through Łódź Fabryczna station. There is also a regular connection to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Wien Hauptbahnhof (Vienna), as well as indirect to Praha hlavní nádraží (Prague) and Budapest-Nyugati with one transfer depending on the carrier. Adjacent to the railway station, is a central bus station located in the basement of the shopping mall Wroclavia, with services offered by PKS, Neobus, Flixbus, Sindbad, and others. ### Public transport The public transport in Wrocław comprises 99 bus lines and a well-developed network of 23 tram lines (with a length over 200 kilometres) operated by the Municipal Transport Company MPK (*Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne*). Rides are paid for, tickets can be purchased in vending machines, which are located at bus stops, as well as in the vending machines located in the vehicle (payment contactless payment card, the ticket is saved on the card). The tickets are available for purchase in the electronic form via mobile app: mPay, Apple Pay, SkyCash, Mobill, Google Pay. Tickets are one-ride or temporary (0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 24, 48, 72, or 168 hours). All buses and big part of trams is low-floor. Over a dozen traditional taxicab firms operate in the city as well as Uber, iTaxi, Bolt and Free Now. ### Other There are 1200 km of cycling paths including about 100 km paths on flood embankments. Wrocław has a bike rental network called the City Bike (*Wrocławski Rower Miejski*). It has 2000 bicycles and 200 self-service stations. In addition to regular bicycles, tandem, cargo, electric, folding, tricycles, children's, and handbikes are available, operating every year from 1 March to 30 November. During winter (December – February) 200 bikes are available in the system. Wrocław possesses a scooter-sharing system of Lime, Bird, Bolt and Hive Free Now – motorized scooter rental is available using a mobile application. Electronic car rental systems include Traficar, Panek CarSharing (hybrid cars), GoScooter and hop.city electric scooters using the mobile application. A gondola lift over the Oder called Polinka began operation in 2013. Wrocław also has a river port on the Oder and several marinas. Demographics ------------ In December 2020, the population of Wrocław was estimated at 641,928 individuals, of which 342,215 were women and 299,713 were men. Since 2011, the population has been steadily rising, with a 0.142% increase between 2019 and 2020, and a 2.167% increase in the years 2011–2020. In 2018, the crude birth rate stood at 11.8 and the mortality rate at 11.1 per 1,000 residents. The median age in 2018 was 43 years. The city's population is aging significantly; between 2013 and 2018, the number of seniors (per Statistics Poland – men aged 65 or above and women aged 60 or above) surged from 21.5% to 24.2%. Historically, the city's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries; in the year 1900 approximately 422,709 people were registered as residents and by 1933 the population was already 625,000. The strongest growth was recorded from 1900 to 1910, with almost 100,000 new residents within the city limits. Although the city was overwhelmingly German-speaking, the ethnic composition based on heritage or place of birth was mixed. According to a statistical report from 2000, around 43% of all inhabitants in 1910 were born outside Silesia and migrated into the city, mostly from the contemporary regions of Greater Poland (then the Prussian Partition of Poland) or Pomerania. Poles and Jews were among the most prominent active minorities. Simultaneously, the city's territorial expansion and incorporation of surrounding townships further strengthened population growth. Following the end of the Second World War and post-1945 expulsions of the pre-war population, Wrocław became predominantly Polish-speaking. New incomers were primarily resettled from areas in the east which Poland lost (Vilnius and Lviv), or from other provinces, notably the regions of Greater Poland, Lublin, Białystok and Rzeszów. At the end of 1947, the city's population was estimated at 225,000 individuals, most of whom were migrants. German nationals who stayed were either resettled in the late 1940s and 1950s, or assimilated. Contemporary Wrocław has one of the highest concentration of foreigners in Poland alongside Warsaw and Poznań; a significant majority are migrant workers from Ukraine; others came from Italy, Spain, South Korea, India, Russia and Turkey. No exact statistic exists on the number of temporary residents from abroad. Many are students studying at Wrocław's schools and institutions of higher learning. Historical population| Year | Pop. | ±% | | --- | --- | --- | | 1950 | 308,925 | —     | | 1960 | 430,522 | +39.4% | | 1970 | 526,000 | +22.2% | | 1980 | 617,687 | +17.4% | | 1990 | 643,218 | +4.1% | | 2000 | 640,614 | −0.4% | | 2010 | 632,996 | −1.2% | | 2020 | 641,928 | +1.4% | | source | ### Religion Wrocław's population is predominantly Roman Catholic, like the rest of Poland. The diocese was founded in the city as early as 1000, it was one of the first dioceses in the country at that time. Now the city is the seat of a Catholic Archdiocese. Prior to World War II, Breslau was mostly inhabited by Protestants, followed by a large Roman Catholic and a significant Jewish minority. In 1939, of 620,976 inhabitants 368,464 were Protestants (United Protestants; mostly Lutherans and minority Reformed; in the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union), 193,805 Catholics, 2,135 other Christians and 10,659 Jews. Wrocław had the third largest Jewish population of all cities in Germany before the war. Its White Stork Synagogue was completed in 1840, and rededicated in 2010. Four years later, in 2014, it celebrated its first ordination of four rabbis and three cantors since the Holocaust. The Polish authorities together with the German Foreign Minister attended the official ceremony. Post-war resettlements from Poland's ethnically and religiously more diverse former eastern territories (known in Polish as *Kresy*) and the eastern parts of post-1945 Poland (*see Operation Vistula*) account for a comparatively large portion of Greek Catholics and Orthodox Christians of mostly Ukrainian and Lemko descent. Wrocław is also unique for its "Dzielnica Czterech Świątyń" (Borough of Four Temples) — a part of Stare Miasto (Old Town) where a synagogue, a Lutheran church, a Roman Catholic church and an Eastern Orthodox church stand near each other. Other Christian denominations present in Wrocław include Adventists, Baptists, Free Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, Methodists and Pentecostals. There are also minor associations practicing and promoting Rodnovery neopaganism. In 2007, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wrocław established the Pastoral Centre for English Speakers, which offers Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, as well as other sacraments, fellowship, retreats, catechesis and pastoral care for all English-speaking Catholics and non-Catholics interested in the Catholic Church. The Pastoral Centre is under the care of Order of Friars Minor, Conventual (Franciscans) of the Kraków Province in the parish of St Charles Borromeo (Św Karol Boromeusz). Education --------- Wrocław is the third largest educational centre of Poland, with 135,000 students in 30 colleges which employ some 7,400 staff. List of ten public colleges and universities: * University of Wrocław (*Uniwersytet Wrocławski*): over 47,000 students, ranked fourth among public universities in Poland by the *Wprost* weekly ranking in 2007 * Wrocław University of Technology (*Politechnika Wrocławska*): over 40,000 students, the best university of technology in Poland by the *Wprost* weekly ranking in 2007 * Wrocław Medical University (*Uniwersytet Medyczny we Wrocławiu*) * University School of Physical Education in Wrocław * Wrocław University of Economics (*Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wrocławiu*) over 18,000 students, ranked fifth best among public economic universities in Poland by the *Wprost* weekly ranking in 2007 * Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (*Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy we Wrocławiu*): over 13,000 students, ranked third best among public agricultural universities in Poland by the *Wprost* weekly ranking in 2007 * Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (*Akademia Sztuk Pięknych we Wrocławiu*), * Karol Lipiński University of Music (*Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego we Wrocławiu*) * Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts, Wrocław Campus (*Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna w Krakowie filia we Wrocławiu*) * The Tadeusz Kościuszko Land Forces Military Academy (*Wyższa Szkoła Oficerska Wojsk Lądowych*) Private universities: * Wyższa Szkoła Bankowa (University of Business in Wrocław) * University of Social Sciences and Humanities (*SWPS Uniwersytet Humanistycznospołeczny*) * University of Law (Wyższa Szkoła Prawa) * Coventry University Wrocław (Branch campus of the Coventry University, UK) Other cultural institutions: * Alliance Française in Wrocław * Austrian Institute in Wrocław * British Council in Wrocław * Dante Alighieri Society in Wrocław * Grotowski Institute in Wrocław Culture and landmarks --------------------- ### Old Town Market Square and Old TownWrocław Old TownOperaWrocław Opera by nightJaś i MałgosiaTwo houses known as *Jaś i Małgosia* The Old Town of Wrocław is listed in the Registry of Objects of Cultural Heritage and is, since 1994, on Poland's prestigious list of National Monuments. Several architectural landmarks and edifices are one of the best examples of Brick Gothic and Baroque architecture in the country. Fine examples of Neoclassicism, Gründerzeit and Historicism are also scattered across the city's central precinct. The Wrocław Opera House, Monopol Hotel, University Library, Ossolineum, the National Museum and the castle-like District Court are among some of the grandest and most recognizable historic structures. There are several examples of Art Nouveau and Modernism in pre-war retail establishments such as the Barasch-Feniks, Petersdorff-Kameleon and Renoma department stores. The Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island) is the oldest section of the city; it was once an isolated islet between the branches of the Oder River. The Wrocław Cathedral, one of the tallest churches in Poland, was erected in the mid 10th century and later expanded over the next hundreds of years. The island is also home to five other Christian temples and churches, the Archbishop's Palace, the Archdiocese Museum, a 9.5-metre 18th-century monument dedicated to Saint John of Nepomuk, historic tenements and the steel Tumski Bridge from 1889. A notable attraction are 102 original gas lanterns which are manually lit each evening by a cloaked lamplighter. The early 13th-century Main Market Square (Rynek) is the oldest medieval public square in Poland, and also one of the largest. It features the ornate Gothic Old Town Hall, the oldest of its kind in the country. In the north-west corner of the square is St. Elisabeth's Church (Bazylika Św. Elżbiety) with its 91.5-metre-high tower and an observation deck at an altitude of 75 metres. Beneath the basilica are two small medieval houses connected by an arched gate that once led into a churchyard; these were reshaped into their current form in the 1700s. Today, the two connected buildings are known to the city's residents as "Jaś i Małgosia", named after the children's fairy tale characters from Hansel and Gretel. North of the church are so-called "shambles" (Polish: *jatki*), a former meat market with a Monument of Remembrance for Slaughtered Animals. The Salt Square (now a flower market) opened in 1242 is located at the south-western corner of the Market Square – close to the square, between Szewska and Łaciarska streets, is the domeless 13th-century St. Mary Magdalene Church, which during the Reformation (1523) was converted into Wrocław's first Protestant temple. The Cathedral of St. Vincent and St. James and the Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew's Collegiate Church are burial sites of Polish monarchs, Henry II the Pious and Henry IV Probus, respectively. The *Pan Tadeusz Museum*, open since May 2016, is located in the "House under the Golden Sun" at 6 Market Square. The manuscript of the national epos, *Pan Tadeusz*, is housed there as part of the Ossolineum National Institute, with multimedia and interactive educational opportunities. ### Tourism and places of interest The Tourist Information Centre (Polish: *Centrum Informacji Turystycznej*) is situated on the Main Market Square (Rynek) in building no 14. In 2011, Wrocław was visited by about 3 million tourists, and in 2016 about 5 million. Free wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) is available at a number of places around town. Wrocław is a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists. Noteworthy landmarks include the Multimedia Fountain, Szczytnicki Park with its Japanese Garden, miniature park and dinosaur park, the Botanical Garden founded in 1811, Poland's largest railway model *Kolejkowo*, Hydropolis Centre for Ecological Education, University of Wrocław with Mathematical Tower, Church of the Name of Jesus, Wrocław water tower, the Royal Palace, ropes course on the Opatowicka Island, White Stork Synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Cemetery of Italian Soldiers. An interesting way to explore the city is seeking out *Wrocław's dwarfs* – over 600 small bronze figurines can be found across the city, on pavements, walls and lampposts. They first appeared in 2005. The Racławice Panorama is a monumental cycloramic painting, done by Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak, depicting the Battle of Racławice during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. The 15×114 meter panorama was originally located in Lwów and following the end of World War II it was brought to Wrocław. Wrocław Zoo is home to the *Africarium* – the only space devoted solely to exhibiting the fauna of Africa with an oceanarium. It is the oldest zoological garden in Poland established in 1865. It is also the third-largest zoo in the world in terms of the number of animal species on display. Small passenger vessels on the Oder offer river tours, as do historic trams or the converted open-topped historic buses Jelcz 043. In 2021, the Odra Centrum has opened, an educational centre on the river which is offering workshops, a library and kayak rentals. The Centennial Hall (Hala Stulecia, German: *Jahrhunderthalle*), designed by Max Berg in 1911–1913, is a World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO in 2006. #### Entertainment The city is well known for its large number of nightclubs and pubs. Many are in or near the Market Square, and in the Niepolda passage, the railway wharf on the Bogusławskiego street. The basement of the old City Hall houses one of the oldest restaurants in Europe—Piwnica Świdnicka (operating since around 1273), while the basement of the new City Hall contains the brewpub *Spiż*. There are many other craft breweries in Wrocław: three brewpubs – Browar Stu Mostów, Browar Staromiejski Złoty Pies, Browar Rodzinny Prost; two microbrewery – Profesja and Warsztat Piwowarski; and seven contract breweries – Doctor Brew, Genius Loci, Solipiwko, Pol A Czech, Baba Jaga, wBrew and Wielka Wyspa. Every year on the second weekend of June the Festival of Good Beer takes place. It is the biggest beer festival in Poland. Each year in November and December the Christmas market is held at the Main Market Square. #### Museums The National Museum at Powstańców Warszawy Square, one of Poland's main branches of the National Museum system, holds one of the largest collections of contemporary art in the country. Ossolineum is a National Institute and Library incorporating the Lubomirski Museum (pl), partially salvaged from the formerly Polish city of Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine), containing items of international and national significance. It has a history of major World War II theft of collections after the invasion and takeover of Lwów by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Major museums also include the City Museum of Wrocław (pl), Museum of Bourgeois Art in the Old Town Hall, Museum of Architecture, Archaeological Museum (pl), Museum of Natural History at University of Wrocław, Museum of Contemporary Art in Wrocław, Archdiocese Museum (pl), Galeria Awangarda, the Arsenal, Museum of Pharmacy (pl), Post and Telecommunications Museum (pl), Geological Museum (pl), the Mineralogical Museum (pl), Ethnographic Museum (pl). ### In literature Witers from Wrocław, clockwise from upper left: Hauptmann, Mommsen, Tokarczuk and Krajewski The history of Wrocław is described in minute detail in the monograph *Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City* by Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse. A number of books have been written about Wrocław following World War II. Wrocław philologist and writer Marek Krajewski wrote a series of crime novels about detective Eberhard Mock, a fictional character from the city of Breslau. Accordingly, Michał Kaczmarek published *Wrocław according to Eberhard Mock – Guide based on the books by Marek Krajewski*. In 2011 appeared the 1104-page Lexicon of the architecture of Wrocław and in 2013 a 960-page Lexicon about the greenery of Wrocław. In March 2015 Wrocław filed an application to become a UNESCO City of Literature and received it in 2019. Wrocław was designated as the World Book Capital for 2016 by UNESCO. ### Films, music and theatre Wrocław is home to the Audiovisual Technology centre (formerly Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych), the Film Stuntman School, ATM Grupa, Grupa 13, and Tako Media. Film directors Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Sylwester Chęciński, among others, made their film debuts in Wrocław. Numerous movies shot around the city include *Ashes and Diamonds, The Saragossa Manuscript, Sami swoi, Lalka, A Lonely Woman, Character, Aimée & Jaguar, Avalon, A Woman in Berlin, Suicide Room, The Winner, 80 Million, Run Boy Run, Bridge of Spies and Breaking the Limits*. Numerous Polish TV-series were also shot in Wrocław, notably *Świat według Kiepskich*, *Pierwsza miłość*, *Belfer*, and *Four Tank-Men and a Dog*. There are several theatres and theatre groups, including Polish Theatre (Teatr Polski) with three stages, and Contemporary Theatre (Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny). The International Theatre Festival Dialog-Wrocław is held every two years. Wrocław's opera traditions are dating back to the first half of the seventeenth century and sustained by the Wrocław Opera, built between 1839 and 1841. Wrocław Philharmonic, established in 1954 by Wojciech Dzieduszycki is also important for music lovers. The National Forum of Music was opened in 2015 and is a famous landmark, designed by the Polish architectural firm, Kurylowicz & Associates. Sports ------ The area of Wrocław is home to many popular professional sports teams; the most popular sport is football (Śląsk Wrocław club – Polish Champion in 1977 and 2012), followed by basketball (Śląsk Wrocław Basketball Club – award-winning men's basketball team and 17-time Polish Champion). Matches of Group A UEFA Euro 2012's were held at Wrocław at the Municipal Stadium. Matches of EuroBasket 1963 and EuroBasket 2009, as well as 2009 Women's European Volleyball Championship, 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship and 2016 European Men's Handball Championship were also held in Wrocław. Wrocław was the host of the 2013 World Weightlifting Championships and will the host World Championship 2016 of Duplicate bridge and World Games 2017, a competition in 37 non-Olympic sport disciplines. The Olympic Stadium in Wrocław hosts the Speedway Grand Prix of Poland. It is also the home arena of the popular motorcycle speedway club WTS Sparta Wrocław, five-time Polish Champion. A marathon takes place in Wrocław every year in September. Wrocław also hosts the Wrocław Open, a professional tennis tournament that is part of the ATP Challenger Tour. ### Men's sports * Śląsk Wrocław: men's football team, Polish Championship in Football 1977, 2012; Polish Cup winner 1976, 1987; Polish SuperCup winner 1987, 2012; Polish League Cup winner 2009. Now in Ekstraklasa (Polish Premier League). * WTS Sparta Wrocław: motorcycle speedway team, five-time Polish Champion. * Śląsk Wrocław (previous names: BASCO Śląsk Wrocław, ASCO Śląsk Wrocław, Bergson Śląsk Wrocław, Era Śląsk Wrocław, Deichmann Śląsk Wrocław, Idea Śląsk Wrocław, Zepter Idea Śląsk Wrocław, Zepter Śląsk Wrocław, Śląsk ESKA Wrocław, PCS Śląsk Wrocław, WKS Śląsk Wrocław)—men's basketball team, 18 times Polish Champion, six times runner-up, 15 times third place; 12 times Polish Cup winner. * Śląsk Wrocław: men's handball team, 15-time Polish Champion. * Gwardia Wrocław: volleyball team, three-time Polish Champion. * KS Rugby Wrocław: rugby union team. * Panthers Wrocław: American football team. Panthers joined European League of Football (ELF) which is an eight-team professional league, the first league in Europe since the demise of NFL Europe. The Panthers will start playing games against teams from Germany and Spain in June 2021. ### Women's sports * WKS Śląsk Wrocław (formerly KŚ AZS Wrocław): women's football team. * AZS AWF Wrocław: women's handball team. * AZS AE Wrocław: women's table tennis team. * Ślęza Wrocław: women's basketball team. People ------ * Alois Alzheimer, psychiatrist and neuropathologist * Adolf Anderssen, chess master * Đorđe Andrejević-Kun, painter * Natalia Avelon, actress * Max Berg, architect * Max Bielschowsky, neuropathologist * Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident * Edmund Bojanowski, blessed of the Catholic Church * Max Born, theoretical physicist and mathematician, Nobel laureate * Leszek Czarnecki, businessman * Hermann von Eichhorn, Prussian field marshal * Artur Ekert, physicist * Hermann Fernau, lawyer * Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, biochemist and virologist * Władysław Frasyniuk, politician * Jolanta Fraszyńska, actress * Hans Freeman, biochemist * Henryk Gulbinowicz, archbishop * Jerzy Grotowski, theater director * Klaudia Jachira, politician and comedian * Zygmunt Haas, computer scientist * Fritz Haber, chemist and Nobel laureate * Jan Hartman, philosopher * Felix Hausdorff, mathematician * Mirosław Hermaszewski, astronaut * Hubert Hurkacz, tennis player * Lech Janerka, musician * Carl Gotthard Langhans, architect * Clara Immerwahr, chemist * Alfred Kerr, German-Jewish critic * Hedwig Kohn, notable female physicist * August Kopisch, poet * Arthur Korn, physicist, mathematician and inventor * Urszula Kozioł, poet * Heinrich Gerhard Kuhn, physicist * Marek Krajewski, writer and linguist * Wojciech Kurtyka, mountaineer * Aleksandra Kurzak, operatic soprano * Olaf Lubaszenko, actor and film director * Hugo Lubliner, dramatist * Mata, rapper * Aharon Mor, Polish-born Israeli civil servant * Mateusz Morawiecki, politician, Prime minister of Poland * Alexander Moszkowski, satirist, writer and philosopher * Moritz Moszkowski, composer, pianist, and teacher * Ruth Neudeck, German SS death camps supervisor and war criminal * Rafał Omelko, athlete * Margaret Pospiech, writer, filmmaker * Sepp Piontek, football manager * Piotr Ponikowski, cardiologist * Michael Oser Rabin, mathematician and computer scientist * Manfred von Richthofen, fighter pilot * Tadeusz Różewicz, poet and dramatist * Wanda Rutkiewicz, mountaineer * Auguste Schmidt, educationist and feminist * Marlene Schmidt, Miss Germany 1961, Miss Universe 1961 * Eva Siewert, journalist and lesbian activist * Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler), convert from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, mystic and religious poet * Max Simon, Waffen-SS officer * Karl Slotta, biochemist * Agnes Sorma, actress * Daniel Speer, author, composer * Eva Stachniak, writer * Edith Stein, philosopher and Roman Catholic martyr * Charles Proteus Steinmetz, electrical engineer * Fritz Stern, historian * Julius Stern, composer * William Stern, psychologist * August Tholuck, theologian * Olga Tokarczuk, writer, Nobel laureate in Literature * Jan Tomaszewski, footballer * Dagmara Wozniak (born 1988), Polish-American U.S. Olympic sabre fencer * Ludwig von Zanth (1796–1857), architect International relations ----------------------- ### Diplomatic missions There are 3 general consulates in Wrocław – Germany, Hungary and Ukraine, and 23 honorary consulates – Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Estonia, France, Finland, Spain, India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, Italy. ### Twin towns – sister cities Wrocław is twinned with: * Georgia (country) Batumi, Georgia (2019) * Netherlands Breda, Netherlands (1991) * United States Charlotte, United States (1991) * Germany Dresden, Germany (1991) * Mexico Guadalajara, Mexico (1995) * Czech Republic Hradec Králové, Czech Republic (2003) * Lithuania Kaunas, Lithuania (2003) * France Lille, France (2013) * Ukraine Lviv, Ukraine (2002) * United Kingdom Oxford, United Kingdom (2018) * Israel Ramat Gan, Israel (1997) * Iceland Reykjavík, Iceland (2017) * France Vienne, France (1990) * Germany Wiesbaden, Germany (1987) See also -------- * 14th High School in Wrocław * 2003 Wrocław football riot * Jan (bishop of Wrocław) * Province of Silesia (historic, 1815–1919) * Wrocław Global Forum * Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City * Breslau, Ontario – former village (settled 1806, postal village 1857) and now community named after Wroclaw

Wrocław

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wroc%C5%82aw

**Iron Man** is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in *Tales of Suspense* #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in *Iron Man* #1 (May 1968). In 1963, the character founded the Avengers superhero team with Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk. A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, **Anthony Edward** "**Tony**" **Stark** suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man. Initially, Stan Lee used Iron Man to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have shifted to contemporary matters. Iron Man has headlined various comic book series. Throughout most of the character's publication history, he has been a founding member of the Avengers. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated television shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the films *Iron Man* (2008), *The Incredible Hulk* (2008), *Iron Man 2* (2010), *The Avengers* (2012), *Iron Man 3* (2013), *Avengers: Age of Ultron* (2015), *Captain America: Civil War* (2016), *Spider-Man: Homecoming* (2017), *Avengers: Infinity War* (2018), and *Avengers: Endgame* (2019); while Mick Wingert voiced the character in the animated series *What If...?* (2021). Publication history ------------------- ### Premiere Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in *Tales of Suspense* #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said: > I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War. The readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military ... So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer, he was providing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist ... I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him ... And he became very popular. > > He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said. While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in *Tales of Suspense,* which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish." In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties. From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in *Tales of Suspense* were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later. Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man." Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in *The Avengers* #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series. Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film *The Invincible Iron Man*, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit. #### Themes The original *Iron Man* title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where *The Fantastic Four* and *The Incredible Hulk* respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, *Iron Man* explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame. Historian Robert Genter, in *The Journal of Popular Culture*, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous *individuals* (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of *corporations*. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations. Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early *Iron Man* stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity." ### Solo series After issue #99 (March 1968), the *Tales of Suspense* series was renamed *Captain America*. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic *Iron Man and Sub-Mariner* (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with *Iron Man* #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title *Iron Man,* while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is *The Invincible Iron Man.* This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, *Iron Man* vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply *Iron Man* beginning with issue #13, and *Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a *War Machine* ongoing series. *The Invincible Iron Man* by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This *Invincible* volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. After the conclusion of *The Invincible Iron Man* a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012. Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as *Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man* (February 1996), *Iron Man: The Iron Age* #1–2 (August – September 1998), *Iron Man: Bad Blood* #1–4 (September – December 2000), *Iron Man House of M* #1–3 (September – November 2005), *Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan* #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), *Iron Man: The Inevitable* #1–6 (February – July 2006), *Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War* (February 2007), *Iron Man: Hypervelocity* #1–6 (March – August 2007), *Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin* #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and *Iron Man: Legacy of Doom* (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot *Iron Man 2020* (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations *Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man* #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and *Marvel Adventures Iron Man* #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008). Fictional character biography ----------------------------- *Tales of Suspense* #39 (March 1963): Iron Man debuts. Cover art by Jack Kirby and Don Heck.*Tales of Suspense* #48 (December 1963), the debut of Iron Man's first red-and-gold suit of armor. Cover art by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky. ### Origins **Anthony Edward Stark** is the son of Howard Stark, a wealthy industrialist who leads Stark Industries, and Maria Stark. A boy genius,he entered MIT at 15 to study engineering and later received master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company. Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes. Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right. The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ. ### 1970s and early 1980s Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as *Doomquest.* Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles. ### Late 1980s and 1990s In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor. Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II". After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career. The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months. Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day. During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers. ### 2000s At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors. During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in *Iron Man* vol. 3 #87. In *Iron Man* vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an *employee* of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used. In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism. *New Avengers: Illuminati* #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information. #### "Civil War" In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory. #### "Secret Invasion" To tie into the 2008 *Iron Man* feature film, Marvel launched a new *Iron Man* ongoing series, *The Invincible Iron Man*, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane. In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion. Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn. #### "Dark Reign" With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions. ### 2010s #### "Siege" In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood. #### "Heroic Age" In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car. #### "Fear Itself" In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage. #### Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW! In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series. In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what is in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth. #### Superior Iron Man Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of *AXIS*, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others. After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him. #### Time Runs Out During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier. #### All-New, All-Different Marvel After the events of the *Secret Wars* crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man. After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords. Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her. Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas. During the *Civil War II* storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the *future*, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence. Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually **Amanda Armstrong**, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named **Jude**. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark. #### Marvel NOW! 2016 In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled *Infamous Iron Man* debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years. #### Existing as an AI Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of *Civil War II*, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In *Invincible Iron Man* #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In *The Mighty Captain Marvel* #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory. #### Marvel Legacy Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity.[*volume & issue needed*] It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive. During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym". Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the *Civil War II* storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle. Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors. Tony Stark was restored to normal thanks to his allies. Then he placed Arno into a virtual reality when he found that Arno's illness was returning as the virtual reality showed Arno leading the charge in defeating the Extinction Entity. Powers, abilities, and equipment -------------------------------- ### Armor Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). It's also constantly improved upon and Stark develops many specialized versions of the armor. Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams. The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys). In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors. The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system. The Extremis has since been removed,[*volume & issue needed*] and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark. Post-*Secret Wars*, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons. ### Powers After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will. During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors. After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The *Bleeding Edge* package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech. ### Skills Considered to be one of the most powerful non powered humans on the planet, Tony Stark is a highly intelligent inventor and scientist as well as being a successfully wealthy businessman in charge of his own company. An inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane. As the CEO of Stark Industries, Stark is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses. Considered to be one of the wealthiest men on the planet, the success of Stark Industries provides Tony with a seemingly bottomless revenue stream that allows him to not only enjoy a life of luxury further build up his company but also allows him to fund his superhero activities. Even before becoming Superhero, Tony often purchased the most expensive clothes, cars, houses and other luxury items money can buy. After becoming a hero, Tony began using his vast wealth to continue superhero activities by building his Iron Man suit and later creating an arsenal of other suits that serve multiple purposes. Stark also provides funding to several peacekeeping organizations and superhero teams among them being S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers. Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space. Supporting characters --------------------- Cultural impact and legacy -------------------------- ### Critical response Scott Harris of *MTV* ranked Iron Man 1st in their " Top 10 Avengers of 2012" list. Matthew Perpetua of *BuzzFeed* ranked Iron Man 2nd in their "84 Avengers Members Ranked From Worst To Best" list, writing, "It just isn't the Avengers without Tony Stark. He's an essential part of the team dynamic along with Captain America and Thor, but he brings a complexity and moral ambiguity to the franchise that drives many of the all-time best Avengers stories. He's a wish-fulfillment character in that he's an ultra-rich genius playboy, but it's his flaws — his troubles with alcohol, his arrogance, his willingness to make unilateral decisions — that make him so interesting and relatable." *IGN* ranked Iron Man 3rd in their list of "Top 50 Avengers" list, and 12th in their "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" list. George Marston of *Newsarama* ranked Iron Man 3rd in their "Best Avengers members of all time" list, asserting, "Iron Man may have a legacy all his own in the Marvel Universe, but his legacy alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes is almost as definitive." *The A.V. Club* ranked Iron Man 4th in their "100 Best Marvel Characters" list. Sage Ashford of *Comic Book Resources* ranked Iron Man 3rd in their "15 Avengers Leaders, Ranked From Worst To Best" list, while David Harth ranked him 5th in their "10 Most Popular Marvel Characters" list, and 6th in their "10 Most Influential Marvel Heroes" list. Rob Bricken of *Gizmodo* ranked Iron Man 5th in their "Every Member Of The Avengers, Ranked" list. Jordan St. James of *Collider* ranked Iron Man 5th in their "10 Smartest Marvel Universe Geniuses" list. Darren Franich of *Entertainment Weekly* ranked Iron Man 6th in their "50 Most Powerful Superheroes" list, and 10th in their "Let's rank every Avenger ever" list. Lance Cartelli of *GameSpot* ranked Iron Man 9th in their "50 Most Important Superheroes" list, saying, "egardless of his showy persona, it isn't his stash of gold coins that matter, it's his heart of gold." *ComicBook.com* ranked Iron Man 9th in their "50 Most Important Superheroes Ever" list. Eric Diaz of *Nerdist* ranked Iron Man 9th in their "Top 10 Marvel Comics Rogues Galleries" list. Jack Doyle of *The Mary Sue* ranked Iron Man 10th in their "The Best and the Brightest of All the Superheroes" list. Fred Blunden of *Screen Rant* ranked Iron Man 12th in their "20 Most Powerful Members Of The Avengers" list. *Empire* ranked Iron Man 17th in their "50 greatest comic-book characters" list, stating, "Iron Man has proved as durable as his rust-proof armour over the years. This is partly because he's a very adaptable character – not just in terms of power levels – and partly because, let's face it, he looks damned cool. But it's the man inside the suit who has arguably been more fascinating." ### Impact > > Basically I'm here to announce that we are building Iron Man. > > > — The 44th President of the United States Barack Obama made a surprise announcement at a press conference at the White House, when he revealed details of the creation of "Manufacturing Innovation Institutes" in Chicago and Detroit. * The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album *Ironman*, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the *Iron Man* film. * Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song. * The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By". * The character of Nathan Stark on the television show *Eureka* is inspired by Tony Stark. * Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane. * In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark. * For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit. * A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019. * Ice hockey players Anže Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and Yanni Gourde of the Seattle Kraken participated in a ceremonial puck drop featuring Iron Man and a boy from the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, as part of 'Marvel Super Hero Night'. * In 2019, a statue representing the character in his Iron Man armor was erected in Forte dei Marmi, Italy. Other versions -------------- ### 1602 *1602: New World* features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named **Lord Iron**. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered [*volume & issue needed*] With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.[*volume & issue needed*] ### 2020 Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed. ### 2093 Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur. Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of *Iron Man: Armored Adventures* with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing an AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.[*volume & issue needed*] ### 3030 The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger. ### *Adam Warlock* In *Adam Warlock* #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".[*volume & issue needed*] ### Age of Apocalypse In the alternate timeline of the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Age of X Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him. ### Avataars In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Bullet Points In *Bullet Points*, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Contest of Champions The 2015 *Contest of Champions* series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it does not work because he is in a different dimension, and he is killed by Maestro. ### *Earth X* In the alternative reality of *Earth X*, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In *Paradise X*, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Earth-691 In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems. ### Earth-818 On Earth-818 which was conquered by Multiversal Masters of Evil member Black Skull, Tony Stark was forced by Black Skull to build the War Machines to build his army. He would later escape from Black Skull's clutches and become Ant-Man where he formed a resistance that involved Vision, Moon Knight (Mariama Spector), Wonder Man, and Infinity Thing. Ant-Man later led the resistance in rescuing Robbie Reyes from Black Skull while being assisted by a robotic ant named Shellhead. With help from the granddaughters of King Thor, Robbie, his Deathlok companion, and the resistance defeated Black Skull and his counterparts as Vision and Moon Knight get sucked into a portal. Afterwards, Ant-Man showed the granddaughters of King Thor the Mjolnir he found. After the granddaughters of King Thor bring rain to Earth-818, Ant-Man joins Robbie and his Deathlok companion on their quest while Wonder Man and Infinity Thing work to rebuild Earth-818. Arriving in an unnamed reality, Ant-Man of Earth-818, Ghost Rider, and his Deathlok companion follow the signal of that reality's T'Challa to an active star. After Ghost Rider drives his car through the active star to retrieve a vibranium cocoon, T'Challa emerges from it and takes the name Star Panther. Looking for other allies, Ant-Man, Ghost Rider, and his Deathlok companion enlist Captain Ape-Merica from Earth-8101, the Captain America from Earth-71912, Cap-Wolf from Earth-666, Yeoman America from Earth-398, and a U.S. Agent variant of Steve Rogers to train the powerless Steve Rogers variants and a Weapon America version of Steve Rogers in a prison-like training ground. They next plan to recruit a Steve Rogers from Earth-4479 who was a drifter that got caught in a gamma bomb explosion. Ant-Man accompanies Ghost Rider on a trip to Earth-56377 where they pick up its Thor who wields the Iron Fist move and the Mjolnir that has followed him ever since Thor had been unworthy to lift it. Traveling with Ghost Rider and his Deathlok companion, Ant-Man recalls with them on how they found Star Panther, the Thor who became the "God of Fists", the all Steve Rogers army that was dubbed the Howling Commandos, and the Carol Corps. Ant-Man is surprised that the last pillar that they have to complete is Iron Man and that they need an Iron Man in their group. They go to unnamed alternate realities where they find an alcoholic Iron Man who crashed trying to avoid them, a Tony Stark that mostly did his work in a junkyard who is already dead because people thought he was a witch, a Tony Stark in Godkiller armor who is not interested in protecting the Earth as it consumes a planet, 30 Tony Starks who use their armors as robot bartenders, two dozen Tony Starks who flew into the sun either on purpose or by accident, 50 Tony Starks who are in catatonic states, and others who went mad. After a visit to a Tony Stark who is a perfectionist trying to build the perfect armor even though his captors have been dead for 10 years, the next visit was to an elderly Tony Stark who ran a repair shop until he was too old and died in Ant-Man's company. Ant-Man then threw some alcohol into the Hell Charger's trunk and returned to the perfectionist Tony Stark's reality and introduces him to the Godkiller Tony Stark and the other Tony Stark variants they successfully recruited as they all say hi to the perfectionist Tony Stark. Following a mission where Ant-Man, Ghost Rider, and Deathlok have helped Captain Fury against the Goblin Corps, the three of them are informed that their time is up and to head to Avenger Tower at Infinity's End. Ant-Man of Earth-818 is looking forward to meeting Avenger Prime. After Ghost Rider gets word that another Spirit of Vengeance has fallen, he subdues Ant-Man and Deathlok in chains and takes off. By the time they catch up with Ghost Rider on an unidentified world, he was already engaging Doom Supreme as Ant-Man shrinks him. When Dark Phoenix goes on the attack, Deathlok tells Ant-Man to get Ghost Rider away as he buys them some time. Ant-Man and Robbie Reyes arrive at Avengers Tower in the Quarry of Creation where they find it under attack by the members of the Council of Red. As the Hell Charger drives into some of them, Ant-Man learns from Robbie that he can not transform into Ghost Rider. When the Council of Red continues the attack on Avengers Tower, Ant-Man notes that he hasn't seen the inside of this Avengers Tower before as he is reunited with Moon Knight and Vision. After telling them about Robbie's fight with Doom Supreme and the Multiversal Masters of Evil, Ant-Man makes use of the ants in Avengers Tower's ant farm and shrinks himself, Vision, and Moon Knight down to small size. While underground, they find that some of the Council of Red members are digging a tunnel of their own toward the First Firmament. As they fight the Council of Red members present, one member tries to get Ant-Man intoxicated only to be defeated by Moon Knight. Just then, Ant-Man, Vision, and Moon Knight are saved upon the arrival of Old Man Phoenix and the granddaughters of King Thor. Ant-Man informs all friendly allies to stay clear of the attacks done by Old Man Phoenix and the granddaughters of King Thor. When the surviving members of the Council of Red are repelled, Doom Supreme shows up with Doom the Living Planet and the Doctor Doom variants loyal to him. Ant-Man and the Multiversal Avengers fight them as he is among those who witness the arrival of Avengers Prime whose identity is revealed to be a variation of Loki. Avenger Prime's origin was revealed as Ant-Man was still surprised at the identity while the granddaughters of King Thor asks how they can trust him. When more Doctor Doom variants show up, Ant-Man is among those who witness Avenger Prime summon more Avengers to help them. As the Multiversal Avengers fight the Doctor Doom variants with help from the Earth-616 Avengers, Ant-Man fights alongside Iron Man of Earth-616. Ant-Man is contacted by Thor of Earth-56377 informing him of one more Mephisto as he claims that they are going to need more Avengers. He then sees a Celestial-sized Mephisto as it takes down the Carol Corps' Omni-Carrier. Ant-Man proceeds to inform Avenger Prime of what happened. Ant-Man later witnesses Mephisto take in a sample of an ancient Multiverse's power as he proceeds to end the Multiverse. Ant-Man was with Iron Man when he witnesses a sample of the ancient Multiverse's power turn Doom Supreme to stone. Then he proceeds to shrink him. Sometime after Ghost Rider's sacrifice, Ant-Man is still part of the Multiversal Avengers where he and his fellow Earth-818 inhabitants Moon Knight, Vision, Wonder Man, and Infinity Thing as well as Star Panther and Thor of Earth-56377. Ant-Man states that Firehair and Star Brand went through a whole lot of trouble to reset the worlds. ### Earth-2122 In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people. ### Earth-3490 In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married. ### *Exiles* Different versions of Iron Man appear in the pages of *Exiles*: * In one reality, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war. * In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm. * In one alternative reality, he is partners with both Mister Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit. * On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks. * The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are. ### *Fantastic Four: The End* In the miniseries *Fantastic Four: The End*, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.[*volume & issue needed*] ### House of M Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit. ### Infinity Warps During the *Infinity Wars* storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating **Iron Hammer**. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, led by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela) and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again. However, Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human. ### Inter-company crossovers In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery. In the miniseries *JLA/Avengers*, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring. ### Iron Man: The End In the one-shot *Iron Man: The End*, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump". Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Iron Maniac **Iron Maniac** is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in *Marvel Team-Up* vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.[*volume & issue needed*] After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he cannot trust that they will not turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).[*volume & issue needed*] While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'. Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck. The name **Iron Maniac** is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".[*volume & issue needed*] Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.[*volume & issue needed*] He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in *The Irredeemable Ant-Man*. ### Iron Man Noir In *Iron Man Noir*, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in *Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure*. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis. While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armor built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA. ### Mangaverse In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.[*volume & issue needed*] He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old-fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk, and finally "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Marvel Adventures The *Marvel Adventures* Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by A.I.M. A.I.M. wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from A.I.M. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Marvel Apes The version of Iron Man appearing in the *Marvel Apes* mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel. ### Marvel Zombies There are different versions of Iron Man in the *Marvel Zombies* series: #### The first series In the *Marvel Zombies* universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".[*volume & issue needed*] #### Marvel Zombies 2 He also appears in *Marvel Zombies 2*, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.[*volume & issue needed*] #### Marvel Zombies Return In the final issue of *Marvel Zombies 2*, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat. ### MC2 In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Mini Marvels Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.[*volume & issue needed*] ### Mutant X In *Mutant X*, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.[*volume & issue needed*] ### *Newuniversal* In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.[*volume & issue needed*] Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.[*volume & issue needed*] On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans. The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans. ### *Realm of Kings* In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion. ### *Ruins* In the two issue Warren Ellis series *Ruins*, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed. ### Secret Wars (2015) During the "Secret Wars" storyline, there are different versions of Iron Man that exist in the different Battleworld domains: * In the Battleworld domain of Technopolis, Tony Stark is the Baron of Technopolis where everybody wears high-tech armor to protect themselves from an airborne virus. Tony is shown to be in competition with his brother Arno. It turns out that Howard Stark created the airborne virus that caused everybody to wear high-tech armors. Both brothers were defeated by Lila Rhodes and were arrested by the Thor Corps. * In the Battleworld domain of Spider-Island, Iron Man is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the **Iron Goblin** to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of Man-Spiders (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over. * The *Secret Wars* War Zone tie-in *1872* reimagines Tony in the Wild West and living in the Battleworld domain called the Valley of Doom. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention. * The Iron Man of the Battleworld domain of 2099 is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities. ### *Spider-Verse* In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event *Spider-Verse*, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reilly) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix. ### *Spider-Gwen* In *Spider-Gwen* Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks. ### *Spider-Man: Life Story* In *Spider-Man: Life Story*, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. By the 1990s, Stark is also looking to acquire Parker Industries, with Peter refusing. Iron Man later became Secretary of Defense in the United States government, and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War. ### Squadron Supreme In the *Squadron Supreme* series, the equivalent of Iron Man is **Tucker Ford**.[*original research?*] Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted. As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.[*volume & issue needed*] As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armor made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.[*volume & issue needed*] He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.[*volume & issue needed*] He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her. ### Ultimate Marvel ### What If #### Newer Fantastic Four In the timeline of *What if: Newer Fantastic Four*, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused. #### Iron Man: Demon in an Armor In *What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor*, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armors- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armor while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.[*volume & issue needed*] ### *X-Men Forever* In this alternative universe of *X-Men Forever*, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.[*volume & issue needed*] In other media -------------- In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in *Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends*, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the *Marvel Action Hour* with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of *Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.* Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's *"Vs."* video games, including *Marvel Super Heroes*, *Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes*, *Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds*, and *Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3*. Iron Man is a playable character in the 1992 arcade game *Captain America and the Avengers*, *Marvel: Ultimate Alliance* and its sequel, and *Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects*, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in *X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse* and *Tony Hawk's Underground*. Iron man was also featured in an independent video game based upon the first movie called *Iron Man* that was playable on the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Wii, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. He is also seen in *Iron Man VR* made for the PlayStation 4, and is featured in the 2020 Marvel's Avengers (video game) that is payable on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X and Series S. Set for the end of 2023, there will also be a new single-player Iron Man game released. In the 2009 animated series, *Iron Man: Armored Adventures*, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac, a terrorist organization that is aligned with A.I.M in order to produce several mechanic suits embodying astrological star signs. In 2008, a film adaptation titled *Iron Man* was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. *Iron Man* was met with positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films, later becoming known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film *The Incredible Hulk*. Downey reprised his role in *Iron Man 2* (2010), *Marvel's The Avengers* (2012), *Iron Man 3* (2013), *Avengers: Age of Ultron* (2015), *Captain America: Civil War* (2016), *Spider-Man: Homecoming* (2017), *Avengers: Infinity War* (2018), and *Avengers: Endgame* (2019). In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called *Iron Man*. After that they created two more games, *Iron Man 2* and *Iron Man 3*. In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called *Iron Man: The Gauntlet*. See also -------- * List of Iron Man enemies * Jetpack man Further reading --------------- * Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in *Ages of Iron Man*, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015. ISBN 978-0-7864-7842-2 * Tom DeFalco, *Avengers: The Ultimate Guide*, Dorling Kindersley, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7566-1461-4 * Mark D. White (ed.), *Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality*, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. ISBN 978-0-4704-8218-6

Iron Man

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man

The **Industrial Revolution** (also known as the **First Industrial Revolution**) was a period of global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes that succeeded the Agricultural Revolution, starting from Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and a result was an unprecedented rise in population and in the rate of population growth. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods, and textiles became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested. On a structural level the Industrial Revolution asked society the so-called social question, demanding new ideas for managing large groups of individuals. Growing poverty on one hand and growing population and materialistic wealth on the other caused tensions between the very rich and the poorest people within society. These tensions were sometimes violently released and led to philosophical ideas such as socialism, communism and anarchism. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological and architectural innovations were of British origin. By the mid-18th century, Britain was the world's leading commercial nation, controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean. Britain had major military and political hegemony on the Indian subcontinent; particularly with the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal, through the activities of the East India Company. The development of trade and the rise of business were among the major causes of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history. Comparable only to humanity's adoption of agriculture with respect to material advancement, the Industrial Revolution influenced in some way almost every aspect of daily life. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists have said the most important effect of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population in the Western world began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to improve meaningfully until the late 19th and 20th centuries. GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy, while the Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist economies. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals and plants. The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. Eric Hobsbawm held that the Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s or 1840s, while T. S. Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830. Rapid industrialisation first began in Britain, starting with mechanized textiles spinning in the 1780s, with high rates of growth in steam power and iron production occurring after 1800. Mechanized textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe and the United States in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging in Belgium and the United States and later textiles in France. An economic recession occurred from the late 1830s to the early 1840s when the adoption of the Industrial Revolution's early innovations, such as mechanized spinning and weaving, slowed and their markets matured. Innovations developed late in the period, such as the increasing adoption of locomotives, steamboats and steamships, and hot blast iron smelting. New technologies such as the electrical telegraph, widely introduced in the 1840s and 1850s, were not powerful enough to drive high rates of growth. Rapid economic growth began to occur after 1870, springing from a new group of innovations in what has been called the Second Industrial Revolution. These innovations included new steel-making processes, mass production, assembly lines, electrical grid systems, the large-scale manufacture of machine tools, and the use of increasingly advanced machinery in steam-powered factories. Etymology --------- The earliest recorded use of the term "Industrial Revolution" was in July 1799 by French envoy Louis-Guillaume Otto, announcing that France had entered the race to industrialise. In his 1976 book *Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society*, Raymond Williams states in the entry for "Industry": "The idea of a new social order based on major industrial change was clear in Southey and Owen, between 1811 and 1818, and was implicit as early as Blake in the early 1790s and Wordsworth at the turn of the [19th] century." The term *Industrial Revolution* applied to technological change was becoming more common by the late 1830s, as in Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui's description in 1837 of *la révolution industrielle*. Friedrich Engels in *The Condition of the Working Class in England* in 1844 spoke of "an industrial revolution, a revolution which at the same time changed the whole of civil society". Although Engels wrote his book in the 1840s, it was not translated into English until the late 19th century, and his expression did not enter everyday language until then. Credit for popularising the term may be given to Arnold Toynbee, whose 1881 lectures gave a detailed account of the term. Economic historians and authors such as Mendels, Pomeranz, and Kridte argue that proto-industrialization in parts of Europe, the Muslim world, Mughal India, and China created the social and economic conditions that led to the Industrial Revolution, thus causing the Great Divergence. Some historians, such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts, have argued that the economic and social changes occurred gradually and that the term *revolution* is a misnomer. This is still a subject of debate among some historians. Requirements ------------ Six factors facilitated industrialization: high levels of agricultural productivity (see British Agricultural Revolution) to provide excess manpower and food; a pool of managerial and entrepreneurial skills; available ports, rivers, canals, and roads to cheaply move raw materials and outputs; natural resources such as coal, iron, and waterfalls; political stability and a legal system that supported business; and financial capital available to invest. Once industrialization began in Great Britain, new factors can be added: the eagerness of British entrepreneurs to export industrial expertise and the willingness to import the process. Britain met the criteria and industrialized starting in the 18th century, and then it exported the process to western Europe (especially Belgium, France, and the German states) in the early 19th century. The United States copied the British model in the early 19th century, and Japan copied the Western European models in the late 19th century. Important technological developments ------------------------------------ The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s, the following gains had been made in important technologies: * **Textiles** – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a worker by a factor of around 500. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40. The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50. Large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton. * **Steam power** – the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel. The adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses. The high-pressure engine had a high power-to-weight ratio, making it suitable for transportation. Steam power underwent a rapid expansion after 1800. * **Iron making** – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost of pig iron and wrought iron production. Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale. The steam engine began being used to power blast air (indirectly by pumping water to a water wheel) in the 1750s, enabling a large increase in iron production by overcoming the limitation of water power. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher blast furnace temperatures. The puddling process produced a structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge. The rolling mill was fifteen times faster than hammering wrought iron. Developed in 1828, hot blast greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production in the following decades. * **Invention of machine tools** – the first machine tools were invented included the screw-cutting lathe, the cylinder boring machine, and the milling machine. Machine tools made the economical manufacture of precision metal parts possible, although it took several decades to develop effective techniques. ### Textile manufacture #### British textile industry statistics In 1750 Britain imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton, most of which was spun and woven by the cottage industry in Lancashire. The work was done by hand in workers' homes or occasionally in master weavers' shops. Wages in Lancashire were about six times those in India in 1770 when overall productivity in Britain was about three times higher than in India. In 1787 raw cotton consumption was 22 million pounds, most of which was cleaned, carded, and spun on machines. The British textile industry used 52 million pounds of cotton in 1800, which increased to 588 million pounds in 1850. The share of value added by the cotton textile industry in Britain was 2.6% in 1760, 17% in 1801, and 22.4% in 1831. Value added by the British woollen industry was 14.1% in 1801. Cotton factories in Britain numbered approximately 900 in 1797. In 1760 approximately one-third of cotton cloth manufactured in Britain was exported, rising to two-thirds by 1800. In 1781 cotton spun amounted to 5.1 million pounds, which increased to 56 million pounds by 1800. In 1800 less than 0.1% of world cotton cloth was produced on machinery invented in Britain. In 1788 there were 50,000 spindles in Britain, rising to 7 million over the next 30 years. #### Wool The earliest European attempts at mechanized spinning were with wool; however, wool spinning proved more difficult to mechanize than cotton. Productivity improvement in wool spinning during the Industrial Revolution was significant but far less than that of cotton. #### Silk Arguably the first highly mechanised factory was John Lombe's water-powered silk mill at Derby, operational by 1721. Lombe learned silk thread manufacturing by taking a job in Italy and acting as an industrial spy; however, because the Italian silk industry guarded its secrets closely, the state of the industry at that time is unknown. Although Lombe's factory was technically successful, the supply of raw silk from Italy was cut off to eliminate competition. In order to promote manufacturing, the Crown paid for models of Lombe's machinery which were exhibited in the Tower of London. #### Cotton Parts of India, China, Central America, South America, and the Middle East have a long history of hand manufacturing cotton textiles, which became a major industry sometime after 1000 AD. In tropical and subtropical regions where it was grown, most was grown by small farmers alongside their food crops and was spun and woven in households, largely for domestic consumption. In the 15th century, China began to require households to pay part of their taxes in cotton cloth. By the 17th century, almost all Chinese wore cotton clothing. Almost everywhere cotton cloth could be used as a medium of exchange. In India, a significant amount of cotton textiles were manufactured for distant markets, often produced by professional weavers. Some merchants also owned small weaving workshops. India produced a variety of cotton cloth, some of exceptionally fine quality. Cotton was a difficult raw material for Europe to obtain before it was grown on colonial plantations in the Americas. The early Spanish explorers found Native Americans growing unknown species of excellent quality cotton: sea island cotton (*Gossypium barbadense*) and upland green seeded cotton *Gossypium hirsutum*. Sea island cotton grew in tropical areas and on barrier islands of Georgia and South Carolina but did poorly inland. Sea island cotton began being exported from Barbados in the 1650s. Upland green seeded cotton grew well on inland areas of the southern U.S. but was not economical because of the difficulty of removing seed, a problem solved by the cotton gin. A strain of cotton seed brought from Mexico to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1806 became the parent genetic material for over 90% of world cotton production today; it produced bolls that were three to four times faster to pick. #### Trade and textiles The Age of Discovery was followed by a period of colonialism beginning around the 16th century. Following the discovery of a trade route to India around southern Africa by the Portuguese, the British founded the East India Company, along with smaller companies of different nationalities which established trading posts and employed agents to engage in trade throughout the Indian Ocean region. One of the largest segments of this trade was in cotton textiles, which were purchased in India and sold in Southeast Asia, including the Indonesian archipelago where spices were purchased for sale to Southeast Asia and Europe. By the mid-1760s cloth was over three-quarters of the East India Company's exports. Indian textiles were in demand in the North Atlantic region of Europe where previously only wool and linen were available; however, the number of cotton goods consumed in Western Europe was minor until the early 19th century. #### Pre-mechanized European textile production By 1600 Flemish refugees began weaving cotton cloth in English towns where cottage spinning and weaving of wool and linen was well established. They were left alone by the guilds who did not consider cotton a threat. Earlier European attempts at cotton spinning and weaving were in 12th-century Italy and 15th-century southern Germany, but these industries eventually ended when the supply of cotton was cut off. The Moors in Spain grew, spun, and wove cotton beginning around the 10th century. British cloth could not compete with Indian cloth because India's labour cost was approximately one-fifth to one-sixth that of Britain's. In 1700 and 1721 the British government passed Calico Acts to protect the domestic woollen and linen industries from the increasing amounts of cotton fabric imported from India. The demand for heavier fabric was met by a domestic industry based around Lancashire that produced fustian, a cloth with flax warp and cotton weft. Flax was used for the warp because wheel-spun cotton did not have sufficient strength, but the resulting blend was not as soft as 100% cotton and was more difficult to sew. On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, spinning and weaving were done in households, for domestic consumption, and as a cottage industry under the putting-out system. Occasionally the work was done in the workshop of a master weaver. Under the putting-out system, home-based workers produced under contract to merchant sellers, who often supplied the raw materials. In the off-season the women, typically farmers' wives, did the spinning and the men did the weaving. Using the spinning wheel, it took anywhere from four to eight spinners to supply one handloom weaver. #### Invention of textile machinery The flying shuttle, patented in 1733 by John Kay—with a number of subsequent improvements including an important one in 1747—doubled the output of a weaver, worsening the imbalance between spinning and weaving. It became widely used around Lancashire after 1760 when John's son, Robert, invented the dropbox, which facilitated changing thread colors. Lewis Paul patented the roller spinning frame and the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing wool to a more even thickness. The technology was developed with the help of John Wyatt of Birmingham. Paul and Wyatt opened a mill in Birmingham which used their rolling machine powered by a donkey. In 1743 a factory opened in Northampton with 50 spindles on each of five of Paul and Wyatt's machines. This operated until about 1764. A similar mill was built by Daniel Bourn in Leominster, but this burnt down. Both Lewis Paul and Daniel Bourn patented carding machines in 1748. Based on two sets of rollers that travelled at different speeds, it was later used in the first cotton spinning mill. In 1764 in the village of Stanhill, Lancashire, James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, which he patented in 1770. It was the first practical spinning frame with multiple spindles. The jenny worked in a similar manner to the spinning wheel, by first clamping down on the fibres, then by drawing them out, followed by twisting. It was a simple, wooden framed machine that only cost about £6 for a 40-spindle model in 1792 and was used mainly by home spinners. The jenny produced a lightly twisted yarn only suitable for weft, not warp. The spinning frame or water frame was developed by Richard Arkwright who, along with two partners, patented it in 1769. The design was partly based on a spinning machine built by Kay, who was hired by Arkwright. For each spindle the water frame used a series of four pairs of rollers, each operating at a successively higher rotating speed, to draw out the fibre which was then twisted by the spindle. The roller spacing was slightly longer than the fibre length. Too close a spacing caused the fibres to break while too distant a spacing caused uneven thread. The top rollers were leather-covered and loading on the rollers was applied by a weight. The weights kept the twist from backing up before the rollers. The bottom rollers were wood and metal, with fluting along the length. The water frame was able to produce a hard, medium-count thread suitable for warp, finally allowing 100% cotton cloth to be made in Britain. Arkwright and his partners used water power at a factory in Cromford, Derbyshire in 1771, giving the invention its name. Samuel Crompton's spinning mule was introduced in 1779. Mule implies a hybrid because it was a combination of the spinning jenny and the water frame, in which the spindles were placed on a carriage, which went through an operational sequence during which the rollers stopped while the carriage moved away from the drawing roller to finish drawing out the fibres as the spindles started rotating. Crompton's mule was able to produce finer thread than hand spinning and at a lower cost. Mule-spun thread was of suitable strength to be used as a warp and finally allowed Britain to produce highly competitive yarn in large quantities. Realising that the expiration of the Arkwright patent would greatly increase the supply of spun cotton and lead to a shortage of weavers, Edmund Cartwright developed a vertical power loom which he patented in 1785. In 1776 he patented a two-man operated loom. Cartwright's loom design had several flaws, the most serious being thread breakage. Samuel Horrocks patented a fairly successful loom in 1813. Horock's loom was improved by Richard Roberts in 1822, and these were produced in large numbers by Roberts, Hill & Co. The demand for cotton presented an opportunity to planters in the Southern United States, who thought upland cotton would be a profitable crop if a better way could be found to remove the seed. Eli Whitney responded to the challenge by inventing the inexpensive cotton gin. A man using a cotton gin could remove seed from as much upland cotton in one day as would previously have taken two months to process, working at the rate of one pound of cotton per day. These advances were capitalised on by entrepreneurs, of whom the best known is Arkwright. He is credited with a list of inventions, but these were actually developed by such people as Kay and Thomas Highs; Arkwright nurtured the inventors, patented the ideas, financed the initiatives, and protected the machines. He created the cotton mill which brought the production processes together in a factory, and he developed the use of power—first horsepower and then water power—which made cotton manufacture a mechanised industry. Other inventors increased the efficiency of the individual steps of spinning (carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling) so that the supply of yarn increased greatly. Steam power was then applied to drive textile machinery. Manchester acquired the nickname Cottonopolis during the early 19th century owing to its sprawl of textile factories. Although mechanization dramatically decreased the cost of cotton cloth, by the mid-19th century machine-woven cloth still could not equal the quality of hand-woven Indian cloth, in part because of the fineness of thread made possible by the type of cotton used in India, which allowed high thread counts. However, the high productivity of British textile manufacturing allowed coarser grades of British cloth to undersell hand-spun and woven fabric in low-wage India, eventually destroying the Indian industry. ### Iron industry #### British iron production statistics Bar iron was the commodity form of iron used as the raw material for making hardware goods such as nails, wire, hinges, horseshoes, wagon tires, chains, etc., as well as structural shapes. A small amount of bar iron was converted into steel. Cast iron was used for pots, stoves, and other items where its brittleness was tolerable. Most cast iron was refined and converted to bar iron, with substantial losses. Bar iron was made by the bloomery process, which was the predominant iron smelting process until the late 18th century. In the UK in 1720, there were 20,500 tons of cast iron produced with charcoal and 400 tons with coke. In 1750 charcoal iron production was 24,500 and coke iron was 2,500 tons. In 1788 the production of charcoal cast iron was 14,000 tons while coke iron production was 54,000 tons. In 1806 charcoal cast iron production was 7,800 tons and coke cast iron was 250,000 tons. In 1750 the UK imported 31,200 tons of bar iron and either refined from cast iron or directly produced 18,800 tons of bar iron using charcoal and 100 tons using coke. In 1796 the UK was making 125,000 tons of bar iron with coke and 6,400 tons with charcoal; imports were 38,000 tons and exports were 24,600 tons. In 1806 the UK did not import bar iron but exported 31,500 tons. #### Iron process innovations A major change in the iron industries during the Industrial Revolution was the replacement of wood and other bio-fuels with coal. For a given amount of heat, mining coal required much less labour than cutting wood and converting it to charcoal, and coal was much more abundant than wood, supplies of which were becoming scarce before the enormous increase in iron production that took place in the late 18th century. By 1750 coke had generally replaced charcoal in the smelting of copper and lead and was in widespread use in glass production. In the smelting and refining of iron, coal and coke produced inferior iron to that made with charcoal because of the coal's sulfur content. Low sulfur coals were known, but they still contained harmful amounts. Conversion of coal to coke only slightly reduces the sulfur content. A minority of coals are coking. Another factor limiting the iron industry before the Industrial Revolution was the scarcity of water power to power blast bellows. This limitation was overcome by the steam engine. Use of coal in iron smelting started somewhat before the Industrial Revolution, based on innovations by Clement Clerke and others from 1678, using coal reverberatory furnaces known as cupolas. These were operated by the flames playing on the ore and charcoal or coke mixture, reducing the oxide to metal. This has the advantage that impurities (such as sulphur ash) in the coal do not migrate into the metal. This technology was applied to lead from 1678 and to copper from 1687. It was also applied to iron foundry work in the 1690s, but in this case the reverberatory furnace was known as an air furnace. (The foundry cupola is a different, and later, innovation.) By 1709 Abraham Darby made progress using coke to fuel his blast furnaces at Coalbrookdale. However, the coke pig iron he made was not suitable for making wrought iron and was used mostly for the production of cast iron goods, such as pots and kettles. He had the advantage over his rivals in that his pots, cast by his patented process, were thinner and cheaper than theirs. Coke pig iron was hardly used to produce wrought iron until 1755–56, when Darby's son Abraham Darby II built furnaces at Horsehay and Ketley where low sulfur coal was available (and not far from Coalbrookdale). These furnaces were equipped with water-powered bellows, the water being pumped by Newcomen steam engines. The Newcomen engines were not attached directly to the blowing cylinders because the engines alone could not produce a steady air blast. Abraham Darby III installed similar steam-pumped, water-powered blowing cylinders at the Dale Company when he took control in 1768. The Dale Company used several Newcomen engines to drain its mines and made parts for engines which it sold throughout the country. Steam engines made the use of higher-pressure and volume blast practical; however, the leather used in bellows was expensive to replace. In 1757, ironmaster John Wilkinson patented a hydraulic powered blowing engine for blast furnaces. The blowing cylinder for blast furnaces was introduced in 1760 and the first blowing cylinder made of cast iron is believed to be the one used at Carrington in 1768 that was designed by John Smeaton. Cast iron cylinders for use with a piston were difficult to manufacture; the cylinders had to be free of holes and had to be machined smooth and straight to remove any warping. James Watt had great difficulty trying to have a cylinder made for his first steam engine. In 1774 Wilkinson invented a precision boring machine for boring cylinders. After Wilkinson bored the first successful cylinder for a Boulton and Watt steam engine in 1776, he was given an exclusive contract for providing cylinders. After Watt developed a rotary steam engine in 1782, they were widely applied to blowing, hammering, rolling and slitting. The solutions to the sulfur problem were the addition of sufficient limestone to the furnace to force sulfur into the slag as well as the use of low sulfur coal. The use of lime or limestone required higher furnace temperatures to form a free-flowing slag. The increased furnace temperature made possible by improved blowing also increased the capacity of blast furnaces and allowed for increased furnace height. In addition to lower cost and greater availability, coke had other important advantages over charcoal in that it was harder and made the column of materials (iron ore, fuel, slag) flowing down the blast furnace more porous and did not crush in the much taller furnaces of the late 19th century. As cast iron became cheaper and widely available, it began being a structural material for bridges and buildings. A famous early example is the Iron Bridge built in 1778 with cast iron produced by Abraham Darby III. However, most cast iron was converted to wrought iron. Conversion of cast iron had long been done in a finery forge. An improved refining process known as potting and stamping was developed, but this was superseded by Henry Cort's puddling process. Cort developed two significant iron manufacturing processes: rolling in 1783 and puddling in 1784. Puddling produced a structural grade iron at a relatively low cost. Puddling was a means of decarburizing molten pig iron by slow oxidation in a reverberatory furnace by manually stirring it with a long rod. The decarburized iron, having a higher melting point than cast iron, was raked into globs by the puddler. When the glob was large enough, the puddler would remove it. Puddling was backbreaking and extremely hot work. Few puddlers lived to be 40. Because puddling was done in a reverberatory furnace, coal or coke could be used as fuel. The puddling process continued to be used until the late 19th century when iron was being displaced by steel. Because puddling required human skill in sensing the iron globs, it was never successfully mechanised. Rolling was an important part of the puddling process because the grooved rollers expelled most of the molten slag and consolidated the mass of hot wrought iron. Rolling was 15 times faster at this than a trip hammer. A different use of rolling, which was done at lower temperatures than that for expelling slag, was in the production of iron sheets, and later structural shapes such as beams, angles, and rails. The puddling process was improved in 1818 by Baldwyn Rogers, who replaced some of the sand lining on the reverberatory furnace bottom with iron oxide. In 1838 John Hall patented the use of roasted tap cinder (iron silicate) for the furnace bottom, greatly reducing the loss of iron through increased slag caused by a sand lined bottom. The tap cinder also tied up some phosphorus, but this was not understood at the time. Hall's process also used iron scale or rust which reacted with carbon in the molten iron. Hall's process, called *wet puddling*, reduced losses of iron with the slag from almost 50% to around 8%. Puddling became widely used after 1800. Up to that time, British iron manufacturers had used considerable amounts of iron imported from Sweden and Russia to supplement domestic supplies. Because of the increased British production, imports began to decline in 1785, and by the 1790s Britain eliminated imports and became a net exporter of bar iron. Hot blast, patented by the Scottish inventor James Beaumont Neilson in 1828, was the most important development of the 19th century for saving energy in making pig iron. By using preheated combustion air, the amount of fuel to make a unit of pig iron was reduced at first by between one-third using coke or two-thirds using coal; the efficiency gains continued as the technology improved. Hot blast also raised the operating temperature of furnaces, increasing their capacity. Using less coal or coke meant introducing fewer impurities into the pig iron. This meant that lower quality coal could be used in areas where coking coal was unavailable or too expensive; however, by the end of the 19th century transportation costs fell considerably. Shortly before the Industrial Revolution, an improvement was made in the production of steel, which was an expensive commodity and used only where iron would not do, such as for cutting edge tools and for springs. Benjamin Huntsman developed his crucible steel technique in the 1740s. The raw material for this was blister steel, made by the cementation process. The supply of cheaper iron and steel aided a number of industries, such as those making nails, hinges, wire, and other hardware items. The development of machine tools allowed better working of iron, causing it to be increasingly used in the rapidly growing machinery and engine industries. ### Steam power The development of the stationary steam engine was an important element of the Industrial Revolution; however, during the early period of the Industrial Revolution, most industrial power was supplied by water and wind. In Britain, by 1800 an estimated 10,000 horsepower was being supplied by steam. By 1815 steam power had grown to 210,000 hp. The first commercially successful industrial use of steam power was patented by Thomas Savery in 1698. He constructed in London a low-lift combined vacuum and pressure water pump that generated about one horsepower (hp) and was used in numerous waterworks and in a few mines (hence its "brand name", *The Miner's Friend*). Savery's pump was economical in small horsepower ranges but was prone to boiler explosions in larger sizes. Savery pumps continued to be produced until the late 18th century. The first successful piston steam engine was introduced by Thomas Newcomen before 1712. Newcomen engines were installed for draining hitherto unworkable deep mines, with the engine on the surface; these were large machines, requiring a significant amount of capital to build, and produced upwards of 3.5 kW (5 hp). They were also used to power municipal water supply pumps. They were extremely inefficient by modern standards, but when located where coal was cheap at pit heads, they opened up a great expansion in coal mining by allowing mines to go deeper. Despite their disadvantages, Newcomen engines were reliable and easy to maintain and continued to be used in the coalfields until the early decades of the 19th century. By 1729, when Newcomen died, his engines had spread (first) to Hungary in 1722, Germany, Austria, and Sweden. A total of 110 are known to have been built by 1733 when the joint patent expired, of which 14 were abroad. In the 1770s the engineer John Smeaton built some very large examples and introduced a number of improvements. A total of 1,454 engines had been built by 1800. A fundamental change in working principles was brought about by Scotsman James Watt. With financial support from his business partner Englishman Matthew Boulton, he had succeeded by 1778 in perfecting his steam engine, which incorporated a series of radical improvements, notably the closing off of the upper part of the cylinder thereby making the low-pressure steam drive the top of the piston instead of the atmosphere; use of a steam jacket; and the celebrated separate steam condenser chamber. The separate condenser did away with the cooling water that had been injected directly into the cylinder which cooled the cylinder and wasted steam. Likewise, the steam jacket kept steam from condensing in the cylinder, also improving efficiency. These improvements increased engine efficiency so that Boulton and Watt's engines used only 20–25% as much coal per horsepower-hour as Newcomen's. Boulton and Watt opened the Soho Foundry for the manufacture of such engines in 1795. By 1783 the Watt steam engine had been fully developed into a double-acting rotative type, which meant that it could be used to directly drive the rotary machinery of a factory or mill. Both of Watt's basic engine types were commercially very successful, and by 1800 the firm Boulton & Watt had constructed 496 engines, with 164 driving reciprocating pumps, 24 serving blast furnaces, and 308 powering mill machinery; most of the engines generated from 3.5 to 7.5 kW (5 to 10 hp). Until about 1800 the most common pattern of steam engine was the beam engine, built as an integral part of a stone or brick engine-house, but soon various patterns of self-contained rotative engines (readily removable but not on wheels) were developed, such as the table engine. Around the start of the 19th century, at which time the Boulton and Watt patent expired, the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick and the American Oliver Evans began to construct higher-pressure non-condensing steam engines, exhausting against the atmosphere. High pressure yielded an engine and boiler compact enough to be used on mobile road and rail locomotives and steamboats. Small industrial power requirements continued to be provided by animal and human muscle until widespread electrification in the early 20th century. These included crank-powered, treadle-powered and horse-powered workshop, and light industrial machinery. ### Machine tools Pre-industrial machinery was built by various craftsmen—millwrights built watermills and windmills; carpenters made wooden framing; and smiths and turners made metal parts. Wooden components had the disadvantage of changing dimensions with temperature and humidity, and the various joints tended to rack (work loose) over time. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, machines with metal parts and frames became more common. Other important uses of metal parts were in firearms and threaded fasteners, such as machine screws, bolts, and nuts. There was also the need for precision in making parts. Precision would allow better working machinery, interchangeability of parts, and standardization of threaded fasteners. The demand for metal parts led to the development of several machine tools. They have their origins in the tools developed in the 18th century by makers of clocks and watches and scientific instrument makers to enable them to batch-produce small mechanisms. Before the advent of machine tools, metal was worked manually using the basic hand tools of hammers, files, scrapers, saws, and chisels. Consequently, the use of metal machine parts was kept to a minimum. Hand methods of production were laborious and costly, and precision was difficult to achieve. The first large precision machine tool was the cylinder boring machine invented by John Wilkinson in 1774. It was used for boring the large-diameter cylinders on early steam engines. Wilkinson's boring machine differed from earlier cantilevered machines used for boring cannon in that the cutting tool was mounted on a beam that ran through the cylinder being bored and was supported outside on both ends. The planing machine, the milling machine and the shaping machine were developed in the early decades of the 19th century. Although the milling machine was invented at this time, it was not developed as a serious workshop tool until somewhat later in the 19th century. Henry Maudslay, who trained a school of machine tool makers early in the 19th century, was a mechanic with superior ability who had been employed at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He worked as an apprentice at the Royal Arsenal under Jan Verbruggen. In 1774 Verbruggen had installed a horizontal boring machine which was the first industrial size lathe in the UK. Maudslay was hired away by Joseph Bramah for the production of high-security metal locks that required precision craftsmanship. Bramah patented a lathe that had similarities to the slide rest lathe. Maudslay perfected the slide rest lathe, which could cut machine screws of different thread pitches by using changeable gears between the spindle and the lead screw. Before its invention, screws could not be cut to any precision using various earlier lathe designs, some of which copied from a template. The slide rest lathe was called one of history's most important inventions. Although it was not entirely Maudslay's idea, he was the first person to build a functional lathe using a combination of known innovations of the lead screw, slide rest, and change gears. Maudslay left Bramah's employment and set up his own shop. He was engaged to build the machinery for making ships' pulley blocks for the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Block Mills. These machines were all-metal and were the first machines for mass production and making components with a degree of interchangeability. The lessons Maudslay learned about the need for stability and precision he adapted to the development of machine tools, and in his workshops, he trained a generation of men to build on his work, such as Richard Roberts, Joseph Clement and Joseph Whitworth. James Fox of Derby had a healthy export trade in machine tools for the first part of the 19th century, as did Matthew Murray of Leeds. Roberts was a maker of high-quality machine tools and a pioneer of the use of jigs and gauges for precision workshop measurement. The techniques to make mass-produced metal parts made with sufficient precision to be interchangeable is largely attributed to a program of the U.S. Department of War which perfected interchangeable parts for firearms in the early 19th century. In the half-century following the invention of the fundamental machine tools, the machine industry became the largest industrial sector of the U.S. economy, by value added. ### Chemicals The large-scale production of chemicals was an important development during the Industrial Revolution. The first of these was the production of sulphuric acid by the lead chamber process invented by the Englishman John Roebuck (James Watt's first partner) in 1746. He was able to greatly increase the scale of the manufacture by replacing the relatively expensive glass vessels formerly used with larger, less expensive chambers made of riveted sheets of lead. Instead of making a small amount each time, he was able to make around 50 kilograms (100 pounds) in each of the chambers, at least a tenfold increase. The production of an alkali on a large scale became an important goal as well, and Nicolas Leblanc succeeded in 1791 in introducing a method for the production of sodium carbonate (soda ash). The Leblanc process was a reaction of sulfuric acid with sodium chloride to give sodium sulfate and hydrochloric acid. The sodium sulfate was heated with calcium carbonate and coal to give a mixture of sodium carbonate and calcium sulfide. Adding water separated the soluble sodium carbonate from the calcium sulfide. The process produced a large amount of pollution (the hydrochloric acid was initially vented to the atmosphere, and calcium sulfide was a waste product). Nonetheless, this synthetic soda ash proved economical compared to that produced from burning specific plants (barilla or kelp), which were the previously dominant sources of soda ash, and also to potash (potassium carbonate) produced from hardwood ashes. These two chemicals were very important because they enabled the introduction of a host of other inventions, replacing many small-scale operations with more cost-effective and controllable processes. Sodium carbonate had many uses in the glass, textile, soap, and paper industries. Early uses for sulfuric acid included pickling (removing rust from) iron and steel, and for bleaching cloth. The development of bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite) by Scottish chemist Charles Tennant in about 1800, based on the discoveries of French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet, revolutionised the bleaching processes in the textile industry by dramatically reducing the time required (from months to days) for the traditional process then in use, which required repeated exposure to the sun in bleach fields after soaking the textiles with alkali or sour milk. Tennant's factory at St Rollox, Glasgow, became the largest chemical plant in the world. After 1860 the focus on chemical innovation was in dyestuffs, and Germany took world leadership, building a strong chemical industry. Aspiring chemists flocked to German universities in the 1860–1914 era to learn the latest techniques. British scientists by contrast, lacked research universities and did not train advanced students; instead, the practice was to hire German-trained chemists. ### Concrete In 1824 Joseph Aspdin, a British bricklayer turned builder, patented a chemical process for making portland cement which was an important advance in the building trades. This process involves sintering a mixture of clay and limestone to about 1,400 °C (2,552 °F), then grinding it into a fine powder which is then mixed with water, sand and gravel to produce concrete. Portland cement concrete was used by the English engineer Marc Isambard Brunel several years later when constructing the Thames Tunnel. Concrete was used on a large scale in the construction of the London sewer system a generation later. ### Gas lighting Though others made a similar innovation elsewhere, the large-scale introduction of gas lighting was the work of William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton & Watt. The process consisted of the large-scale gasification of coal in furnaces, the purification of the gas (removal of sulphur, ammonia, and heavy hydrocarbons), and its storage and distribution. The first gas lighting utilities were established in London between 1812 and 1820. They soon became one of the major consumers of coal in the UK. Gas lighting affected social and industrial organisation because it allowed factories and stores to remain open longer than with tallow candles or oil lamps. Its introduction allowed nightlife to flourish in cities and towns as interiors and streets could be lighted on a larger scale than before. ### Glass making Glass was made in ancient Greece and Rome. A new method of glass production, known as the cylinder process, was developed in Europe during the early 19th century. In 1832 this process was used by the Chance Brothers to create sheet glass. They became the leading producers of window and plate glass. This advancement allowed for larger panes of glass to be created without interruption, thus freeing up the space planning in interiors as well as the fenestration of buildings. The Crystal Palace is the supreme example of the use of sheet glass in a new and innovative structure. ### Paper machine A machine for making a continuous sheet of paper on a loop of wire fabric was patented in 1798 by Louis-Nicolas Robert in France. The paper machine is known as a Fourdrinier after the financiers, brothers Sealy and Henry Fourdrinier, who were stationers in London. Although greatly improved and with many variations, the Fourdrinier machine is the predominant means of paper production today. The method of continuous production demonstrated by the paper machine influenced the development of continuous rolling of iron and later steel and other continuous production processes. ### Agriculture The British Agricultural Revolution is considered one of the causes of the Industrial Revolution because improved agricultural productivity freed up workers to work in other sectors of the economy. In contrast, per-capita food supply in Europe was stagnant or declining and did not improve in some parts of Europe until the late 18th century. The English lawyer Jethro Tull invented an improved seed drill in 1701. It was a mechanical seeder that distributed seeds evenly across a plot of land and planted them at the correct depth. This was important because the yield of seeds harvested to seeds planted at that time was around four or five. Tull's seed drill was very expensive and not very reliable and therefore did not have much of an effect. Good quality seed drills were not produced until the mid 18th century. Joseph Foljambe's *Rotherham plough* of 1730 was the first commercially successful iron plough. The threshing machine, invented by the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle in 1784, displaced hand threshing with a flail, a laborious job that took about one-quarter of agricultural labour. Lower labor requirements subsequently result in lowered wages and numbers of farm labourers, who faced near starvation, leading to the 1830 agricultural rebellion of the Swing Riots. Machine tools and metalworking techniques developed during the Industrial Revolution eventually resulted in precision manufacturing techniques in the late 19th century for mass-producing agricultural equipment, such as reapers, binders, and combine harvesters. ### Mining Coal mining in Britain, particularly in South Wales, started early. Before the steam engine, pits were often shallow bell pits following a seam of coal along the surface, which were abandoned as the coal was extracted. In other cases, if the geology was favourable the coal was mined by means of an adit or drift mine driven into the side of a hill. Shaft mining was done in some areas, but the limiting factor was the problem of removing water. It could be done by hauling buckets of water up the shaft or to a sough (a tunnel driven into a hill to drain a mine). In either case, the water had to be discharged into a stream or ditch at a level where it could flow away by gravity. The introduction of the steam pump by Thomas Savery in 1698 and the Newcomen steam engine in 1712 greatly facilitated the removal of water and enabled shafts to be made deeper, enabling more coal to be extracted. These were developments that had begun before the Industrial Revolution, but the adoption of John Smeaton's improvements to the Newcomen engine followed by James Watt's more efficient steam engines from the 1770s reduced the fuel costs of engines, making mines more profitable. The Cornish engine, developed in the 1810s, was much more efficient than the Watt steam engine. Coal mining was very dangerous owing to the presence of firedamp in many coal seams. Some degree of safety was provided by the safety lamp which was invented in 1816 by Sir Humphry Davy and independently by George Stephenson. However, the lamps proved a false dawn because they became unsafe very quickly and provided a weak light. Firedamp explosions continued, often setting off coal dust explosions, so casualties grew during the entire 19th century. Conditions of work were very poor, with a high casualty rate from rock falls. ### Transportation At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, inland transport was by navigable rivers and roads, with coastal vessels employed to move heavy goods by sea. Wagonways were used for conveying coal to rivers for further shipment, but canals had not yet been widely constructed. Animals supplied all of the motive power on land, with sails providing the motive power on the sea. The first horse railways were introduced toward the end of the 18th century, with steam locomotives being introduced in the early decades of the 19th century. Improving sailing technologies boosted average sailing speed by 50% between 1750 and 1830. The Industrial Revolution improved Britain's transport infrastructure with a turnpike road network, a canal and waterway network, and a railway network. Raw materials and finished products could be moved more quickly and cheaply than before. Improved transportation also allowed new ideas to spread quickly. #### Canals and improved waterways Before and during the Industrial Revolution navigation on several British rivers was improved by removing obstructions, straightening curves, widening and deepening, and building navigation locks. Britain had over 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) of navigable rivers and streams by 1750. Canals and waterways allowed bulk materials to be economically transported long distances inland. This was because a horse could pull a barge with a load dozens of times larger than the load that could be drawn in a cart. Canals began to be built in the UK in the late 18th century to link the major manufacturing centres across the country. Known for its huge commercial success, the Bridgewater Canal in North West England, which opened in 1761 and was mostly funded by The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. From Worsley to the rapidly growing town of Manchester its construction cost £168,000 (£22,589,130 as of 2013[update]), but its advantages over land and river transport meant that within a year of its opening in 1761, the price of coal in Manchester fell by about half. This success helped inspire a period of intense canal building, known as Canal Mania. Canals were hastily built with the aim of replicating the commercial success of the Bridgewater Canal, the most notable being the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Thames and Severn Canal which opened in 1774 and 1789 respectively. By the 1820s a national network was in existence. Canal construction served as a model for the organisation and methods later used to construct the railways. They were eventually largely superseded as profitable commercial enterprises by the spread of the railways from the 1840s on. The last major canal to be built in the United Kingdom was the Manchester Ship Canal, which upon opening in 1894 was the largest ship canal in the world, and opened Manchester as a port. However, it never achieved the commercial success its sponsors had hoped for and signalled canals as a dying mode of transport in an age dominated by railways, which were quicker and often cheaper. Britain's canal network, together with its surviving mill buildings, is one of the most enduring features of the early Industrial Revolution to be seen in Britain. #### Roads France was known for having an excellent system of roads at the time of the Industrial Revolution; however, most of the roads on the European continent and in the UK were in bad condition and dangerously rutted. Much of the original British road system was poorly maintained by thousands of local parishes, but from the 1720s (and occasionally earlier) turnpike trusts were set up to charge tolls and maintain some roads. Increasing numbers of main roads were turnpiked from the 1750s to the extent that almost every main road in England and Wales was the responsibility of a turnpike trust. New engineered roads were built by John Metcalf, Thomas Telford and most notably John McAdam, with the first 'macadam' stretch of road being Marsh Road at Ashton Gate, Bristol in 1816. The first macadam road in the U.S. was the "Boonsborough Turnpike Road" between Hagerstown and Boonsboro, Maryland in 1823. The major turnpikes radiated from London and were the means by which the Royal Mail was able to reach the rest of the country. Heavy goods transport on these roads was by means of slow, broad-wheeled carts hauled by teams of horses. Lighter goods were conveyed by smaller carts or by teams of packhorse. Stagecoaches carried the rich, and the less wealthy could pay to ride on carriers carts. Productivity of road transport increased greatly during the Industrial Revolution, and the cost of travel fell dramatically. Between 1690 and 1840 productivity almost tripled for long-distance carrying and increased four-fold in stage coaching. #### Railways Railways were made practical by the widespread introduction of inexpensive puddled iron after 1800, the rolling mill for making rails, and the development of the high-pressure steam engine also around 1800. Reducing friction was one of the major reasons for the success of railroads compared to wagons. This was demonstrated on an iron plate-covered wooden tramway in 1805 at Croydon, England. > A good horse on an ordinary turnpike road can draw two thousand pounds, or one ton. A party of gentlemen were invited to witness the experiment, that the superiority of the new road might be established by ocular demonstration. Twelve wagons were loaded with stones, till each wagon weighed three tons, and the wagons were fastened together. A horse was then attached, which drew the wagons with ease, six miles [10 km] in two hours, having stopped four times, in order to show he had the power of starting, as well as drawing his great load. > > Wagonways for moving coal in the mining areas had started in the 17th century and were often associated with canal or river systems for the further movement of coal. These were all horse-drawn or relied on gravity, with a stationary steam engine to haul the wagons back to the top of the incline. The first applications of the steam locomotive were on wagon or plate ways (as they were then often called from the cast-iron plates used). Horse-drawn public railways begin in the early 19th century when improvements to pig and wrought iron production were lowering costs. Steam locomotives began being built after the introduction of high-pressure steam engines after the expiration of the Boulton and Watt patent in 1800. High-pressure engines exhausted used steam to the atmosphere, doing away with the condenser and cooling water. They were also much lighter weight and smaller in size for a given horsepower than the stationary condensing engines. A few of these early locomotives were used in mines. Steam-hauled public railways began with the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. The rapid introduction of railways followed the 1829 Rainhill trials, which demonstrated Robert Stephenson's successful locomotive design and the 1828 development of hot blast, which dramatically reduced the fuel consumption of making iron and increased the capacity of the blast furnace. On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first inter-city railway in the world, was opened and was attended by Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley. The railway was engineered by Joseph Locke and George Stephenson, linked the rapidly expanding industrial town of Manchester with the port town of Liverpool. The opening was marred by problems caused by the primitive nature of the technology being employed; however, problems were gradually solved, and the railway became highly successful, transporting passengers and freight. The success of the inter-city railway, particularly in the transport of freight and commodities, led to Railway Mania. Construction of major railways connecting the larger cities and towns began in the 1830s but only gained momentum at the very end of the first Industrial Revolution. After many of the workers had completed the railways, they did not return to their rural lifestyles but instead remained in the cities, providing additional workers for the factories. Social effects -------------- ### Factory system Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of the workforce was employed in agriculture, either as self-employed farmers as landowners or tenants or as landless agricultural labourers. It was common for families in various parts of the world to spin yarn, weave cloth and make their own clothing. Households also spun and wove for market production. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, India, China, and regions of Iraq and elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East produced most of the world's cotton cloth while Europeans produced wool and linen goods. In Britain by the 16th century the putting-out system was practised, by which farmers and townspeople produced goods for a market in their homes, often described as *cottage industry*. Typical putting-out system goods included spinning and weaving. Merchant capitalists typically provided the raw materials, paid workers by the by the piece, and were responsible for the sale of the goods. Embezzlement of supplies by workers and poor quality were common problems. The logistical effort in procuring and distributing raw materials and picking up finished goods were also limitations of the putting-out system. Some early spinning and weaving machinery, such as a 40 spindle jenny for about six pounds in 1792, was affordable for cottagers. Later machinery such as spinning frames, spinning mules and power looms were expensive (especially if water-powered), giving rise to capitalist ownership of factories. The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children, including many orphans. They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Sundays off. It was common for women to take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work. Lack of adequate transportation, long hours, and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers. Many workers, such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers, who had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers out of necessity. The change in the social relationship of the factory worker compared to farmers and cottagers was viewed unfavourably by Karl Marx; however, he recognized the increase in productivity made possible by technology. ### Standards of living Some economists, such as Robert Lucas Jr., say that the real effect of the Industrial Revolution was that "for the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this economic behaviour is mentioned by the classical economists, even as a theoretical possibility." Others argue that while the growth of the economy's overall productive powers was unprecedented during the Industrial Revolution, living standards for the majority of the population did not grow meaningfully until the late 19th and 20th centuries and that in many ways workers' living standards declined under early capitalism: for instance, studies have shown that real wages in Britain only increased 15% between the 1780s and 1850s and that life expectancy in Britain did not begin to dramatically increase until the 1870s. Similarly, the average height of the population declined during the Industrial Revolution, implying that their nutritional status was also decreasing. Real wages were not keeping up with the price of food. During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829. The effects on living conditions have been controversial and were hotly debated by economic and social historians from the 1950s to the 1980s. A series of 1950s essays by Henry Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins later set the academic consensus that the bulk of the population, that was at the bottom of the social ladder, suffered severe reductions in their living standards. During 1813–1913, there was a significant increase in worker wages. #### Food and nutrition Chronic hunger and malnutrition were the norms for the majority of the population of the world including Britain and France until the late 19th century. Until about 1750, malnutrition limited life expectancy in France to about 35 years and about 40 years in Britain. The United States population of the time was adequately fed, much taller on average, and had a life expectancy of 45–50 years, although U.S. life expectancy declined by a few years by the mid 19th century. Food consumption per capita also declined during an episode known as the Antebellum Puzzle. Food supply in Great Britain was adversely affected by the Corn Laws (1815–1846) which imposed tariffs on imported grain. The laws were enacted to keep prices high in order to benefit domestic producers. The Corn Laws were repealed in the early years of the Great Irish Famine. The initial technologies of the Industrial Revolution, such as mechanized textiles, iron and coal, did little, if anything, to lower food prices. In Britain and the Netherlands, food supply increased before the Industrial Revolution with better agricultural practices; however, population grew as well. This condition is called the Malthusian trap, and it finally started to be overcome by transportation improvements, such as canals, improved roads and steamships. Railroads and steamships were introduced near the end of the Industrial Revolution. #### Housing The rapid population growth in the 19th century included the new industrial and manufacturing cities, as well as service centers such as Edinburgh and London. The critical factor was financing, which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms. Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants. People moved in so rapidly there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums. Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality, and tuberculosis among young adults. Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic. Unlike rural areas, there were no famines such as the one that devastated Ireland in the 1840s. A large exposé literature grew up condemning the unhealthy conditions. By far the most famous publication was by one of the founders of the socialist movement, *The Condition of the Working Class in England* in 1844 Friedrich Engels describes backstreet sections of Manchester and other mill towns, where people lived in crude shanties and shacks, some not completely enclosed, some with dirt floors. These shanty towns had narrow walkways between irregularly shaped lots and dwellings. There were no sanitary facilities. The population density was extremely high. However, not everyone lived in such poor conditions. The Industrial Revolution also created a middle class of businessmen, clerks, foremen, and engineers who lived in much better conditions. Conditions improved over the course of the 19th century with new public health acts regulating things such as sewage, hygiene, and home construction. In the introduction of his 1892 edition, Engels notes that most of the conditions he wrote about in 1844 had been greatly improved. For example, the Public Health Act 1875 led to the more sanitary byelaw terraced house. #### Water and sanitation Pre-industrial water supply relied on gravity systems, and pumping of water was done by water wheels. Pipes were typically made of wood. Steam-powered pumps and iron pipes allowed the widespread piping of water to horse watering troughs and households. Engels' book describes how untreated sewage created awful odours and turned the rivers green in industrial cities. In 1854 John Snow traced a cholera outbreak in Soho in London to fecal contamination of a public water well by a home cesspit. Snow's findings that cholera could be spread by contaminated water took some years to be accepted, but his work led to fundamental changes in the design of public water and waste systems. ### Literacy In the 18th century, there were relatively high levels of literacy among farmers in England and Scotland. This permitted the recruitment of literate craftsmen, skilled workers, foremen, and managers who supervised the emerging textile factories and coal mines. Much of the labour was unskilled, and especially in textile mills children as young as eight proved useful in handling chores and adding to the family income. Indeed, children were taken out of school to work alongside their parents in the factories. However, by the mid-19th century, unskilled labor forces were common in Western Europe, and British industry moved upscale, needing many more engineers and skilled workers who could handle technical instructions and handle complex situations. Literacy was essential to be hired. A senior government official told Parliament in 1870: Upon the speedy provision of elementary education depends are industrial prosperity. It is of no use trying to give technical teaching to our citizens without elementary education; uneducated labourers—and many of our labourers are utterly uneducated—are, for the most part, unskilled labourers, and if we leave our work–folk any longer unskilled, notwithstanding their strong sinews and determined energy, they will become overmatched in the competition of the world. The invention of the paper machine and the application of steam power to the industrial processes of printing supported a massive expansion of newspaper and pamphlet publishing, which contributed to rising literacy and demands for mass political participation. ### Clothing and consumer goods Consumers benefited from falling prices for clothing and household articles such as cast iron cooking utensils, and in the following decades, stoves for cooking and space heating. Coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, and chocolate became affordable to many in Europe. The consumer revolution in England from the early 17th century to the mid-18th century had seen a marked increase in the consumption and variety of luxury goods and products by individuals from different economic and social backgrounds. With improvements in transport and manufacturing technology, opportunities for buying and selling became faster and more efficient than previous. The expanding textile trade in the north of England meant the three-piece suit became affordable to the masses. Founded by Josiah Wedgwood in 1759, Wedgwood fine china and porcelain tableware was starting to become a common feature on dining tables. Rising prosperity and social mobility in the 18th century increased the number of people with disposable income for consumption, and the marketing of goods (of which Wedgwood was a pioneer) for individuals, as opposed to items for the household, started to appear, and the new status of goods as status symbols related to changes in fashion and desired for aesthetic appeal. > With the rapid growth of towns and cities, shopping became an important part of everyday life. Window shopping and the purchase of goods became a cultural activity in its own right, and many exclusive shops were opened in elegant urban districts: in the Strand and Piccadilly in London, for example, and in spa towns such as Bath and Harrogate. Prosperity and expansion in manufacturing industries such as pottery and metalware increased consumer choice dramatically. Where once labourers ate from metal platters with wooden implements, ordinary workers now dined on Wedgwood porcelain. Consumers came to demand an array of new household goods and furnishings: metal knives and forks, for example, as well as rugs, carpets, mirrors, cooking ranges, pots, pans, watches, clocks, and a dizzying array of furniture. The age of mass consumption had arrived. > > — "Georgian Britain, The rise of consumerism", Matthew White, British Library. New businesses in various industries appeared in towns and cities throughout Britain. Confectionery was one such industry that saw rapid expansion. According to food historian Polly Russell: "chocolate and biscuits became products for the masses, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the consumers it created. By the mid-19th century, sweet biscuits were an affordable indulgence and business was booming. Manufacturers such as Huntley & Palmers in Reading, Carr's of Carlisle and McVitie's in Edinburgh transformed from small family-run businesses into state-of-the-art operations". In 1847 Fry's of Bristol produced the first chocolate bar. Their competitor Cadbury of Birmingham was the first to commercialize the association between confectionery and romance when they produced a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868. The department store became a common feature in major High Streets across Britain; one of the first was opened in 1796 by Harding, Howell & Co. on Pall Mall in London. In addition to goods being sold in the growing number of stores, street sellers were common in an increasingly urbanized country. Matthew White: "Crowds swarmed in every thoroughfare. Scores of street sellers 'cried' merchandise from place to place, advertising the wealth of goods and services on offer. Milkmaids, orange sellers, fishwives and piemen, for example, all walked the streets offering their various wares for sale, while knife grinders and the menders of broken chairs and furniture could be found on street corners". An early soft drinks company, R. White's Lemonade, began in 1845 by selling drinks in London in a wheelbarrow. Increased literacy rates, industrialisation, and the invention of the railway created a new market for cheap popular literature for the masses and the ability for it to be circulated on a large scale. Penny dreadfuls were created in the 1830s to meet this demand. *The Guardian* described penny dreadfuls as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young", and "the Victorian equivalent of video games". By the 1860s and 1870s more than one million boys' periodicals were sold per week. Labelled an "authorpreneur" by *The Paris Review*, Charles Dickens used innovations from the revolution to sell his books, such as the powerful new printing presses, enhanced advertising revenues, and the expansion of railroads. His first novel, *The Pickwick Papers* (1836), became a publishing phenomenon with its unprecedented success sparking numerous spin-offs and merchandise ranging from *Pickwick* cigars, playing cards, china figurines, Sam Weller puzzles, Weller boot polish and joke books. Nicholas Dames in *The Atlantic* writes, "Literature" is not a big enough category for *Pickwick*. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call "entertainment". In 1861, Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones formed the first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail. Selling Welsh flannel, he created mail order catalogues, with customers able to order by mail for the first time—this following the Uniform Penny Post in 1840 and the invention of the postage stamp (Penny Black) where there was a charge of one penny for carriage and delivery between any two places in the United Kingdom irrespective of distance—and the goods were delivered throughout the UK via the newly created railway system. As the railway network expanded overseas, so did his business. ### Population increase The Industrial Revolution was the first period in history during which there was a simultaneous increase in both population and per capita income. According to Robert Hughes in *The Fatal Shore*, the population of England and Wales, which had remained steady at six million from 1700 to 1740, rose dramatically after 1740. The population of England had more than doubled from 8.3 million in 1801 to 16.8 million in 1850 and, by 1901, had nearly doubled again to 30.5 million. Improved conditions led to the population of Britain increasing from 10 million to 30 million in the 19th century. Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900. ### Urbanization The growth of the modern industry since the late 18th century led to massive urbanisation and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, compared to nearly 50% by the beginning of the 21st century. Manchester had a population of 10,000 in 1717, but by 1911 it had burgeoned to 2.3 million. ### Effect on women and family life Women's historians have debated the effect of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism generally on the status of women. Taking a pessimistic side, Alice Clark argues that when capitalism arrived in 17th-century England, it lowered the status of women as they lost much of their economic importance. Clark argues that in 16th-century England, women were engaged in many aspects of industry and agriculture. The home was a central unit of production, and women played a vital role in running farms and in some trades and landed estates. Their useful economic roles gave them a sort of equality with their husbands. However, Clark argues, as capitalism expanded in the 17th century, there was more division of labour with the husband taking paid labour jobs outside the home, and the wife was reduced to unpaid household work. Middle- and upper-class women were confined to an idle domestic existence, supervising servants; lower-class women were forced to take poorly paid jobs. Capitalism, therefore, had a negative effect on powerful women. In a more positive interpretation, Ivy Pinchbeck argues that capitalism created the conditions for women's emancipation. Tilly and Scott have emphasised the continuity in the status of women, finding three stages in English history. In the pre-industrial era, production was mostly for home use, and women produced much of the needs of the households. The second stage was the "family wage economy" of early industrialisation; the entire family depended on the collective wages of its members, including husband, wife, and older children. The third or modern stage is the "family consumer economy", in which the family is the site of consumption, and women are employed in large numbers in retail and clerical jobs to support rising standards of consumption. Ideas of thrift and hard work characterized middle-class families as the Industrial Revolution swept Europe. These values were displayed in Samuel Smiles' book *Self-Help*, in which he states that the misery of the poorer classes was "voluntary and self-imposed—the results of idleness, thriftlessness, intemperance, and misconduct." ### Labour conditions #### Social structure and working conditions In terms of social structure, the Industrial Revolution witnessed the triumph of a middle class of industrialists and businessmen over a landed class of nobility and gentry. Ordinary working people found increased opportunities for employment in mills and factories, but these were often under strict working conditions with long hours of labour dominated by a pace set by machines. As late as 1900, most industrial workers in the United States worked a 10-hour day (12 hours in the steel industry), yet earned 20–40% less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life; however, most workers in textiles, which was by far the leading industry in terms of employment, were women and children. For workers of the labouring classes, industrial life "was a stony desert, which they had to make habitable by their own efforts." Harsh working conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place. Pre-industrial society was very static and often cruel—child labour, dirty living conditions, and long working hours were just as prevalent before the Industrial Revolution. #### Factories and urbanisation Industrialisation led to the creation of the factory. The factory system contributed to the growth of urban areas as large numbers of workers migrated into the cities in search of work in the factories. Nowhere was this better illustrated than the mills and associated industries of Manchester, nicknamed "Cottonopolis", and the world's first industrial city. Manchester experienced a six-times increase in its population between 1771 and 1831. Bradford grew by 50% every ten years between 1811 and 1851, and by 1851 only 50% of the population of Bradford were actually born there. In addition, between 1815 and 1939, 20% of Europe's population left home, pushed by poverty, a rapidly growing population, and the displacement of peasant farming and artisan manufacturing. They were pulled abroad by the enormous demand for labour overseas, the ready availability of land, and cheap transportation. Still, many did not find a satisfactory life in their new homes, leading 7 million of them to return to Europe. This mass migration had large demographic effects: in 1800, less than 1% of the world population consisted of overseas Europeans and their descendants; by 1930, they represented 11%. The Americas felt the brunt of this huge emigration, largely concentrated in the United States. For much of the 19th century, production was done in small mills which were typically water-powered and built to serve local needs. Later, each factory would have its own steam engine and a chimney to give an efficient draft through its boiler. In other industries, the transition to factory production was not so divisive. Some industrialists tried to improve factory and living conditions for their workers. One of the earliest such reformers was Robert Owen, known for his pioneering efforts in improving conditions for workers at the New Lanark mills and often regarded as one of the key thinkers of the early socialist movement. By 1746 an integrated brass mill was working at Warmley near Bristol. Raw material went in at one end, was smelted into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing was provided for workers on site. Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton (whose Soho Manufactory was completed in 1766) were other prominent early industrialists who employed the factory system. #### Child labour A young "drawer" pulling a coal tub along a mine gallery. In Britain, laws passed in 1842 and 1844 improved mine working conditions. The Industrial Revolution led to a population increase, but the chances of surviving childhood did not improve throughout the Industrial Revolution, although *infant* mortality rates were reduced markedly. There was still limited opportunity for education, and children were expected to work. Employers could pay a child less than an adult even though their productivity was comparable; there was no need for strength to operate an industrial machine, and since the industrial system was new, there were no experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution between the 18th and 19th centuries. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children. Child labour existed before the Industrial Revolution, but with the increase in population and education it became more visible. Many children were forced to work in relatively bad conditions for much lower pay than their elders, 10–20% of an adult male's wage. Reports were written detailing some of the abuses, particularly in the coal mines and textile factories, and these helped to popularise the children's plight. The public outcry, especially among the upper and middle classes, helped stir change in the young workers' welfare. Politicians and the government tried to limit child labour by law, but factory owners resisted; some felt that they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food to avoid starvation, and others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844, the first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain: children younger than nine were not allowed to work, children were not permitted to work at night, and the workday of youth under age 18 was limited to twelve hours. Factory inspectors supervised the execution of the law; however, their scarcity made enforcement difficult. About ten years later, the employment of children and women in mining was forbidden. Although laws such as these decreased the number of child labourers, child labour remained significantly present in Europe and the United States until the 20th century. #### Organisation of labour The Industrial Revolution concentrated labour into mills, factories, and mines, thus facilitating the organisation of *combinations* or trade unions to help advance the interests of working people. The power of a union could demand better terms by withdrawing all labour and causing a consequent cessation of production. Employers had to decide between giving in to the union demands at a cost to themselves or suffering the cost of the lost production. Skilled workers were difficult to replace, and these were the first groups to successfully advance their conditions through this kind of bargaining. The main method the unions used to effect change was strike action. Many strikes were painful events for both sides, the unions and the management. In Britain, the Combination Act 1799 forbade workers to form any kind of trade union until its repeal in 1824. Even after this, unions were still severely restricted. One British newspaper in 1834 described unions as "the most dangerous institutions that were ever permitted to take root, under shelter of law, in any country..." In 1832, the Reform Act extended the vote in Britain but did not grant universal suffrage. That year six men from Tolpuddle in Dorset founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to protest against the gradual lowering of wages in the 1830s. They refused to work for less than ten shillings per week, although by this time wages had been reduced to seven shillings per week and were due to be further reduced to six. In 1834 James Frampton, a local landowner, wrote to Prime Minister Lord Melbourne to complain about the union, invoking an obscure law from 1797 prohibiting people from swearing oaths to each other, which the members of the Friendly Society had done. Six men were arrested, found guilty, and transported to Australia. They became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs. In the 1830s and 1840s, the chartist movement was the first large-scale organised working-class political movement that campaigned for political equality and social justice. Its *Charter* of reforms received over three million signatures but was rejected by Parliament without consideration. Working people also formed friendly societies and cooperative societies as mutual support groups against times of economic hardship. Enlightened industrialists, such as Robert Owen supported these organisations to improve the conditions of the working class. Unions slowly overcame the legal restrictions on the right to strike. In 1842, a general strike involving cotton workers and colliers was organised through the chartist movement which stopped production across Great Britain. Eventually, effective political organisation for working people was achieved through the trades unions who, after the extensions of the franchise in 1867 and 1885, began to support socialist political parties that later merged to become the British Labour Party. #### Luddites The rapid industrialisation of the English economy cost many craft workers their jobs. The movement started first with lace and hosiery workers near Nottingham and spread to other areas of the textile industry. Many weavers also found themselves suddenly unemployed since they could no longer compete with machines which only required relatively limited (and unskilled) labour to produce more cloth than a single weaver. Many such unemployed workers, weavers, and others turned their animosity towards the machines that had taken their jobs and began destroying factories and machinery. These attackers became known as Luddites, supposedly followers of Ned Ludd, a folklore figure. The first attacks of the Luddite movement began in 1811. The Luddites rapidly gained popularity, and the British government took drastic measures using the militia or army to protect industry. Those rioters who were caught were tried and hanged, or transported for life. Unrest continued in other sectors as they industrialised, such as with agricultural labourers in the 1830s when large parts of southern Britain were affected by the Captain Swing disturbances. Threshing machines were a particular target, and hayrick burning was a popular activity. However, the riots led to the first formation of trade unions and further pressure for reform. #### Shift in production's center of gravity The traditional centers of hand textile production such as India, parts of the Middle East, and later China could not withstand the competition from machine-made textiles, which over a period of decades destroyed the hand made textile industries and left millions of people without work, many of whom starved. The Industrial Revolution generated an enormous and unprecedented economic division in the world, as measured by the share of manufacturing output. Share of total world manufacturing output (percentage)| | 1750 | 1800 | 1860 | 1880 | 1900 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Europe | 23.2 | 28.1 | 53.2 | 61.3 | 62.0 | | United States | 0.1 | 0.8 | 7.2 | 14.7 | 23.6 | | Japan | 3.8 | 3.5 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.4 | | Rest of the world | 73.0 | 67.7 | 36.6 | 20.9 | 11.0 | #### Cotton and the expansion of slavery Cheap cotton textiles increased the demand for raw cotton; previously, it had primarily been consumed in subtropical regions where it was grown, with little raw cotton available for export. Consequently, prices of raw cotton rose. British production grew from 2 million pounds in 1700 to 5 million pounds in 1781 to 56 million in 1800. The invention of the cotton gin by American Eli Whitney in 1792 was the decisive event. It allowed green-seeded cotton to become profitable, leading to the widespread growth of the large slave plantation in the United States, Brazil, and the West Indies. In 1791 American cotton production was about 2 million pounds, soaring to 35 million by 1800, half of which was exported. America's cotton plantations were highly efficient and profitable and were able to keep up with demand. The U.S. Civil War created a "cotton famine" that led to increased production in other areas of the world, including European colonies in Africa. ### Effect on environment The origins of the environmental movement lay in the response to increasing levels of smoke pollution in the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution. The emergence of great factories and the concomitant immense growth in coal consumption gave rise to an unprecedented level of air pollution in industrial centers; after 1900 the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste. The first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of Britain's Alkali Acts, passed in 1863, to regulate the deleterious air pollution (gaseous hydrochloric acid) given off by the Leblanc process used to produce soda ash. An alkali inspector and four sub-inspectors were appointed to curb this pollution. The responsibilities of the inspectorate were gradually expanded, culminating in the Alkali Order 1958 which placed all major heavy industries that emitted smoke, grit, dust, and fumes under supervision. The manufactured gas industry began in British cities in 1812–1820. The technique used produced highly toxic effluent that was dumped into sewers and rivers. The gas companies were repeatedly sued in nuisance lawsuits. They usually lost and modified the worst practices. The City of London repeatedly indicted gas companies in the 1820s for polluting the Thames and poisoning its fish. Finally, Parliament wrote company charters to regulate toxicity. The industry reached the U.S. around 1850 causing pollution and lawsuits. In industrial cities local experts and reformers, especially after 1890, took the lead in identifying environmental degradation and pollution, and initiating grass-roots movements to demand and achieve reforms. Typically the highest priority went to water and air pollution. The Coal Smoke Abatement Society was formed in Britain in 1898 making it one of the oldest environmental non-governmental organizations. It was founded by artist William Blake Richmond, frustrated with the pall cast by coal smoke. Although there were earlier pieces of legislation, the Public Health Act 1875 required all furnaces and fireplaces to consume their own smoke. It also provided for sanctions against factories that emitted large amounts of black smoke. The provisions of this law were extended in 1926 with the Smoke Abatement Act to include other emissions, such as soot, ash, and gritty particles, and to empower local authorities to impose their own regulations. Industrialisation beyond Great Britain -------------------------------------- ### Continental Europe The Industrial Revolution in continental Europe came later than in Great Britain. It started in Belgium and France, then spread to the German states by the middle of the 19th century. In many industries, this involved the application of technology developed in Britain in new places. Typically the technology was purchased from Britain or British engineers and entrepreneurs moved abroad in search of new opportunities. By 1809, part of the Ruhr Valley in Westphalia was called 'Miniature England' because of its similarities to the industrial areas of Britain. Most European governments provided state funding to the new industries. In some cases (such as iron), the different availability of resources locally meant that only some aspects of the British technology were adopted. #### Austria-Hungary The Habsburg realms which became Austria-Hungary in 1867 included 23 million inhabitants in 1800, growing to 36 million by 1870. Nationally the per capita rate of industrial growth averaged about 3% between 1818 and 1870. However, there were strong regional differences. The railway system was built in the 1850–1873 period. Before they arrived transportation was very slow and expensive. In the Alpine and Bohemian (modern-day Czech Republic) regions, proto-industrialization began by 1750 and became the center of the first phases of the Industrial Revolution after 1800. The textile industry was the main factor, utilizing mechanization, steam engines, and the factory system. In the Czech lands, the "first mechanical loom followed in Varnsdorf in 1801", with the first steam engines appearing in Bohemia and Moravia just a few years later. The textile production flourished particularly in Prague and Brno (German: Brünn), which was considered the 'Moravian Manchester'. The Czech lands, especially Bohemia, became the center of industrialization due to its natural and human resources. The iron industry had developed in the Alpine regions after 1750, with smaller centers in Bohemia and Moravia. Hungary—the eastern half of the Dual Monarchy, was heavily rural with little industry before 1870. In 1791, Prague organized the first World's Fair/List of world's fairs, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic). The first industrial exhibition was on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II as a king of Bohemia, which took place in Clementinum, and therefore celebrated the considerable sophistication of manufacturing methods in the Czech lands during that time period. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The GNP per capita grew roughly 1.76% per year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared very favorably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%). However, in a comparison with Germany and Britain: the Austro-Hungarian economy as a whole still lagged considerably, as sustained modernization had begun much later. #### Belgium Belgium was the second country in which the Industrial Revolution took place and the first in continental Europe: Wallonia (French-speaking southern Belgium) took the lead. Starting in the middle of the 1820s, and especially after Belgium became an independent nation in 1830, numerous works comprising coke blast furnaces as well as puddling and rolling mills were built in the coal mining areas around Liège and Charleroi. The leader was a transplanted Englishman John Cockerill. His factories at Seraing integrated all stages of production, from engineering to the supply of raw materials, as early as 1825. Wallonia exemplified the radical evolution of industrial expansion. Thanks to coal (the French word "houille" was coined in Wallonia), the region geared up to become the 2nd industrial power in the world after Britain. But it is also pointed out by many researchers, with its *Sillon industriel*, "Especially in the Haine, Sambre and Meuse valleys, between the Borinage and Liège...there was a huge industrial development based on coal-mining and iron-making...". Philippe Raxhon wrote about the period after 1830: "It was not propaganda but a reality the Walloon regions were becoming the second industrial power all over the world after Britain." "The sole industrial centre outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Walloon was the old cloth-making town of Ghent." Professor Michel De Coster stated: "The historians and the economists say that Belgium was the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory [...] But this rank is the one of Wallonia where the coal-mines, the blast furnaces, the iron and zinc factories, the wool industry, the glass industry, the weapons industry... were concentrated." Many of the 19th-century coal mines in Wallonia are now protected as World Heritage sites. Wallonia was also the birthplace of a strong socialist party and strong trade unions in a particular sociological landscape. At the left, the *Sillon industriel*, which runs from Mons in the west, to Verviers in the east (except part of North Flanders, in another period of the industrial revolution, after 1920). Even if Belgium is the second industrial country after Britain, the effect of the industrial revolution there was very different. In 'Breaking stereotypes', Muriel Neven and Isabelle Devious say: > The Industrial Revolution changed a mainly rural society into an urban one, but with a strong contrast between northern and southern Belgium. During the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Flanders was characterised by the presence of large urban centres [...] at the beginning of the nineteenth century this region (Flanders), with an urbanisation degree of more than 30 percent, remained one of the most urbanised in the world. By comparison, this proportion reached only 17 percent in Wallonia, barely 10 percent in most West European countries, 16 percent in France, and 25 percent in Britain. Nineteenth-century industrialisation did not affect the traditional urban infrastructure, except in Ghent... Also, in Wallonia, the traditional urban network was largely unaffected by the industrialisation process, even though the proportion of city-dwellers rose from 17 to 45 percent between 1831 and 1910. Especially in the Haine, Sambre and Meuse valleys, between the Borinage and Liège, where there was a huge industrial development based on coal-mining and iron-making, urbanisation was fast. During these eighty years, the number of municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants increased from only 21 to more than one hundred, concentrating nearly half of the Walloon population in this region. Nevertheless, industrialisation remained quite traditional in the sense that it did not lead to the growth of modern and large urban centres, but to a conurbation of industrial villages and towns developed around a coal mine or a factory. Communication routes between these small centres only became populated later and created a much less dense urban morphology than, for instance, the area around Liège where the old town was there to direct migratory flows. > > #### France The industrial revolution in France followed a particular course as it did not correspond to the main model followed by other countries. Notably, most French historians argue France did not go through a clear *take-off*. Instead, France's economic growth and industrialisation process was slow and steady through the 18th and 19th centuries. However, some stages were identified by Maurice Lévy-Leboyer: * French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789–1815), * industrialisation, along with Britain (1815–1860), * economic slowdown (1860–1905), * renewal of the growth after 1905. #### Germany Based on its leadership in chemical research in the universities and industrial laboratories, Germany, which was unified in 1871, became dominant in the world's chemical industry in the late 19th century. At first the production of dyes based on aniline was critical. Germany's political disunity—with three dozen states—and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines linked the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was the support of industrialisation, and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight, and pulled ahead of France. #### Sweden During the period 1790–1815 Sweden experienced two parallel economic movements: an *agricultural revolution* with larger agricultural estates, new crops, and farming tools and commercialisation of farming, and a *proto industrialisation*, with small industries being established in the countryside and with workers switching between agricultural work in summer and industrial production in winter. This led to economic growth benefiting large sections of the population and leading up to a *consumption revolution* starting in the 1820s. Between 1815 and 1850, the protoindustries developed into more specialised and larger industries. This period witnessed increasing regional specialisation with mining in Bergslagen, textile mills in Sjuhäradsbygden, and forestry in Norrland. Several important institutional changes took place in this period, such as free and mandatory schooling introduced in 1842 (as the first country in the world), the abolition of the national monopoly on trade in handicrafts in 1846, and a stock company law in 1848. From 1850 to 1890, Sweden experienced its "first" Industrial Revolution with a veritable explosion in export, dominated by crops, wood, and steel. Sweden abolished most tariffs and other barriers to free trade in the 1850s and joined the gold standard in 1873. Large infrastructural investments were made during this period, mainly in the expanding railroad network, which was financed in part by the government and in part by private enterprises. From 1890 to 1930, new industries developed with their focus on the domestic market: mechanical engineering, power utilities, papermaking and textile. ### Japan The Industrial Revolution began about 1870 as Meiji period leaders decided to catch up with the West. The government built railroads, improved roads, and inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country for further development. It inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan (Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan). In 1871, a group of Japanese politicians known as the Iwakura Mission toured Europe and the United States to learn Western ways. The result was a deliberate state-led industrialisation policy to enable Japan to quickly catch up. The Bank of Japan, founded in 1882, used taxes to fund model steel and textile factories. Education was expanded and Japanese students were sent to study in the West. Modern industry first appeared in textiles, including cotton and especially silk, which was based in home workshops in rural areas. ### United States During the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the UK and parts of Western Europe began to industrialise, the US was primarily an agricultural and natural resource producing and processing economy. The building of roads and canals, the introduction of steamboats and the building of railroads were important for handling agricultural and natural resource products in the large and sparsely populated country of the period. Important American technological contributions during the period of the Industrial Revolution were the cotton gin and the development of a system for making interchangeable parts, the latter aided by the development of the milling machine in the US. The development of machine tools and the system of interchangeable parts was the basis for the rise of the US as the world's leading industrial nation in the late 19th century. Oliver Evans invented an automated flour mill in the mid-1780s that used control mechanisms and conveyors so that no labour was needed from the time grain was loaded into the elevator buckets until the flour was discharged into a wagon. This is considered to be the first modern materials handling system an important advance in the progress toward mass production. The United States originally used horse-powered machinery for small-scale applications such as grain milling, but eventually switched to water power after textile factories began being built in the 1790s. As a result, industrialisation was concentrated in New England and the Northeastern United States, which has fast-moving rivers. The newer water-powered production lines proved more economical than horse-drawn production. In the late 19th century steam-powered manufacturing overtook water-powered manufacturing, allowing the industry to spread to the Midwest. Thomas Somers and the Cabot Brothers founded the Beverly Cotton Manufactory in 1787, the first cotton mill in America, the largest cotton mill of its era, and a significant milestone in the research and development of cotton mills in the future. This mill was designed to use horsepower, but the operators quickly learned that the horse-drawn platform was economically unstable, and had economic losses for years. Despite the losses, the Manufactory served as a playground of innovation, both in turning a large amount of cotton, but also developing the water-powered milling structure used in Slater's Mill. In 1793, Samuel Slater (1768–1835) founded the Slater Mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He had learned of the new textile technologies as a boy apprentice in Derbyshire, England, and defied laws against the emigration of skilled workers by leaving for New York in 1789, hoping to make money with his knowledge. After founding Slater's Mill, he went on to own 13 textile mills. Daniel Day established a wool carding mill in the Blackstone Valley at Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1809, the third woollen mill established in the US (The first was in Hartford, Connecticut, and the second at Watertown, Massachusetts.) The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor retraces the history of "America's Hardest-Working River', the Blackstone. The Blackstone River and its tributaries, which cover more than 70 kilometres (45 mi) from Worcester, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island, was the birthplace of America's Industrial Revolution. At its peak over 1,100 mills operated in this valley, including Slater's mill, and with it the earliest beginnings of America's industrial and technological development. Merchant Francis Cabot Lowell from Newburyport, Massachusetts, memorised the design of textile machines on his tour of British factories in 1810. Realising that the War of 1812 had ruined his import business but that demand for domestic finished cloth was emerging in America, on his return to the United States, he set up the Boston Manufacturing Company. Lowell and his partners built America's second cotton-to-cloth textile mill at Waltham, Massachusetts, second to the Beverly Cotton Manufactory. After his death in 1817, his associates built America's first planned factory town, which they named after him. This enterprise was capitalised in a public stock offering, one of the first uses of it in the United States. Lowell, Massachusetts, using nine kilometres (5+1⁄2 miles) of canals and 7,500 kilowatts (10,000 horsepower) delivered by the Merrimack River, is considered by some as a major contributor to the success of the American Industrial Revolution. The short-lived utopia-like Waltham-Lowell system was formed, as a direct response to the poor working conditions in Britain. However, by 1850, especially following the Great Famine of Ireland, the system had been replaced by poor immigrant labour. A major U.S. contribution to industrialisation was the development of techniques to make interchangeable parts from metal. Precision metal machining techniques were developed by the U.S. Department of War to make interchangeable parts for small firearms. The development work took place at the Federal Arsenals at Springfield Armory and Harpers Ferry Armory. Techniques for precision machining using machine tools included using fixtures to hold the parts in the proper position, jigs to guide the cutting tools and precision blocks and gauges to measure the accuracy. The milling machine, a fundamental machine tool, is believed to have been invented by Eli Whitney, who was a government contractor who built firearms as part of this program. Another important invention was the Blanchard lathe, invented by Thomas Blanchard. The Blanchard lathe, or pattern tracing lathe, was actually a shaper that could produce copies of wooden gun stocks. The use of machinery and the techniques for producing standardised and interchangeable parts became known as the American system of manufacturing. Precision manufacturing techniques made it possible to build machines that mechanised the shoe industry and the watch industry. The industrialisation of the watch industry started in 1854 also in Waltham, Massachusetts, at the Waltham Watch Company, with the development of machine tools, gauges and assembling methods adapted to the micro precision required for watches. Second Industrial Revolution ---------------------------- Steel is often cited as the first of several new areas for industrial mass-production, which are said to characterise a "Second Industrial Revolution", beginning around 1850, although a method for mass manufacture of steel was not invented until the 1860s, when Sir Henry Bessemer invented a new furnace which could convert molten pig iron into steel in large quantities. However, it only became widely available in the 1870s after the process was modified to produce more uniform quality. Bessemer steel was being displaced by the open hearth furnace near the end of the 19th century. This Second Industrial Revolution gradually grew to include chemicals, mainly the chemical industries, petroleum (refining and distribution), and, in the 20th century, the automotive industry, and was marked by a transition of technological leadership from Britain to the United States and Germany. The increasing availability of economical petroleum products also reduced the importance of coal and further widened the potential for industrialisation. A new revolution began with electricity and electrification in the electrical industries. The introduction of hydroelectric power generation in the Alps enabled the rapid industrialisation of coal-deprived northern Italy, beginning in the 1890s. By the 1890s, industrialisation in these areas had created the first giant industrial corporations with burgeoning global interests, as companies like U.S. Steel, General Electric, Standard Oil and Bayer AG joined the railroad and ship companies on the world's stock markets. New Industrialism ----------------- The New Industrialist movement advocates for increasing domestic manufacturing while reducing emphasis on a financial-based economy that relies on real estate and trading speculative assets. New Industrialism has been described as "supply-side progressivism" or embracing the idea of "Building More Stuff". New Industrialism developed after the China Shock that resulted in lost manufacturing jobs in the U.S. after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The movement strengthened after the reduction of manufacturing jobs during the Great Recession and when the U.S. was not able to manufacture enough tests or facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. New Industrialism calls for building enough housing to satisfy demand in order to reduce the profit in land speculation, to invest in infrastructure, and to develop advanced technology to manufacture green energy for the world. New Industrialists believe that the United States is not building enough productive capital and should invest more into economic growth. Causes ------ The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complicated and remain a topic for debate. Geographic factors include Britain's vast mineral resources. In addition to metal ores, Britain had the highest quality coal reserves known at the time, as well as abundant water power, highly productive agriculture, and numerous seaports and navigable waterways. Some historians believe the Industrial Revolution was an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English Civil War in the 17th century, although feudalism began to break down after the Black Death of the mid 14th century, followed by other epidemics, until the population reached a low in the 14th century. This created labour shortages and led to falling food prices and a peak in real wages around 1500, after which population growth began reducing wages. Inflation caused by coinage debasement after 1540 followed by precious metals supply increasing from the Americas caused land rents (often long-term leases that transferred to heirs on death) to fall in real terms. The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labour-intensive, forcing the farmers who could no longer be self-sufficient in agriculture into cottage industry, for example weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories. The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital are also cited as factors, as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century. A change in marrying patterns to getting married later made people able to accumulate more human capital during their youth, thereby encouraging economic development. Until the 1980s, it was universally believed by academic historians that technological innovation was the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the key enabling technology was the invention and improvement of the steam engine. Marketing professor Ronald Fullerton suggested that innovative marketing techniques, business practices, and competition also influenced changes in the manufacturing industry. Lewis Mumford has proposed that the Industrial Revolution had its origins in the Early Middle Ages, much earlier than most estimates. He explains that the model for standardised mass production was the printing press and that "the archetypal model for the industrial era was the clock". He also cites the monastic emphasis on order and time-keeping, as well as the fact that medieval cities had at their centre a church with bell ringing at regular intervals as being necessary precursors to a greater synchronisation necessary for later, more physical, manifestations such as the steam engine. The presence of a large domestic market should also be considered an important driver of the Industrial Revolution, particularly explaining why it occurred in Britain. In other nations, such as France, markets were split up by local regions, which often imposed tolls and tariffs on goods traded among them. Internal tariffs were abolished by Henry VIII of England, they survived in Russia until 1753, 1789 in France and 1839 in Spain. Governments' grant of limited monopolies to inventors under a developing patent system (the Statute of Monopolies in 1623) is considered an influential factor. The effects of patents, both good and ill, on the development of industrialisation are clearly illustrated in the history of the steam engine, the key enabling technology. In return for publicly revealing the workings of an invention the patent system rewarded inventors such as James Watt by allowing them to monopolise the production of the first steam engines, thereby rewarding inventors and increasing the pace of technological development. However, monopolies bring with them their own inefficiencies which may counterbalance, or even overbalance, the beneficial effects of publicising ingenuity and rewarding inventors. Watt's monopoly prevented other inventors, such as Richard Trevithick, William Murdoch, or Jonathan Hornblower, whom Boulton and Watt sued, from introducing improved steam engines, thereby retarding the spread of steam power. ### Causes in Europe One question of active interest to historians is why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and not in other parts of the world in the 18th century, particularly China, India, and the Middle East (which pioneered in shipbuilding, textile production, water mills, and much more in the period between 750 and 1100), or at other times like in Classical Antiquity or the Middle Ages. A recent account argued that Europeans have been characterized for thousands of years by a freedom-loving culture originating from the aristocratic societies of early Indo-European invaders. Many historians, however, have challenged this explanation as being not only Eurocentric, but also ignoring historical context. In fact, before the Industrial Revolution, "there existed something of a global economic parity between the most advanced regions in the world economy." These historians have suggested a number of other factors, including education, technological changes (see Scientific Revolution in Europe), "modern" government, "modern" work attitudes, ecology, and culture. China was the world's most technologically advanced country for many centuries; however, China stagnated economically and technologically and was surpassed by Western Europe before the Age of Discovery, by which time China banned imports and denied entry to foreigners. China was also a totalitarian society. China also heavily taxed transported goods. Modern estimates of per capita income in Western Europe in the late 18th century are of roughly 1,500 dollars in purchasing power parity (and Britain had a per capita income of nearly 2,000 dollars) whereas China, by comparison, had only 450 dollars. India was essentially feudal, politically fragmented and not as economically advanced as Western Europe. Historians such as David Landes and sociologists Max Weber and Rodney Stark credit the different belief systems in Asia and Europe with dictating where the revolution occurred. The religion and beliefs of Europe were largely products of Judaeo-Christianity and Greek thought. Conversely, Chinese society was founded on men like Confucius, Mencius, Han Feizi (Legalism), Lao Tzu (Taoism), and Buddha (Buddhism), resulting in very different worldviews. Other factors include the considerable distance of China's coal deposits, though large, from its cities as well as the then unnavigable Yellow River that connects these deposits to the sea. Regarding India, the Marxist historian Rajani Palme Dutt said: "The capital to finance the Industrial Revolution in India instead went into financing the Industrial Revolution in Britain." In contrast to China, India was split up into many competing kingdoms after the decline of the Mughal Empire, with the major ones in its aftermath including the Marathas, Sikhs, Bengal Subah, and Kingdom of Mysore. In addition, the economy was highly dependent on two sectors—agriculture of subsistence and cotton, and there appears to have been little technical innovation. It is believed that the vast amounts of wealth were largely stored away in palace treasuries by monarchs prior to the British take over. Economic historian Joel Mokyr argued that political fragmentation (the presence of a large number of European states) made it possible for heterodox ideas to thrive, as entrepreneurs, innovators, ideologues and heretics could easily flee to a neighboring state in the event that the one state would try to suppress their ideas and activities. This is what set Europe apart from the technologically advanced, large unitary empires such as China and India[*contradictory*] by providing "an insurance against economic and technological stagnation". China had both a printing press and movable type, and India had similar levels of scientific and technological achievement as Europe in 1700, yet the Industrial Revolution would occur in Europe, not China or India. In Europe, political fragmentation was coupled with an "integrated market for ideas" where Europe's intellectuals used the *lingua franca* of Latin, had a shared intellectual basis in Europe's classical heritage and the pan-European institution of the Republic of Letters. In addition, Europe's monarchs desperately needed revenue, pushing them into alliances with their merchant classes. Small groups of merchants were granted monopolies and tax-collecting responsibilities in exchange for payments to the state. Located in a region "at the hub of the largest and most varied network of exchange in history", Europe advanced as the leader of the Industrial Revolution. In the Americas, Europeans found a windfall of silver, timber, fish, and maize, leading historian Peter Stearns to conclude that "Europe's Industrial Revolution stemmed in great part from Europe's ability to draw disproportionately on world resources." Modern capitalism originated in the Italian city-states around the end of the first millennium. The city-states were prosperous cities that were independent from feudal lords. They were largely republics whose governments were typically composed of merchants, manufacturers, members of guilds, bankers and financiers. The Italian city-states built a network of branch banks in leading western European cities and introduced double entry bookkeeping. Italian commerce was supported by schools that taught numeracy in financial calculations through abacus schools. ### Causes in Britain Great Britain provided the legal and cultural foundations that enabled entrepreneurs to pioneer the Industrial Revolution. Key factors fostering this environment were: * The period of peace and stability which followed the unification of England and Scotland * There were no internal trade barriers, including between England and Scotland, or feudal tolls and tariffs, making Britain the "largest coherent market in Europe" * The rule of law (enforcing property rights and respecting the sanctity of contracts) * A straightforward legal system that allowed the formation of joint-stock companies (corporations) * Free market (capitalism) * Geographical and natural resource advantages of Great Britain were the fact that it had extensive coastlines and many navigable rivers in an age where water was the easiest means of transportation and Britain had the highest quality coal in Europe. Britain also had a large number of sites for water power. > > "An unprecedented explosion of new ideas, and new technological inventions, transformed our use of energy, creating an increasingly industrial and urbanised country. Roads, railways and canals were built. Great cities appeared. Scores of factories and mills sprang up. Our landscape would never be the same again. It was a revolution that transformed not only the country, but the world itself." > > > – British historian Jeremy Black on the BBC's *Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here*. There were two main values that drove the Industrial Revolution in Britain. These values were self-interest and an entrepreneurial spirit. Because of these interests, many industrial advances were made that resulted in a huge increase in personal wealth and a consumer revolution. These advancements also greatly benefitted British society as a whole. Countries around the world started to recognise the changes and advancements in Britain and use them as an example to begin their own Industrial Revolutions. A debate sparked by Trinidadian politician and historian Eric Williams in his work *Capitalism and Slavery* (1944) concerned the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution. Williams argued that European capital amassed from slavery was vital in the early years of the revolution, contending that the rise of industrial capitalism was the driving force behind abolitionism instead of humanitarian motivations. These arguments led to significant historiographical debates among historians, with American historian Seymour Drescher critiquing Williams' arguments in *Econocide* (1977). Instead, the greater liberalisation of trade from a large merchant base may have allowed Britain to produce and use emerging scientific and technological developments more effectively than countries with stronger monarchies, particularly China and Russia. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the only European nation not ravaged by financial plunder and economic collapse, and having the only merchant fleet of any useful size (European merchant fleets were destroyed during the war by the Royal Navy). Britain's extensive exporting cottage industries also ensured markets were already available for many early forms of manufactured goods. The conflict resulted in most British warfare being conducted overseas, reducing the devastating effects of territorial conquest that affected much of Europe. This was further aided by Britain's geographical position—an island separated from the rest of mainland Europe. Another theory is that Britain was able to succeed in the Industrial Revolution due to the availability of key resources it possessed. It had a dense population for its small geographical size. Enclosure of common land and the related agricultural revolution made a supply of this labour readily available. There was also a local coincidence of natural resources in the North of England, the English Midlands, South Wales and the Scottish Lowlands. Local supplies of coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone and water power resulted in excellent conditions for the development and expansion of industry. Also, the damp, mild weather conditions of the North West of England provided ideal conditions for the spinning of cotton, providing a natural starting point for the birth of the textiles industry. The stable political situation in Britain from around 1689 following the Glorious Revolution, and British society's greater receptiveness to change (compared with other European countries) can also be said to be factors favouring the Industrial Revolution. Peasant resistance to industrialisation was largely eliminated by the Enclosure movement, and the landed upper classes developed commercial interests that made them pioneers in removing obstacles to the growth of capitalism. (This point is also made in Hilaire Belloc's *The Servile State*.) The French philosopher Voltaire wrote about capitalism and religious tolerance in his book on English society, *Letters on the English* (1733), noting why England at that time was more prosperous in comparison to the country's less religiously tolerant European neighbours. "Take a view of the Royal Exchange in London, a place more venerable than many courts of justice, where the representatives of all nations meet for the benefit of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan [Muslim], and the Christian transact together, as though they all professed the same religion, and give the name of infidel to none but bankrupts. There the Presbyterian confides in the Anabaptist, and the Churchman depends on the Quaker's word. If one religion only were allowed in England, the Government would very possibly become arbitrary; if there were but two, the people would cut one another's throats; but as there are such a multitude, they all live happy and in peace." Britain's population grew 280% 1550–1820, while the rest of Western Europe grew 50–80%. Seventy percent of European urbanisation happened in Britain 1750–1800. By 1800, only the Netherlands was more urbanised than Britain. This was only possible because coal, coke, imported cotton, brick and slate had replaced wood, charcoal, flax, peat and thatch. The latter compete with land grown to feed people while mined materials do not. Yet more land would be freed when chemical fertilisers replaced manure and horse's work was mechanised. A workhorse needs 1.2 to 2.0 ha (3 to 5 acres) for fodder while even early steam engines produced four times more mechanical energy. In 1700, five-sixths of the coal mined worldwide was in Britain, while the Netherlands had none; so despite having Europe's best transport, lowest taxes, and most urbanised, well-paid, and literate population, it failed to industrialise. In the 18th century, it was the only European country whose cities and population shrank. Without coal, Britain would have run out of suitable river sites for mills by the 1830s. Based on science and experimentation from the continent, the steam engine was developed specifically for pumping water out of mines, many of which in Britain had been mined to below the water table. Although extremely inefficient they were economical because they used unsaleable coal. Iron rails were developed to transport coal, which was a major economic sector in Britain. Economic historian Robert Allen has argued that high wages, cheap capital and very cheap energy in Britain made it the ideal place for the industrial revolution to occur. These factors made it vastly more profitable to invest in research and development, and to put technology to use in Britain than other societies. However, two 2018 studies in *The Economic History Review* showed that wages were not particularly high in the British spinning sector or the construction sector, casting doubt on Allen's explanation. A 2022 study in the *Journal of Political Economy* by Morgan Kelly, Joel Mokyr, and Cormac O Grada found that industrialization happened in areas with low wages and high mechanical skills, whereas literacy, banks and proximity to coal had little explanatory power. ### Transfer of knowledge Knowledge of innovation was spread by several means. Workers who were trained in the technique might move to another employer or might be poached. A common method was for someone to make a study tour, gathering information where he could. During the whole of the Industrial Revolution and for the century before, all European countries and America engaged in study-touring; some nations, like Sweden and France, even trained civil servants or technicians to undertake it as a matter of state policy. In other countries, notably Britain and America, this practice was carried out by individual manufacturers eager to improve their own methods. Study tours were common then, as now, as was the keeping of travel diaries. Records made by industrialists and technicians of the period are an incomparable source of information about their methods. Another means for the spread of innovation was by the network of informal philosophical societies, like the Lunar Society of Birmingham, in which members met to discuss 'natural philosophy' (*i.e.* science) and often its application to manufacturing. The Lunar Society flourished from 1765 to 1809, and it has been said of them, "They were, if you like, the revolutionary committee of that most far reaching of all the eighteenth-century revolutions, the Industrial Revolution". Other such societies published volumes of proceedings and transactions. For example, the London-based Royal Society of Arts published an illustrated volume of new inventions, as well as papers about them in its annual *Transactions*. There were publications describing technology. Encyclopaedias such as Harris's *Lexicon Technicum* (1704) and Abraham Rees's *Cyclopaedia* (1802–1819) contain much of value. *Cyclopaedia* contains an enormous amount of information about the science and technology of the first half of the Industrial Revolution, very well illustrated by fine engravings. Foreign printed sources such as the *Descriptions des Arts et Métiers* and Diderot's *Encyclopédie* explained foreign methods with fine engraved plates. Periodical publications about manufacturing and technology began to appear in the last decade of the 18th century, and many regularly included notice of the latest patents. Foreign periodicals, such as the *Annales des Mines*, published accounts of travels made by French engineers who observed British methods on study tours. #### Protestant work ethic Another theory is that the British advance was due to the presence of an entrepreneurial class which believed in progress, technology and hard work. The existence of this class is often linked to the Protestant work ethic (see Max Weber) and the particular status of the Baptists and the dissenting Protestant sects, such as the Quakers and Presbyterians that had flourished with the English Civil War. Reinforcement of confidence in the rule of law, which followed establishment of the prototype of constitutional monarchy in Britain in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the emergence of a stable financial market there based on the management of the national debt by the Bank of England, contributed to the capacity for, and interest in, private financial investment in industrial ventures. Dissenters found themselves barred or discouraged from almost all public offices, as well as education at England's only two universities at the time (although dissenters were still free to study at Scotland's four universities). When the restoration of the monarchy took place and membership in the official Anglican Church became mandatory due to the Test Act, they thereupon became active in banking, manufacturing and education. The Unitarians, in particular, were very involved in education, by running Dissenting Academies, where, in contrast to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and schools such as Eton and Harrow, much attention was given to mathematics and the sciences – areas of scholarship vital to the development of manufacturing technologies. Historians sometimes consider this social factor to be extremely important, along with the nature of the national economies involved. While members of these sects were excluded from certain circles of the government, they were considered fellow Protestants, to a limited extent, by many in the middle class, such as traditional financiers or other businessmen. Given this relative tolerance and the supply of capital, the natural outlet for the more enterprising members of these sects would be to seek new opportunities in the technologies created in the wake of the scientific revolution of the 17th century. Criticisms ---------- The industrial revolution has been criticised for causing ecological collapse, mental illness, pollution and detrimental social systems. It has also been criticised for valuing profits and corporate growth over life and wellbeing. Multiple movements have arisen which reject aspects of the industrial revolution, such as the Amish or primitivists. ### Individualism humanism and harsh conditions Humanists and individualists criticise the Industrial revolution for mistreating women and children and turning men into work machines that lacked autonomy. Critics of the Industrial revolution promoted a more interventionist state and formed new organizations to promote human rights. ### Primitivism Primitivism argues that the Industrial Revolution have created an un-natural frame of society and the world in which humans need to adapt to an un-natural urban landscape in which humans are perpetual cogs without personal autonomy. Certain primitivists argue for a return to pre-industrial society, while others argue that technology such as modern medicine, and agriculture are all positive for humanity assuming they controlled and serve humanity and have no effect on the natural environment. ### Pollution and ecological collapse The Industrial Revolution has been criticised for leading to immense ecological and habitat destruction, certain studies[*clarification needed*] state that over 95% of species have gone extinct since humanity became the dominant species on earth. It has also led to immense decrease in the biodiversity of life on earth. The Industrial revolution has been stated as is inherently unsustainable and will lead to eventual collapse of society, mass hunger, starvation, and resource scarcity. #### The Anthropocene The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch or mass extinction coming from humanity (Anthro is the Greek root for humanity). Since the start of the Industrial revolution humanity has permanently changed the earth, such as immense decrease in biodiversity, and mass extinction caused by the Industrial revolution. The effects include permanent changes to the earth's atmosphere and soil, forests, the mass destruction of the Industrial revolution has led to catastrophic impacts on the earth. Most organisms are unable to adapt leading to mass extinction with the remaining undergoing evolutionary rescue, as a result of the Industrial revolution. Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record. Researchers have documented the movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected. This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel. The ecosystem of the entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River. ### Opposition from Romanticism During the Industrial Revolution, an intellectual and artistic hostility towards the new industrialisation developed, associated with the Romantic movement. Romanticism revered the traditionalism of rural life and recoiled against the upheavals caused by industrialization, urbanization and the wretchedness of the working classes. Its major exponents in English included the artist and poet William Blake and poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The movement stressed the importance of "nature" in art and language, in contrast to "monstrous" machines and factories; the "Dark satanic mills" of Blake's poem "And did those feet in ancient time". Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* reflected concerns that scientific progress might be two-edged. French Romanticism likewise was highly critical of industry. See also -------- * Capitalist mode of production * Industrialization of China * Economic history of the United Kingdom * Fourth Industrial Revolution * History of capitalism * Industrial Age * Industrial society * Law of the handicap of a head start – Dialectics of progress * Machine Age * *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism* * Steam * Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution, a good description of the early industrial revolution ### Further reading * Ashton, Thomas S. (1948). "The Industrial Revolution (1760–1830)". Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Artzrouni, Marc (1990). "Mathematical Investigations of the Escape from the Malthusian Trap". *Mathematical Population Studies*. **2** (4): 269–287. doi:10.1080/08898489009525313. PMID 12283330. * Berlanstein, Lenard R., ed. (1992). *The Industrial Revolution and work in nineteenth-century Europe*. London and New York: Routledge. * Bernstein, Peter L. (1998). *Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk* (Reprint ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 135–193. ISBN 978-0471295631. * Chambliss, William J. (editor), *Problems of Industrial Society*, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co, 1973. ISBN 978-0201009583 * Chernow, Ron (2004). *Alexander Hamilton*. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143034759. online * Cipolla, Carlo M. *The Fontana Economic History of Europe, vol. 3: The Industrial Revolution* (1973) * Cipolla, Carlo M. *The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Emergence of industrial societies* vol 4 part 1 (1973) covers France, Germany, Britain, Habsburg Empire (Austria), Italy, and Low Countries. online * Cipolla, Carlo M. *The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Emergence of industrial societies* (1973) vol 4 part 2 covers topics online * Clapham, J.H. (1930) *An Economic History of Modern Britain: The Early Railway Age, 1820–1850* (2nd ed. 1930) online * Clapham, J.H. *The Economic Development of France and Germany: 1815–1914* (1921) online, a famous classic, filled with details. * Clark, Gregory (2007). *A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World*. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691121352. * Crafts, Nicholas. "The first industrial revolution: Resolving the slow growth/rapid industrialization paradox." *Journal of the European Economic Association* 3.2–3 (2005): 525–534. online * Craig, John (1953). *The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948*. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 239–316. ASIN B0000CIHG7. * Daunton, M.J. (1995). "Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1700–1850". Oxford University Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Davies, Glyn (1997) [1994]. *A History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day* (Reprint ed.). Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 283–353, 464–485. ISBN 978-0708313510. * Dunham, Arthur Louis (1955). "The Industrial Revolution in France, 1815–1848". New York: Exposition Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Gatrell, Peter (2004). "Farm to factory: a reinterpretation of the Soviet industrial revolution". *The Economic History Review*. **57** (4): 794. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2004.00295\_21.x. * Green, Constance Mclaughlin. (1939) *Holyoke Massachusetts A Case History Of The Industrial Revolution In America* online * Griffin, Emma (2010). *Short History of the British Industrial Revolution*. Palgrave. * Greenspan, Alan; Wooldridge, Adrian (2018). *Capitalism in America: A History*. New York: Penguin Press. pp. 29–59. ISBN 978-0735222441. * Haber, Ludwig Fritz (1958). *The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century: A Study of the Economic Aspect of Applied Chemistry in Europe and North America*. * Haber, Ludwig Fritz (1971). *The Chemical Industry: 1900–1930: International Growth and Technological Change*. * Hunter, Louis C.; Bryant, Lynwood (1991). *A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262081986. * Jacob, Margaret C. (1997). "Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West". Oxford: Oxford University Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Kindleberger, Charles Poor (1993). *A Financial History of Western Europe*. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0195077384. * Kisch, Herbert (1989). "From Domestic Manufacture to Industrial Revolution The Case of the Rhineland Textile Districts". Oxford University Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Kornblith, Gary. *The Industrial Revolution in America* (1997) * Kynaston, David (2017). *Till Time's Last Sand: A History of the Bank of England, 1694–2013*. New York: Bloomsbury. pp. 50–142. ISBN 978-1408868560. * Landes, David S. (1969). *The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present*. Cambridge; New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. ISBN 978-0521094184. * Maddison, Angus (2003). "The World Economy: Historical Statistics". Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Mantoux, Paul (1961) [1928]. *The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century* (First English translation 1928 ed.). * Martin, Frederick (1876). *The History of Lloyd's and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain*. London: Macmillan and Company. pp. 161–374. ISBN 978-0341781240. * McGraw, Thomas K. (2012). *The Founders of Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674066922. * McNeil, Ian, ed. (1990). *An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology*. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415147927. * Milward, Alan S. and S.B. Saul. *The Development of the Economies of Continental Europe: 1850–1914* (1977) * Milward, Alan S. and S.B. Saul. *The Economic Development of Continental Europe 1780–1870* (1973) * Mokyr, Joel. *The British industrial revolution: an economic perspective* (Routledge, 2018). * Olson, James S. *Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in America* (2001) * Pollard, Sidney. *Peaceful Conquest: The Industrialization of Europe, 1760–1970* (Oxford University Press, 1981). * Rappleye, Charles (2010). *Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution*. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1416570912. * Rider, Christine, ed. *Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1920* (2 vol. 2007) * Roe, Joseph Wickham (1916). *English and American Tool Builders*. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. LCCN 16011753.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (LCCN 27-24075); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois, (ISBN 978-0917914737). * Smelser, Neil J. *Social Change in the Industrial Revolution: An Application of Theory to the British Cotton Industry* (U of Chicago Press, 1959). * Staley, David J. ed. *Encyclopedia of the History of Invention and Technology* (3 vol 2011), 2000 pp [*ISBN missing*] * Stearns, Peter N. (1998). "The Industrial Revolution in World History". Westview Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Smil, Vaclav (1994). "Energy in World History". Westview Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Snooks, G.D. (2000). "Was the Industrial Revolution Necessary?". London: Routledge. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Szostak, Rick (1991). "The Role of Transportation in the Industrial Revolution: A Comparison of England and France". Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Timbs, John (1860). *Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts: A Book for Old and Young*. Harper & Brothers. * Toynbee, Arnold (1884). *Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century in England*. ISBN 978-1419129520. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016. * Uglow, Jenny (2002). "The Lunar Men: The Friends who made the Future 1730–1810". London: Faber and Faber. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Usher, Abbott Payson (1920). "An Introduction to the Industrial History of England". University of Michigan Press. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * ‌Zmolek, Michael Andrew. *Rethinking the industrial revolution: five centuries of transition from agrarian to industrial capitalism in England* (2013) ### Historiography * Cannadine, David. "The Present and the Past in the English Industrial Revolution 1880–1980". *Past & Present,* no. 103, (1984), pp. 131–172. online * Grinin, Leonid. "The European revolutions and revolutionary waves of the 19th century: Their causes and consequences." in *Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century* (Springer, Cham, 2022) pp. 281–313. * Hawke, Gary. "Reinterpretations of the Industrial Revolution" in Patrick O'Brien and Roland Quinault, eds. *The Industrial Revolution and British Society* (1993) pp. 54–78 * McCloskey, Deirdre (2004). "Review of The Cambridge Economic History of Britain (edited by Roderick Floud and Paul Johnson)". *Times Higher Education Supplement*. 15 (January). Retrieved 12 February 2016. * Kelly, Morgan, Joel Mokyr, and Cormac Ó. Gráda. "The mechanics of the Industrial Revolution." (2020). online * More, Charles (2000). "Understanding the Industrial Revolution". London: Routledge. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help) * Wrigley, E. Anthony. "Reconsidering the Industrial Revolution: England and Wales." *Journal of Interdisciplinary History* 49.01 (2018): 9–42.

Industrial Revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

| Part of a series on | | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | Constitutionally recognised languages of India | | Category | | 22 Official Languages of the Indian Republic | | Assamese  **·** Bengali  **·** Bodo  **·** Dogri  **·** Gujarati Hindi  **·** Kannada  **·** Kashmiri  **·** Konkani  **·** Maithili Malayalam  **·** Marathi  **·** Meitei (Manipuri)  **·** Nepali Odia  **·** Punjabi  **·** Sanskrit  **·** Santali  **·** Sindhi Tamil  **·** Telugu  **·** Urdu | | Related | | Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India Official Languages Commission Classical Languages of India List of languages by number of native speakers in India | | icon Asia portal flag India portal icon Language portal icon Politics portal | **Sanskrit** (/ˈsænskrɪt/; attributively संस्कृत-, *saṃskṛta-*; nominally संस्कृतम्, *saṃskṛtam*, IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm]) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rigveda, a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from what is today Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. *Sanskrit* can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit, a refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the *Aṣṭādhyāyī* ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini. The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa, wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to the most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the *Gathas* of old Avestan and *Iliad* of Homer. As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European. Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around the turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts, and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari. Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India's Eighth Schedule languages. However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but the numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule. Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants. Etymology and nomenclature -------------------------- Historic Sanskrit manuscripts: a religious text (top), and a medical text In Sanskrit, the verbal adjective **sáṃskṛta-** is a compound word consisting of *sáṃ* ('together, good, well, perfected') and *kṛta**-* ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined the alphabet, the structure of words and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold", states Biderman, as an integral language they called *Sanskrit*. From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as a language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called *Prakritic languages* (**prākṛta-**). The term *prakrta* literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth. The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to the problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view is found in the writing of Bharata Muni, the author of the ancient *Natya Shastra* text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the *pūrvam* ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". History ------- ### Origin and development Left: The Kurgan hypothesis on Indo-European migrations between 4000–1000 BCE; right: The geographical spread of the Indo-European languages at 500 CE, with Sanskrit in South Asia Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European language: * Vedic Sanskrit (c. 1500–500 BCE). * Mycenaean Greek (c. 1450 BCE) and Ancient Greek (c. 750–400 BCE). * Hittite (c. 1750–1200 BCE). Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin (c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages), Gothic (archaic Germanic language, c. 350 CE), Old Norse (c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan (c. late 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in the Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages. Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of the Sanskrit language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In *The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World*, Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): |   English |   Old English |   Latin |   Greek |   **Sanskrit** | Glossary | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |   mother |   mōdor |   māter |   mētēr |   **mātár-** | mother | |   father |   fæder |   pater |   patēr |   **pitár-** | father | |   brother |   brōþor |   frāter |   phreter |   **bhrā́tar-** | brother | |   sister |   sweoster |   soror |   eor |   **svásar-** | sister | |   son |   sunu |  - |   hyiós |   **sūnú-** | son | |   daughter |   dohtor |  - |   thugátēr |   **duhitár-** | daughter | |   cow |   cū |   bōs |   bous |   **gáu-** | cow | |   tame, timber |   tam, timber |   domus |   dom- |   **dām-** | house, tame, build | The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of the distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region, during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes the close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages, vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages, and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on the relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India, the Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. ### Vedic Sanskrit The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as *Vedic Sanskrit*. The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda, a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as a natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors from distant parts of ancient India. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet, the Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into the modern age include the *Samaveda*, *Yajurveda*, *Atharvaveda*, along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and the early Upanishads. These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. Vedic Sanskrit was both a spoken and literary language of ancient India. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of the semi-nomadic Aryans who temporarily settled in one place, maintained cattle herds, practiced limited agriculture, and after some time moved by wagon trains they called *grama*. The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the "Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes the gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. > > O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names > > they first set forth the beginning of Language, > > Their most excellent and spotless secret > > was laid bare through love, > > When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, > > purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, > > Then friends knew friendships – > > an auspicious mark placed on their language. > > > — *Rigveda 10.71.1–4* Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in the Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian *Gathas* and Homer's *Iliad* and *Odyssey*. According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times the social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan *Gathas* lack simile entirely, and it is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. ### Classical Sanskrit The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in the *Rigveda* had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Sanskrit language is credited to *Pāṇini*, along with Patanjali's *Mahābhāṣya* and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed **Aṣṭādhyāyī** ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'). The century in which he lived is unclear and debated, but his work is generally accepted to be from sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. The *Aṣṭādhyāyī* was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world." Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as the variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa, Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja, Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. The *Aṣṭādhyāyī* of Panini became the foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga. In the *Aṣṭādhyāyī*, language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines the linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and the most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created the detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as *Lipi* ('script') and *lipikara* ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the *Aṣṭādhyāyī*. The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and a restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the *sandhi* rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond the Vedic Sanskrit's *bahulam* framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to the intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as the *sandhi* rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of the differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. ### Sanskrit and Prakrit languages The earliest known use of the word *Saṃskṛta* (Sanskrit), in the context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the *Ramayana*. Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects (Prakrits) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these *Apabhramsa*, literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in the regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism, the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas, a scholar of Jainism, these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly the same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin." The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had the capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi. Colonial era scholars questioned whether Sanskrit was ever a spoken language, or just a literary language. Scholars disagree in their answers. A section of Western scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language, while others and particularly most Indian scholars state the opposite. Those who affirm Sanskrit to have been a vernacular language point to the necessity of Sanskrit being a spoken language for the oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. Secondly, they state that the textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini and Patanajali affirms that the Classical Sanskrit in their era was a language that is spoken (*bhasha*) by the cultured and educated. Some *sutras* expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. The 7th-century Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in the literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz (1996), has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the *Ramayana*, the *Mahabharata*, the *Bhagavata Purana*, the *Panchatantra* and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside the vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi, Paithan, Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte (1976), an Indologist and Buddhism scholar, Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. ### Dravidian influence on Sanskrit Reinöhl mentions that not only have the Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also impacted Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from the other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: > "A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for the Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language". > > — Reinöhl Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called *vinaiyeccam* in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of the possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and the crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Influence --------- > > Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting the largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. > > > — Foreword of *Sanskrit Computational Linguistics* (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama, scientific, technical and others. It is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh). Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of the Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on the role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal—a scholar of Linguistics with a focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had a limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the *Tattvartha Sutra* by Umaswati. The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang, another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in the 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to the Dalai Lama, the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called *legjar lhai-ka* or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created a pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given the first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to the more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as *namah*. Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of *Pāṇini*, around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent, particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. ### Decline Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand the Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire. Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around the 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and the South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire, so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar. Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with the Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire, reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support the historic Sanskrit literary culture. Scholars are divided on whether or when Sanskrit died. Western authors such as John Snelling state that Sanskrit and Pali are both dead Indian languages. Indian authors such as M Ramakrishnan Nair state that Sanskrit was a dead language by the 1st millennium BCE. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with the previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Other scholars state that the Sanskrit language did not die, only declined. Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes a negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, > On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be a dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." > > Sanskrit language manuscripts exist in many scripts. Above from top: *Isha Upanishad* (Devanagari), *Samaveda* (Tamil Grantha), *Bhagavad Gita* (Gurmukhi), *Vedanta Sara* (Telugu), *Jatakamala* (early Sharada). All are Hindu texts except the last Buddhist text. The Sanskrit language scholar Moriz Winternitz states, Sanskrit was never a dead language and it is still alive though its prevalence is lesser than ancient and medieval times. Sanskrit remains an integral part of Hindu journals, festivals, Ramlila plays, drama, rituals and the rites-of-passage. Similarly, Brian Hatcher states that the "metaphors of historical rupture" by Pollock are not valid, that there is ample proof that Sanskrit was very much alive in the narrow confines of surviving Hindu kingdoms between the 13th and 18th centuries, and its reverence and tradition continues. Hanneder states that modern works in Sanskrit are either ignored or their "modernity" contested. According to Robert Goldman and Sally Sutherland, Sanskrit is neither "dead" nor "living" in the conventional sense. It is a special, timeless language that lives in the numerous manuscripts, daily chants, and ceremonial recitations, a *heritage language* that Indians contextually prize, and which some practice. When the British introduced English to India in the 19th century, knowledge of Sanskrit and ancient literature continued to flourish as the study of Sanskrit changed from a more traditional style into a form of analytical and comparative scholarship mirroring that of Europe. ### Modern Indo-Aryan languages The relationship of Sanskrit to the Prakrit languages, particularly the modern form of Indian languages, is complex and spans about 3,500 years, states Colin Masica—a linguist specializing in South Asian languages. A part of the difficulty is the lack of sufficient textual, archaeological and epigraphical evidence for the ancient Prakrit languages with rare exceptions such as Pali, leading to a tendency of anachronistic errors. Sanskrit and Prakrit languages may be divided into Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE–600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan (600 BCE–1000 CE) and New Indo-Aryan (1000 CE–present), each can further be subdivided into early, middle or second, and late evolutionary substages. Vedic Sanskrit belongs to the early Old Indo-Aryan stage, while Classical Sanskrit to the later Old Indo-Aryan stage. The evidence for Prakrits such as Pali (Theravada Buddhism) and Ardhamagadhi (Jainism), along with Magadhi, Maharashtri, Sinhala, Sauraseni and Niya (Gandhari), emerge in the Middle Indo-Aryan stage in two versions—archaic and more formalized—that may be placed in early and middle substages of the 600 BCE–1000 CE period. Two literary Indo-Aryan languages can be traced to the late Middle Indo-Aryan stage and these are *Apabhramsa* and *Elu* (a literary form of Sinhalese). Numerous North, Central, Eastern and Western Indian languages, such as Hindi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Nepali, Braj, Awadhi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Marathi, and others belong to the New Indo-Aryan stage. There is an extensive overlap in the vocabulary, phonetics and other aspects of these New Indo-Aryan languages with Sanskrit, but it is neither universal nor identical across the languages. They likely emerged from a synthesis of the ancient Sanskrit language traditions and an admixture of various regional dialects. Each language has some unique and regionally creative aspects, with unclear origins. Prakrit languages do have a grammatical structure, but like Vedic Sanskrit, it is far less rigorous than Classical Sanskrit. While the roots of all Prakrit languages may be in Vedic Sanskrit and ultimately the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, their structural details vary from Classical Sanskrit. It is generally accepted by scholars and widely believed in India that the modern Indo-Aryan languages – such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, and Punjabi – are descendants of the Sanskrit language. Sanskrit, states Burjor Avari, can be described as "the mother language of almost all the languages of north India". Geographic distribution ----------------------- The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggests that Sanskrit language was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants. South Asia has been the geographic range of the largest collection of the ancient and pre-18th-century Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions. Beyond ancient India, significant collections of Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions have been found in China (particularly the Tibetan monasteries), Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Sanskrit inscriptions, manuscripts or its remnants, including some of the oldest known Sanskrit written texts, have been discovered in dry high deserts and mountainous terrains such as in Nepal, Tibet, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Some Sanskrit texts and inscriptions have also been discovered in Korea and Japan. ### Official status In India, Sanskrit is among the 22 official languages of India in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. In 2010, Uttarakhand became the first state in India to make Sanskrit its second official language. In 2019, Himachal Pradesh made Sanskrit its second official language, becoming the second state in India to do so. Phonology --------- Sanskrit shares many Proto-Indo-European phonological features, although it features a larger inventory of distinct phonemes. The consonantal system is the same, though it systematically enlarged the inventory of distinct sounds. For example, Sanskrit added a voiceless aspirated "tʰ", to the voiceless "t", voiced "d" and voiced aspirated "dʰ" found in PIE languages. The most significant and distinctive phonological development in Sanskrit is vowel merger. The short *\*e*, *\*o* and *\*a*, all merge as *a* (अ) in Sanskrit, while long *\*ē*, *\*ō* and *\*ā*, all merge as long *ā* (आ). Compare Sanskrit *nāman* to Latin *nōmen*. These mergers occurred very early and significantly impacted Sanskrit's morphological system. Some phonological developments in it mirror those in other PIE languages. For example, the labiovelars merged with the plain velars as in other satem languages. The secondary palatalization of the resulting segments is more thorough and systematic within Sanskrit. A series of retroflex dental stops were innovated in Sanskrit to more thoroughly articulate sounds for clarity. For example, unlike the loss of the morphological clarity from vowel contraction that is found in early Greek and related southeast European languages, Sanskrit deployed *\*y*, *\*w*, and *\*s* intervocalically to provide morphological clarity. ### Vowels A palm leaf manuscript published in 828 CE with the Sanskrit alphabetThis is one of the oldest surviving and dated palm-leaf manuscripts in Sanskrit (828 CE). Discovered in Nepal, the bottom leaf shows all the vowels and consonants of Sanskrit (the first five consonants are highlighted in blue and yellow). The cardinal vowels (*svaras*) *i* (इ), *u* (उ), *a* (अ) distinguish length in Sanskrit. The short *a* (अ) in Sanskrit is a closer vowel than ā, equivalent to schwa. The mid vowels ē (ए) and ō (ओ) in Sanskrit are monophthongizations of the Indo-Iranian diphthongs *\*ai* and *\*au*. The Old Iranian language preserved *\*ai* and *\*au*. The Sanskrit vowels are inherently long, though often transcribed *e* and *o* without the diacritic. The vocalic liquid *r̥* in Sanskrit is a merger of PIE *\*r̥* and *\*l̥*. The long *r̥* is an innovation and it is used in a few analogically generated morphological categories. Sanskrit vowels in the Devanagari script| | | Independent form | IAST/ISO | IPA | | Independent form | IAST/ISO | IPA | | **kaṇṭhya**(Guttural) | अ | *a* | /ɐ/ | आ | *ā* | /ɑː/ | | **tālavya**(Palatal) | इ | *i* | /i/ | ई | *ī* | /iː/ | | **oṣṭhya**(Labial) | उ | *u* | /u/ | ऊ | *ū* | /uː/ | | **mūrdhanya**(Retroflex) | ऋ | *ṛ*/*r̥* | /r̩/ | ॠ | *ṝ*/*r̥̄* | /r̩ː/ | | **dantya**(Dental) | ऌ | *ḷ*/*l̥* | /l̩/ | (ॡ) | (*ḹ*/*l̥̄*) | /l̩ː/ | | **kaṇṭhatālavya**(Palatoguttural) | ए | *e*/*ē* | /eː/ | ऐ | *ai* | /ɑj/ | | **kaṇṭhoṣṭhya**(Labioguttural) | ओ | *o*/*ō* | /oː/ | औ | *au* | /ɑw/ | | *(consonantal allophones)* | ं | *ṃ*/*ṁ* | /◌̃/ | ः | *ḥ* | /h/ | According to Masica, Sanskrit has four traditional semivowels, with which were classed, "for morphophonemic reasons, the liquids: y, r, l, and v; that is, as y and v were the non-syllabics corresponding to i, u, so were r, l in relation to r̥ and l̥". The northwestern, the central and the eastern Sanskrit dialects have had a historic confusion between "r" and "l". The Paninian system that followed the central dialect preserved the distinction, likely out of reverence for the Vedic Sanskrit that distinguished the "r" and "l". However, the northwestern dialect only had "r", while the eastern dialect probably only had "l", states Masica. Thus literary works from different parts of ancient India appear inconsistent in their use of "r" and "l", resulting in doublets that are occasionally semantically differentiated. ### Consonants Sanskrit possesses a symmetric consonantal phoneme structure based on how the sound is articulated, though the actual usage of these sounds conceals the lack of parallelism in the apparent symmetry possibly from historical changes within the language. Sanskrit consonants in the Devanagari script| | **sparśa**(Plosive) | **anunāsika**(Nasal) | **antastha**(Approximant) | **ūṣman/saṃgharṣhī**(Fricative) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Voicing → | **aghoṣa** | **ghoṣa** | **aghoṣa** | | Aspiration → | **alpaprāṇa** | **mahāprāṇa** | **alpaprāṇa** | **mahāprāṇa** | **alpaprāṇa** | **mahāprāṇa** | | **kaṇṭhya**(Guttural) | क | *ka*[k] | ख | *kha*[kʰ] | ग | *ga*[ɡ] | घ | *gha*[ɡʱ] | ङ | *ṅa*[ŋ] | ह | *ha*[ɦ] | | *tālavya*(Palatal) | च | *ca*[t͜ɕ] | छ | *cha*[t͜ɕʰ] | ज | *ja*[d͜ʑ] | झ | *jha*[d͜ʑʱ] | ञ | *ña*[ɲ] | य | *ya*[j] | श | *śa*[ɕ] | | *mūrdhanya*(Retroflex) | ट | *ṭa*[ʈ] | ठ | *ṭha*[ʈʰ] | ड | *ḍa*[ɖ] | ढ | *ḍha*[ɖʱ] | ण | *ṇa*[ɳ] | र | *ra*[ɽ] | ष | *ṣa*[ʂ] | | *dantya*(Dental) | त | *ta*[t] | थ | *tha*[tʰ] | द | *da*[d] | ध | *dha*[dʱ] | न | *na*[n] | ल | *la*[l] | स | *sa*[s] | | **oṣṭhya**(Labial) | प | *pa*[p] | फ | *pha*[pʰ] | ब | *ba*[b] | भ | *bha*[bʱ] | म | *ma*[m] | व | *va*[ʋ] | Sanskrit had a series of retroflex stops originating as conditioned alternants of dentals, albeit by Sanskrit they had become phonemic. Regarding the palatal plosives, the pronunciation is a matter of debate. In contemporary attestation, the palatal plosives are a regular series of palatal stops, supported by most Sanskrit sandhi rules. However, the reflexes in descendant languages, as well as a few of the sandhi rules regarding *ch*, could suggest an affricate pronunciation. *jh* was a marginal phoneme in Sanskrit, hence its phonology is more difficult to reconstruct; it was more commonly employed in the Middle Indo-Aryan languages as a result of phonological processes resulting in the phoneme. The palatal nasal is a conditioned variant of n occurring next to palatal obstruents. The *anusvara* that Sanskrit deploys is a conditioned alternant of postvocalic nasals, under certain sandhi conditions. Its *visarga* is a word-final or morpheme-final conditioned alternant of s and r under certain sandhi conditions. > > **The system of Sanskrit Sounds** > [The] order of Sanskrit sounds works along three principles: it goes from simple to complex; it goes from the back to the front of the mouth; and it groups similar sounds together. [...] Among themselves, both the vowels and consonants are ordered according to where in the mouth they are pronounced, going from back to front. > > > — A. M. Ruppel, *The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit* The voiceless aspirated series is also an innovation in Sanskrit but is significantly rarer than the other three series. While the Sanskrit language organizes sounds for expression beyond those found in the PIE language, it retained many features found in the Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages. An example of a similar process in all three is the retroflex sibilant ʂ being the automatic product of dental s following i, u, r, and k. ### Phonological alternations, sandhi rules Sanskrit deploys extensive phonological alternations on different linguistic levels through *sandhi* rules (literally, the rules of "putting together, union, connection, alliance"), similar to the English alteration of "going to" as *gonna*. The Sanskrit language accepts such alterations within it, but offers formal rules for the *sandhi* of any two words next to each other in the same sentence or linking two sentences. The external *sandhi* rules state that similar short vowels coalesce into a single long vowel, while dissimilar vowels form glides or undergo diphthongization. Among the consonants, most external *sandhi* rules recommend regressive assimilation for clarity when they are voiced. These rules ordinarily apply at compound seams and morpheme boundaries. In Vedic Sanskrit, the external *sandhi* rules are more variable than in Classical Sanskrit. The internal *sandhi* rules are more intricate and account for the root and the canonical structure of the Sanskrit word. These rules anticipate what are now known as the Bartholomae's law and Grassmann's law. For example, states Jamison, the "voiceless, voiced, and voiced aspirated obstruents of a positional series regularly alternate with each other (*p* ≈ *b* ≈ *bh*; *t* ≈ *d* ≈ *dh*, etc.; note, however, *c* ≈ *j* ≈ ***h***), such that, for example, a morpheme with an underlying voiced aspirate final may show alternants with all three stops under differing internal sandhi conditions". The velar series (k, g, gʰ) alternate with the palatal series (c, j, h), while the structural position of the palatal series is modified into a retroflex cluster when followed by dental. This rule creates two morphophonemically distinct series from a single palatal series. Vocalic alternations in the Sanskrit morphological system is termed "strengthening", and called *guṇa* and *vr̥ddhi* in the preconsonantal versions. There is an equivalence to terms deployed in Indo-European descriptive grammars, wherein Sanskrit's unstrengthened state is same as the zero-grade, *guṇa* corresponds to normal-grade, while *vr̥ddhi* is same as the lengthened-state. The qualitative ablaut is not found in Sanskrit just like it is absent in Iranian, but Sanskrit retains quantitative ablaut through vowel strengthening. The transformations between unstrengthened to *guṇa* is prominent in the morphological system, states Jamison, while *vr̥ddhi* is a particularly significant rule when adjectives of origin and appurtenance are derived. The manner in which this is done slightly differs between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit. How Sanskrit chants sound A recitation of the Sanskrit composition *Guru Stotram*, or "the hymn of praise for the teacher (guru)". (4 min 55 s) --- *Problems playing this file? See media help.* Sanskrit grants a very flexible syllable structure, where they may begin or end with vowels, be single consonants or clusters. Similarly, the syllable may have an internal vowel of any weight. Vedic Sanskrit shows traces of following the Sievers–Edgerton law, but Classical Sanskrit does not. Vedic Sanskrit has a pitch accent system (inherited from Proto-Indo-European) which was acknowledged by Pāṇini, states Jamison; but in his Classical Sanskrit the accents disappear. Most Vedic Sanskrit words have one accent. However, this accent is not phonologically predictable, states Jamison. It can fall anywhere in the word and its position often conveys morphological and syntactic information. The presence of an accent system in Vedic Sanskrit is evidenced from the markings in the Vedic texts. This is important because of Sanskrit's connection to the PIE languages and comparative Indo-European linguistics. Sanskrit, like most early Indo-European languages, lost the so-called "laryngeal consonants (cover-symbol *\*H*) present in the Proto-Indo-European", states Jamison. This significantly impacted the evolutionary path of the Sanskrit phonology and morphology, particularly in the variant forms of roots. ### Pronunciation Because Sanskrit is not anyone's native language, it does not have a fixed pronunciation. People tend to pronounce it as they do their native language. The articles on Hindustani, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya and Bengali phonology will give some indication of the variation that is encountered. When Sanskrit was a spoken language, its pronunciation varied regionally and also over time. Nonetheless, Panini described the sound system of Sanskrit well enough that people have a fairly good idea of what he intended. Various renditions of Sanskrit pronunciation| Transcription | | Goldman(2002) | Cardona(2003) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | *a* | ɐ | ɐ | | | *ā* | aː | aː | | | *i* | ɪ | ɪ | | | *ī* | iː | iː | | | *u* | ʊ | ʊ | | | *ū* | uː | uː | | | *r̥* | ɽɪ | ɽɪ | ᵊɾᵊ or ᵊɽᵊ | | *r̥̄* | ɽiː | ɽiː? |  ? | | *l̥* | lɪ |  ? | | | *ē* | eː | eː | eː | | *ai* | ai | ai | ɐi or ɛi | | *ō* | oː | oː | oː | | *au* | au | au | ɐu or ɔu | | *aṃ* | ɐ̃, ɐɴ | ɐ̃, ɐɴ | | | *aḥ* | ɐh | ɐhɐ | ɐh | | *k* | k | k | | | *kh* | kʰ | kʰ | | | *g* | ɡ | ɡ | | | *gh* | ɡʱ | ɡʱ | | | *ṅ* | ŋ | ŋ | | | *h* | ɦ | ɦ | ɦ | | *c* | t͡ɕ | t͡ɕ | | | *ch* | t͡ɕʰ | t͡ɕʰ | | | *j* | d͡ʑ | d͡ʑ | | | *jh* | d͡ʑʱ | d͡ʑʱ | | | *ñ* | n | n | | | *y* | j | j | j | | *ś* | ɕ | ɕ | ɕ | | *ṭ* | t̠ | t̠ | | | *ṭh* | t̠ʰ | t̠ʰ | | | *ḍ* | d̠ | d̠ | | | *ḍh* | d̠ʱ | d̠ʱ | | | *ṇ* | n̠ | n̠ | | | *r* | ɽ | ɾ̪, ɾ or ɽ | | | *ṣ* | s̠ | s̠ | ʂ | | *t* | t̪ | t̪ | | | *th* | t̪ʰ | t̪ʰ | | | *d* | d̪ | d̪ | | | *dh* | d̪ʱ | d̪ʱ | | | *n* | n̪ | n̪ | | | *l* | l | l | l̪ | | *s* | s | s | s̪ | | *p* | p | p | | | *ph* | pʰ | pʰ | | | *b* | b | b | | | *bh* | bʱ | bʱ | | | *m* | m | m | | | *v* | ʋ | ʋ | ʋ | | stress | | (ante)pen-ultimate | | Morphology ---------- The basis of Sanskrit morphology is the root, states Jamison, "a morpheme bearing lexical meaning". The verbal and nominal stems of Sanskrit words are derived from this root through the phonological vowel-gradation processes, the addition of affixes, verbal and nominal stems. It then adds an ending to establish the grammatical and syntactic identity of the stem. According to Jamison, the "three major formal elements of the morphology are (i) root, (ii) affix, and (iii) ending; and they are roughly responsible for (i) lexical meaning, (ii) derivation, and (iii) inflection respectively". A Sanskrit word has the following canonical structure: *Root* + *Affix* 0-n + *Ending* 0–1 The root structure has certain phonological constraints. Two of the most important constraints of a "root" is that it does not end in a short "a" (अ) and that it is monosyllabic. In contrast, the affixes and endings commonly do. The affixes in Sanskrit are almost always suffixes, with exceptions such as the augment "a-" added as prefix to past tense verb forms and the "-na/n-" infix in single verbal present class, states Jamison. Sanskrit verbs have the following canonical structure: *Root* + *Suffix* Tense-Aspect + *Suffix* Mood + *Ending* Personal-Number-Voice According to Ruppel, verbs in Sanskrit express the same information as other Indo-European languages such as English. Sanskrit verbs describe an action or occurrence or state, its embedded morphology informs as to "who is doing it" (person or persons), "when it is done" (tense) and "how it is done" (mood, voice). The Indo-European languages differ in the detail. For example, the Sanskrit language attaches the affixes and ending to the verb root, while the English language adds small independent words before the verb. In Sanskrit, these elements co-exist within the word. Word morphology in Sanskrit, A. M. Ruppel| | Sanskrit word equivalent | | --- | --- | | English expression | IAST/ISO | Devanagari | | you carry | *bharasi* | भरसि | | they carry | *bharanti* | भरन्ति | | you will carry | *bhariṣyasi* | भरिष्यसि | Both verbs and nouns in Sanskrit are either thematic or athematic, states Jamison. *Guna* (strengthened) forms in the active singular regularly alternate in athematic verbs. The finite verbs of Classical Sanskrit have the following grammatical categories: person, number, voice, tense-aspect, and mood. According to Jamison, a portmanteau morpheme generally expresses the person-number-voice in Sanskrit, and sometimes also the ending or only the ending. The mood of the word is embedded in the affix. These elements of word architecture are the typical building blocks in Classical Sanskrit, but in Vedic Sanskrit these elements fluctuate and are unclear. For example, in the *Rigveda* preverbs regularly occur in tmesis, states Jamison, which means they are "separated from the finite verb". This indecisiveness is likely linked to Vedic Sanskrit's attempt to incorporate accent. With nonfinite forms of the verb and with nominal derivatives thereof, states Jamison, "preverbs show much clearer univerbation in Vedic, both by position and by accent, and by Classical Sanskrit, tmesis is no longer possible even with finite forms". While roots are typical in Sanskrit, some words do not follow the canonical structure. A few forms lack both inflection and root. Many words are inflected (and can enter into derivation) but lack a recognizable root. Examples from the basic vocabulary include kinship terms such as *mātar-* (mother), *nas-* (nose), *śvan-* (dog). According to Jamison, pronouns and some words outside the semantic categories also lack roots, as do the numerals. Similarly, the Sanskrit language is flexible enough to not mandate inflection. The Sanskrit words can contain more than one affix that interact with each other. Affixes in Sanskrit can be athematic as well as thematic, according to Jamison. Athematic affixes can be alternating. Sanskrit deploys eight cases, namely nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, vocative. Stems, that is "root + affix", appear in two categories in Sanskrit: vowel stems and consonant stems. Unlike some Indo-European languages such as Latin or Greek, according to Jamison, "Sanskrit has no closed set of conventionally denoted noun declensions". Sanskrit includes a fairly large set of stem-types. The linguistic interaction of the roots, the phonological segments, lexical items and the grammar for the Classical Sanskrit consist of four Paninian components. These, states Paul Kiparsky, are the *Astadhyaayi*, a comprehensive system of 4,000 grammatical rules, of which a small set are frequently used; *Sivasutras*, an inventory of *anubandhas* (markers) that partition phonological segments for efficient abbreviations through the *pratyharas* technique; *Dhatupatha*, a list of 2,000 verbal roots classified by their morphology and syntactic properties using diacritic markers, a structure that guides its writing systems; and, the *Ganapatha*, an inventory of word groups, classes of lexical systems. There are peripheral adjuncts to these four, such as the *Unadisutras*, which focus on irregularly formed derivatives from the roots. Sanskrit morphology is generally studied in two broad fundamental categories: the nominal forms and the verbal forms. These differ in the types of endings and what these endings mark in the grammatical context. Pronouns and nouns share the same grammatical categories, though they may differ in inflection. Verb-based adjectives and participles are not formally distinct from nouns. Adverbs are typically frozen case forms of adjectives, states Jamison, and "nonfinite verbal forms such as infinitives and gerunds also clearly show frozen nominal case endings". ### Tense and voice The Sanskrit language includes five tenses: present, future, past imperfect, past aorist and past perfect. It outlines three types of voices: active, passive and the middle. The middle is also referred to as the mediopassive, or more formally in Sanskrit as *parasmaipada* (word for another) and *atmanepada* (word for oneself). Voice in Sanskrit, Stephanie Jamison| | Active | Middle(Mediopassive) | | --- | --- | --- | | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | | 1st person | *-mi* | *-vas* | *-mas* | *-e* | *-vahe* | *-mahe* | | 2nd person | *-si* | *-thas* | *-tha* | *-se* | *-āthe* | *-dhve* | | 3rd person | *-ti* | *-tas* | *-anti* | *-te* | *-āte* | *-ante* | The paradigm for the tense-aspect system in Sanskrit is the three-way contrast between the "present", the "aorist" and the "perfect" architecture. Vedic Sanskrit is more elaborate and had several additional tenses. For example, the *Rigveda* includes perfect and a marginal pluperfect. Classical Sanskrit simplifies the "present" system down to two tenses, the perfect and the imperfect, while the "aorist" stems retain the aorist tense and the "perfect" stems retain the perfect and marginal pluperfect. The classical version of the language has elaborate rules for both voice and the tense-aspect system to emphasize clarity, and this is more elaborate than in other Indo-European languages. The evolution of these systems can be seen from the earliest layers of the Vedic literature to the late Vedic literature. ### Number, person Sanskrit recognizes three numbers—singular, dual, and plural. The dual is a fully functioning category, used beyond naturally paired objects such as hands or eyes, extending to any collection of two. The elliptical dual is notable in the Vedic Sanskrit, according to Jamison, where a noun in the dual signals a paired opposition. Illustrations include *dyāvā* (literally, "the two heavens" for heaven-and-earth), *mātarā* (literally, "the two mothers" for mother-and-father). A verb may be singular, dual or plural, while the person recognized in the language are forms of "I", "you", "he/she/it", "we" and "they". There are three persons in Sanskrit: first, second and third. Sanskrit uses the 3×3 grid formed by the three numbers and the three persons parameters as the paradigm and the basic building block of its verbal system. ### Gender, mood The Sanskrit language incorporates three genders: feminine, masculine and neuter. All nouns have inherent gender. With some exceptions, personal pronouns have no gender. Exceptions include demonstrative and anaphoric pronouns. Derivation of a word is used to express the feminine. Two most common derivations come from feminine-forming suffixes, the *-ā-* (आ, Rādhā) and *-ī-* (ई, Rukmīnī). The masculine and neuter are much simpler, and the difference between them is primarily inflectional. Similar affixes for the feminine are found in many Indo-European languages, states Burrow, suggesting links of the Sanskrit to its PIE heritage. Pronouns in Sanskrit include the personal pronouns of the first and second persons, unmarked for gender, and a larger number of gender-distinguishing pronouns and adjectives. Examples of the former include *ahám* (first singular), *vayám* (first plural) and *yūyám* (second plural). The latter can be demonstrative, deictic or anaphoric. Both the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit share the *sá/tám* pronominal stem, and this is the closest element to a third person pronoun and an article in the Sanskrit language, states Jamison. Indicative, potential and imperative are the three mood forms in Sanskrit. ### Prosody, metre The Sanskrit language formally incorporates poetic metres. By the late Vedic era, this developed into a field of study; it was central to the composition of the Hindu literature, including the later Vedic texts. This study of Sanskrit prosody is called *chandas*, and is considered one of the six Vedangas, or limbs of Vedic studies. Sanskrit prosody includes linear and non-linear systems. The system started off with seven major metres, according to Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, called the "seven birds" or "seven mouths of Brihaspati", and each had its own rhythm, movements and aesthetics wherein a non-linear structure (aperiodicity) was mapped into a four verse polymorphic linear sequence. A syllable in Sanskrit is classified as either *laghu* (light) or *guru* (heavy). This classification is based on a *matra* (literally, "count, measure, duration"), and typically a syllable that ends in a short vowel is a light syllable, while those that end in consonant, *anusvara* or *visarga* are heavy. The classical Sanskrit found in Hindu scriptures such as the *Bhagavad Gita* and many texts are so arranged that the light and heavy syllables in them follow a rhythm, though not necessarily a rhyme. Sanskrit metres include those based on a fixed number of syllables per verse, and those based on fixed number of morae per verse. The Vedic Sanskrit employs fifteen metres, of which seven are common, and the most frequent are three (8-, 11- and 12-syllable lines). The Classical Sanskrit deploys both linear and non-linear metres, many of which are based on syllables and others based on diligently crafted verses based on repeating numbers of morae (matra per foot). > > There is no word without metre, > > nor is there any metre without words. > > > —*Natya Shastra* Metre and rhythm is an important part of the Sanskrit language. It may have played a role in helping preserve the integrity of the message and Sanskrit texts. The verse perfection in the Vedic texts such as the verse Upanishads and post-Vedic *Smṛti* texts are rich in prosody. This feature of the Sanskrit language led some Indologists from the 19th century onwards to identify suspected portions of texts where a line or sections are off the expected metre. The metre-feature of the Sanskrit language embeds another layer of communication to the listener or reader. A change in metres has been a tool of literary architecture and an embedded code to inform the reciter and audience that it marks the end of a section or chapter. Each section or chapter of these texts uses identical metres, rhythmically presenting their ideas and making it easier to remember, recall and check for accuracy. Authors coded a hymn's end by frequently using a verse of a metre different from that used in the hymn's body. However, Hindu tradition does not use the Gayatri metre to end a hymn or composition, possibly because it has enjoyed a special level of reverence in Hinduism. Writing system -------------- The early history of writing Sanskrit and other languages in ancient India is a problematic topic despite a century of scholarship, states Richard Salomon – an epigraphist and Indologist specializing in Sanskrit and Pali literature. The earliest possible script from South Asia is from the Indus Valley civilization (3rd/2nd millennium BCE), but this script – if it is a script – remains undeciphered. If any scripts existed in the Vedic period, they have not survived. Scholars generally accept that Sanskrit was spoken in an oral society, and that an oral tradition preserved the extensive Vedic and Classical Sanskrit literature. Other scholars such as Jack Goody argue that the Vedic Sanskrit texts are not the product of an oral society, basing this view by comparing inconsistencies in the transmitted versions of literature from various oral societies such as the Greek, Serbian, and other cultures. This minority of scholars argue that the Vedic literature is too consistent and vast to have been composed and transmitted orally across generations, without being written down. *Lipi* is the term in Sanskrit which means "writing, letters, alphabet". It contextually refers to scripts, the art or any manner of writing or drawing. The term, in the sense of a writing system, appears in some of the earliest Buddhist, Hindu, and Jaina texts. Pāṇini's *Astadhyayi*, composed sometime around the 5th or 4th century BCE, for example, mentions *lipi* in the context of a writing script and education system in his times, but he does not name the script. Several early Buddhist and Jaina texts, such as the *Lalitavistara Sūtra* and *Pannavana Sutta* include lists of numerous writing scripts in ancient India. The Buddhist texts list the sixty four *lipi* that the Buddha knew as a child, with the Brahmi script topping the list. "The historical value of this list is however limited by several factors", states Salomon. The list may be a later interpolation. The Jain canonical texts such as the *Pannavana Sutta* – probably older than the Buddhist texts – list eighteen writing systems, with the Brahmi topping the list and Kharotthi (Kharoshthi) listed as fourth. The Jaina text elsewhere states that the "Brahmi is written in 18 different forms", but the details are lacking. However, the reliability of these lists has been questioned and the empirical evidence of writing systems in the form of Sanskrit or Prakrit inscriptions dated prior to the 3rd century BCE has not been found. If the ancient surface for writing Sanskrit was palm leaves, tree bark and cloth—the same as those in later times, these have not survived. According to Salomon, many find it difficult to explain the "evidently high level of political organization and cultural complexity" of ancient India without a writing system for Sanskrit and other languages. The oldest datable writing systems for Sanskrit are the Brāhmī script, the related Kharoṣṭhī script and the Brahmi derivatives. The Kharosthi was used in the northwestern part of South Asia and it became extinct, while the Brahmi was used all over the subcontinent along with regional scripts such as Old Tamil. Of these, the earliest records in the Sanskrit language are in Brahmi, a script that later evolved into numerous related Indic scripts for Sanskrit, along with Southeast Asian scripts (Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, others) and many extinct Central Asian scripts such as those discovered along with the Kharosthi in the Tarim Basin of western China and in Uzbekistan. The most extensive inscriptions that have survived into the modern era are the rock edicts and pillar inscriptions of the 3rd century BCE Mauryan emperor Ashoka, but these are not in Sanskrit. ### Scripts Over the centuries, and across countries, a number of scripts have been used to write Sanskrit. #### Brahmi script The Brahmi script for writing Sanskrit is a "modified consonant-syllabic" script. The graphic syllable is its basic unit, and this consists of a consonant with or without diacritic modifications. Since the vowel is an integral part of the consonants, and given the efficiently compacted, fused consonant cluster morphology for Sanskrit words and grammar, the Brahmi and its derivative writing systems deploy ligatures, diacritics and relative positioning of the vowel to inform the reader how the vowel is related to the consonant and how it is expected to be pronounced for clarity. This feature of Brahmi and its modern Indic script derivatives makes it difficult to classify it under the main script types used for the writing systems for most of the world's languages, namely logographic, syllabic and alphabetic. The Brahmi script evolved into "a vast number of forms and derivatives", states Richard Salomon, and in theory, Sanskrit "can be represented in virtually any of the main Brahmi-based scripts and in practice it often is". From the ancient times, it has been written in numerous regional scripts in South and Southeast Asia. Most of these are descendants of the Brahmi script. The earliest datable *varnamala* Brahmi alphabet system, found in later Sanskrit texts, is from the 2nd century BCE, in the form of a terracotta plaque found in Sughana, Haryana. It shows a "schoolboy's writing lessons", states Salomon. #### Nagari script Many modern era manuscripts are written and available in the Nagari script, whose form is attestable to the 1st millennium CE. The Nagari script is the ancestor of Devanagari (north India), Nandinagari (south India) and other variants. The Nāgarī script was in regular use by 7th century CE, and had fully evolved into Devanagari and Nandinagari scripts by about the end of the first millennium of the common era. The Devanagari script, states Banerji, became more popular for Sanskrit in India since about the 18th century. However, Sanskrit does have special historical connection to the Nagari script as attested by the epigraphical evidence. The Nagari script has been thought of as a northern Indic script for Sanskrit as well as the regional languages such as Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali. However, it has had a "supra-local" status as evidenced by 1st-millennium CE epigraphy and manuscripts discovered all over India and as far as Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia, and in its parent form, called the Siddhamatrka script, found in manuscripts of East Asia. The Sanskrit and Balinese languages Sanur inscription on Belanjong pillar of Bali (Indonesia), dated to about 914 CE, is in part in the Nagari script. The Nagari script used for Classical Sanskrit has the fullest repertoire of characters consisting of fourteen vowels and thirty three consonants. For Vedic Sanskrit, it has two more allophonic consonantal characters (the intervocalic ळ *ḷa*, and ळ्ह *ḷha*). To communicate phonetic accuracy, it also includes several modifiers such as the *anusvara* dot and the *visarga* double dot, punctuation symbols and others such as the *halanta* sign. #### Other writing systems Other scripts such as Gujarati, Bangla, Odia and major south Indian scripts, states Salomon, "have been and often still are used in their proper territories for writing Sanskrit". These and many Indian scripts look different to the untrained eye, but the differences between Indic scripts is "mostly superficial and they share the same phonetic repertoire and systemic features", states Salomon. They all have essentially the same set of eleven to fourteen vowels and thirty-three consonants as established by the Sanskrit language and attestable in the Brahmi script. Further, a closer examination reveals that they all have the similar basic graphic principles, the same *varnamala* (literally, "garland of letters") alphabetic ordering following the same logical phonetic order, easing the work of historic skilled scribes writing or reproducing Sanskrit works across South Asia. The Sanskrit language written in some Indic scripts exaggerate angles or round shapes, but this serves only to mask the underlying similarities. Nagari script favours symmetry set with squared outlines and right angles. In contrast, Sanskrit written in the Bangla script emphasizes the acute angles while the neighbouring Odia script emphasizes rounded shapes and uses cosmetically appealing "umbrella-like curves" above the script symbols. In the south, where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit include the Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Grantha alphabets. ### Transliteration schemes, Romanisation Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. The system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1888. ASCII-based transliteration schemes have also evolved because of difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS, a transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode-aware web browsers, IAST has become common online. It is also possible to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to Devanagari using software like Mac OS X's international support. European scholars in the 19th century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts. However, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European Languages were usually represented with Roman transliteration. From the 20th century onwards, because of production costs, textual editions edited by Western scholars have mostly been in Romanised transliteration. ### Epigraphy The earliest known stone inscriptions in Sanskrit are in the Brahmi script from the first century BCE. These include the Ayodhyā (Uttar Pradesh) and Hāthībādā-Ghosuṇḍī (near Chittorgarh, Rajasthan) inscriptions. Both of these, states Salomon, are "essentially standard" and "correct Sanskrit", with a few exceptions reflecting an "informal Sanskrit usage". Other important Hindu inscriptions dated to the 1st century BCE, in relatively accurate classical Sanskrit and Brahmi script are the Yavanarajya inscription on a red sandstone slab and the long Naneghat inscription on the wall of a cave rest stop in the Western Ghats. Besides these few examples from the 1st century BCE, the earliest Sanskrit and hybrid dialect inscriptions are found in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). These date to the 1st and 2nd century CE, states Salomon, from the time of the Indo-Scythian Northern Satraps and the subsequent Kushan Empire. These are also in the Brahmi script. The earliest of these, states Salomon, are attributed to Ksatrapa Sodasa from the early years of 1st century CE. Of the Mathura inscriptions, the most significant is the Mora Well Inscription. In a manner similar to the Hathibada inscription, the Mora well inscription is a dedicatory inscription and is linked to the cult of the Vrishni heroes: it mentions a stone shrine (temple), pratima (murti, images) and calls the five Vrishnis as *bhagavatam*. There are many other Mathura Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script overlapping the era of Indo-Scythian Northern Satraps and early Kushanas. Other significant 1st-century inscriptions in reasonably good classical Sanskrit in the Brahmi script include the Vasu Doorjamb Inscription and the Mountain Temple inscription. The early ones are related to the Brahmanical, except for the inscription from Kankali Tila which may be Jaina, but none are Buddhist. A few of the later inscriptions from the 2nd century CE include Buddhist Sanskrit, while others are in "more or less" standard Sanskrit and related to the Brahmanical tradition. Starting in about the 1st century BCE, Sanskrit has been written in many South Asian, Southeast Asian and Central Asian scripts. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, Brahmi script Sanskrit inscriptions from the early centuries of the common era exist at the Nasik Caves site, near the Girnar mountain of Junagadh and elsewhere such as at Kanakhera, Kanheri, and Gunda. The Nasik inscription dates to the mid-1st century CE, is a fair approximation of standard Sanskrit and has hybrid features. The Junagadh rock inscription of Western Satraps ruler Rudradaman I (c. 150 CE, Gujarat) is the first long poetic-style inscription in "more or less" standard Sanskrit that has survived into the modern era. It represents a turning point in the history of Sanskrit epigraphy, states Salomon. Though no similar inscriptions are found for about two hundred years after the Rudradaman reign, it is important because its style is the prototype of the eulogy-style Sanskrit inscriptions found in the Gupta Empire era. These inscriptions are also in the Brahmi script. The Nagarjunakonda inscriptions are the earliest known substantial South Indian Sanskrit inscriptions, probably from the late 3rd century or early 4th century CE, or both. These inscriptions are related to Buddhism and the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism. A few of these inscriptions from both traditions are verse-style in the classical Sanskrit language, while some such as the pillar inscription is written in prose and a hybridized Sanskrit language. An earlier hybrid Sanskrit inscription found on Amaravati slab is dated to the late 2nd century, while a few later ones include Sanskrit inscriptions along with Prakrit inscriptions related to Hinduism and Buddhism. After the 3rd century CE, Sanskrit inscriptions dominate and many have survived. Between the 4th and 7th centuries CE, south Indian inscriptions are exclusively in the Sanskrit language. In the eastern regions of South Asia, scholars report minor Sanskrit inscriptions from the 2nd century, these being fragments and scattered. The earliest substantial true Sanskrit language inscription of Susuniya (West Bengal) is dated to the 4th century. Elsewhere, such as Dehradun (Uttarakhand), inscriptions in more or less correct classical Sanskrit inscriptions are dated to the 3rd century. According to Salomon, the 4th-century reign of Samudragupta was the turning point when the classical Sanskrit language became established as the "epigraphic language par excellence" of the Indian world. These Sanskrit language inscriptions are either "donative" or "panegyric" records. Generally in accurate classical Sanskrit, they deploy a wide range of regional Indic writing systems extant at the time. They record the donation of a temple or stupa, images, land, monasteries, pilgrim's travel record, public infrastructure such as water reservoir and irrigation measures to prevent famine. Others praise the king or the donor in lofty poetic terms. The Sanskrit language of these inscriptions is written on stone, various metals, terracotta, wood, crystal, ivory, shell, and cloth. The evidence of the use of the Sanskrit language in Indic writing systems appears in southeast Asia in the first half of the 1st millennium CE. A few of these in Vietnam are bilingual where both the Sanskrit and the local language is written in the Indian alphabet. Early Sanskrit language inscriptions in Indic writing systems are dated to the 4th century in Malaysia, 5th to 6th centuries in Thailand near Si Thep and the Sak River, early 5th century in Kutai (known as the Mulavarman inscription discovered in eastern Borneo), and mid-5th century in west Java (Indonesia). Both major writing systems for Sanskrit, the North Indian and South Indian scripts, have been discovered in southeast Asia, but the Southern variety with its rounded shapes are far more common. The Indic scripts, particularly the Pallava script prototype, spread and ultimately evolved into Mon-Burmese, Khmer, Thai, Lao, Sumatran, Celebes, Javanese and Balinese scripts. From about the 5th century, Sanskrit inscriptions become common in many parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia, with significant discoveries in Nepal, Vietnam and Cambodia. Literature ---------- Literature in Sanskrit can be broadly divided into texts composed in Vedic Sanskrit and the later Classical Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the extensive liturgical works of the Vedic religion, which aside from the four Vedas, include the Brāhmaṇas and the Sūtras. The Vedic literature that survives is entirely of a religious form, whereas works in Classical Sanskrit exist in a wide variety of fields including epics, lyric, drama, romance, fairytale, fables, grammar, civil and religious law, the science of politics and practical life, the science of love and sex, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, astrology and mathematics, and is largely secular in subject-matter. While Vedic literature is essentially optimistic in spirit, portraying man as strong and powerful capable of finding fulfilment both here and in the afterworld, the later literature is pessimistic, portraying humans as controlled by the forces of fate with worldly pleasures deemed the cause of misery. These fundamental differences in psychology are attributed to the absence of the doctrines of Karma and reincarnation in the Vedic period, notions which are very prevalent in later times. ### Works Sanskrit has been written in various scripts on a variety of media such as palm leaves, cloth, paper, rock and metal sheets, from ancient times. Sanskrit literature by tradition| Tradition | Sanskrit texts, genre or collection | Example | References | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Hinduism | Scriptures | Vedas, Upaniṣads, Āgamas, the Bhagavad·Gītā | | | Language, Grammar | Aṣṭādhyāyī, Gaṇa·pāṭha, Pada·pāṭha, Vārttikas, Mahābhāṣya, Vākya·padīya, Phiṭ·sūtra | | | Civil and Religious Law | Dharma·sūtras/Dharma·śāstras, Manu·smṛti | | | Statecraft, political science | Artha·śāstra | | | Timekeeping, Mathematics, Logic | Kalpa, Jyotiṣa, Gaṇita·śāstra, Śulba·sūtras, Siddhāntas, Āryabhaṭīya, Daśa·gītikā·sutra, Siddhānta·śiromaṇi, Gaṇita·sāra·saṅgraha, Bīja·gaṇita | | | Life sciences, health | Āyurveda, Suśruta·saṃhitā, Caraka·saṃhitā | | | Sex, emotions | Kāma·sūtra, Pañca·sāyaka, Rati·rahasya, Rati·mañjari, Anaṅga·ranga | | | Epics | Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata | | | Court Epic (Kāvya) | Raghu·vaṃśa, Kumāra·sambhava | | | Gnomic and didactic literature | Subhāṣitas, Nīti·śataka, Bodhicary'âvatāra, Śṛṅgāra·jñāna·nirṇaya, Kalā·vilāsa, Catur·varga·saṅgraha, Nīti·mañjari, Mugdh'ôpadeśa, Subhāṣita·ratna·sandoha, Yoga·śāstra, Śṛṅgāra·vairāgya·taraṅgiṇī | | | Drama, dance and the performance arts | Nāṭya·śāstra | | | Music | Sangīta·śāstra | | | Poetics | Kāvya·śāstra | | | Mythology | Purāṇas | | | Mystical speculations, Philosophy | Darśana, Sāṅkhya, Yoga (philosophy), Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṅsa, Vedānta, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smārta Tradition and others | | | Agriculture and food | Kṛṣi·śāstra | | | Design, architecture (Vastu, Śilpa) | Śilpa·śāstra | | | Temples, Sculpture | Bṛhat·saṃhitā | | | | Saṃskāra (rites-of-passage) | Gṛhya·sūtras | | | Buddhism | Sutras, Vinaya, Kāvya, Medicine, Buddhist philosophy | Tripiṭaka, Mahayana sutras and shastras, tantras, grammar texts, Buddhist poetry, drama, Buddhist medical texts | | | Jainism | Theology, philosophy | Tattvārtha Sūtra, Mahāpurāṇa and others | | Lexicon ------- As an Indo-European language, Sanskrit's core lexicon is inherited from Proto-Indo-European. Over time however, the language exhibits a tendency to shed many of these inherited words and borrow others in their place from other sources. In the oldest Vedic literature, there are few such non-Indo-European words, but these progressively grow in volume. The following are some of the old Indo-European words that eventually fade out of use in Sanskrit: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | *ápas* | work | c.f. Latin *opus* | | *kravís*   | raw flesh   | c.f. Latin *crūdus* | | *dáma-*   | house   | c.f. Latin *domus* | | *dā́nu-* | moisture | | | *háras-* | heat | | ### Dravidian lexical influence The sources of these new loanwords are many, and vary across the different regions of the Indian subcontinent. But of all influences on the lexicon of Sanskrit, the most important is Dravidian. The following is a list of Dravidian entrants into Sanskrit lexicon, although some may have been contested: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | *phálam* | ripe fruit | Proto-Dravidian *\*paḷam* | | *múkham*   | mouth | Proto-Dravidian *\*mukam* | | *kajjala-*   | soot, lampblack   | | | *kaṭu-* | sharp, pungent | | | *kaṭhina-* | hard, firm | | | *kuṭi-* | hut, house | | | *kuṭṭ-* | to pound | | | *kuṇḍala-*   | loop, ring, earring, coil of rope | | | *khala-* | a rogue | | | *mayū́ra-* | peacock | | | *mallikā* | jasmine | | | *mīna-* | fish | | | *vallī-* | creeper | | | *heramba-*   | buffalo | | ### Nominal-form preference While Vedic and epic form of speech is largely cognate to that of other Indo-European languages such as Greek and Latin, later Sanskrit shows a tendency to move away from using verbal forms to nominal ones. Examples of nominal forms taking the place of conventional conjugation are: | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | past participle with   the instrumental | *nareṇa gataḥ*     |   | "the man went", (lit. "by the man [it was] gone") | |   | | active past participle   in *-vant* | *kṛta·vān*   |   | "he did"   | However the most notable development is the prolific use of word-compounding to express ideas normally conveyed by verbal forms and subclauses introduced by conjunctions. Classical Sanskrit's pre-eminent playwright Kālidāsa uses: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | *vīcikṣobhastanitavihagaśreṇikāñcīguṇā*     |   | whose girdle-string is a row of birds, loquacious through the agitation of the waves | Influence on other languages ---------------------------- For nearly 2,000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the *Ramayana* and *Mahabharata*. The deviations from *Pāṇini* in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations *ārṣa* (आर्ष), meaning 'of the ṛṣis', the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts, there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is a literary language heavily influenced by the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, based on early Buddhist Prakrit texts which subsequently assimilated to the Classical Sanskrit standard in varying degrees. ### Indian subcontinent Sanskrit has greatly influenced the languages of India that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base; for instance, Hindi is a "Sanskritised register" of Hindustani. All modern Indo-Aryan languages, as well as Munda and Dravidian languages have borrowed many words either directly from Sanskrit (*tatsama* words), or indirectly via middle Indo-Aryan languages (*tadbhava* words). Words originating in Sanskrit are estimated at roughly fifty percent of the vocabulary of modern Indo-Aryan languages, as well as the literary forms of Malayalam and Kannada. Literary texts in Telugu are lexically Sanskrit or Sanskritised to an enormous extent, perhaps seventy percent or more. Marathi is another prominent language in Western India, that derives most of its words and Marathi grammar from Sanskrit. Sanskrit words are often preferred in the literary texts in Marathi over corresponding colloquial Marathi word. There has been a profound influence of Sanskrit on the lexical and grammatical systems of Dravidian languages. As per Dalby, India has been a single cultural area for about two millennia which has helped Sanskrit influence on all the Indic languages. Emeneau and Burrow mention the tendency "for all four of the Dravidian literary languages in South to make literary use of total Sanskrit lexicon indiscriminately". There are a large number of loanwords found in the vocabulary of the three major Dravidian languages Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. Tamil also has significant loanwords from Sanskrit. Krishnamurthi mentions that although it is not clear when the Sanskrit influence happened on the Dravidian languages, it might have been around the 5th century BCE at the time of separation of Tamil and Kannada from a common ancestral stage. ‌The borrowed words are classified into two types based on phonological integration – *tadbhava* – those words derived from Prakrit and *tatsama* – unassimilated loanwords from Sanskrit. Strazny mentions that "so massive has been the influence that it is hard to utter Sanskrit words have influenced Kannada from the early times". The first document in Kannada, the Halmidi inscription has a large number of Sanskrit words. As per Kachru, the influence has not only been on single lexical items in Kannada but also on "long nominal compounds and complicated syntactic expressions". New words have been created in Kannada using Sanskrit derivational prefixes and suffixes like *vike:ndri:karaṇa, anili:karaṇa, bahi:skruTa*. Similar stratification is found in verb morphology. Sanskrit words readily undergo verbalization in Kannada, verbalizing suffixes as in: *cha:pisu, dowDa:yisu, rava:nisu.* George mentions that "No other Dravidian language has been so deeply influenced by Sanskrit as Malayalam". According to Lambert, Malayalam is so immensely Sanskritised that every Sanskrit word can be used in Malayalam by integrating "prosodic phonological" changes as per Grant. Loanwords have been integrated into Malayalam by "prosodic phonological" changes as per Grant. These phonological changes are either by replacement of a vowel as in *sant-*am coming from Sanskrit *santa*, *sāgar*-am from *sāgara*, or addition of prothetic vowel as in *aracan* from *rājā-*, *uruvam* from *rūpa*, *codyam* from *sodhya*. Hans Henrich et al. note that, the language of the pre-modern Telugu literature was also highly influenced by Sanskrit and was standardized between 11th and 14th centuries. Aiyar has shown that in a class of *tadbhavas* in Telugu the first and second letters are often replaced by the third and fourth letters and fourth again replaced often by h. Examples of the same are: Sanskrit *artha* becomes *ardhama*, *vīthi* becomes *vidhi*, *putra* becomes *bidda*, *mukham* becomes *muhamu*. Tamil also has been influenced from Sanskrit. Hans Henrich et al. mention that propagation of Jainism and Buddhism into south India had its influence. Shulman mentions that although contrary to the views held by Tamil purists, modern Tamil has been significantly influenced from Sanskrit, further states that "Indeed there may well be more Sanskrit in Tamil than in the Sanskrit derived north-Indian vernaculars". Sanskrit words have been Tamilized through the "Tamil phonematic grid". ### Beyond the Indian subcontinent Sanskrit has had a historical presence and influence in many parts of Asia. Above (top clockwise): [i] a Sanskrit manuscript from Turkestan, [ii] another from Miran-China. Sanskrit was a language for religious purposes and for the political elite in parts of medieval era Southeast Asia, Central Asia and East Asia, having been introduced in these regions mainly along with the spread of Buddhism. In some cases, it has competed with Pāli for prominence. #### East Asia [i] a bell with Sanskrit engravings in South Korea [ii] the Kūkai calligraphy of Siddham-Sanskrit in Japan Buddhist Sanskrit has had a considerable influence on Sino-Tibetan languages such as Chinese, state William Wang and Chaofen Sun. Many words have been adopted from Sanskrit into the Chinese, both in its historic religious discourse and everyday use. This process likely started about 200 CE and continued through about 1400 CE, with the efforts of monks such as Yuezhi, Anxi, Kangju, Tianzhu, Yan Fodiao, Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing. Further, as the Chinese languages and culture influenced the rest of East Asia, the ideas in Sanskrit texts and some of its linguistic elements migrated further. Many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. Chinese words like 剎那 *chànà* (Devanagari: क्षण **kṣaṇa** 'instantaneous period') were borrowed from Sanskrit. Many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan collections of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings, the Tengyur. Sanskrit has also influenced the religious register of Japanese mostly through transliterations. These were borrowed from Chinese transliterations. In particular, the Shingon (lit. 'True Words') sect of esoteric Buddhism has been relying on Sanskrit and original Sanskrit mantras and writings, as a means of realizing Buddhahood. #### Southeast Asia [i] the Thai script [ii] a Sanskrit inscription in Cambodia A large number of inscriptions in Sanskrit across Southeast Asia testify the influence the language held in these regions. Languages such as Indonesian, Thai and Lao contain many loanwords from Sanskrit, as does Khmer. Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in Austronesian languages, such as Javanese, particularly the older form in which nearly half the vocabulary is borrowed. Other Austronesian languages, such as Malay (descended into modern Malaysian and Indonesian standards) also derive much of their vocabulary from Sanskrit. Similarly, Philippine languages such as Tagalog have some Sanskrit loanwords, although more are derived from Spanish. A Sanskrit loanword encountered in many Southeast Asian languages is the word *bhāṣā*, or spoken language, which is used to refer to the names of many languages. To this day, Southeast Asian languages such as Thai are known to draw upon Sanskrit for technical vocabulary. ##### *Indonesia* The ancient Yūpa inscription (one of the earliest and oldest Sanskrit texts written in ancient Indonesia) dating back to the 4th century CE written by Brahmins under the rule of King Mulavarman of the Kutai Martadipura Kingdom located in eastern Borneo The earliest Sanskrit text which was founded in the Indonesian archipelago was at Eastern Borneo dating back to 400 CE known as the Mulavarman inscription. This is one of the reason of strong influence of Indian culture that entered the Malay archipelago during the Indianization era, and since then, Indian culture has been absorbed towards Indonesian culture and language. Thus, the Sanskrit culture in Indonesia exists not as a religious aspect but more towards a cultural aspect that has been present for generations, resulting in a more cultural rather than Hinduistic value of the Indonesian people. As a result, it is common to find Muslim or Christian Indonesians with names that have Indian or Sanskrit nuances. Unlike names derived from Sanskrit in Thai and Khmer, the pronunciation of Sanskrit names in Indonesia is more similar to the original Indian pronunciation, except that "v" is changed to "w", for example, "Vishnu" in India will be spelled "Wisnu" in Indonesia. Sanskrit has influenced Indonesian to a great extent. Many words in Indonesian are taken from Sanskrit, for example from the word "language" (bhāṣa) itself comes from Sanskrit which means: "talking accent". In fact, names of cities such as Jayapura (the capital city of Papua province), including terms and mottoes of government, educational and military institutions use Sanskrit, such as the rank of general for example in the Indonesian Navy is "Laksamana" (taken from the Ramayana). The name of the environmental award given to cities throughout Indonesia by the central government is also taken from Sanskrit known as the "Adipura" award, namely from the words "Adi" (which means "role model") and "Pura" (which means "city") literally "A role model city" or "a city worthy of being an example". Sanskrit terms are also widely used in numerous government institutions such as the armed forces and national police, for example, the motto of the Indonesian National Police which reads *"Rashtra Sevakottama"*, the motto of the Indonesian Military Academy which reads "*Adhitakarya Mahatvavirya Nagarabhakti*" (अधिकाऱ्या विर्य नगरभक्ति) and the motto of the Indonesian Naval Academy which reads "*Hree Dharma Shanti*" are one of the small examples. Other Sanskrit terms such as: "*Adhi Makayasa*", "*Chandradimuka*", "*Tri Dharma Eka Karma*", "*Taruna*", etc are also used intensively in the Indonesian security and defence forces. #### Rest of the world In ancient and medieval times, several Sanskrit words in the field of food and spices made their way into European languages including Greek, Latin and later English. Some of these are *pepper*, *ginger* and *sugar*. English today has several words of Sanskrit origin, most of them borrowed during the British Raj or later. Some of these words have in turn been borrowed by other European or world languages. Modern era ---------- ### Liturgy, ceremonies and meditation Sanskrit is the sacred language of various Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. It is used during worship in Hindu temples. In Newar Buddhism, it is used in all monasteries, while Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhist religious texts and sutras are in Sanskrit as well as vernacular languages. Some of the revered texts of Jainism including the Tattvartha sutra, Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra, the Bhaktamara Stotra and later versions of the Agamas are in Sanskrit. Further, states Paul Dundas, Sanskrit mantras and Sanskrit as a ritual language was commonplace among Jains throughout their medieval history. Many Hindu rituals and rites-of-passage such as the "giving away the bride" and mutual vows at weddings, a baby's naming or first solid food ceremony and the goodbye during a cremation invoke and chant Sanskrit hymns. Major festivals such as the *Durga Puja* ritually recite entire Sanskrit texts such as the *Devi Mahatmya* every year particularly amongst the numerous communities of eastern India. In the south, Sanskrit texts are recited at many major Hindu temples such as the Meenakshi Temple. According to Richard H. Davis, a scholar of Religion and South Asian studies, the breadth and variety of oral recitations of the Sanskrit text *Bhagavad Gita* is remarkable. In India and beyond, its recitations include "simple private household readings, to family and neighborhood recitation sessions, to holy men reciting in temples or at pilgrimage places for passersby, to public Gita discourses held almost nightly at halls and auditoriums in every Indian city". ### Literature and arts More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since India's independence in 1947. Much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages. The Sahitya Akademi has given an award for the best creative work in Sanskrit every year since 1967. In 2009, Satya Vrat Shastri became the first Sanskrit author to win the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award. Sanskrit is used extensively in the Carnatic and Hindustani branches of classical music. Kirtanas, bhajans, stotras, and shlokas of Sanskrit are popular throughout India. The Samaveda uses musical notations in several of its recessions. In Mainland China, musicians such as Sa Dingding have written pop songs in Sanskrit. Numerous loan Sanskrit words are found in other major Asian languages. For example, Filipino, Cebuano, Lao, Khmer Thai and its alphabets, Malay (including Malaysian and Indonesian), Javanese (old Javanese-English dictionary by P.J. Zoetmulder contains over 25,500 entries), and even in English. ### Media Since 1974, there has been a short daily news broadcast on state-run All India Radio. These broadcasts are also made available on the internet on AIR's website. Sanskrit news is broadcast on TV and on the internet through the DD National channel at 6:55 AM IST. Over 90 weeklies, fortnightlies and quarterlies are published in Sanskrit. *Sudharma*, a daily printed newspaper in Sanskrit, has been published out of Mysore, India, since 1970. It was started by K.N. Varadaraja Iyengar, a Sanskrit scholar from Mysore. Sanskrit Vartman Patram and Vishwasya Vrittantam started in Gujarat during the last five years. ### Schools and contemporary status Sanskrit has been taught in schools from time immemorial in India. In modern times, the first Sanskrit University was Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, established in 1791 in the Indian city of Varanasi. Sanskrit is taught in 5,000 traditional schools (Pathashalas), and 14,000 schools in India, where there are also 22 colleges and universities dedicated to the exclusive study of the language. Sanskrit is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Despite it being a studied school subject in contemporary India, Sanskrit has not been spoken as a native language in centuries. The Central Board of Secondary Education of India (CBSE), along with several other state education boards, has made Sanskrit an alternative option to the state's own official language as a second or third language choice in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools affiliated with the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board, especially in states where the official language is Hindi. Sanskrit is also taught in traditional gurukulas throughout India. A number of colleges and universities in India have dedicated departments for Sanskrit studies. In March 2020, the Indian Parliament passed the *Central Sanskrit Universities Act, 2020* which upgraded three universities, National Sanskrit University, Central Sanskrit University and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University, from the deemed to be university status to a central university status. Dmitri Mendeleev used the Sanskrit numbers of one, two and three ( eka-, dvi- or dwi-, and tri- respectively) to give provisional names to his predicted elements, like eka-boron being Gallium or eka-Radium being Ununennium. In the province of Bali in Indonesia, a number of educational and scholarly institutions have also been conducting Sanskrit lessons for Hindu locals. #### In the West St James Junior School and Avanti Schools Trust in London, England, offer Sanskrit as part of the curriculum. Since September 2009, US high school students have been able to receive credits as Independent Study or toward Foreign Language requirements by studying Sanskrit as part of the "SAFL: Samskritam as a Foreign Language" program coordinated by Samskrita Bharati. In Australia, the private boys' high school Sydney Grammar School offers Sanskrit from years 7 through to 12, including for the Higher School Certificate. Other schools that offer Sanskrit include the Ficino School in Auckland, New Zealand; St James Preparatory Schools in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa; John Colet School, Sydney, Australia; Erasmus School, Melbourne, Australia. ### European studies and discourse European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731), is considered responsible for the discovery of an Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones (1746–1794). This research played an important role in the development of Western philology, or historical linguistics. The 18th- and 19th-century speculations about the possible links of Sanskrit to ancient Egyptian language were later proven to be wrong, but it fed an orientalist discourse both in the form Indophobia and Indophilia, states Trautmann. Sanskrit writings, when first discovered, were imagined by Indophiles to potentially be "repositories of the primitive experiences and religion of the human race, and as such confirmatory of the truth of Christian scripture", as well as a key to "universal ethnological narrative". The Indophobes imagined the opposite, making the counterclaim that there is little of any value in Sanskrit, portraying it as "a language fabricated by artful [Brahmin] priests", with little original thought, possibly copied from the Greeks who came with Alexander or perhaps the Persians. Scholars such as William Jones and his colleagues felt the need for systematic studies of Sanskrit language and literature. This launched the Asiatic Society, an idea that was soon transplanted to Europe starting with the efforts of Henry Thomas Colebrooke in Britain, then Alexander Hamilton who helped expand its studies to Paris and thereafter his student Friedrich Schlegel who introduced Sanskrit to the universities of Germany. Schlegel nurtured his own students into influential European Sanskrit scholars, particularly through Franz Bopp and Friedrich Max Müller. As these scholars translated the Sanskrit manuscripts, the enthusiasm for Sanskrit grew rapidly among European scholars, states Trautmann, and chairs for Sanskrit "were established in the universities of nearly every German statelet" creating a competition for Sanskrit experts. ### Symbolic usage In India, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various national, educational and social organisations: * India: *Satyameva Jayate* (सत्यमेव जयते), meaning 'truth alone triumphs'. * Nepal: *Janani Janmabhūmischa Swargādapi Garīyasī* (जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी), meaning 'mother and motherland are superior to heaven'. * Indonesia: In Indonesia, Sanskrit is widely used as terms and mottoes of the armed forces and other national organizations *(See: Indonesian Armed Forces mottoes)*. *Rastra Sewakottama* (राष्ट्र सेवकोत्तम, transl. 'people's main servants') is the official motto of the Indonesian National Police, *Tri Dharma Eka Karma* (त्रिधर्म एक कर्म) is the official motto of the Indonesian Military, *Kartika Eka Paksi* (कार्तिक एक पक्षी, transl. 'unmatchable bird with noble goals') is the official motto of the Indonesian Army, *Adhitakarya Mahatvavirya Nagarabhakti* (अधीतकार्य महत्ववीर्य नगरभक्ति, transl. 'hard-working knights serving bravery as nations hero') is the official motto of the Indonesian Military Academy, *Upakriya Labdha Prayojana Balottama* (उपक्रिया लब्ध प्रयोजन बालोत्तम, transl. 'purpose of the unit is to give the best service to the nation by finding the perfect soldier') is the official motto of the Army Psychological Corps, *Karmanye Vadikaraste Mafalesu Kadatjana* (कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन, transl. 'working without counting the profit and loss') is the official motto of the Air-Force Special Forces (Paskhas), *Jalesu Bhumyamca Jayamahe* (जलेषु भूम्यम्च जयमहे, transl. 'on the sea and land we are glorious') is the official motto of the Indonesian Marine Corps, and there are more units and organizations in Indonesia either Armed Forces or civil which use the Sanskrit language respectively as their mottoes and other purposes. * Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms use Sanskrit. The Indian guided missile program that was commenced in 1983 by the Defence Research and Development Organisation has named the five missiles (ballistic and others) that it developed Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag and the Trishul missile system. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named HAL Tejas. In November 2020, Gaurav Sharma, a New Zealand politician of Indian origin swore into parliament using Sanskrit alongside Māori; the decision was made as a "homage to all Indian languages" compromising between his native Pahari and Punjabi. ### In popular culture The song *My Sweet Lord* by George Harrison includes The Hare Krishna mantra, also referred to reverentially as the Maha Mantra, a 16-word Vaishnava mantra which is mentioned in the Kali-Santarana Upanishad. *Satyagraha*, an opera by Philip Glass, uses texts from the *Bhagavad Gita*, sung in Sanskrit. In 1996, English psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker released *Govinda*, a song entirely sung in Sanskrit. The closing credits of *The Matrix Revolutions* has a prayer from the *Brihadaranyaka Upanishad*. The song "Cyber-raga" from Madonna's album *Music* includes Sanskrit chants, and *Shanti/Ashtangi* from her 1998 album *Ray of Light*, which won a Grammy, is the ashtanga vinyasa yoga chant. The lyrics include the mantra *Om shanti*. Composer John Williams featured choirs singing in Sanskrit for *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom* and in *Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace*. The theme song of *Battlestar Galactica 2004* is the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rigveda. The lyrics of "The Child in Us" by Enigma also contain Sanskrit verses. In 2006, Mexican singer Paulina Rubio was influenced in Sanskrit for her concept album *Ananda*. See also -------- * Arsha prayoga * Āryabhaṭa numeration * List of Sanskrit-related topics * Spitzer Manuscript * Proto-Indo-Aryan * Proto-Indo-Iranian * Proto-Indo-European ### Bibliography * H. W. Bailey (1955). 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Cambridge University Press. **22** (3): 261–275. doi:10.2307/2050186. JSTOR 2050186. S2CID 162241490. * Angus Stevenson; Maurice Waite (2011). *Concise Oxford English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-960110-3. * Southworth, Franklin (2004). *Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia*. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-31777-6. * Philipp Strazny (2013). *Encyclopedia of Linguistics*. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-45522-4. * Paul Thieme (1958). "The Indo-European Language". *Scientific American*. **199** (4): 63–78. Bibcode:1958SciAm.199d..63T. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1058-63. JSTOR 24944793. * Peter van der Veer (2008). "Does Sanskrit Knowledge Exist?". *Journal of Indian Philosophy*. Springer. **36** (5/6): 633–641. doi:10.1007/s10781-008-9038-8. JSTOR 23497502. S2CID 170594265. * Umāsvāti, Umaswami (1994). *That Which Is*. Translated by Nathmal Tatia. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-06-068985-8. * Wayman, Alex (1965). "The Buddhism and the Sanskrit of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit". *Journal of the American Oriental Society*. **85** (1): 111–115. doi:10.2307/597713. JSTOR 597713. * Annette Wilke; Oliver Moebus (2011). *Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism*. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-024003-0. * Whitney, W.D. (1885). "The Roots of the Sanskrit Language". *Transactions of the American Philological Association*. JSTOR. **16**: 5–29. doi:10.2307/2935779. ISSN 0271-4442. JSTOR 2935779. * Witzel, M. (1997). *Inside the texts, beyond the texts: New approaches to the study of the Vedas* (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. * Iyengar, V. Gopala (1965). *A Concise History of Classical Sanskrit Literature. Rs. 4*. * Parpola, Asko (1994). *Deciphering the Indus Script*. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43079-8. * Bloomfield, Maurice; Edgerton, Franklin (1932). *Vedic Variants - Part II - Phonetics*. Linguistic Society of America.

Sanskrit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit

**Vanilla** is a spice derived from orchids of the genus *Vanilla*, primarily obtained from pods of the species, **flat-leaved vanilla** (*V. planifolia*). Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from which the vanilla spice is obtained. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Noted French botanist and plant collector Jean Michel Claude Richard falsely claimed to have discovered the technique three or four years earlier. By the end of the 20th century, Albius was considered the true discoverer. Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico. They are *V. planifolia* (syn. *V. fragrans*), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; *V. tahitensis*, grown in the South Pacific; and *V. pompona*, found in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. The majority of the world's vanilla is the *V. planifolia* species, more commonly known as *Bourbon vanilla* (after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or *Madagascar vanilla*, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia. Madagascar's and Indonesia's cultivations produce two-thirds of the world's supply of vanilla. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice (as measured in terms of average price by unit of weight) after saffron because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive. Nevertheless, vanilla is widely used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume production, and aromatherapy, as only small amounts are needed to impart its signature flavor and aroma. History ------- *Vanilla planifolia* traditionally grew wild around the Gulf of Mexico from Tampico around to the northeast tip of South America, and from Colima to Ecuador on the Pacific side, as well as throughout the Caribbean. The Totonac people, who live along the eastern coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz, were among the first people to domesticate vanilla, cultivated on farms since at least 1185. The Totonac used vanilla as a fragrance in temples and as a good-luck charm in amulets, as well as flavoring for food and beverages. The cultivation of vanilla was a low-profile affair, as few people from outside these regions knew of it. Although the Totonacs are the most famously associated with human use of vanilla, it is speculated that the Olmecs, who also lived in the regions of wild vanilla growth thousands of years earlier, were one of the first people to use wild vanilla in cuisine. Aztecs from the central highlands of Mexico invaded the Totonacs in 1427, developed a taste for the vanilla pods, and began using vanilla to flavor their foods and drinks, often mixing it with cocoa in a drink called "*xocolatl*" that later inspired modern hot chocolate. The fruit was named *tlilxochitl*, or "black flower", because the matured fruit shrivels and turns a dark color shortly after being picked. For the Aztecs, much like earlier Mesoamerican peoples before them, it is probable that vanilla was used to tame the otherwise bitter taste of cacao, as sugarcane was not harvested in these regions at the time and there were no other sweeteners available. Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. In Europe, vanilla was seen mostly as an additive to chocolate until the early 17th century when Hugh Morgan, a creative apothecary in the employ of Queen Elizabeth I, created chocolate-free, vanilla-flavored "sweetmeats". By the 18th century, the French were using vanilla to flavor ice cream. Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla there. After 1841, when Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80% of world production in that year. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2019 data, Madagascar, followed by Indonesia, were the largest producers of vanilla in 2018. After a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands, the market price of vanilla rose sharply in the late 1970s and remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded. Prices dropped 70% over the next few years, to nearly US$20 per kilogram; prices rose sharply again after tropical cyclone Hudah struck Madagascar in April 2000. The cyclone, political instability, and poor weather in the third year drove vanilla prices to US$500/kg in 2004, bringing new countries into the vanilla industry. A good crop, coupled with decreased demand caused by the production of imitation vanilla, pushed the market price down to the $40/kg range in the middle of 2005. By 2010, prices were down to $20/kg. Cyclone Enawo caused a similar spike to $500/kg in 2017. An estimated 95% of "vanilla" products are artificially flavored with vanillin derived from lignin instead of vanilla fruits. Although it is scientifically accepted that vanilla was domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread to the Old World, in 2019 researchers published a paper stating that the use of an unidentified, Old World-endemic *Vanilla* species is attested in Canaan/Israel during the Middle Bronze Age and later. Traces of vanillin were found in wine jars in Jerusalem, which were used by the Judahite elite before the city was destroyed in 586 BCE. Etymology --------- The word *vanilla* is derived from the Spanish word *vainilla* meaning "little pod", which is the diminutive of the Latin *vagina* (sheath) describing the shape of the pods. The word "vanilla" entered the English language in 1754, when the botanist Philip Miller wrote about the genus in his *Gardener’s Dictionary*. Biology ------- ### Vanilla orchid The main species harvested for vanilla is *V. planifolia*. Although it is native to Mesoamerica and South America, it is now widely grown throughout the tropics. Indonesia and Madagascar are the world's largest producers. Additional sources include *V. pompona* and *V. tahitiensis* (grown in Niue and Tahiti), although the vanillin content of these species is much less than *V. planifolia*. Vanilla grows as a vine, climbing up an existing tree (also called a tutor), pole, or other support. It can be grown in a wood (on trees), in a plantation (on trees or poles), or in a "shader", in increasing orders of productivity. Its growth environment is referred to as its *terroir*, and includes not only the adjacent plants, but also the climate, geography, and local geology. Left alone, it will grow as high as possible on the support, with few flowers. Every year, growers fold the higher parts of the plant downward so the plant stays at heights accessible by a standing human. This also greatly stimulates flowering. The distinctively flavored compounds are found in the fruit, which results from the pollination of the flower. These seed pods are roughly a third of an inch (8 mm) by six inches (15 cm), and brownish red to black when ripe. Inside of these pods is an oily liquid full of tiny seeds. One flower produces one fruit. *V. planifolia* flowers are hermaphroditic: they carry both male (anther) and female (stigma) organs. However, self-pollination is blocked by a membrane which separates those organs. Despite various claims otherwise, the only pollinators definitively documented to date are orchid bees in the genus *Eulaema*, and all commercial vanilla production takes place via hand pollination by humans. The first vanilla orchid to flower in Europe was in the London collection of the Honourable Charles Greville in 1806. Cuttings from that plant went to Netherlands and Paris, from which the French first transplanted the vines to their overseas colonies. The vines grew, but would not fruit outside Mexico. The only known way to produce fruits is artificial pollination. Today, even in Mexico, hand pollination is used extensively. In 1837, botanist Charles François Antoine Morren began experimenting with hand pollination of *Vanilla* orchids in cultivation in Europe. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. A few years later in 1841, a simple and efficient artificial hand-pollination method was developed by a 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius on Réunion, a method still used today. Using a beveled sliver of bamboo, an agricultural worker lifts the membrane separating the anther and the stigma, then, using the thumb, transfers the pollinia from the anther to the stigma. The flower, self-pollinated, will then produce a fruit. The vanilla flower lasts about one day, sometimes less, so growers have to inspect their plantations every day for open flowers, a labor-intensive task. The fruit, a seed capsule, if left on the plant, ripens and opens at the end; as it dries, the phenolic compounds crystallize, giving the fruits a diamond-dusted appearance, which the French call *givre* (hoarfrost). It then releases the distinctive vanilla smell. The fruit contains tiny, black seeds. In dishes prepared with whole natural vanilla, these seeds are recognizable as black specks. Both the pod and the seeds are used in cooking. Like other orchids' seeds, vanilla seeds will not germinate without the presence of certain mycorrhizal fungi. Instead, growers reproduce the plant by cutting: they remove sections of the vine with six or more leaf nodes, a root opposite each leaf. The two lower leaves are removed, and this area is buried in loose soil at the base of support. The remaining upper roots cling to the support, and often grow down into the soil. Growth is rapid under good conditions. ### Cultivars * **Bourbon vanilla** or **Bourbon-Madagascar vanilla**, produced from *V. planifolia* plants introduced from the Americas, is from Indian Ocean islands such as Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius and Réunion, formerly named the Île Bourbon. It is also used to describe the distinctive vanilla flavor derived from *V. planifolia* grown successfully in tropical countries such as India. However, there is no Bourbon whiskey in Bourbon vanilla extract, despite common confusion about this. * **Mexican vanilla**, made from the native *V. planifolia*, is produced in much less quantity and marketed as the vanilla from the land of its origin. * **Tahitian vanilla** is from French Polynesia, made with *V. tahitensis*. Genetic analysis shows this species is possibly a cultivar from a hybrid of *V. planifolia* and *V. odorata*. The species was introduced by French Admiral François Alphonse Hamelin to French Polynesia from the Philippines, where it was introduced from Guatemala by the Manila Galleon trade. It comprises less than one percent of vanilla production and is only grown by a handful of skilled growers and preparers. * **West Indian vanilla** is made from *V. pompona* grown in the Caribbean and Central and South America. The term *French vanilla* is often used to designate particular preparations with a strong vanilla aroma, containing vanilla grains and sometimes also containing eggs (especially egg yolks). The appellation originates from the French style of making vanilla ice cream with a custard base, using vanilla pods, cream, and egg yolks. Inclusion of vanilla varietals from any of the former French dependencies or overseas France may be a part of the flavoring. Alternatively, French vanilla is taken to refer to a vanilla-custard flavor. ### Chemistry Vanilla essence occurs in two forms. Real seedpod extract is a complex mixture of several hundred different compounds, including vanillin, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, furfural, hexanoic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, eugenol, methyl cinnamate, and isobutyric acid. Synthetic essence consists of a solution of synthetic vanillin in ethanol. The chemical compound vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) is a major contributor to the characteristic flavor and aroma of real vanilla and is the main flavor component of cured vanilla beans. Vanillin was first isolated from vanilla pods by Gobley in 1858. By 1874, it had been obtained from glycosides of pine tree sap, temporarily causing a depression in the natural vanilla industry. Vanillin can be easily synthesized from various raw materials, but the majority of food-grade (> 99% pure) vanillin is made from guaiacol. Cultivation ----------- In general, quality vanilla only comes from good vines and through careful production methods. Commercial vanilla production can be performed under open field and "greenhouse" operations. The two production systems share these similarities: * Plant height and number of years before producing the first grains * Shade necessities * Amount of organic matter needed * A tree or frame to grow around (bamboo, coconut or *Erythrina lanceolata*) * Labor intensity (pollination and harvest activities) Vanilla grows best in a hot, humid climate from sea level to an elevation of 1,500 m. The ideal climate has moderate rainfall, 1,500–3,000 mm, evenly distributed through 10 months of the year. Optimum temperatures for cultivation are 15–30 °C (59–86 °F) during the day and 15–20 °C (59–68 °F) during the night. Ideal humidity is around 80%, and under normal greenhouse conditions, it can be achieved by an evaporative cooler. However, since greenhouse vanilla is grown near the equator and under polymer (HDPE) netting (shading of 50%), this humidity can be achieved by the environment. Most successful vanilla growing and processing is done in the region within 10 to 20° of the equator. Soils for vanilla cultivation should be loose, with high organic matter content and loamy texture. They must be well drained, and a slight slope helps in this condition. Soil pH has not been well documented, but some researchers have indicated an optimum soil pH around 5.3. Mulch is very important for proper growth of the vine, and a considerable portion of mulch should be placed in the base of the vine. Fertilization varies with soil conditions, but general recommendations are: 40 to 60 g of N, 20 to 30 g of P2O5 and 60 to 100 g of K2O should be applied to each plant per year besides organic manures, such as vermicompost, oil cakes, poultry manure, and wood ash. Foliar applications are also good for vanilla, and a solution of 1% NPK (17:17:17) can be sprayed on the plant once a month. Vanilla requires organic matter, so three or four applications of mulch a year are adequate for the plant. ### Propagation, preparation and type of stock Dissemination of vanilla can be achieved either by stem cutting or by tissue culture. For stem cutting, a progeny garden needs to be established. All plants need to grow under 50% shade, as well as the rest of the crop. Mulching the trenches with coconut husk and micro irrigation provide an ideal microclimate for vegetative growth. Cuttings between 60 and 120 cm (24 and 47 in) should be selected for planting in the field or greenhouse. Cuttings below 60 to 120 cm (24 to 47 in) need to be rooted and raised in a separate nursery before planting. Planting material should always come from unflowered portions of the vine. Wilting of the cuttings before planting provides better conditions for root initiation and establishment. Before planting the cuttings, trees to support the vine must be planted at least three months before sowing the cuttings. Pits of 30 × 30 × 30 cm are dug 30 cm (12 in) away from the tree and filled with farm yard manure (vermicompost), sand and top soil mixed well. An average of 2000 cuttings can be planted per hectare (2.5 acres). One important consideration is that when planting the cuttings from the base, four leaves should be pruned and the pruned basal point must be pressed into the soil in a way such that the nodes are in close contact with the soil, and are placed at a depth of 15 to 20 cm (5.9 to 7.9 in). The top portion of the cutting is tied to the tree using natural fibers such as banana or hemp. ### Tissue culture Tissue culture was first used as a means of creating vanilla plants during the 1980s at Tamil Nadu University. This was the part of the first project to grow *V. planifolia* in India. At that time, a shortage of vanilla planting stock was occurring in India. The approach was inspired by the work going on to tissue culture other flowering plants. Several methods have been proposed for vanilla tissue culture, but all of them begin from axillary buds of the vanilla vine. In vitro multiplication has also been achieved through culture of callus masses, protocorms, root tips and stem nodes. Description of any of these processes can be obtained from the references listed before, but all of them are successful in generation of new vanilla plants that first need to be grown up to a height of at least 30 cm (12 in) before they can be planted in the field or greenhouse. ### Scheduling considerations In the tropics,[*where?*] the ideal time for planting vanilla is from September to November, when the weather is neither too rainy nor too dry, but this recommendation varies with growing conditions. Cuttings take one to eight weeks to establish roots, and show initial signs of growth from one of the leaf axils. A thick mulch of leaves should be provided immediately after planting as an additional source of organic matter. Three years are required for cuttings to grow enough to produce flowers and subsequent pods. As with most orchids, the blossoms grow along stems branching from the main vine. The buds, growing along the 6 to 10 in (15 to 25 cm) stems, bloom and mature in sequence, each at a different interval. ### Pollination Flowering normally occurs every spring, and without pollination, the blossom wilts and falls, and no vanilla bean can grow. Each flower must be hand-pollinated within 12 hours of opening. In the wild in the New World, the only organisms ever observed to carry *Vanilla* pollen are orchid bees in the genus *Eulaema*, though direct evidence documenting seed set is lacking. Claims that pollination is achieved by stingless bees of the genus *Melipona* or hummingbirds have never been substantiated, though they do visit the flowers. Even within the range of orchid bees, wild vanilla orchids have only a 1% chance of successful pollination. As a result, all vanilla grown today is pollinated by hand. A small splinter of wood or a grass stem is used to lift the rostellum or move the flap upward, so the overhanging anther can be pressed against the stigma and self-pollinate the vine. Generally, one flower per raceme opens per day, so the raceme may be in flower for over 20 days. A healthy vine should produce about 50 to 100 beans per year, but growers are careful to pollinate only five or six flowers from the 20 on each raceme. The first flowers that open per vine should be pollinated, so the beans are similar in age. These agronomic practices facilitate harvest and increases bean quality. The fruits require five to six weeks to develop, but around six months to mature. Over-pollination results in diseases and inferior bean quality. A vine remains productive between 12 and 14 years. ### Pest and disease management Vanilla is susceptible to many fungal and viral diseases. *Fusarium*, *Sclerotium*, *Phytophthora*, and *Colletrotrichum* species cause rots of root, stem, leaf, bean, and shoot apex. Development of most diseases is favoured by unsuitable growing conditions such as overwatering, insufficient drainage, heavy mulch, overpollination, and too much shade. Fungal diseases can be controlled by spraying Bordeaux mixture (1%), carbendazim (0.2%) and copper oxychloride (0.2%). Biological control of the spread of such diseases can be managed by applying to the soil *Trichoderma* (0.5 kg (1.1 lb) per plant in the rhizosphere) and foliar application of pseudomonas (0.2%). Mosaic virus, leaf curl, and cymbidium mosaic potexvirus are the common viral diseases. These diseases are transmitted through the sap, so affected plants must be destroyed. The insect pests of vanilla include beetles and weevils that attack the flower, caterpillars, snakes, and slugs that damage the tender parts of shoot, flower buds, and immature fruit, and grasshoppers that affect cutting shoot tips. If organic agriculture is practiced, insecticides are avoided, and mechanical measures are adopted for pest management. Most of these practices are implemented under greenhouse cultivation, since such field conditions are very difficult to achieve. ### Artificial vanilla Most artificial vanilla products contain vanillin, which can be produced synthetically from lignin, a natural polymer found in wood. Most synthetic vanillin is a byproduct from the pulp used in papermaking, in which the lignin is broken down using sulfites or sulfates. However, vanillin is only one of 171 identified aromatic components of real vanilla fruits. The orchid species *Leptotes bicolor* is used as a natural vanilla replacement in Paraguay and southern Brazil. In 1996 the US Food and Drug Administration cautioned that some vanilla products sold in Mexico were made from the cheaper tonka bean which as well as vanillin also contains the toxin coumarin. They advised consumers to always check the ingredients label and avoid suspiciously cheap products. ### Nonplant vanilla flavoring In the United States, castoreum, the exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food additive, often referenced simply as a "natural flavoring" in the product's list of ingredients. It is used in both food and beverages, especially as vanilla and raspberry flavoring, with a total annual U.S. production of less than 300 pounds. It is also used to flavor some cigarettes and in perfume-making, and is used by fur trappers as a scent lure. ### Harvest Harvesting vanilla fruits is as labor-intensive as pollinating the blossoms. Immature, dark green pods are not harvested. Pale yellow discoloration that commences at the distal end of the fruits is not a good indication of the maturity of pods. Each fruit ripens at its own time, requiring a daily harvest. "Current methods for determining the maturity of vanilla (*Vanilla planifolia* Andrews) beans are unreliable. Yellowing at the blossom end, the current index, occurs before beans accumulate maximum glucovanillin concentrations. Beans left on the vine until they turn brown have higher glucovanillin concentrations but may split and have low quality. Judging bean maturity is difficult as they reach full size soon after pollination. Glucovanillin accumulates from 20 weeks, maximum about 40 weeks after pollination. Mature green beans have 20% dry matter but less than 2% glucovanillin." The accumulation of dry matter and glucovanillin are highly correlated. To ensure the finest flavor from every fruit, each individual pod must be picked by hand just as it begins to split on the end. Overmatured fruits are likely to split, causing a reduction in market value. Its commercial value is fixed based on the length and appearance of the pod. If the fruit is more than 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, it is categorized as first-quality. The largest fruits greater than 16 cm (6.3 in) and up to as much as 21 cm (8.3 in) are usually reserved for the gourmet vanilla market, for sale to top chefs and restaurants. If the fruits are between 10 and 15 cm long, pods are under the second-quality category, and fruits less than 10 cm (3.9 in) in length are under the third-quality category. Each fruit contains thousands of tiny black vanilla seeds. Vanilla fruit yield depends on the care and management given to the hanging and fruiting vines. Any practice directed to stimulate aerial root production has a direct effect on vine productivity. A five-year-old vine can produce between 1.5 and 3 kg (3.3 and 6.6 lb) of pods, and this production can increase up to 6 kg (13 lb) after a few years. The harvested green fruit can be commercialized as such or cured to get a better market price. ### Curing Several methods exist in the market for curing vanilla; nevertheless, all of them consist of four basic steps: killing, sweating, slow-drying, and conditioning of the beans. #### Killing The vegetative tissue of the vanilla pod is killed to stop the vegetative growth of the pods and disrupt the cells and tissue of the fruits, which initiates enzymatic reactions responsible for the aroma. The method of killing varies, but may be accomplished by heating in hot water, freezing, or scratching, or killing by heating in an oven or exposing the beans to direct sunlight. The different methods give different profiles of enzymatic activity. Testing has shown mechanical disruption of fruit tissues can cause curing processes, including the degeneration of glucovanillin to vanillin, so the reasoning goes that disrupting the tissues and cells of the fruit allow enzymes and enzyme substrates to interact. Hot-water killing may consist of dipping the pods in hot water (63–65 °C (145–149 °F)) for three minutes, or at 80 °C (176 °F) for 10 seconds. In scratch killing, fruits are scratched along their length. Frozen or quick-frozen fruits must be thawed again for the subsequent sweating stage. Tied in bundles and rolled in blankets, fruits may be placed in an oven at 60 °C (140 °F) for 36 to 48 hours. Exposing the fruits to sunlight until they turn brown, a method originating in Mexico, was practiced by the Aztecs. #### Sweating Sweating is a hydrolytic and oxidative process. Traditionally, it consists of keeping fruits, for 7 to 10 days, densely stacked and insulated in wool or other cloth. This retains a temperature of 45–65 °C (113–149 °F) and high humidity. Daily exposure to the sun may also be used, or dipping the fruits in hot water. The fruits are brown and have attained much of the characteristic vanilla flavor and aroma by the end of this process, but still retain a 60-70% moisture content by weight. #### Drying Reduction of the beans to 25–30% moisture by weight, to prevent rotting and to lock the aroma in the pods, is always achieved by some exposure of the beans to air, and usually (and traditionally) intermittent shade and sunlight. Fruits may be laid out in the sun during the mornings and returned to their boxes in the afternoons, or spread on a wooden rack in a room for three to four weeks, sometimes with periods of sun exposure. Drying is the most problematic of the curing stages; unevenness in the drying process can lead to the loss of vanillin content of some fruits by the time the others are cured. #### Conditioning Conditioning is performed by storing the pods for five to six months in closed boxes, where the fragrance develops. The processed fruits are sorted, graded, bundled, and wrapped in paraffin paper and preserved for the development of desired bean qualities, especially flavor and aroma. The cured vanilla fruits contain an average of 2.5% vanillin. ### Grading Once fully cured, the vanilla fruits are sorted by quality and graded. Several vanilla fruit grading systems are in use. Each country which produces vanilla has its own grading system, and individual vendors, in turn, sometimes use their own criteria for describing the quality of the fruits they offer for sale. In general, vanilla fruit grade is based on the length, appearance (color, sheen, presence of any splits, presence of blemishes), and moisture content of the fruit. Whole, dark, plump and oily pods that are visually attractive, with no blemishes, and that have a higher moisture content are graded most highly. Such pods are particularly prized by chefs for their appearance and can be featured in gourmet dishes. Beans that show localized signs of disease or other physical defects are cut to remove the blemishes; the shorter fragments left are called "cuts" and are assigned lower grades, as are fruits with lower moisture contents. Lower-grade fruits tend to be favored for uses in which the appearance is not as important, such as in the production of vanilla flavoring extract and in the fragrance industry. Higher-grade fruits command higher prices in the market. However, because grade is so dependent on visual appearance and moisture content, fruits with the highest grade do not necessarily contain the highest concentration of characteristic flavor molecules such as vanillin, and are not necessarily the most flavorful. Example of a vanilla fruit grading system, used in Madagascar| Grade | Color | Appearance / feel | Approximatemoisture content† | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Black | dark brown to black | supple with oily luster | > 30% | | TK (Brown, or Semi-Black) | dark brown to black sometimes with a few red streaks | like Black but drier/stiffer | 25–30% | | Red Fox (European quality) | brown with reddish variegation | a few blemishes | 25% | | Red American quality | brown with reddish variegation | similar to European red but more blemishes and drier/stiffer | 22–25% | | Cuts | short, cut, and often split fruits, typically with substandard aroma and color | | | † *moisture content varies among sources cited* A simplified, alternative grading system has been proposed for classifying vanilla fruits suitable for use in cooking: Simplified vanilla fruit grading system for cooks| Grade A / Grade I | 15 cm and longer, 100–120 fruits per pound | Also called "Gourmet" or "Prime". 30–35% moisture content. | | Grade B / Grade II | 10–15 cm, 140–160 fruits per pound | Also called "Extract fruits". 15–25% moisture content. | | Grade C / Grade III | 10 cm | | Under this scheme, vanilla extract is normally made from Grade B fruits. Production ---------- Vanilla production—2020| Country | Production(tonnes) | | --- | --- | |  Madagascar | 2,975 | |  Indonesia | 2,306 | |  Mexico | 589 | |  Papua New Guinea | 495 | |  China | 433 | | All others | 816 | | **World** | **7,614** | | *Source: FAOSTAT* | In 2020, world production of vanilla was 7,614 tonnes, led by Madagascar with 39.1% of the total, and Indonesia with 30.3% (table). Due to drought, cyclones, and poor farming practices in Madagascar, there are concerns about the global supply and costs of vanilla in 2017 and 2018. The intensity of criminal enterprises against Madagascar farmers is high, elevating the worldwide cost of using Madagascar vanilla in consumer products. Uses ---- The four main commercial preparations of natural vanilla are: * Whole pod * Powder (ground pods, kept pure or blended with sugar, starch, or other ingredients) * Extract (in alcoholic or occasionally glycerol solution; both pure and imitation forms of vanilla contain at least 35% alcohol) * Vanilla sugar, a packaged mix of sugar and vanilla extract Vanilla flavoring in food may be achieved by adding vanilla extract or by cooking vanilla pods in the liquid preparation. A stronger aroma may be attained if the pods are split in two, exposing more of a pod's surface area to the liquid. In this case, the pods' seeds are mixed into the preparation. Natural vanilla gives a brown or yellow color to preparations, depending on the concentration. Good-quality vanilla has a strong, aromatic flavor, but food with small amounts of low-quality vanilla or artificial vanilla-like flavorings are far more common, since true vanilla is much more expensive. Regarded as the world's most popular aroma and flavor, vanilla is a widely used aroma and flavor compound for foods, beverages and cosmetics, as indicated by its popularity as an ice cream flavor. Although vanilla is a prized flavoring agent on its own, it is also used to enhance the flavor of other substances, to which its own flavor is often complementary, such as chocolate, custard, caramel, coffee, and others. Vanilla is a common ingredient in Western sweet baked goods, such as cookies and cakes. Despite the expense, vanilla is highly valued for its flavor. The food industry uses methyl and ethyl vanillin as less-expensive substitutes for real vanilla. Ethyl vanillin is more expensive, but has a stronger note. *Cook's Illustrated* ran several taste tests pitting vanilla against vanillin in baked goods and other applications, and to the consternation of the magazine editors, tasters could not differentiate the flavor of vanillin from vanilla; however, for the case of vanilla ice cream, natural vanilla won out. A more recent and thorough test by the same group produced a more interesting variety of results; namely, high-quality artificial vanilla flavoring is best for cookies, while high-quality real vanilla is slightly better for cakes and significantly better for unheated or lightly heated foods. The liquid extracted from vanilla pods was once believed to have medical properties, helping with various stomach ailments. Contact dermatitis ------------------ The sap of most species of vanilla orchid which exudes from cut stems or where beans are harvested can cause moderate to severe dermatitis if it comes in contact with bare skin. The sap of vanilla orchids contains calcium oxalate crystals, which are thought to be the main causative agent of contact dermatitis in vanilla plantation workers. Gallery ------- * A vanilla planting in an open field on RéunionA vanilla planting in an open field on Réunion * A vanilla planting in a "shader" (ombrière) on RéunionA vanilla planting in a "shader" (*ombrière*) on Réunion * FlowerFlower * Green fruitsGreen fruits Further reading --------------- * Ecott, Tim (2004). *Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Luscious Substance*. London: Penguin, New York: Grove Atlantic * Rain, Patricia (2004). *Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance*. New York: J. P. Tarcher/Penguin.

Vanilla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla

Map showing 5 circles. The first is between western Australia and eastern Africa. The second is between eastern Australia and western South America. The third is between Japan and western North America. Of the two in the Atlantic, one is in hemisphere. North Atlantic gyre North Atlantic gyre North Atlantic gyre Indian Ocean gyre North Pacific gyre South Pacific gyre South Atlantic         gyre Map showing 5 circles. The first is between western Australia and eastern Africa. The second is between eastern Australia and western South America. The third is between Japan and western North America. Of the two in the Atlantic, one is in hemisphere. The Kuroshio Current is the west side of the clockwise North Pacific ocean gyre The **Kuroshio Current** (黒潮), also known as the **Black** or **Japan Current** (日本海流, *Nihon Kairyū*) or the **Black Stream**, is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Kuroshio is a powerful western boundary current that transports warm equatorial water poleward and forms the western limb of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Off the East Coast of Japan, it merges with the Oyashio Current to form the North Pacific Current. The Kuroshio Current has significant effects on both physical and biological processes of the North Pacific Ocean, including nutrient and sediment transport, major pacific storm tracks and regional climate, and Pacific mode water formation. Additionally, the current's significant nutrient transport results in a biologically rich ecoregion supporting an important fishing industry as well as diverse marine food webs. The South China Sea for example has relatively low nutrient concentrations in its upper waters, but experiences enhanced biological productivity due to the input from the Kuroshio Current Intrusion. Ongoing research centered around the Kuroshio Current's response to climate change predicts a strengthening in surface flows of this western boundary current which contrasts the predicted changes in the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream. Physical properties ------------------- The Kuroshio is a relatively warm ocean current with an annual average sea-surface temperature of about 24 °C (75 °F), is approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) wide, and produces frequent small to meso-scale eddies. The Kuroshio originates from the Pacific North Equatorial Current, which splits in two at the east coast of Luzon, Philippines, to form the southward-flowing Mindanao Current and the more significant northward-flowing Kuroshio Current. East of Taiwan, the Kuroshio enters the Sea of Japan through a deep break in the Ryukyu island chain known as the Yonaguni Depression. The Kuroshio then continues northwards and parallel to the Ryukyu islands, steered by the deepest part of the Sea of Japan, the Okinawa Trough, before leaving the Sea of Japan and re-entering the Pacific through the Tokara Strait. It then flows along the southern margin of Japan but meanders significantly. At the Bōsō Peninsula, the Kuroshio finally separates from the Japanese coast and travels eastward as the Kuroshio Extension. The Kuroshio Current is the Pacific analogue of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, transporting warm, tropical water northward toward the polar region. The Kuroshio's counterparts associated with the North Pacific Gyre are the: east flowing North Pacific Current to the north, the south flowing California Current to the east, and the west flowing North Equatorial Current to the south. The warm waters of the Kuroshio Current sustain the coral reefs of Japan, the northernmost coral reefs in the world. The part of the Kuroshio that branches into the Sea of Japan is called **Tsushima Current** (対馬海流, *Tsushima Kairyū*). Similar to the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Current creates warm ocean surface temperatures, and significant moisture in the atmosphere along the western Pacific basin, and thus produces and sustains tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones, also known as typhoons, are formed when atmospheric instability, warm ocean surface temperatures, and moist air are combined to fuel an atmospheric low-pressure system. The Western North Pacific Ocean experiences an average of 25 typhoons annually. The majority of typhoons occur from July through October during northern hemisphere summer, and typically form where the Kuroshio Current is the warmest near the equator. Typhoons tend to track along the current's warm water poleward until they dissipate in colder waters. The strength (transport) of the Kuroshio varies along its path and seasonally. Within the Sea of Japan, observations suggest that the Kuroshio transport is relatively steady at about 25Sv (25 million cubic metres per second). The Kuroshio strengthens significantly when it rejoins the Pacific Ocean, reaching 65Sv (65 million cubic metres per second) southeast of Japan, although this transport has significant seasonal variability. The Kuroshio Current splits into Kuroshio Current extension and the Tsushima Current, as the currents wrap around Japanese Island and reconnects, changes in flow will impact the flows of the other currents. The path of the Kuroshio may have been different in the geologic past based on historical sea level and bathymetry, however there is currently conflicting scientific evidence. It has been proposed that lower sea-level and tectonics may have prevented the Kuroshio from entering the Sea of Japan during the last glacial period, approximately c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago, and remained entirely within the Pacific basin. However, other proxies and ocean models have alternatively suggested that the Kuroshio path was relatively unaltered, possibly as far back as 700,000 years ago. ### Sediment transport The magnitude of the Kuroshio Current and seafloor bathymetry results in deep sea erosion and sediment transport in multiple regions. Offshore of Southern Taiwan on the Kenting Plateau erosion is likely caused by the strong bottom currents which increase in velocity along the rise on this plateau. The bottom water accelerates as it travels from a depth of 3500 m to a depth around 400–700 m. The increase in current velocity exacerbates erosion revealing the Kuroshio Knoll, a 3 km × 7 km bean-shaped elevated flat area 60–70 m below surface levels in comparison to the rest of the Plateau which located at around 400–700 m. The Plateau is being uplifted and is balanced with erosion. The granulometry of the Kenting Plateau and surrounding area demonstrates the eroding qualities of the Kuroshio Current. The sediment grain size of the sand varies along the edge of the Plateau. The deeper down the edge, the larger the grains as smaller grains are swept away by the current. Some of these fine sand particles have settled into a dune field while the remaining sediment is transported and deposited throughout the region by the Kuroshio Current. The Kuroshio Current also transports Yangtze River sediment. The amount of sediment transport is highly dependent on the relationship between the Kuroshio Current intrusion, the China Coastal Current, and the Taiwan Warm Current. The Yangtze River sediment is being deposited on the East China Sea inner shelf rather than the deep sea due to the interaction of the three currents. Distinct elemental characteristics of sediments from differing sources permits tracking sources of sediments within the Kuroshio. Taiwanese sediment notably contains illite and chlorite. These traceable compounds have been found all the way through the Kuroshio Current up into its branch through the Kuroshio Current Intrusion in the South China Sea. The South China Sea branch of the Kuroshio and the cyclonic eddy west of Luzon Island impact Luzon and Pearl River sediments. The Luzon sediment containing high levels of smectite is unable to travel northwestward. The Pearl River sediments contains high levels of kaolinite and titanium (Ti) and is trapped above the abyssal basin between Hainan Island and the Pearl River mouth. These compounds allow scientists to track sediment transport throughout the Kuroshio Current. ### Eddies There are indications that eddies contribute to the preservation and survival of fish larvae transported by the Kuroshio. Plankton biomass fluctuates yearly and is typically highest in the eddy area of the Kuroshio's edge. Warm-core rings are not known for having high productivity. However, there is evidence of equal distribution of biological productivity throughout the warm-core rings from the Kuroshio Current, supported by the upwelling at the periphery and the convective mixing caused by the cooling of surface water as the rings move north of the current. The thermostad is the deep mixed layer that has discrete boundaries and uniform temperature. Within this layer, nutrient-rich water is brought to the surface, which generates a burst of primary production. Given that the water in the core of a ring has a different temperature regime than the shelf waters, there are times when a warm-core ring is undergoing its spring bloom while the surrounding shelf waters are not. There are many complex interactions within warm-core rings and thus, lifetime productivity is not very different from the surrounding shelf water. A study from 1998 found that the primary productivity within a warm-core ring was almost the same as in the cold jet outside it, with evidence of upwelling of nutrients within the ring. In addition, there was discovery of dense populations of phytoplankton at the nutricline within a ring, presumably supported by the upward mixing of nutrients. Furthermore, there have been acoustic studies in the warm-core ring, which showed intense sound scattering from zooplankton and fish populations in the ring and very sparse acoustic signals outside of it. ### Typhoons Typhoons can produce intense winds which push on the surface layer of the ocean for brief periods of time. These winds induce the warmer surface layer of the ocean to mix with the deeper cooler layer of water that is situated below the pycnocline. This mixing introduces nutrients from deeper cooler water to the warmer surface layer of the ocean. Organisms such as phytoplankton and algae use these newly introduced nutrients to grow. In 2003, two typhoons induced significant surface layer mixing as they passed through the region. This mixing directly produced two algal bloom events in the North Western Pacific Ocean that negatively affected Japan. Nutrient transport ------------------ The Kuroshio Current is considered a nutrient stream because of high nutrient flux from surrounding oligotrophic waters with primary production of 150 to 300 grams of carbon per square meter per year based on SeaWiFS global primary productivity estimates. The current transports significant amounts of nutrients to support this primary production from the East China Sea continental shelf to the subarctic Pacific Ocean. The maximum chlorophyll value is found around 100 metres (330 ft) depth. Its importance in nutrient transport is demonstrated by the nutrient rich water in the Kuroshio Current is surrounded by ambient water of the same density with lower relative nutrient levels. The downstream of the Kuroshio Current receives large amounts of nutrients at rates of 100–280 kmol N\*s-1. Nutrients are brought to the surface water from deeper layers where the Kuroshio Current flows over shallow areas and seamounts. This process occurs over the Okinawa Trough and the Tokara Strait. The Tokara Strait also has high cyclonic activity where the Kuroshio Current passes through. This in combination with the Coriolis effect causes intense upwelling along the continental shelf. This upwelling and nutrient transport into surface layers is essential for primary production because these vital nutrients would otherwise be inaccessible to phytoplankton which need to remain in upper layers where sunlight is available for them to perform photosynthesis. The constant transport of nutrient rich waters to regions with high levels of light therefore supports increased photosynthesis supporting the rest of the biologically diverse ecosystem associated with the Kuroshio current. Marine life ----------- The transportation of nutrients, heat and plankton by the Kuroshio Current and the current's transection of multiple different waterbodies gives way to high species richness in and adjacent to this current. In addition, the Kuroshio is classified as a biodiversity hotspot, meaning the waters circulating through the region are host to many different species, yet many of its resident organisms are at risk of becoming endangered or are already at the brink of extinction as a result of local and/or global human activity. Overfishing and overharvest are the primary risks for many of the threatened or endangered species here. ### Photoautotrophs #### Phytoplankton Phytoplankton are responsible for the aforementioned high rates of primary productivity within the current. Warm sea surface temperatures and low turbidity in the region lead to clearer waters which allows for deeper penetration of sunlight and an extension of the epipelagic zone. These particular characteristics, along with lower nutrient availability within the current, correspond well with the requirements of two specific cyanobacteria: *Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus*. *Prochlorococcus* is the dominate species of picophytoplankton within the Kuroshio Current and these two species may be responsible for as much as half of the fixation of CO2 in the entire Kuroshio Current photic zone. Further, there are substantial dust deposition events in this region due to Asian Dust Storms from the Gobi desert. During these events, dust clouds transport and deposit phosphate and trace metals which subsequently stimulate growth in both *Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus* as well as diatoms. Diatoms and Trichodesmium are speculated to play an important role in the redistribution of nitrogen and carbon in and out of the euphotic zone. Trichodesmium is an abundant diazotroph that directly correlates with overall nitrogen fixation within the current. This nitrogen fixation supplies a limiting nutrient (nitrate), to other photoautotrophs for growth and reproduction. Meanwhile, in areas influenced by upwelling with higher nutrient and carbon concentrations, diatoms are important contributors to carbon and nitrogen out of the euphotic zone due to the weight of their "glass houses" made of silica and their tendencies to sink. #### Macro-flora At least ten genera of seaweed reside in waters in and around the Kuroshio Current. *Caulerpa*, is a green algae that grows densely near shore on the periphery of the Kuroshio Current while brown and red algae also flourish adjacent the current, and like other photosynthesizing organisms, benefit from the nutrient transport and low turbidity of the region. ### Invertebrates #### Zooplankton An increase in zooplankton biomass occurs in the significantly lower water temperatures of the upwelling sites within the Kuroshio Current due to high phytoplankton concentrations which are nourished by upwelling northeast of Taiwan. This upwelling event, the Kuroshio Current intrusion through the Luzon Strait and South China Sea, and summer monsoons, represent the convergence of a multitude of oceanic waters of different origin. These water convergence zones and subsequent circulation and mixing, have a major influence on the transport and distribution of many zooplankton species causing zooplankton communities to be more nutritious, unique and diverse. High diversity in copepods in waters adjacent the Kuroshio Current have also been reported. Two dominant copepod species of the current, *C. sinicus* and *E. concinna*, are transported northward in high concentrations by the current from the East China Sea in winter. Like copepods and diatoms, tunicates, specifically salps and doliolids, also play an important role on the biogeochemical cycle as well as on the food web in the Kuroshio. Salps transport carbon to the region's bottom water with their carbon-rich, fast-sinking fecal pellets and carcasses. *Thaliaceans* (salps and doliolids) are known to feed a minimum of 202 marine species, however, these animal's blooms have been found to cause harmful feeding conditions for pelagic fishes in the region. Many species of fish larvae are also found in zooplankton communities transported by the current. Fish larvae are important contributor to the Kuroshio Current system food chain. Baleen whales for instance, make use of the current's transport of Japanese sardine and jack mackerel larvae to their feeding grounds in the north pacific. Climate change is reported to alter endemic fish larvae distribution. A fish species composition change analysis by Lu and Lee (2014) showed changes in fish larvae distribution have occurred during the region and suggest this altered clustering is associated with changes in the intensities and flow rates of the Kuroshio Current. These changes impacts the food chain below and above this trophic level. This can influence fish migration, fish population's at large and major fisheries. The Kuroshio Current has an influence of several species of foraminifera, including species *G. ruber* and *P. obliquiloculate*. *G. ruber* is normally a surface dweller and was found at depths of 1000 meters along the Kuroshio Current. *P. obliquiloculate* normally resides between 25 and 100 m, yet was found deep in the abyssal basin (>1000 m). The distribution of these species in comparison to their standard dwelling depths observed by Gallagher (2015) demonstrates the ability of this intrusion and the overall Kuroshio Current's to redistribute nutrients vertically making nutrients available many different species with differing requirements for prosperity. #### Coral The coral reefs within the Kuroshio Current reside at a higher latitude than any other tropical reef placement in the world (33.48°N). An important reef-building coral to this area, *Heliopora coerulea*, has been listed as threatened due to anthropogenic stressors to its environment such as: warming sea surface temperatures from climate change, ocean acidification from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and dynamite fishing. Studies confirming low genotypic diversity within the species further emphasizes this blue coral's threatened status. *Acropora japonica*, *Acropora secale*, and *Acropora hyacinthus* are 3 more reef-building corals in the region. These species utilize symbiotic relationships with zooxanthellae, peridinin and pyrrhoxanthin, as a source of carotenoids. In addition to anthropogenic, threats, these corals also have predators in the region such as the Crown-of-thorns starfish, *Acanthaster planci*, and a regional sea snail, *Drupella fragum*. The Crown-of-thorns starfish feeds on corals. When conditions are favorable, the population of this native starfish can explode, resulting in significant damage on entire coral communities, as well as the ecosystems these coral reefs support. A Crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak in conjunction with anthropogenic stressors can cause irreversible reef-system damage. The Kuroshio Current controls patterns of connectivity between coral reefs (as well as other marine organisms with a larval phase), transporting larvae from southerly coral reefs to downstream reefs along the Ryukyu Arc. #### Squid Western boundary currents are used by certain species of squid for rapid and easy transport, allowing mature squid to travel with minimum energy expenditure to exploit rich northern feeding grounds, while eggs and larvae develop in the warm current waters during winter. The Japanese flying squid (*Todarodes pacificus*), for example, has three populations that breed in winter, summer, and autumn. The winter spawning group is associated with the Kuroshio Current, because following spawning events in January to April in the East China Sea the larvae and juveniles travel north with the Kuroshio Current. They are turned inshore and are caught between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido during the summer. The summer spawning is in another part of the East China Sea, from which the larvae are entrained into the Tsushima current that flows north between the islands of Japan and the mainland. Afterward, the current meets a southward flowing cold coastal current, the Liman Current. The group of squid spawned in the summer are traditionally found around the boundary between the two currents, sustaining rich fisheries. In fact, studies have reported that annual catches in Japan have gradually increased since the late 1980s and it has been proposed that changing environmental conditions have caused the autumn and winter spawning areas in the Tsushima Strait and near the Goto Islands to overlap. In addition, winter spawning sites over the continental shelf and slope in the East China Sea are expanding. ### Vertebrates #### Fish The Kuroshio Current is home to thousands of fish species occupying nutrient rich and diverse waters in this region. This expansive biomass is influenced by elevated rates of primary production leading to large biomass in the lower trophic levels, facilitated by warmer local oceanic and atmospheric conditions. Resident fish of this area include reef fish like rabbitfish and parrotfish, pelagic fishes such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and sailfish, and higher trophic predators such as sharks. Fisheries have a strong presence in this area and depend strongly on the changing oceanic conditions, largely dependent on the Kuroshio Current. To the north, the Oyashio Current contains subarctic water that is much colder and fresher than the resident water east of Honshu, and the intersection of these two currents is called the Kuroshio-Oyashio region. Here, local oceanographic conditions vary through the year and determine the species assemblage and thus the success of fisheries. For example, when the Oyashio current is well developed and protrudes southward, the cold waters are favorable for capturing sardines. Additionally, when larger meandering flow develops in the Kuroshio Current, sardine availability elevates due to the proximity of the Kuroshio to the southern spawning grounds of sardine. Thus, intrusion and flow paths of these currents affect presence, biomass, and catch of species such as pollock, sardine, and anchovy. #### Marine Reptiles Five out of the seven sea turtle species on earth, loggerheads (*Caretta caretta*), green (*Chelonia mydas*), hawksbill (*Eretmochelys imbricata*), leatherbacks (*Dermochelys coriacea*), and Olive ridleys (*Lepidochelys olivacea*), utilize the Kuroshio Current to access warm waters. Female sea turtles utilize the transport potential of the current to access the warm nesting beaches of Japan's shores, and adolescent green and hawksbill turtles utilize the current transport to access waters surrounding Japan. #### Marine Mammals Marine mammals such as seals, sea lions and cetaceans also make use of the high biodiversity within the Kuroshio Current. Charismatic megafauna odontocetes in this region include the Spinner dolphin (*Stenella longirostris*), short-finned pilot whale (*Globicephala macrorhynchus*), common bottlenose dolphin (*Tursiops truncatus*), Dall's porpoise (*Phocoenoides dalli*), Risso's dolphin (*Grampus griseus*) and the Killer whale (*Orcinus orca*). Three types of whales of the same genus (*Balaenoptera*) also use this rich area for feeding grounds, including the Common Minke (*Balaenoptera acutorostrata*), the Sei Whale (*Balaenoptera borealis*) and Bryde's Whale (*Balaenoptera edeni*). The availability of Japanese sardines and mackerel eggs, larvae, and juveniles are the baleen whales' primary food sources in these areas. Top-tier trophic predators can serve as units in developing conservation management in this region. Carbonate chemistry ------------------- The ocean absorbs approximately one third of the CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and deforestation. One of the more significant oceanic sinks for atmospheric CO2 is the Kuroshio Current. In its highly biologically productive regions, this uptake of CO2 is Carbon burial is facilitated by a strong biological pump. In the less productive northern current transition, the Kuroshio remains an important CO2 sink, through high CO2 solubility. The Kuroshio Extension region is classified as the strongest sink for atmospheric CO2 in the North Pacific. This is especially true in the winter when higher amounts of human-produced CO2 are taken up in the Kuroshio Extension region when compared with the summer. This is likely explained by cooler temperatures facilitating the solubility of CO2 in ocean water. As CO2 levels continue to increase in the atmosphere, so does CO2 uptake in the Kuroshio, making this seasonality more dramatic. Climate implications -------------------- Western boundary currents are integrated parts in the world's climatic balance. The Kuroshio Current plays an important role in influencing regional climate and weather patterns mainly through the input of warm waters from lower latitudes northward into the western edge of the Pacific basin. Along with the other western boundary currents in the world, the Kuroshio Current is subject to seasonal changes that manifest in different flow rates, bifurcation latitudes, and water salinity. Circulation within the Pacific Ocean is largely influenced by this northerly transport of warm salty water north along the Western boundary, concurrently providing structure to the western edge of the North Pacific Gyre. The resulting heat fluxes in this area represent some of the largest heat exchanges from ocean to atmosphere within the entire Pacific Basin, being more pronounced during the winter season. Heat transfer from the surface ocean to the atmosphere creates unstable atmospheric conditions, which is to say that air parcels and clouds derived or influenced by this process are warmer than the surrounding air, ultimately rising and enhancing chances of precipitation or shifting weather. In this way, monsoonal rain events and common through the summertime and typhoon storms are enhanced as they pass over the current. The climate of many Asian countries has been affected by the distribution of heat by these processes for millions of years, changing wind patterns, precipitation, and mixing warm tropical waters into the Sea of Japan. ### Mode water formation As the Kuroshio Current separates from the equatorial current and flows northward, warm water from the Western Pacific Warm Pool segues into the northwest Pacific Ocean Basin. Principal heat flux in the Kuroshio occurs via the Kuroshio Extension between 132°E and 160°E and 30°N to 35°N, depending on the latitude where the extension splits off from the Kuroshio Current along the coast of Japan. The process of warm water injection into the open ocean plays an important role in the formation of North Pacific Subtropical Mode waters and the regulation of sea surface temperatures, affecting moisture transport across the western Pacific Basin. North Pacific subtropical mode waters are created when Kuroshio Extension waters lose large amounts of heat and moisture to the cold and dry northerly winds during boreal wintertime months, creating dense salty surface waters prone to sink and cause convection. The temperature range of the sinking North Pacific Subtropical Mode Waters characteristically falls between 16 °C and 19 °C, however exact temperatures and depths to which these waters sink varies annually depending on the efficiency of water transportation by the extension, which is a function of atmospheric and mesoscale eddy conditions. The resulting homogeneous water mass typically separates the seasonal pycnocline from the surface waters in the mid to late summer months, remaining stratified below the warmer surface waters until shoaling back towards the surface with the mixed layer due to storm perturbation in the fall and winter. The contrast between the temperatures of these stratified vertical layers can be discernable such that the lateral advection of mode water can be traced for thousands of kilometers. Mode water formation is variable and largely dependent on the flow intensity of the Kuroshio Extension and atmospheric heat flux efficiencies. Heat flux processes sometimes experience feedbacks that enhance water temperature contrasts and can cause sea surface temperature features to last well past the end of the boreal winter. For example, with residually cooled surface waters in the late spring and early summer months, warm moist air from the south can cause low cloud formation and reflection of solar radiation, extending temporal sea surface cooling. The Kuroshio Extension is a dynamic but relatively unstable system, with variability in the associated bifurcation latitude occurring on interannual time scales. The cause of these variations and their effects on the surface flow and total transport of waters has been studied extensively, with recent advances in sea surface height satellite altimetry methods allowing for observational studies on larger timescales. Studies suggest that more northerly bifurcation latitudes have been historically correlated with greater surface water transport and mode water formation, associated with less meandering and more direct flow paths closer to the coasts of Japan and Taiwan during the wintertime months. ### Climate change Climate change, specifically with respect to increasing sea surface temperatures and decreasing salinity, has been predicted to strengthen the surface flow of the Kuroshio Current as well as other western boundary currents across the Pacific. The predicted effects of warming surface oceans may result in differing impacts between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; the Atlantic is predicted to experience a slowing of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation while the Pacific western boundary currents, including the Kuroshio Current, may strengthen. These changes are thought to come as a product of wind stress and surface warming resulting from the increased stratification of the surface layers of future oceans. Specifically, predicted poleward shifting of westerly winds within the Hadley Cell is thought to create conditions in which the subtropical gyre wind stress curl would increase. This could cause an increased total geostrophic circulation and subsequently an intensification of the northern leg of the Kuroshio Current, in some predictions increasing flow velocities by almost double. The entire flow of the current is predicted to be strengthened however, from its point of bifurcation near the equator to the Kuroshio Extension. In addition, the general observed southward migration of both the NEC and SEC subcurrent bifurcation latitudes over the past thirty years has been consistent with a strengthening of western boundary currents. With shifting winds and increased gyre circulation in conjunction with a "business as usual" anthropogenic carbon input scenario, bifurcation latitudes are predicted to continue on poleward migrations into the future, contributing to the intensifying Kuroshio Current. Predictions are made using methods that combine historical data with oceanic modelling output, and one such study used the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) to show the Kuroshio Current interacting with the northern extremity of the subtropical gyre, contrasting older predictions of simple gyre "spin up" forced acceleration. Modelling studies have also suggested that increasing stratification will occur with the strengthening of the surface layer current, creating conditions in which the opposite effect could occur in the deeper layer of the Kuroshio Current, which has been proposed to slow. The exact mechanisms causing this change are not well elucidated, however it is expected to be the result of wind stress changes within the gyre in addition to the increased stratification near the surface that may enhance surface and deep ocean layer separation and maintain different responses to warming oceans. Economic considerations ----------------------- The Kuroshio Current can be a useful as a shipping lane as the current can save time and fuel usage when underway with the current. However, ships that travel against the current will spend more time and fuel to compensate for the water flowing against the shipping vessel. The Kuroshio supports many important fisheries. Jack Mackerel populations are one of the most important fishery resources in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. As the Kuroshio flows northeastward from northeast of Taiwan along the shelf slope of the Eastern China Sea, it carries Jack Mackerel eggs and larvae to southern Japan and Honshu Island. These larvae are caught and then raised in aquaculture through adulthood and harvested. Other important fisheries include pollock, sardine, and anchovy. There are also many developing port cities along the Kuroshio Current. While the Kuroshio Current is historically known to support many fisheries where it meets with the Oyashio current, this region is still recovering from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. In 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami in 2011. This tsunami inundated more than 200 miles of Japan's coastline and drastically altered the sea level in some coastal areas by meters. It killed more than 18,500 people and set off a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, releasing radiocesium into the surrounding waters. While local water bodies were the most severely affected, this radiocesium was transported as far as the entire North Pacific Ocean by the North Pacific Current which is formed by the collision of the Kuroshio and the Oyashio current. Local fisheries lost over 90% of their fleets and were unable to resume operations for up to a year after the accident. The local economy has been working to return to pre-tsunami levels but, even now, fishery yields have not reached nearly the levels they were before the accident. No catches are made within a 10 km radius to the accident cite and even catches outside of that zone are subject to inspection for radioactive materials, costing fisheries both time and money. Minamisanriku had most of the town's port and aquaculture facilities restored by 2014 and as of 2018, reconstruction of Iwate and Miyagi, the Japanese Prefectures, key infrastructure was near completion. Local Japanese fishing fleets hauled 5,928 tons of seafood product valued at over 2.21 billion yen (19.342 million U.S. dollars) in 2021. Changes in the Kuroshio Current and its warming conditions have impacted pilot whale migration. These animals are considered a delicacy but hunting is strictly regulated and transitions in migration timing is impacting those who depend on these animals as a source of income. Management practices must consider protecting these animals and recognizing the potential economic impacts on local hunters.

Kuroshio Current

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroshio_Current

**Prince of Wales** (Welsh: *Tywysog Cymru*, pronounced [təu̯ˈəsoɡ ˈkəmrɨ]; Latin: *Princeps Cambriae/Walliae*) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the English and, later, British thrones. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Gwynedd who, from the late 12th century, used it (albeit inconsistently) to assert their supremacy over the other Welsh rulers. However, to mark the finalisation of his conquest of Wales, in 1301, Edward I of England, invested his son Edward of Caernarfon with the title, thereby beginning the tradition of giving the title to the heir apparent when he was the monarch's son or grandson. The title was later claimed by the leader of a Welsh rebellion, Owain Glyndŵr, from 1400 until 1415. The current holder of the title is William, who was created Prince of Wales by his father, King Charles III, on 9 September 2022. The title has, in recent years, become a point of controversy in Wales. Welsh princes of Wales ---------------------- ### Origins to 1283 The first known Welsh ruler to refer to himself as the Prince of Wales was Owain Gwynedd, in about 1165 in the third of his letters to Louis VII of France. It is likely that this was to assert his pre-eminence over the other Welsh princes. The next to assume the title was the grandson of Owain Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great). In 1215, the Welsh and Scots had joined English rebel barons in forcing King John to sign Magna Carta, which included return of lands to the Welsh and the return of Llywelyn's hostage son, Gruffydd. Llywelyn went on to gain dominance over all Wales the following year and in 1218 Henry III formally recognised Llywelyn as Prince of Wales in the Treaty of Worcester. Although Llywelyn's son, Dafydd was forced to give up his father's claims, his nephew, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (also known as Llywelyn II or Llywelyn the Last), controlled almost all of "Welsh Wales" (*Pura Wallia*) and began using the Prince of Wales title with Scottish backing. In 1258 much of Wales appeared united behind Llywelyn and against the English. Taking advantage of cvil war in England, Henry III agreed the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267, recognising Llywelyn as Prince of Wales. In 1277, the invasion of Edward I of England into Wales forced Llywelyn II into the Treaty of Aberconwy, meaning he would lose much of the ground previously gained, but would keep the Prince of Wales title. The invasion was over a series of disputes but Edward was not intent on conquest at that stage, and negotiated the settlement when Llywelyn surrendered. War broke out again in 1282, as a result of a rebellion by Llywelyn's brother Dafydd, who was discontented with the reward he had received from Edward in 1277. Edward I was drawn into war again and this time he turned it into a war of conquest. The war turned in Edward's favour when Llywelyn unexpectedly marched out of North Wales towards Builth in mid-Wales. He was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge on 11 December 1282. Dafydd briefly assumed the title of Prince of Wales before he too was captured and executed in 1283. In 1284, Edward introduced the royal ordinance of the Statute of Rhuddlan, formally ending the independent Welsh Principality of Wales and annexing its territory to the crown of England. ### Owain Glyndŵr After over a century of English rule, supporters of Welsh leader Owain Glyndŵr (c. 1354 – c. 1415) proclaimed him Prince of Wales on 16 September 1400 in Glyndyfrdwy, at the start of the Welsh Revolt. The revolt briefly brought back the prospect of Welsh independence but it faltered in 1407, and by 1409 Wales was subdued. Glyndŵr eventually retreated to the Welsh wilderness with a band of loyal supporters, where he refused to surrender and continued the war with guerrilla tactics. The last documented sighting of him was in 1412 and he may have died in 1415. Heirs apparent to the English or British thrones ------------------------------------------------ ### First English Prince of Wales In order to finalise his conquest of Wales, Edward I began the custom of granting the title of prince of Wales to the heir apparent to the English throne. Consequently, in 1301, Edward invested his Welsh-born eldest son, Edward of Caernarfon, as the first Plantagenet Prince of Wales. Writing in *Britannia*, William Camden describes the killing of Llywelyn and Edward's use of the title "Prince of Wales" for his son: > As concerning the Princes of Wales of British bloud in ancient times, you may reade in the Historie of Wales published in print. For my part I thinke it requisite and pertinent to my intended purpose to set downe summarily those of latter daies, descended from the roiall line of England. King Edward the First, unto whom his father King Henrie the Third had granted the Principalitie of Wales, when hee had obtained the Crowne and Lhewellin Ap Gryffith, the last Prince of the British race, was slain, and therby the sinewes as it were of the principalitie were cut, in the twelft yeere of his reigne united the same unto the Kingdome of England. And the whole province sware fealty and alleageance unto Edward of Caernarvon his sonne, whom hee made Prince of Wales. But King Edward the Second conferred not upon his sonne Edward the title of Prince of Wales, but onely the name of Earle of Chester and of Flint, so farre as ever I could learne out of the Records, and by that title summoned him to Parliament, being then nine yeres old. King Edward the Third first created his eldest sonne Edward surnamed the Blacke Prince, the Mirour of Chivalrie (being then Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester), Prince of Wales by solemne investure, with a cap of estate and Coronet set on his head, a gold ring put upon his finger, and a silver vierge delivered into his hand, with the assent of Parliament. > > — William Camden, *Britannia* (1607) ### Titles and roles The title is neither automatic nor heritable; it merges with the Crown when its holder eventually accedes to the throne, or reverts to the Crown if its holder predeceases the current monarch, leaving the sovereign free to grant it to the new heir apparent (such as the late prince's son or brother). In 2011, along with the other Commonwealth realms, the United Kingdom committed to the Perth Agreement, which proposed changes to the laws governing succession, including altering the male-preference primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 was introduced to the British parliament on 12 December 2012, published the next day, and received royal assent on 25 April 2013. It was brought into force on 26 March 2015, at the same time as the other realms implemented the Perth Agreement in their own laws. Since 1301, the title 'Earl of Chester' has generally been granted to each heir apparent to the English throne, and from the late 14th century it has been given only in conjunction with that of 'Prince of Wales'. Both titles are bestowed to each individual by the sovereign and are not automatically acquired. The prince of Wales usually has other titles and honours, if the eldest son of the monarch; typically this means being duke of Cornwall, which, unlike being prince of Wales, inherently includes lands and constitutional and operational responsibilities. The duchy of Cornwall was created in 1337 by Edward III for his son and heir, Edward of Woodstock (also known as 'The Black Prince'). A charter was also created which ruled that the eldest son of the king would be the duke of Cornwall. No formal public role or responsibility has been legislated by Parliament or otherwise delegated to the prince of Wales by law or custom. In that role, Charles often assisted Elizabeth II in the performance of her duties. He represented her when welcoming dignitaries to London and during state visits. He also represented the Queen and the United Kingdom overseas at state and ceremonial occasions such as funerals. The prince of Wales has also been granted the authority to issue royal warrants. ### Insignia The Prince of Wales's feathers are the badge of the Prince of Wales by virtue of being the heir apparent. The ostrich feathers are generally traced back to Edward of Woodstock ('The Black Prince'). He bore (as an alternative to his differenced royal arms) a shield of *Sable, three ostrich feathers argent*, described as his "shield for peace", probably meaning the shield he used for jousting. These arms appear several times on his chest tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, alternating with his paternal royal arms (the royal arms of King Edward III differenced by *a label of three points argent*). The Black Prince also used heraldic badges of one or more ostrich feathers in various other contexts. ### 1969 investiture of Prince Charles Two investiture protestors hold placards with "CARLO", and one protestor holds a poster with the word "BRAD" ("Betrayal"), Caernarfon Castle 1969People at the investiture Although the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969 took place during a period of social change and a growing Welsh nationalist movement, it was largely welcomed by people in Wales. The investiture was also attended, by invitation, by 3,500 people who lived and worked in Wales. In the UK, the press focused on the pomp and regalia, with newspaper headlines such as "Welsh go wild for Their Royal Prince" and "Proud Wales takes Prince to her heart." It was also supported by the Secretary of State for Wales at the time, George Thomas, although he remained a controversial figure in Wales. Thomas later said to Prime Minister Harold Wilson that Charles's speech had "boosted Welsh nationalism." The 1960s movement surrounding the investiture has historically been described as the "anti-investiture movement" and "anti-investiture sentiment". The investiture occurred during a period of revival of the Welsh national consciousness, with an outspoken section considering him as an English Prince being imposed upon Wales. The investiture also led to significant protests in Wales. The group "Cofia 1282" ("Remember 1282") also held protests against the investiture. ### William as Prince of Wales On 9 September 2022 (the day after his accession to the throne), during his first address as king, Charles III said of his son William, "Today I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru. The country whose title I've been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life of duty." Buckingham Palace stated that "The Prince and Princess [of Wales] look forward to celebrating Wales's proud history and traditions as well as a future that is full of promise". The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, noted that "William will be absolutely aware of the sensitivities that surround the title..." Though the title started to be used immediately afterward, it was only officially bestowed by letters patent on 13 February 2023. Contemporary debate ------------------- ### Title Following Charles III's creation of William as Prince of Wales, Mark Drakeford, Adam Price, Jane Dodds, Leanne Wood, Heledd Fychan, YesCymru and Plaid Cymru have called for a national conversation on the title. The Welsh government responded saying that the matter had already been decided. Laura McAllister, Welsh academic, former international footballer and senior sports administrator said that the title merits a proper debate due to its historical and political controversy. Plaid Cymru MS, Cefin Campbell said the announcement of the title was divisive. Welsh actor Michael Sheen and Plaid Cymru deputy leader Rhun ap Iorwerth have called for an end to the title. Conservative MS Laura Anne Jones supports the role whilst Conservative MPs, David Jones and MP Michael Fabricant said that the matter was up to the King rather than the First Minister of Wales. Conservative MS Tom Giffard suggests the title would benefit tourism. Lord Elis-Thomas said in 2022 that in a previous discussion with the then Prince Charles, he expressed his desire never again to have an investiture in Caernarfon Castle. According to Elis-Thomas, Charles laughed and said, "Do you think I want to put William through what I went through?". An online petition begun in 2022 called for the end of the Prince of Wales title and received over 40,000 signatures by May 2023. On 6 October 2022, Gwynedd Council, the current local authority for Gwynedd, where Charles was invested, voted to declare opposition to the title and to holding another investiture in Wales. On 30 October, Senedd Llywydd Elin Jones said to WalesOnline that an investiture is not a constitutional requirement and that 21st century Wales does not need an investiture. In November 2022, Kensington Palace released a statement saying an investiture is "not on the table", with William visiting Cardiff with plans to tell the people of Wales that there are no formal plans for an investiture ceremony, aware of the controversy of the 1969 event. ### Opinion polls A BBC Wales poll in 1999 showed that 73% of Welsh speakers believed the title should continue after Charles. A BBC poll in 2009, 40 years following the investiture, revealed 58% of Welsh people support the title "Prince of Wales"; 26% opposed the title. However, only 16% responded that Wales had benefited from having a prince. In July 2018, an ITV poll found that 57% of Welsh people supported the title passing to William, with 22% for abolition or vacating the title. Support for another investiture was lower, with 31% supporting a ceremony similar to the 1969 one, 18% supporting a ceremony different to 1969, and 27% opposing an investiture. In 2019, a BBC Wales poll showed that 50% supported the continuation of the title and 22% opposed. On the investiture, 41% supported a similar ceremony to 1969, 20% a different-style investiture ceremony, and 30% opposed any future investiture. A 2021 poll by Beaufort Research for Western Mail showed 61% of respondents in Wales supported another investiture, including 60% of Welsh-speakers polled. In June 2022, an ITV/YouGov poll showed that 46% of adults in Wales wanted the Prince of Wales title to continue, and 31% said it should be abolished. In September 2022, a YouGov poll showed 66% support for Prince William to be given the title compared to 22% opposed, with 19% supporting a 1969-style investiture, 30% a different style of investiture and 34% opposing any investiture of Prince William as Prince of Wales. List of princes of Wales (English or British heirs apparent) ------------------------------------------------------------ | Person | Name | Heir of | Birth | Became heir apparent | Created Prince of Wales | Ceased to be Prince of Wales | Death | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Edward of Caernarfon | Edward I | 25 April 1284 | 19 August 1284 | 7 February 1301 | 7 July 1307*acceded to throne as **Edward II*** | 21 September 1327 | | | Edward of Woodstock | Edward III | 15 June 1330 | 12 May 1343 | 8 June 1376*deceased* | | | Richard of Bordeaux | 6 January 1367 | 8 June 1376 | 20 November 1376 | 22 June 1377*acceded to throne as **Richard II*** | 14 February 1400 | | | Henry of Monmouth | Henry IV | 16 September 1386 | 30 September 1399 | 15 October 1399 | 21 March 1413*acceded to throne as **Henry V*** | 31 August 1422 | | | Edward of Westminster | Henry VI | 13 October 1453 | 15 March 1454 | 11 April 1471*father deposed* | 4 May 1471*deceased* | | | Edward of York | Edward IV | 4 November 1470 | 11 April 1471 | 26 June 1471 | 9 April 1483*acceded to throne as **Edward V*** | 1483 | | | Edward of Middleham | Richard III | 1473 | 26 June 1483 | 24 August 1483 | 31 March *or*9 April 1484*deceased* | | | Arthur Tudor | Henry VII | 20 September 1486 | 29 November 1489 | 2 April 1502*deceased* | | | Henry Tudor | 28 June 1491 | 2 April 1502 | 18 February 1504 | 21 April 1509*acceded to throne as **Henry VIII*** | 28 January 1547 | | | Edward Tudor | Henry VIII | 12 October 1537 | *c.* 18 October 1537 | 28 January 1547*acceded to throne as **Edward VI*** | 6 July 1553 | | | Henry Frederick Stuart | James I | 19 February 1594 | 24 March 1603 | 4 June 1610 | 6 November 1612*deceased* | | | Charles Stuart | 19 November 1600 | 6 November 1612 | 4 November 1616 | 27 March 1625*acceded to throne as **Charles I*** | 30 January 1649 | | | Charles Stuart | Charles I | 29 May 1630 | *c.* 1638–1641 | 30 January 1649*title abolished; later (1660) acceded to throne as **Charles II*** | 6 February 1685 | | | James Francis Edward Stuart | James II | 10 June 1688 | *c.* 4 July 1688 | 11 December 1688*father deposed* | 1 January 1766 | | | George Augustus | George I | 10 November 1683 | 1 August 1714 | 27 September 1714 | 11 June 1727*acceded to throne as **George II*** | 25 October 1760 | | | Frederick Louis | George II | 1 February 1707 | 11 June 1727 | 7 January 1728 | 31 March 1751*deceased* | | | George William Frederick | 4 June 1738 | 31 March 1751 | 20 April 1751 | 25 October 1760*acceded to throne as **George III*** | 29 January 1820 | | | George Augustus Frederick | George III | 12 August 1762 | 17 August 1762 | 29 January 1820*acceded to throne as **George IV*** | 26 June 1830 | | | Albert Edward | Victoria | 9 November 1841 | 8 December 1841 | 22 January 1901*acceded to throne as **Edward VII*** | 6 May 1910 | | | George Frederick Ernest Albert | Edward VII | 3 June 1865 | 22 January 1901 | 9 November 1901 | 6 May 1910*acceded to throne as **George V*** | 20 January 1936 | | | Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David | George V | 23 June 1894 | 6 May 1910 | 23 June 1910Investiture: 13 July 1911 | 20 January 1936*acceded to throne as **Edward VIII**;later (1937) Duke of Windsor* | 28 May 1972 | | | Charles Philip Arthur George | Elizabeth II | 14 November 1948 | 6 February 1952 | 26 July 1958Investiture: 1 July 1969 | 8 September 2022*acceded to throne as **Charles III*** | living | | | William Arthur Philip Louis | Charles III | 21 June 1982 | 8 September 2022 | 9 September 2022 | *Incumbent* | living | | The current sovereign Charles III was the longest serving prince of Wales for 64 years and 44 days between 1958 and 2022, and the oldest person to hold the position. He was also heir apparent for longer than any other in British history. Upon the death of his mother on 8 September 2022, Charles became king and the title merged with the Crown. The following day, King Charles III bestowed the title upon his elder son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. Prince William is the oldest person to be created Prince of Wales. Family tree ----------- | Princes of Wales, Dukes of Cornwall, Dukes of Rothesay, Earls of Carrick and Earls of Chester family tree | | --- | | | | | --- | | *Earl of Chester (1st creation), 1067–1070* | | | Gerbod the Fleming(?)**Earl of Chester** | | Richard Goz(d. after 1082) | | | | | | King William I(c. 1028–1087) | | | *Earldom of Chester (1st creation) forfeit, 1071* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *Earl of Chester (2nd creation), 1071* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Maud (Margaret) | | Hugh d'Avranches(c. 1047–1101)**1st Earl of Chester** | | Adela of Normandy(c. 1067–1137) | | Stephen, Count of Blois(c. 1045–1102) | | King Henry I(c. 1068–1135) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ranulf le Meschin(1070–1129)**3rd Earl of Chester** | | Richard d'Avranches(1094–1120)**2nd Earl of Chester** | | Lucia-Mahaut(d. 1120) | | Robert Rufus1st Earl of Gloucester(c. 1090–1147) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ranulf de Gernon(1099–1153)**4th Earl of Chester** | | Maud (Matilda) of Gloucester(d. 1189) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hugh of Cyfeiliog(1147–1181)**5th Earl of Chester** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ranulf de Blondeville(1170–1232)**6th Earl of Chester**Earl of Lincoln | | Matilda (Maud)(1171–1233)**Countess of Chester** *suo jure* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *EARL OF CHESTER (4th reation), 1264* | | | | | | | | | | | John of Scotland(c. 1207–1237)**7th Earl of Chester**Earl of Huntingdon | | | | | | Simon de Montfort(1208–1265)**Earl of Chester**Earl of Leicester | | | | | | | | | | | *Earldom of Chester (2nd creation) reverted to the crown, 1237* | | *EARL OF CHESTER (3rd creation), 1254* | | *Earldom of Chester (4th creation) forfeit, 1265* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Edward, Lord of Chester(1239–1307)**Earl of Chester** (without the title of Earl)later King Edward I | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *Earldom of Chester (3rd creation) reverted to the crown, 1272* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *EARL OF CHESTER (5th creation), 1301* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Edward of Caernarfon(1284–1327)**Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester(1301–1307)**later King Edward II | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *Earldom of Chester (5th creation) reverted to the crown, 1307* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *EARL OF CHESTER (6th creation), 1312* | | | Robert Stewart(1316–1390)**Earl of Carrick(1316–1368)**later King Robert II of Scots | | | | | | | | | | Edward Plantagenet(1312–1377)**Earl of Chester(1312–1327)**later King Edward III | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *Hereafter, the Earldom of Chester was created in conjunction with the Principality of Wales.* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *DUKE OF CORNWALL, 1337* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | John Stewart(1337–1406)**Earl of Carrick(1368–1390)**later King Robert III of Scots | | Edward the Black Prince(1330–1376)**Duke of Cornwall(1337–1376)****Prince of Wales(1343–1376)** | | John of Gaunt(1340–1399)Duke of Lancaster | | | | | | Lionel of Antwerp(1338–1368)Duke of Clarence | | Edmund of Langley(1341–1402)Duke of York | | | | | | | | *Dukedom of Cornwall extinct, 1376* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *DUKE OF CORNWALL, 1376* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Richard of Bordeaux(1367–1400)**Prince of Wales(1376–1377)****Duke of Cornwall(1376–1377)**later King Richard II | | John Beaufort(c. 1371–1410) | | King Henry IV(1366–1413) | | Philippa of Clarence(1355–1382) | | | | | | | | | | | | | *Dukedom of Cornwall merged in the Crown, 1377* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Roger Mortimer(1374–1398) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *DUKE OF ROTHESAY created, 1398* | | | | | | | *DUKE OF CORNWALL restored, 1399* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Stewart(1378–1402)**Earl of Carrick (1390–1402)Duke of Rothesay(1398–1402)** | | | | | | | Henry of Monmouth(1386–1422)**Prince of Wales(1399–1413)****Duke of Cornwall(1399–1413)**later King Henry V | | Anne de Mortimer(1390–1411) | | Richard of Conisburgh(c. 1375–1415)Earl of Cambridge | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *DUKE OF CORNWALL, 1460* | | | | | | | | | James(1394–1437)**Earl of Carrick (1402–1406)Duke of Rothesay(1404–1406)**later King James I of Scots | | Joan Beaufort(c. 1404–1445) | | John Beaufort(1404–1444)Duke of Somerset | | Henry(1421–1471)**Duke of Cornwall(1421–1422)**later King Henry VI | | Richard Plantagenet(1411–1460)Duke of York**Prince of Wales(1460)****Duke of Cornwall (1460)** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Alexander Stewart(1430)**Duke of Rothesay(1430)** | | James(1430–1460)**Duke of Rothesay(1431–1437)**later King James II of Scots | | Margaret Beaufort(1443–1509) | | | | | | | King Edward IV(1442–1483) | | King Richard III(1452–1485) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | James(1451–1488)**Duke of Rothesay(1452–1460)**later King James III of Scots | | | | | | King Henry VII(1457–1509) | | Edward of Westminster(1453–1471)**Prince of Wales(1454–1471)****Duke of Cornwall(1454–1471)** | | | | | | | | | | | | | *From the 1469 Act of Scottish Parliament, the Earldom of Carrick and the Dukedom of Rothesay was to be automatically held by the "first-born Prince of the King of Scots."* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | James(1473–1513)**Duke of Rothesay(1473–1488)**later King James IV of Scots | | Margaret Tudor(1489–1541) | | Arthur Tudor(1486–1502)**Prince of Wales(1489–1502)****Duke of Cornwall(1486–1502)** | | Henry Tudor(1491–1547)**Prince of Wales(1504–1509)****Duke of Cornwall(1502–1509)**later King Henry VIII | | Edward(1470–1483)**Prince of Wales(1471–1483)****Duke of Cornwall(1471–1483)**later King Edward V | | Edward of Middleham(c. 1473–1484)**Prince of Wales(1483–1484)****Duke of Cornwall(1483–1484)** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | James Stewart(1507–1508)**Duke of Rothesay(1507–1508)** | | Arthur Stewart(1509–1510)**Duke of Rothesay(1509–1510)** | | James(1512–1542)**Duke of Rothesay(1512–1513)**later King James V of Scots | | Henry(1511)Duke of York**Duke of Cornwall(1511)** | | Edward Tudor(1537–1553)**Prince of Wales(1537–1547)****Duke of Cornwall(1537–1547)**later King Edward VI | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | James Stewart(1540–1541)**Duke of Rothesay(1540–1541)** | | Mary, Queen of Scots(1542–1587) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | James Charles Stuart(1566–1625)**Duke of Rothesay(1566–1567)**later King James VI/I | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Henry Frederick Stuart(1594–1612)**Prince of Wales(1610–1612)****Duke of Cornwall(1603–1612)****Duke of Rothesay(1594–1612)** | | Elizabeth Stuart(1596–1662) | | Charles Stuart(1600–1649)**Prince of Wales(1616–1625)****Duke of Cornwall(1612–1625)****Duke of Rothesay(1612–1625)**later King Charles I | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sophia of Hanover(1630–1714) | | Charles James(1629)**Duke of Cornwall(1629)****Duke of Rothesay(1629)**styled Prince of Wales | | Charles Stuart(1630–1685)**Prince of Wales(c. 1638/1641–1649)****Duke of Cornwall(1630–1649)****Duke of Rothesay(1630–1649)**later King Charles II | | King James II/VII(1633–1701) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | King George I(1660–1727) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | George Augustus(1683–1760)**Prince of Wales(1714–1727)****Duke of Cornwall(1714–1727)****Duke of Rothesay(1714–1727)**later King George II | | | | | | | | | | James Francis Edward Stuart(1688–1766)**Prince of Wales(c. 1688–1688)****Duke of Cornwall(1688–1702)****Duke of Rothesay(1688–1702)** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Frederick Louis(1707–1751)**Prince of Wales(1728–1751)****Duke of Cornwall(1727–1751)****Duke of Rothesay(1727–1751)** | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | George William Frederick(1738–1820)**Prince of Wales(1751–1760)**later King George III | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | George Augustus Frederick(1762–1830)**Prince of Wales(1762–1820)****Duke of Cornwall(1762–1820)****Duke of Rothesay(1762–1820)**later King George IV | | Edward Augustus(1767–1820)Duke of Kent and Strathearn | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Queen Victoria(1819–1901) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Albert Edward(1841–1910)**Prince of Wales(1841–1901)****Duke of Cornwall(1841–1901)****Duke of Rothesay(1841–1901)**later King Edward VII | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | George Frederick Ernest Albert(1865–1936)**Prince of Wales(1901–1910)****Duke of Cornwall(1901–1910)****Duke of Rothesay(1901–1910)**later King George V | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David(1894–1972)**Prince of Wales(1910–1936)****Duke of Cornwall(1910–1936)****Duke of Rothesay(1910–1936)**later King Edward VIIIlater Duke of Windsor | | King George VI(1895–1952) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Queen Elizabeth II(1926–2022) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Charles Philip Arthur George(b. 1948)**Prince of Wales(1958–2022)****Duke of Cornwall(1952–2022)****Duke of Rothesay(1952–2022)**later King Charles III | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | William Arthur Philip Louis(b. 1982)**Prince of Wales(since 2022)****Duke of Cornwall(since 2022)****Duke of Rothesay (since 2022)**Duke of Cambridge | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prince George of Wales(b. 2013) | | | See also -------- * List of heirs to the British throne * List of heirs to the English throne * Prince's Consent * Princess of Wales * Prince of Wales's feathers * Wales in the Late Middle Ages * Welsh heraldry Sources -------

Prince of Wales

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales

The **AFC Champions League** (abbreviated as **ACL**) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition in Asian football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national associations. Introduced in 1967 as the *Asian Champion Club Tournament*, the competition rebranded and took on its current name in 2002 as a result of the merger between the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup. A total of 40 clubs compete in the round-robin group stage of the competition. Clubs from Asia's strongest national leagues receive automatic berths, with clubs from lower-ranked nations eligible to qualify via the qualifying playoffs, and they are also eligible to participate in the AFC Cup. The winner of the AFC Champions League qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup. The most successful club in the competition is Al-Hilal with a total of four titles. Urawa Red Diamonds are the current champions, having beaten Al-Hilal in the 2022 final. History ------- ### 1967–1972: Asian Champion Club Tournament The competition started as the Asian Champion Club Tournament, a tournament for the champions of AFC nations, and had a variety of different formats, with the inaugural tournament staged as a straight knock-out format and the following three editions consisting of a group stage. While Israeli clubs dominated the first four editions of the competition, this was partly due to the refusal of Arab clubs to play them: * In 1970, Lebanese club Homenetmen refused to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the semi-final, which was scratched with Hapoel advancing to the final. * In 1971, Aliyat Al-Shorta of Iraq refused to play Maccabi Tel Aviv on three occasions: in the preliminary round (which was redrawn), in the group stage, and in the final, which was scratched with Maccabi being awarded the championship. During the award ceremony for Maccabi, Aliyat Al-Shorta players waved the Palestinian flag around the field, while the Iraqi media considered Aliyat Al-Shorta as the tournament's winners, with the team holding an open top bus parade in Baghdad. After the 1972 edition had to be cancelled by the AFC for various reasons, including two Arab clubs being excluded for refusing to commit to playing against Israeli club Maccabi Netanya, the AFC suspended the competition for 14 years, while Israel would be expelled from the AFC in 1974. ### 1985–2002: Return as the Asian Club Championship Asia's premier club tournament made its return in 1985 as the Asian Club Championship. In 1990, the Asian Football Confederation introduced the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, a tournament for the cup winners of each AFC nation, while the 1995 season saw the introduction of the Asian Super Cup, with the winners of the Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners' Cup playing against each other. ### 2002–present: AFC Champions League The 2002–03 season saw the Asian Club Championship, Asian Cup Winners' Cup and Asian Super Cup combine to become the AFC Champions League. League champions and cup winners would qualify for the qualifying playoffs with the best eight clubs from East Asia and the eight best clubs from West Asia progressing to the group stage. The first winners under the AFC Champions League name were Al-Ain, defeating BEC Tero Sasana 2–1 on aggregate. In 2004, 29 clubs from fourteen countries participated and the tournament schedule was changed to March–November. In the group stage, the 28 clubs were divided into seven groups of four on a regional basis, separating East Asian and West Asian clubs to reduce travel costs, and the groups were played on a home and away basis. The seven group winners along with the defending champions qualified to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals were played as a two-legged format, with away goals, extra time, and penalties used as tie-breakers. #### Expansion The 2005 season saw Syrian clubs join the competition, thus increasing the number of participating countries to 15, and two years later, following their transfer into the AFC in 2006, Australian clubs were also included in the tournament. However, many blamed the low prize money at that time and expensive travel cost as some of the reasons. The Champions League was expanded to 32 clubs in 2009 with direct entry to the top ten Asian leagues. Each country received up to 4 slots, though no more than one-third of the number of teams in that country's top division, rounded downwards, depending on the strength of their league, professional league structure, marketability, financial status, as well as other criteria set by the AFC Pro-League Committee. The assessment criteria and ranking for participating associations are revised by AFC every two years. The old format saw the eight group winners and eight runners-up qualify to the Round of 16, in which group winners played host to the runners-up in two-legged series, matched regionally, with away goals, extra time, and penalties used as tie-breakers. The regional restriction continues all the way until the final, although clubs from the same country couldn't face each other in the quarterfinals unless that country has three or more representatives in the quarterfinals. Since 2013, the final has also been held as a two-legged series, on a home and away basis. In 2021, the group stage was expanded from 32 to 40 teams, with both the West and East Regions having five groups of four teams. The slot allocation for the top six member associations in each region remained unchanged. The 10 group winners and top 3 runners-up per region are now seeded based on a combination table for the Round of 16, with the games still matched regionally until the Final. On 25 February 2022, it was announced that the AFC Champions League will go back to an inter-year (autumn to spring) schedule starting with the 2023–24 season. This will be the first time Asia's premier club competition will be played in between years since 2002–03. In addition, the existing "3+1" rule for foreign players during matches (3 foreign players and 1 Asian foreigner) will be expanded to be "5+1" (5 foreign players and 1 Asian foreigner). #### Reform On 23 December 2022, it was announced that the AFC competition structure would change from the established formats. Under the new plans, the top club competition of Asian football will only consist of 24 teams, divided into East and West regions, with each team playing eight other teams from their region (four teams at home and four teams away). The top eight teams per region will advance to the knockout stage, where only the round of 16 will be played over two legs, and from the quarter-finals onward the matches will be held at a neutral venue. It is currently unknown when this format will take effect or whether it will have the AFC Champions League moniker. #### Women's rights in Iranian football By 2021, the various problems with the Iranian sides were attracting media attention; international Arabic and English-language media reported the violation of women's rights in the stadiums of Iranian sides. On top of that, Iranian women were banned from football stadiums for about 40 years, by the Iranian government. In 2019, Iranian women were first allowed to watch football at stadiums, but not during ACL games. Before that, FIFA had pressured Iran to let women into the stadiums; Iran relented, but capped the number of women to watch the 2018 final. In 2021, the AFC investigated the matter, in the hope of allowing unrestricted attendance whenever Iranian clubs are involved. Format ------ ### Qualification As of the 2021 edition of the tournament, the AFC Champions League has commenced with a double round-robin group stage of 40 teams, which is preceded by qualifying matches for teams that do not receive direct entry to the competition proper. Teams are also split into east and west zones to progress separately in the tournament. The number of teams that each association enters into the AFC Champions League is determined annually through criteria as set by the AFC Competitions Committee. The criteria, which is a modified version of the UEFA coefficient, measures such thing as marketability and stadia to determine the specific number of berths that an association receives. The higher an association's ranking as determined by the criteria, the more teams represent the association in the Champions League, and the fewer qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in. ### Tournament The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 40 teams, divided into ten groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, with teams from the same country not being drawn into groups together. The group stage is divided into two zones; the first zone is the five East Asian groups and the other zone is the five West Asian groups. Each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The winning team from each group (five in each zone) and the six best runners-up (three from each zone) then progress to the next round. For this stage, three group winners plays against the three best runners-up from another group from their zone of the group stage while the other two group winners from each zone play against each other. The tournament uses the away goals rule: if the aggregate score of the two games is tied after 180 minutes, then the team who scored more goals at their opponent's stadium advances. If still tied the clubs play extra time, where the away goals rule is no longer applied. If still tied after extra time, the tie shall be decided by a penalty shootout. Winners of each tie advance to the next round, with the East and West zones continue to be kept part until the final. The group stage and round of 16 matches are played through the first half of the year (February–May), whilst the knock-out stage thereafter is played during the second half of the year (August–November). The knock-out ties are played in a two-legged format, including the final. ### Allocation Teams from only 19 AFC countries have reached the group stage of the AFC Champions League. The allocation of teams by member countries is listed below; asterisks represent occasions where at least one team was eliminated in qualification prior to the group stage. 32 AFC countries have had teams participate in qualification, and countries that have never had teams reach the group stage are not shown. | Associations | Entrants | | --- | --- | | 2002–03 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | | East Asia | | **Australia Australia** | *Part of OFC* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1\* | 3 | 2\* | 2\* | 3 | 2\* | 2\* | 3 | 0 | 2\* | | | **China China PR** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2\* | 2 | | **Hong Kong Hong Kong** | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1\* | 1\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Indonesia Indonesia** | 0\* | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | | **Japan Japan** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 4 | | **South Korea South Korea** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | | | **Malaysia Malaysia** | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1\* | 1\* | 1 | 1 | | **Philippines Philippines** | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 2 | 1\* | | **Singapore Singapore** | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Thailand Thailand** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1\* | 2 | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 1\* | 4 | 2\* | | **Vietnam Vietnam** | 0\* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 1\* | 1\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Total** | **8** | **12** | **12** | **8** | **13** | **13** | **16** | **16** | **15** | **15** | **15** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **20** | **19** | | West Asia | | **Bahrain Bahrain** | 0\* | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | | **India India** | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Iran Iran** | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 2 | | **Iraq Iraq** | 1\* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1\* | 1\* | 2\* | 1\* | | **Jordan Jordan** | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Kuwait Kuwait** | 0\* | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | | | | | | | **Qatar Qatar** | 1\* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2\* | 2\* | 2\* | 4 | 3\* | 2\* | 3\* | 4 | | **Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia** | 1\* | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | | | **Syria Syria** | 0\* | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | | **Tajikistan Tajikistan** | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0\* | 0\* | 1 | 1 | | **Turkmenistan Turkmenistan** | 1\* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | **United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates** | 1\* | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 2\* | 3\* | 4 | 4 | 3\* | 4 | 3\* | 3\* | | **Uzbekistan Uzbekistan** | 1\* | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3\* | 2\* | 1\* | 4 | 4 | 2\* | 2\* | 2\* | 1\* | 2 | 2 | | | **Total** | **8** | **14** | **17** | **17** | **15** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **17** | **17** | **17** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **16** | **20** | **20** | | Total | | Finals | **16** | **26** | **29** | **25** | **28** | **29** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **32** | **40** | **39** | | Qualifying | 53 | 26 | 29 | 25 | 28 | 29 | 35 | 37 | 36 | 37 | 35 | 47 | 49 | 45 | 47 | 46 | 51 | 52 | 45 | 46 | Prize money ----------- The prize money for the 2021 AFC Champions League: | Phase | Purse (USD) | Travel Subsidy (USD per match) | | --- | --- | --- | | Preliminary stage | N/A | $30,000 | | Playoff stage | N/A | $30,000 | | Group stages | Win: $50,000 Draw: $10,000 | $45,000 | | Round of 16 | $100,000 | $45,000 | | Quarter-finals | $150,000 | $45,000 | | Semi-finals | $250,000 | $45,000 | | Final | Champions: $4,000,000 Runners-up: $2,000,000 | $90,000 | Marketing --------- ### Sponsorship Like the FIFA World Cup, the AFC Champions League is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor typically found in national top-flight leagues. The tournament's current main sponsors are: * Neom * Konami * Molten Video game ---------- The current license holder for the AFC Champions League video game is Konami with the Pro Evolution Soccer series. The license also includes the competing teams. Records and statistics ---------------------- ### Performances by club Performances in the Asian Club Championship and AFC Champions League by club| Club | Title(s) | Runners-up | Seasons won | Seasons runner-up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | 4 | 5 | 1991, 1999–2000, 2019, 2021 | 1986, 1987, 2014, 2017, 2022 | | South Korea Pohang Steelers | 3 | 1 | 1996–97, 1997–98, 2009 | 2021 | | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | 3 | 1 | 2007, 2017, 2022 | 2019 | | Iran Esteghlal | 2 | 2 | 1970, 1990–91 | 1991, 1998–99 | | South Korea Seongnam FC | 2 | 2 | 1995, 2010 | 1996–97, 2004 | | Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad | 2 | 1 | 2004, 2005 | 2009 | | South Korea Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 2 | 1 | 2006, 2016 | 2011 | | Israel Maccabi Tel Aviv1 | 2 | 0 | 1969, 1971 | — | | Qatar Al-Sadd | 2 | 0 | 1988–89, 2011 | — | | Thailand Thai Farmers Bank2 | 2 | 0 | 1993–94, 1994–95 | — | | South Korea Suwon Samsung Bluewings | 2 | 0 | 2000–01, 2001–02 | — | | South Korea Ulsan Hyundai | 2 | 0 | 2012, 2020 | — | | China Guangzhou | 2 | 0 | 2013, 2015 | — | | Japan Júbilo Iwata | 1 | 2 | 1998–99 | 1999–2000, 2000–01 | | United Arab Emirates Al-Ain | 1 | 2 | 2002–03 | 2005, 2016 | | Israel Hapoel Tel Aviv1 | 1 | 1 | 1967 | 1970 | | China Liaoning2 | 1 | 1 | 1989–90 | 1990–91 | | South Korea Busan IPark | 1 | 0 | 1985–86 | — | | Japan JEF United Chiba | 1 | 0 | 1986 | — | | Japan Tokyo Verdy | 1 | 0 | 1987 | — | | Iran PAS Tehran2 | 1 | 0 | 1992–93 | — | | Japan Gamba Osaka | 1 | 0 | 2008 | — | | Australia Western Sydney Wanderers | 1 | 0 | 2014 | — | | Japan Kashima Antlers | 1 | 0 | 2018 | — | | Saudi Arabia Al-Ahli | 0 | 2 | — | 1985–86, 2012 | | South Korea FC Seoul | 0 | 2 | — | 2001–02, 2013 | | Iran Persepolis | 0 | 2 | — | 2018, 2020 | | Malaysia Selangor | 0 | 1 | — | 1967 | | South Korea Yangzee2 | 0 | 1 | — | 1969 | | Iraq Aliyat Al-Shorta | 0 | 1 | — | 1971 | | Iraq Al-Rasheed2 | 0 | 1 | — | 1988–89 | | Japan Yokohama F. Marinos | 0 | 1 | — | 1989–90 | | Saudi Arabia Al-Shabab | 0 | 1 | — | 1992–93 | | Oman Oman Club | 0 | 1 | — | 1993–94 | | Qatar Al-Arabi | 0 | 1 | — | 1994–95 | | Saudi Arabia Al-Nassr | 0 | 1 | — | 1995 | | China Dalian Shide2 | 0 | 1 | — | 1997–98 | | Thailand Police Tero | 0 | 1 | — | 2002–03 | | Syria Al-Karamah | 0 | 1 | — | 2006 | | Iran Sepahan | 0 | 1 | — | 2007 | | Australia Adelaide United | 0 | 1 | — | 2008 | | Iran Zob Ahan | 0 | 1 | — | 2010 | | United Arab Emirates Shabab Al-Ahli | 0 | 1 | — | 2015 | 1 In 1974, the Israel Football Association was expelled from the Asian Football Confederation due to political pressure, and became a full UEFA member in 1994. As a result, Israeli clubs no longer participate in AFC tournaments but in their UEFA counterparts instead. 2 Teams that no longer exist. ### Performances by nation Performances in finals by nation| Nation | Titles | Runners-up | Total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | |  South Korea | 12 | 7 | 19 | |  Japan | 8 | 4 | 12 | |  Saudi Arabia | 6 | 10 | 16 | |  Iran | 3 | 6 | 9 | |  China | 3 | 2 | 5 | |  Israel | 3 | 1 | 4 | |  Qatar | 2 | 1 | 3 | |  Thailand | 2 | 1 | 3 | |  United Arab Emirates | 1 | 3 | 4 | |  Australia | 1 | 1 | 2 | |  Iraq | 0 | 2 | 2 | |  Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 1 | |  Oman | 0 | 1 | 1 | |  Syria | 0 | 1 | 1 | ### Performances by region | Federation (region) | Titles | Total | | --- | --- | --- | | EAFF (East Asia) | East Zone | 23 | 26 | | AFF (Southeast Asia) | 3 | | WAFF (West Asia) | West Zone | 9 | 12 | | CAFA (Central Asia) | 3 | | SAFF (South Asia) | 0 | Note: Israeli clubs, winners of the 1967, 1969 and 1971 editions, are not included. Awards ------ ### Most Valuable Player | Year | Player | Club | Ref. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1996–97 | South Korea An Ik-soo | South Korea Pohang Steelers | | | 1997–98 | Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al-Dokhi | Saudi Arabia Al Hilal | | | 1998–99 | Burkina Faso Seydou Traoré | United Arab Emirates Al-Ain | | | 1999–2000 | Brazil Sérgio Ricardo | Saudi Arabia Al Hilal | | | 2000–01 | Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zoltan Sabo | South Korea Suwon Samsung Bluewings | | | 2001–02 | — | | 2002–03 | Thailand Therdsak Chaiman | Thailand BEC Tero Sasana | | | 2004 | Saudi Arabia Redha Tukar | Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad | | | 2005 | Saudi Arabia Mohammed Noor | Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad | | | 2006 | South Korea Choi Jin-cheul | South Korea Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | | | 2007 | Japan Yuichiro Nagai | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | | 2008 | Japan Yasuhito Endō | Japan Gamba Osaka | | | 2009 | South Korea No Byung-jun | South Korea Pohang Steelers | | | 2010 | Australia Sasa Ognenovski | South Korea Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | | | 2011 | South Korea Lee Dong-gook | South Korea Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | | | 2012 | South Korea Lee Keun-ho | South Korea Ulsan Hyundai | | | 2013 | Brazil Muriqui | China Guangzhou Evergrande | | | 2014 | Australia Ante Covic | Australia Western Sydney Wanderers | | | 2015 | Brazil Ricardo Goulart | China Guangzhou Evergrande | | | 2016 | United Arab Emirates Omar Abdulrahman | United Arab Emirates Al-Ain | | | 2017 | Japan Yōsuke Kashiwagi | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | | 2018 | Japan Yuma Suzuki | Japan Kashima Antlers | | | 2019 | France Bafétimbi Gomis | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | | | 2020 | South Korea Yoon Bit-garam | South Korea Ulsan Hyundai | | | 2021 | Saudi Arabia Salem Al-Dawsari | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | | | 2022 | Japan Hiroki Sakai | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | ### Top scorers | Year | Player | Club | Goals | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2002–03 | China Hao Haidong | China Dalian Shide | 9 | | 2004 | South Korea Kim Do-hoon | South Korea Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 9 | | 2005 | Sierra Leone Mohamed Kallon | Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad | 6 | | 2006 | Brazil Magno Alves | Japan Gamba Osaka | 8 | | 2007 | Brazil Mota | South Korea Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 7 | | 2008 | Thailand Nantawat Tansopa | Thailand Krung Thai Bank | 9 | | 2009 | Brazil Leandro | Japan Gamba Osaka | 10 | | 2010 | Brazil Jose Mota | South Korea Suwon Samsung Bluewings | 9 | | 2011 | South Korea Lee Dong-gook | South Korea Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 9 | | 2012 | Brazil Ricardo Oliveira | United Arab Emirates Al-Jazira | 12 | | 2013 | Brazil Muriqui | China Guangzhou Evergrande | 13 | | 2014 | Ghana Asamoah Gyan | United Arab Emirates Al-Ain | 12 | | 2015 | Brazil Ricardo Goulart | China Guangzhou Evergrande | 8 | | 2016 | Brazil Adriano | South Korea FC Seoul | 13 | | 2017 | Syria Omar Kharbin | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | 10 | | 2018 | Algeria Baghdad Bounedjah | Qatar Al-Sadd | 13 | | 2019 | France Bafétimbi Gomis | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | 11 | | 2020 | Morocco Abderrazak Hamdallah | Saudi Arabia Al Nassr | 7 | | 2021 | Kenya Michael Olunga | Qatar Al-Duhail | 9 | | 2022 | Belgium Edmilson Junior | Qatar Al-Duhail | 8 | ### Fair Play Award winners | Year | Club | | --- | --- | | 2007 | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | 2008 | Japan Gamba Osaka | | 2009 | South Korea Pohang Steelers | | 2010 | South Korea Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | | 2011 | South Korea Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | | 2012 | South Korea Ulsan Hyundai | | 2013 | South Korea FC Seoul | | 2014 | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | | 2015 | China Guangzhou Evergrande | | 2016 | United Arab Emirates Al-Ain | | 2017 | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | 2018 | Iran Persepolis | | 2019 | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | | 2020 | South Korea Ulsan Hyundai | | 2021 | Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal | | 2022 | Japan Urawa Red Diamonds | See also -------- * Continental football championships * List of association football competitions

AFC Champions League

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Champions_League

**Norfolk** (/ˈnɔːrfək/) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea, with The Wash to the north-west. The county town is the city of Norwich. With an area of 2,074 sq mi (5,370 km2) and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 inhabitants per square mile (155/km2). Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000). The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, extending south into Suffolk. The area is protected by the Broads Authority and has similar status to a national park. History ------- The area that was to become Norfolk was settled in pre-Roman times, (there were Palaeolithic settlers as early as 950,000 years ago) with camps along the higher land in the west, where flints could be quarried. A Brittonic tribe, the Iceni, emerged in the 1st century BC. The Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD 47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second rebellion opened the area to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the area and farming was widespread. Situated on the east coast, the homelands of the Iceni were vulnerable to attacks from continental Europe and other parts of Britain, and forts were built to defend against raids by the Saxons and the Picts. A period of depopulation, which may have been due to these threats, seems to have followed the departure of the Romans. Soon afterward, Germanic peoples from the North Sea area settled in the region. Though they became known as Angles, they were likely not affiliated to any tribe in particular at the time of their migration. It is thought that the settlement here was early (possibly beginning at the start of the fifth century, thereby preceding the alleged date of Hengist and Horsa's arrival in Kent) and that it occurred on a large scale. By the 5th century the Angles had established control of the region and later became the "north folk" and the "south folk"; hence "Norfolk" and "Suffolk". Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia (one of the heptarchy), which later merged with Mercia and then with Wessex. The influence of the early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in "-ham", "-ingham" and "-ton". Endings such as "-by" and "-thorpe" are also fairly common, indicating Danish toponyms: in the 9th century the region again came under attack, this time from Danes who killed the king, Edmund the Martyr. Several place names around the Fenland area contain Celtic elements; this has been taken by some scholars to represent a possibly significant concentration of Britons in the area. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have been high: by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture and woollen industries. Norfolk's prosperity at that time is evident from the county's large number of medieval churches: out of an original total of over one thousand some 659 have survived, more than in any other county in Britain and the greatest concentration in the world. The economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. Kett's Rebellion occurred in Norfolk during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land by landlords, leaving peasants with nowhere to graze their animals, and to the general abuses of power by the nobility. It was led by Robert Kett, a yeoman farmer, who was joined by recruits from Norwich and the surrounding countryside. His group numbered some 16,000 by the time the rebels stormed Norwich on 29 July 1549 and took the city. Kett's rebellion ended on 27 August when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland at the Battle of Dussindale. Some 3,000 rebels were killed. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle. By the late 16th century Norwich had grown to become the second-largest city in England, but over one-third of its population died in the plague epidemic of 1579, and in 1665 the Great Plague again killed around one-third of the population. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian. The economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry, except in Norwich which was a late addition to the railway network. Early military units included the Norfolk Militia. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation. The first development in airfields came with the First World War; there was then a massive expansion during the Second World War with the growth of the Royal Air Force and the influx of the American USAAF 8th Air Force which operated from many Norfolk airfields. The local British Army regiments included the Royal Norfolk Regiment (now the Royal Anglian Regiment) and the Norfolk Yeomanry. During the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Economy and industry -------------------- In 1998 Norfolk had a Gross Domestic Product of £9,319 million, which represents 1.5% of England's economy and 1.25% of the United Kingdom's economy. The GDP per head was £11,825, compared to £13,635 for East Anglia, £12,845 for England and £12,438 for the United Kingdom. In 1999–2000 the county had an unemployment rate of 5.6%, compared to 5.8% for England and 6.0% for the UK. Data from 2017 provided a useful update on the county's economy. The median hourly gross pay was £12.17 and the median weekly pay was £496.80; on a per year basis, the median gross income was £25,458. The employment rate among persons aged 16 to 64 was 74.2% while the unemployment rate was 4.6%. The Norfolk economy was "treading water with manufacturing sales and recruitment remaining static in the first quarter of the year" according to research published in April 2018. A spokesperson for the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce made this comment: "At a time when Norfolk firms face steep up-front costs, the apprenticeship system is in crisis, roads are being allowed to crumble, mobile phone and broadband 'not-spots' are multiplying, it's obvious that the key to improved productivity and competitiveness lies in getting the basics right". The solution was seen as a need for the UK government to provide "a far stronger domestic economic agenda ... to fix the fundamentals needed for business to thrive here..." In 2017, tourism was adding £3.25 billion to the economy per year and supported some 65,000 jobs, being the fifth most important employment in Norfolk. The visitor economy had increased in value by more than £500 million since 2012. Important business sectors also include energy (oil, gas and renewables), advanced engineering and manufacturing, and food and farming. Much of Norfolk's fairly flat and fertile land has been drained for use as arable land. The principal arable crops are sugar beet, wheat, barley (for brewing) and oil seed rape. The county also boasts a saffron grower. Over 20% of employment in the county is in the agricultural and food industries. Well-known companies in Norfolk are Aviva (formerly Norwich Union), Colman's (part of Unilever), Lotus Cars and Bernard Matthews Farms. The Construction Industry Training Board is based on the former airfield of RAF Bircham Newton. The BBC East region is centred on Norwich, although it covers an area as far west as Milton Keynes; the BBC does however provide BBC Radio Norfolk solely for the county. Brewer Greene King, food producer Cranswick and feed supplier ForFarmers [nl] were seeing growth in 2016–2017. A Local Enterprise Partnership was being established by business leaders to help grow jobs across Norfolk and Suffolk. They secured an enterprise zone to help grow businesses in the energy sector, and established the two counties as a centre for growing services and products for the green economy. To help local industry in Norwich, the local council offered a wireless internet service but this was subsequently withdrawn as funding has ceased. The fishery business still continued in 2018, with individuals such as John Lee, a fifth generation crabman, who sells Cromer Crabs to eateries such as M Restaurants and the Blueprint Café. The problem that he has found is attracting young people to this small industry which calls for working many hours per week during the season. Lobster trapping also continued in North Norfolk, around Sheringham and Cromer, for example. ### Management of the shoreline Norfolk's low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are composed of chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to weathering by the sea. The most recent major erosion event occurred during the North Sea flood of 1953. The low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the British Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding. Management policy for the North Norfolk coastline is described in the "North Norfolk Shoreline Management Plan" published in 2006, but has yet to be accepted by local authorities. The Shoreline Management Plan states that the stretch of coast will be protected for at least another 50 years, but that in the event of sea level rise and post-glacial lowering of land levels in the South East, there may a need for further research to inform future management decisions, including the possibility that the sea defences may have to be realigned to a more sustainable position. Natural England have contributed some research into the impacts on the environment of various realignment options. The draft report of their research was leaked to the press, who created great anxiety by reporting that Natural England plan to abandon a large section of the Norfolk Broads, villages and farmland to the sea to save the rest of the Norfolk coastline from the impact of any adverse climate change. Education --------- ### Primary and secondary education Before 2011, Norfolk had a completely comprehensive state education or "maintained" system managed by Norfolk County Council, with secondary school age from 11 to 16 or in some schools with sixth forms, 18 years old. Since then, a number of schools formerly in the "maintained" system have left it to become academies, or members of academy groups. Others have become free schools. Both academies and free schools are still publicly funded by the Department of Education, but are not with County Council management. In many of the rural areas, there is no nearby sixth form and so sixth form colleges are found in larger towns. There are twelve private, or private schools, including Gresham's School in Holt in the north of the county, Thetford Grammar School in Thetford which is Britain's fifth oldest extant school, Langley School in Loddon, and several in the city of Norwich, including Norwich School and Norwich High School for Girls. The King's Lynn district has the largest school population. Norfolk is also home to Wymondham College, the UK's largest remaining state boarding school. ### Tertiary education The University of East Anglia is located on the outskirts of Norwich and Norwich University of the Arts is based in seven buildings in and around St George's Street in the city centre, next to the River Wensum. The City College Norwich and the College of West Anglia are colleges covering Norwich and King's Lynn as well as Norfolk as a whole. Easton & Otley College, 7 mi (11 km) west of Norwich, provides agriculture-based courses for the county, parts of Suffolk and nationally. The University of Suffolk also runs higher education courses in Norfolk, from multiple locations including Great Yarmouth College. Politics -------- ### Local Norfolk is administered by Norfolk County Council which is the top tier local government authority, based at County Hall in Norwich. For details of the authority click on the link Norfolk County Council. Below Norfolk County Council the county is divided into seven second tier district councils: Breckland District, Broadland District, Great Yarmouth Borough, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough, North Norfolk District, Norwich City and South Norfolk District. Below the second tier councils the majority of the county is divided into Parish and Town Councils the lowest tier of local government, (the only exceptions being parts of Norwich and King's Lynn urban areas). Currently the Conservative Party control five of the seven District Councils: Breckland District, Broadland District, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough, Great Yarmouth Borough and South Norfolk District while Norwich City is controlled by the Labour Party and North Norfolk District by the Liberal Democrats. Norfolk County Council has been under Conservative control since 2017. There have been two periods when the council has not been run by the Conservative Party, both when no party had overall control, these were 1993–2001 and 2013–2017. For the full County Council election results for 2017 and previous elections click on the link Norfolk County Council elections. ### National The county is divided into nine parliamentary constituencies: | Constituency | Elected in 2019 | | --- | --- | | Broadland | Jerome Mayhew (Conservative) | | Great Yarmouth | Brandon Lewis (Conservative) | | Norwich North | Chloe Smith (Conservative) | | Norwich South | Clive Lewis (Labour) | | North Norfolk | Duncan Baker (Conservative) | | South Norfolk | Richard Bacon (Conservative) | | Mid Norfolk | George Freeman (Conservative) | | North West Norfolk | James Wild (Conservative) | | South West Norfolk | Liz Truss (Conservative) | In the 2010 General Election seven seats were held by the Conservatives and two by the Liberal Democrats. The Labour Party no longer held the urban constituencies they once held in Norwich North and Great Yarmouth, leaving them with no MP's in the whole of East Anglia; the former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke was a high level casualty of that election. In the 2015 General Election seven seats were won by the Conservative Party, with Labour winning Norwich South and the Liberal Democrats winning North Norfolk. In the 2017 General Election the 2015 result was repeated. ### Norwich Unitary Authority dispute (2006–2010) In October 2006, the Department for Communities and Local Government produced a Local Government White Paper inviting councils to submit proposals for unitary restructuring. In January 2007 Norwich submitted its proposal, but this was rejected in December 2007 as it did not meet the criteria for acceptance. In February 2008, the Boundary Committee for England (from 1 April 2010 incorporated in the Local Government Boundary Commission for England) was asked to consider alternative proposals for the whole or part of Norfolk, including whether Norwich should become a unitary authority, separate from Norfolk County Council. In December 2009, the Boundary Committee recommended a single unitary authority covering all of Norfolk, including Norwich. However, on 10 February 2010, it was announced that, contrary to the December 2009 recommendation of the Boundary Committee, Norwich would be given separate unitary status. The proposed change was strongly resisted, principally by Norfolk County Council and the Conservative opposition in Parliament. Reacting to the announcement, Norfolk County Council issued a statement that it would seek leave to challenge the decision in the courts. A letter was leaked to the local media in which the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government noted that the decision did not meet all the criteria and that the risk of it "being successfully challenged in judicial review proceedings is very high". The Shadow Local Government and Planning Minister, Bob Neill, stated that should the Conservative Party win the 2010 general election, they would reverse the decision. Following the 2010 general election, Eric Pickles was appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on 12 May 2010 in a Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government. According to press reports, he instructed his department to take urgent steps to reverse the decision and maintain the status quo in line with the Conservative Party manifesto. However, the unitary plans were supported by the Liberal Democrat group on the city council, and by Simon Wright, LibDem MP for Norwich South, who intended to lobby the party leadership to allow the changes to go ahead. The Local Government Act 2010 to reverse the unitary decision for Norwich (and Exeter and Suffolk) received Royal Assent on 16 December 2010. The disputed award of unitary status had meanwhile been referred to the High Court, and on 21 June 2010 the court (Mr. Justice Ouseley, judge) ruled it unlawful, and revoked it. The city has therefore failed to attain unitary status, and the two-tier arrangement of County and District Councils (with Norwich City Council counted among the latter) remains as of 2017. Emergency services ------------------ * Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service * East of England Ambulance Service * East Anglian Air Ambulance * Norfolk Constabulary * British Transport Police * HM Coastguard Settlements ----------- Norfolk's county town and only city is Norwich, one of the largest settlements in England during the Norman era. Norwich is home to the University of East Anglia, and is the county's main business and culture centre. Other principal towns include the port-town of King's Lynn and the seaside resort and Broads gateway town of Great Yarmouth. Based on the 2011 Census the county's largest centres of population are: Norwich (213,166), Great Yarmouth (63,434), King's Lynn (46,093), Thetford (24,883), Dereham (20,651), Wymondham (13,587), North Walsham (12,463), Attleborough (10,549), Downham Market (9,994), Diss (9,829), Fakenham (8,285), Cromer (7,749), Sheringham (7,367) and Swaffham (7,258). There are also several smaller market towns: Aylsham (6,016), Harleston (4,458) and Holt (3,810). Much of the county remains rural in nature and Norfolk is believed to have around 200 lost settlements which have been largely or totally depopulated since the medieval period. These include places lost to coastal erosion, agricultural enclosure, depopulation and the establishment of the Stanford Training Area in 1940. Transport --------- ### Roads Norfolk is one of the few counties in England that does not have a motorway. The A11 connects Norfolk to Cambridge and London, via the M11. From the west, there are only two routes from Norfolk that provide a direct link with the A1: the A47 to the East Midlands and Birmingham, via Peterborough, and the A17 to the East Midlands, via Lincolnshire. These two routes both meet at King's Lynn, which is also the starting point of the A10, providing West Norfolk with a direct link with London, via Ely, Cambridge and Hertford. ### Railways There are two main railway lines that link Norfolk with London. The Great Eastern Main Line hosts inter-city services from Norwich to Liverpool Street, via Ipswich and Colchester. The Fen line provides regular services between King's Lynn and King's Cross, via Ely and Cambridge. In addition, the Breckland line provides access from Norwich and Thetford to destinations to the west including Peterborough, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool. ### Air Norwich International Airport provides flights to various European destinations, including a link to Amsterdam which offers onward flights throughout the world. Dialect, accent and nickname ---------------------------- The Norfolk dialect is also known as "Broad Norfolk", although over the modern age much of the vocabulary and many of the phrases have died out due to a number of factors, such as radio, TV and people from other parts of the country coming to Norfolk. As a result, the speech of Norfolk is more of an accent than a dialect, though one part retained from the Norfolk dialect is the distinctive grammar of the region. People from Norfolk are sometimes known as Norfolk Dumplings, an allusion to the flour dumplings that were traditionally a significant part of the local diet. More cutting, perhaps, was the alleged pejorative medical slang term "Normal for Norfolk", alluding to the county's perceived status as a quirky rustic backwater due to a high level of inbreeding among residents. Tourism ------- Norfolk is a popular tourist destination and has several major holiday attractions. There are many seaside resorts, including some of the finest British beaches, such as those at Great Yarmouth, Cromer and Holkham. Norfolk contains the Broads and other areas of outstanding natural beauty and many areas of the coast are wild bird sanctuaries and reserves with some areas designated as national parks such as the Norfolk Coast AONB. * Elm Hill in the historic city of NorwichElm Hill in the historic city of Norwich * The Norfolk Coast in the little village of Mundesley near CromerThe Norfolk Coast in the little village of Mundesley near Cromer * The bridge at WroxhamThe bridge at Wroxham * The beach at Holkham National Nature ReserveThe beach at Holkham National Nature Reserve The King's residence at Sandringham House in Sandringham, Norfolk provides an all-year-round tourist attraction whilst the coast and some rural areas are popular locations for people from the conurbations to purchase weekend holiday homes. Arthur Conan Doyle first conceived the idea for *The Hound of the Baskervilles* whilst holidaying in Cromer with Bertram Fletcher Robinson, after hearing local folklore tales regarding the mysterious hound known as Black Shuck. ### Amusement parks and zoos Norfolk has several amusement parks and zoos. * Thrigby Hall near Great Yarmouth was built in 1736 by Joshua Smith Esquire and features a zoo which houses a large tiger enclosure, primate enclosures and the swamp house which has many crocodiles and alligators. * Holkham Hall is an 18th-century stately home and visitor attraction, constructed in the Palladian style and at the centre of a 3,000 acre deer park on the North Norfolk coast with a woodland play area, walled garden and farming exhibition. * Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure (formerly Dinosaur Adventure) is a dinosaur themed adventure park in Lenwade. It is set in 85 acres of parkland and has a dinosaur trail, indoor play area, high ropes course and outdoor water play area. * Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is a free-entry theme park, hosting over 20 large rides as well as a crazy golf course, water attractions, children's rides and "white knuckle" rides. * BeWILDerwood is an adventure park situated in the Norfolk Broads and is the setting for the book *A Boggle at BeWILDerwood* by local children's author Tom Blofeld. * Britannia Pier on the coast of Great Yarmouth has rides which include a ghost train. Also on the pier is the famous Britannia Pier Theatre. * Banham Zoo is set amongst 35 acres (14 ha) of parkland and gardens with enclosures for animals including big cats, birds of prey, siamangs and shire horses. Its annual visitor attendance is in excess of 200,000 people. * Pensthorpe Nature Reserve, near the town of Fakenham in north Norfolk, is a nature reserve with many captive birds and animals. Such species include native birds such as lapwing and Eurasian crane, to much more exotic examples like Marabou stork, Greater flamingo, and Manchurian crane. The site played host to BBC's 'Springwatch' from 2008 until 2010. A number of human-made lakes are home to a range of wild birds, and provide stop-off points for many wintering ducks and geese. * The Sea Life Centre in Great Yarmouth is One of the biggest sea life centres in the country. The Great Yarmouth centre is home to a tropical shark display, one resident of which is Britain's biggest shark 'Nobby' the Nurse Shark. The same display, with its walk-through underwater tunnel, also features the wreckage of a World War II aircraft. The centre also includes over 50 native species including shrimps, starfish, sharks, stingrays and conger eels. * The Sea Life Sanctuary in Hunstanton is Norfolk's leading marine rescue centre and works both as a visitor attraction as well as a location for rescuing and rehabilitating sick and injured sea creatures found in the nearby Wash and North Sea. The attractions main features are similar to that of the Sea Life Centre in Great Yarmouth, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. ### Theatres The Pavilion Theatre (Cromer) is a 510-seater venue on the end of Cromer Pier, best known for hosting the 'end-of-the-pier' show, the Seaside Special. The theatre also presents comedy, music, dance, opera, musicals and community shows. The Britannia Pier Theatre (Great Yarmouth) mainly hosts popular comedy acts such as the Chuckle Brothers and Jim Davidson. The theatre has 1,200 seats and is one of the largest in Norfolk. The Theatre Royal (Norwich) has been on its present site for nearly 250 years, the Act of Parliament in the tenth year of the reign of George II having been rescinded in 1761. The 1,300-seat theatre, the largest in the city, hosts a mix of national touring productions including musicals, dance, drama, family shows, stand-up comedians, opera and pop. The Norwich Playhouse (Norwich) hosts theatre, comedy, music and other performing arts. It has a seating capacity of 300. The Maddermarket Theatre (Norwich) opened in 1921 and was the first permanent recreation of an Elizabethan theatre. The founder was Nugent Monck who had worked with William Poel. The theatre has a seating capacity of 312. The Norwich Puppet Theatre (Norwich) was founded in 1979 by Ray and Joan DaSilva as a permanent base for their touring company and was first opened as a public venue in 1980, following the conversion of the medieval church of St. James in the heart of Norwich. Under subsequent artistic directors – Barry Smith and Luis Z. Boy – the theatre established its current pattern of operation. It is a nationally unique venue dedicated to puppetry, and currently houses a 185-seat raked auditorium, 50 seat Octagon Studio, workshops, an exhibition gallery, shop and licensed bar. It is the only theatre in the Eastern region with a year-round programme of family-centred entertainment. The Garage studio theatre (Norwich) can seat up to 110 people in a range of different layouts. It can also be used for standing events and can accommodate up to 180 people. The Platform Theatre (Norwich) is in the grounds of City College Norwich (CCN), and has a large stage with raked seating for an audience of around 200. The theatre plays host to performances by both student and professional companies. The Sewell Barn Theatre (Norwich) is the smallest theatre in Norwich and has a seating capacity of 100. The auditorium features raked seating on three sides of an open acting space. The Norwich Arts Centre (Norwich) theatre opened in 1977 in St. Benedict's Street, and has a capacity of 290. The Princess Theatre (Hunstanton) stands overlooking the Wash and the green in the East Coast resort of Hunstanton. It is a 472-seat venue. Open all year round, the theatre plays host to a wide variety of shows from comedy to drama, celebrity shows to music for all tastes and children's productions. It has a six-week summer season plus an annual Christmas pantomime. Sheringham Little Theatre (Sheringham) has seating for 180. The theatre programmes a variety of plays, musicals and music, and also shows films. The Gorleston Pavilion (Gorleston) is an original Edwardian building with a seating capacity of 300, situated on the Norfolk coast. The theatre stages plays, pantomimes, musicals and concerts as well as a 26-week summer season. Demography ---------- According to estimates by the Office for National Statistics, the population of Norfolk in 2018 was 903,680, split almost evenly between males and females. Roughly 24.3% of the population was aged 65 or older, compared to 18.2% for the whole of England. | Ethnic category | Norfolk | East of England | England (total) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | No. |  % | No. |  % | No. |  % | | Asian/Asian British | 13,017 | 1.5 | 278,372 | 4.8 | 4,143,403 | 7.8 | | Black/African/Caribbean/Black British | 4,609 | 0.5 | 117,442 | 2 | 1,846,614 | 3.5 | | Mixed/multiple ethnic groups | 10,027 | 1.2 | 112,116 | 1.9 | 1,192,879 | 2.3 | | Other ethnic group | 2,217 | 0.3 | 28,841 | 0.5 | 548,418 | 1.0 | | White | 828,018 | 96.5 | 5,310,194 | 90.8 | 45,281,142 | 85.4 | Source: Notable people -------------- ### From Norfolk * George VI, King/Emperor of the United Kingdom. Born and died on the Sandringham Estate. * Joseph Ames, naval commander. Born and lived in Great Yarmouth * Joseph Ames, bibliographer and antiquary. Born in Great Yarmouth * Hannah Amond, pop singer from Norwich. * Diana Athill, literary editor and author, South Norfolk and Ditchingham * Alexander Baker (Jesuit), missionary to India * Peter Bellamy, folk singer and musician, who was brought up in North Norfolk * Henry Blofeld, Cricket commentator * Henry Blogg, the UK's most decorated lifeboatman, who was from Cromer * Francis Blomefield, Anglican rector, early topographical historian of Norfolk * James Blunt, English acoustic folk rock singer-songwriter who was raised in Norfolk during his childhood * Boudica, scourge of the occupying Roman Army in first century Britain and queen of the Iceni, British tribe occupying an area slightly larger than modern Norfolk * Martin Brundle, former motor-racing driver and now a commentator was born in King's Lynn * Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, writer, born at Heydon * George Russell (racing driver), Formula 1 driver, born in Kings Lynn, and educated at Wisbech grammar school. * Dave Bussey, former BBC Radio 2 and current BBC Radio Lincolnshire presenter * Michael Carroll (29 March 1983–) lottery winner * Howard Carter, archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb; his childhood was spent primarily in Swaffham * Edith Cavell, a nurse executed by the Germans for aiding the escape of prisoners in World War I * Sam Claflin, actor, grew up in Norwich and studied at Costessey High School * Sam Clemmett, actor, from Brundall known for starring in West End stage play *Harry Potter and the Cursed Child*, Haribo Tangfastics television advert and the BBC documentary *Murder Games: The Life and Death of Breck Bednar* where he played Breck Bednar the teen murdered by Lewis Daynes * Edward Coke, 17th-century jurist and author of the Petition of Right was born in Mileham and educated at Norwich School * Olivia Colman, actress, born and educated in Norfolk * Jamie Cutter, co-founder of Cutter & Buck, America's largest golf apparel providers, born in Norwich * Cathy Dennis, singer and songwriter, from Norwich * Diana, Princess of Wales, first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, was born and grew up in Park House near the Sandringham estate * Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer brother of Diana, Princess of Wales and maternal uncle to H.R.H. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex * Anthony Duckworth-Chad, landowner and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk * Sir James Dyson, inventor and entrepreneur, was born at Cromer, grew up at Holt and was educated at Gresham's School * Bill (1916–1986), Brian (1922–2009), Eric (1914–1993), Geoff (1918–2004), John (1937–), and Justin (1961–) Edrich, cricketers * Nathan Fake, electronic dance music producer/DJ * Pablo Fanque, equestrian and popular Victorian circus proprietor, whose 1843 poster advertisement inspired The Beatles song, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, born in Norwich * Natasha and Ralph Firman, racing drivers, were both born and brought up in Norfolk and educated at Gresham's School * Caroline Flack, television presenter, who grew up in East Wretham and went to school in Watton * Margaret Fountaine, butterfly collector, was born in Norfolk, and her collection is housed in Norwich Castle Museum * Elizabeth Fry, prominent 19th century Quaker prison reformer pictured on the Bank of England £5 note, born and raised in Norwich * Stephen Fry, actor, comedian, writer, producer, director and author who was born in London and was brought up in the village of Booton near Reepham. He now has a second home near King's Lynn * Samuel Fuller, signed the Mayflower Compact * William Gooderham Sr. (29 August 1790 – 20 August 1881) was an English distiller, businessman, and banker. He was a founder of the Gooderham and Worts distillery in Toronto, Canada. * Claire Goose, actress who starred in *Casualty*, was raised in Norfolk * Ed Graham, drummer of Lowestoft band The Darkness, was born in Great Yarmouth * Sienna Guillory, actress, from north Norfolk, who was educated at Gresham's School * Sir Henry Rider Haggard, novelist, author of *She*, *King Solomon's Mines*, born Bradenham 1856 and lived after his marriage at Ditchingham * Lilias Rider Haggard, daughter of Henry Rider Haggard and author of books about Norfolk * Lauren Hemp, footballer for England, part of the squad that won the UEFA Women's Euro 2022, was born in North Walsham and played for Norwich City Women FC * Jake Humphrey, BBC presenter, spent most of his childhood in Norwich * Andy Hunt, footballer, grew up in Ashill. * Julian of Norwich, mediaeval mystic, born probably in Norwich in 1342; lived much of her life as a recluse in Norwich * Robert Kett, leader of Kett's Rebellion in East Anglia 1549, from Wymondham * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Norfolk historian and former owner of Felbrigg Hall * Sid Kipper, Norfolk humourist, author, songwriter and singer * Myleene Klass, former Hear'Say singer, comes from Gorleston * Holly Lerski, singer and songwriter, former member of the band Angelou, grew up and resides in Norfolk * Henry Leslie, actor and playwright, born 1830 at Walsoken * Samuel Lincoln, ancestor of US President Abraham Lincoln * Matthew Macfadyen, actor who starred in *Spooks*, was born in Great Yarmouth * Kenneth McKee, surgeon who pioneered hip replacement surgery techniques, lived in Tacolneston * Danny Mills, footballer, born in Norwich * Sir John Mills, actor, born in North Elmham * R. H. Mottram, author and former Lord Mayor of Norwich * Horatio, Lord Nelson, Admiral and British hero who played a major role in the Battle of Trafalgar, born and schooled in Norfolk * Nimmo Twins, sketch comedy duo well known in Norfolk * King Olav V of Norway, born at Flitcham on the Sandringham estate * Beth Orton, singer-songwriter, was born in Dereham and raised in Norwich * Thomas Paine, philosopher, born in Thetford * Ronan Parke, Britain's Got Talent 2011 finalist and runner up * Margaret Paston, author of many of the Paston Letters, born 1423, lived at Gresham * Barry Pinches, snooker player who comes from Norwich * Matthew Pinsent, Olympic champion rower, was born in Holt * Prasutagus, 1st-century king of the Iceni, who occupied roughly the area which is now Norfolk * Philip Pullman, author, born in Norwich * Miranda Raison, actress, from north Norfolk, who was educated at Gresham's School * Anna Sewell, writer, author of *Black Beauty*, born at Great Yarmouth, lived part of her life at Old Catton near Norwich and buried at Lamas, near Buxton * Thomas Shadwell, playwright, satirist and Poet Laureate * Allan Smethurst, 'The Singing Postman' who sang songs in his Norfolk dialect, was from Sheringham * Hannah Spearritt, actress and former S Club 7 singer, who is from Gorleston * Roger Taylor, drummer of the rock band Queen was born in King's Lynn and spent the early part of his childhood in Norfolk * Adam Thoroughgood, colonial leader in Virginia, namer of New Norfolk County, which later became Norfolk, Virginia * Peter Trudgill, sociolinguist specialising in accents and dialects including his own native Norfolk dialect, was born and bred in Norwich * George Vancouver, born King's Lynn. Captain and explorer in the Royal Navy * Stella Vine, English artist, spent many of her early years in Norwich * Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, regarded as the first British prime minister * Tim Westwood, rap DJ and Radio 1 presenter, grew up in and around Norwich * Parson Woodforde, 18th century clergyman and diarist * Nick Youngs (1959–) and his two sons, Ben (1989–) and Tom (1987–) were both raised close to the town of Aylsham on their father's farm Youngs is a former rugby union player for Leicester Tigers and England. Both sons went on to represent the national rugby union team. ### Associated with Norfolk The following people were not born or brought up in Norfolk but are long-term residents of Norfolk, are well known for living in Norfolk at some point in their lives, or have contributed in some significant way to the county. * Verily Anderson (1915–2010), writer, lived in North Norfolk * Stuart Ashen, comedian, animator, actor and online reviewer, born and lives in Norfolk * Julian Assange, Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer, Internet activist and editor in chief of WikiLeaks, lived since 16 December 2010 in Ellingham Hall, the mansion of Vaughan Smith, under house arrest whilst fighting extradition to Sweden, before relocating to Kent in December 2011 * Peter Baker (1921–1966), British Conservative MP for South Norfolk * Mary Bristow (1781–1805), landscape gardener, owner of Quidenham Hall * Bill Bryson, writer, has lived in the county since 2003 * Adam Buxton, comedian and one half of Adam and Joe, moved to Norfolk in 2008 * Richard Condon (1937–1991), Theatre Royal, Norwich and Pavilion Theatre, Cromer Pier manager * Revd Richard Enraght (1837–1898), 19th century clergyman, religious controversialist, Rector of St Swithun, Bintree * Liza Goddard TV and stage actress, lives in the village of Syderstone * Trisha Goddard, TV personality, lives in Norwich and writes a column in the local newspaper the *Eastern Daily Press* * Roderick Gordon, writer of *Tunnels* series, lives in North Norfolk * Adriana Hunter, translator of French novels, lives in Norfolk * John Major, British Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, has a holiday home in Weybourne * Alan Partridge, fictional tongue-in-cheek media personality portrayed by Steve Coogan. His feature film *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* was set, filmed and had its world premiere in Norwich in 2013 * Pocahontas (c. 1596–1617), who lived at Heacham Hall for part of her life when she was married to John Rolfe * Martin Shaw, stage, television and film actor, is based in Norfolk * Delia Smith, cookery writer and major Norwich City Football Club shareholder * John Wilson (1943–2018), angler, writer and broadcaster Gallery ------- * Wells-next-the-SeaWells-next-the-Sea * River Wensum, NorwichRiver Wensum, Norwich * Norwich Cathedral: spire and south transeptNorwich Cathedral: spire and south transept * St John the Baptist Cathedral, NorwichSt John the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich See also -------- * Custos Rotulorum of Norfolk – List of Keepers of the Rolls * Duke of Norfolk * Earl of Norfolk * Healthcare in Norfolk * High Sheriff of Norfolk * List of parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk * List of future transport developments in the East of England * List of places in Norfolk * Norfolk (UK Parliament constituency) – List of MPs for the Norfolk constituency * Norfolk Police * Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner * Norfolk Terrier * Norwich Terrier * Recreational walks in Norfolk Further reading --------------- * S. K. Baker, *A Week on the Broads: Four Victorian gents at sail on a Norfolk gaffer in 1889*, Adlard Coles ed. 2017. * Henry Munro Cautley, *Norfolk Churches*, Norman Adlard, 1949. * Thomas Kitson Cromwell, *Excursions in the County of Norfolk*, 2 vols., Longmans, 1818 & 1819. * Patsy Dallas, Roger Last & Tom Williamson, *Norfolk Gardens and Designed Landscapes*, Norfolk Gardens Trust, 2018. * John A. Davies, *The Little History of Norfolk*, The History Press, 2020. * Daniel Defoe, *Tour through the Eastern Counties* (1722), East Anglian Magazine ed., 1949. * David Dymond, *The Norfolk Landscape*, Alastair Press ed., 1990. * Lilias Rider Haggard, *A Norfolk Notebook*, Faber and Faber, 1946. * Lilias Rider Haggard, *Norfolk Life*, Faber and Faber, 1943; written with Henry Williamson. * Wilhelmine Harrod & C. L. S. Linnell, *Norfolk. A Shell Guide* (Shell Guides), Faber and Faber, 1957; reprinted. * M. R. James, *Suffolk and Norfolk: A Perambulation of the Two Counties with Notices of their History and their Ancient Buildings*, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1930. * P. D. James, *Devices and Desires*, Faber and Faber, 1989. * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, *A Norfolk Gallery*, Faber and Faber, 1948. * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, *Forty Norfolk Essays*, Jarrold and Sons, 1961. * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, *Norfolk Assembly, Faber and Faber, 1957.* * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, *Norfolk in the Civil War: A Portrait of Society in Conflict*, Faber and Faber, 1969. * R. W. Ketton-Cremer, *Norfolk Portraits*, Faber and Faber, 1944. * Arthur Mee, *Norfolk. Green Pastures and Still Waters* (The King's England series), Hodder and Stoughton, 1940; reprinted. * Frank Meeres, *A History of Norwich*, The History Press, 2016. * D. P. Mortlock & C. V. Roberts, *The Guide to Norfolk Churches*, Lutterworth Press, 3rd rev. ed. 2017. * R. H. Mottram, *If Stones Could Speak. An Introduction to an Almost Human Family*, Museum Press, 1953. * R. H. Mottram, *Norfolk* (Vision of England series), Paul Elek, 1948. * R. H. Mottram, *The Broads* (The Regional Books series), Robert Hale, 1952. * Nikolaus Pevsner, Bill Wilson (ed.), *Norfolk: North-West and South* (The Buildings of England), Yale University Press, 2nd rev. ed. 1999. * Nikolaus Pevsner, Bill Wilson (ed.), *Norfolk: Norwich and North-East* (The Buildings of England), Yale University Press, 2nd ed. 1997. * Matthew Rice, *Building Norfolk*, Frances Lincoln, 2009. * Arthur Ransome, *Coot Club*, Jonathan Cape, 1934; from his Swallows and Amazons series. * Arthur Ransome, *The Big Six*, Jonathan Cape, 1940; also from *Swallows and Amazons*. * David Robertson, Peter & Susanna Wade-Martins, *A History of Norfolk in 100 Places*, The History Press, 2022. * Ali Smith, *The Accidental*, Hamish Hamilton, 2005. * Neil R. Storey, *Norwich in the Second World War*, The History Press, 2022. * Neil R. Storey, *The Little Book of Norfolk*, The History Press, 2011. * Neil R. Storey, *The Lost Coast of Norfolk*, The History Press, 2006. * Doreen Wallace & R. P. Bagnall-Oakeley, *Norfolk* (The County Books), Robert Hale, 1951. * Josephine Walpole, *Art and Artists of the Norwich School*, Antique Collector's Club, 1999. * Tom Williamson, Ivan Ringwood & Sarah Spooner, *Lost Country Houses of Norfolk: History, Archaeology and Myth*, The Boydell Press, 2015. * Pip Wright, *I Read it in the Local Rag: Selections from Suffolk and Norfolk Papers 1701-1900*, Poppyland, 2006.

Norfolk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk

**Civil disobedience** is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hence, civil disobedience is sometimes equated with peaceful protests or nonviolent resistance. Henry David Thoreau's essay *Resistance to Civil Government*, published posthumously as *Civil Disobedience*, popularized the term in the US, although the concept itself has been practiced longer before. It has inspired leaders such as Susan B. Anthony of the U.S. women's suffrage movement in the late 1800s, Saad Zaghloul in the 1910s culminating in Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against British Occupation, and Mahatma Gandhi in 1920s India in their protests for Indian independence against the British Empire. Martin Luther King Jr.'s and James Bevel's peaceful protests during the civil rights movement in the 1960s United States contained important aspects of civil disobedience. Although civil disobedience is rarely justifiable in court, King regarded civil disobedience to be a display and practice of reverence for law: "Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law." History ------- An early depiction of civil disobedience is in Sophocles' play *Antigone*, in which Antigone, one of the daughters of former King of Thebes, Oedipus, defies Creon, the current King of Thebes, who is trying to stop her from giving her brother Polynices a proper burial. She gives a stirring speech in which she tells him that she must obey her conscience rather than human law. She is not at all afraid of the death he threatens her with (and eventually carries out), but she is afraid of how her conscience will smite her if she does not do this. Conrad Grebel and Anabaptists advocated civil disobedience to oppression. Étienne de La Boétie's thought developed in his work *Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un* (1552) was also taken up by many movements of civil disobedience, which drew from the concept of rebellion to voluntary servitude the foundation of its instrument of struggle. Étienne de La Boétie was one of the first to theorize and propose the strategy of non-cooperation, and thus a form of nonviolent disobedience, as a really effective weapon. In the lead-up to the Glorious Revolution in Britain—when the 1689 Bill of Rights was documented, the last Catholic monarch was deposed, and male and female joint-co-monarchs elevated—the English Midland Enlightenment developed a manner of voicing objection to a law viewed as illegitimate and then taking the consequences of the law. This was focused on the illegitimacy of laws claimed to be "divine" in origin, both the "divine rights of kings" and "divine rights of man", and the legitimacy of laws acknowledged to be made by human beings.[*relevant?*] Following the Peterloo massacre of 1819, the poet Percy Shelley wrote the political poem *The Mask of Anarchy* later that year, that begins with the images of what he thought to be the unjust forms of authority of his time—and then imagines the stirrings of a new form of social action. According to Ashton Nichols, it is perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent protest. A version was taken up by the author Henry David Thoreau in his essay *Civil Disobedience*, and later by Gandhi in his doctrine of *Satyagraha*. Gandhi's Satyagraha was partially influenced and inspired by Shelley's nonviolence in protest and political action. In particular, it is known that Gandhi often quoted Shelley's *Masque of Anarchy* to vast audiences during the campaign for a free India. Thoreau's 1849 essay *Civil Disobedience*, originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government", has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. The driving idea behind the essay is that citizens are morally responsible for their support of aggressors, even when such support is required by law. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against the Mexican–American War. He writes, > If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico;—see if I would go;" and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. > > By the 1850s, a range of minority groups in the United States: African Americans, Jews, Seventh Day Baptists, Catholics, anti-prohibitionists, racial egalitarians, and others—employed civil disobedience to combat a range of legal measures and public practices that to them promoted ethnic, religious, and racial discrimination. Pro Public and typically peaceful resistance to political power remained an integral tactic in modern American minority rights politics. In Ireland starting from 1879 the Irish "Land War" intensified when Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell, in a speech in Ennis proposed that when dealing with tenants who take farms where another tenant was evicted, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should shun them. Following this Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord in County Mayo, Ireland, was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. Boycott attempted to evict eleven tenants from his land. While Parnell's speech did not refer to land agents or landlords, the tactic was applied to Boycott when the alarm was raised about the evictions. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated – his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as in his house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail. The movement spread throughout Ireland and gave rise to the term to Boycott, and eventually led to legal reform and support for Irish independence. Egypt saw a massive implementation on a nation-wide movement starting 1914 and peaking in 1919 as the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. This was then adopted by other native peoples who objected to British occupation from 1920 and on. This was not used with native laws that were more oppressive than the British occupation[*specify*], leading to problems for these countries today. Zaghloul Pasha, considered the mastermind behind this massive civil disobedience, was a native middle-class, Azhar graduate, political activist, judge, parliamentary and ex-cabinet minister whose leadership brought Christian and Muslim communities together as well as women into the massive protests. Along with his companions of Wafd Party, who have achieved an independence of Egypt and a first constitution in 1923. Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have revolted against what they deem to be unfair laws. It has been used in many nonviolent resistance movements in India (Mahatma Gandhi's campaigns for independence from the British Empire), in Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, in early stages of the Bangladeshi independence movement against Pakistani colonialism and in East Germany to oust their Stalinist government. In South Africa during the leftist campaign against the far-right Apartheid regime, in the American civil rights movement against Jim Crow laws, in the Singing Revolution to bring independence to the Baltic countries from the Soviet Union, and more recently with the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–2014 Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, the 2016–2017 Candlelight Revolution in South Korea, and the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, among many other various movements worldwide. Etymology --------- Henry David Thoreau's 1849 essay "Resistance to Civil Government" was eventually renamed "Essay on Civil Disobedience". After his landmark lectures were published in 1866, the term began to appear in numerous sermons and lectures relating to slavery and the war in Mexico. Thus, by the time Thoreau's lectures were first published under the title "Civil Disobedience", in 1866, four years after his death, the term had achieved fairly widespread usage. It has been argued that the term "civil disobedience" has always suffered from ambiguity and in modern times, become utterly debased. Marshall Cohen notes, "It has been used to describe everything from bringing a test-case in the federal courts to taking aim at a federal official. Indeed, for Vice President Spiro Agnew it has become a code-word describing the activities of muggers, arsonists, draft evaders, campaign hecklers, campus militants, anti-war demonstrators, juvenile delinquents and political assassins." LeGrande writes that > the formulation of a single all-encompassing definition of the term is extremely difficult, if not impossible. In reviewing the voluminous literature on the subject, the student of civil disobedience rapidly finds himself surrounded by a maze of semantical problems and grammatical niceties. Like Alice in Wonderland, he often finds that specific terminology has no more (or no less) meaning than the individual orator intends it to have. > > He encourages a distinction between lawful protest demonstration, nonviolent civil disobedience, and violent civil disobedience. In a letter to P. K. Rao, dated 10 September 1935, Gandhi disputes that his idea of civil disobedience was derived from the writings of Thoreau: > The statement that I had derived my idea of Civil Disobedience from the writings of Thoreau is wrong. The resistance to authority in South Africa was well advanced before I got the essay ... When I saw the title of Thoreau's great essay, I began to use his phrase to explain our struggle to the English readers. But I found that even "Civil Disobedience" failed to convey the full meaning of the struggle. I therefore adopted the phrase "Civil Resistance." > > Theories -------- In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally, though sometimes violence has been known to occur. Often there is an expectation to be attacked or even beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack. Civil disobedience is usually defined as pertaining to a citizen's relation to the state and its laws, as distinguished from a constitutional impasse, in which two public agencies, especially two equally sovereign branches of government, conflict. For instance, if the head of government of a country were to refuse to enforce a decision of that country's highest court, it would not be civil disobedience, since the head of government would act in his or her capacity as public official rather than private citizen. This definition is disputed by Thoreau's political philosophy on the conscience vs. the collective. The person is the final judge of right and wrong. More than this, since only people act, only a person can act unjustly. When the government knocks on the door, it is a person in the form of a postman or tax collector whose hand hits the wood. Before Thoreau's imprisonment, when a confused taxman had wondered aloud about how to handle his refusal to pay, Thoreau had advised, "Resign". If a man chose to be an agent of injustice, then Thoreau insisted on confronting him with the fact that he was making a choice. He admits that government may express the will of the majority but it may also express nothing more than the will of elite politicians. Even a good form of government is "liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it". If a government did express the voice of most people, this would not compel the obedience of those who disagree with what is said. The majority may be powerful but it is not necessarily right. In his 1971 book, *A Theory of Justice*, John Rawls described civil disobedience as "a public, non-violent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bringing about change in the law or policies of the government". Ronald Dworkin held that there are three types of civil disobedience: * "Integrity-based" civil disobedience occurs when a citizen disobeys a law they feel is immoral, as in the case of abolitionists disobeying the fugitive slave laws by refusing to turn over escaped slaves to authorities. * "Justice-based" civil disobedience occurs when a citizen disobeys laws to lay claim to some right denied to them, as when Black people illegally protested during the civil rights movement. * "Policy-based" civil disobedience occurs when a person breaks the law to change a policy they believe is dangerously wrong. Some theories of civil disobedience hold that civil disobedience is only justified against governmental entities. Brownlee argues that disobedience in opposition to the decisions of non-governmental agencies such as trade unions, banks, and private universities can be justified if it reflects "a larger challenge to the legal system that permits those decisions to be taken". The same principle, she argues, applies to breaches of law in protest against international organizations and foreign governments. It is usually recognized that lawbreaking, if it is not done publicly, at least must be publicly announced to constitute civil disobedience. But Stephen Eilmann argues that if it is necessary to disobey rules that conflict with morality, we might ask why disobedience should take the form of public civil disobedience rather than simply covert lawbreaking. If a lawyer wishes to help a client overcome legal obstacles to securing their natural rights, he might, for instance, find that assisting in fabricating evidence or committing perjury is more effective than open disobedience. This assumes that common morality does not have a prohibition on deceit in such situations. The Fully Informed Jury Association's publication "A Primer for Prospective Jurors" notes, "Think of the dilemma faced by German citizens when Hitler's secret police demanded to know if they were hiding a Jew in their house." By this definition, civil disobedience could be traced back to the Book of Exodus, where Shiphrah and Puah refused a direct order of Pharaoh but misrepresented how they did it. (Exodus 1: 15–19) ### Violent vs. nonviolent There have been debates as to whether civil disobedience must necessarily be non-violent. *Black's Law Dictionary* includes nonviolence in its definition of civil disobedience. Christian Bay's encyclopedia article states that civil disobedience requires "carefully chosen and legitimate means", but holds that they do not have to be non-violent. It has been argued that, while both civil disobedience and civil rebellion are justified by appeal to constitutional defects, rebellion is much more destructive; therefore, the defects justifying rebellion must be much more serious than those justifying disobedience, and if one cannot justify civil rebellion, then one cannot justify a civil disobedient's use of force and violence and refusal to submit to arrest. Civil disobedients' refraining from violence is also said to help preserve society's tolerance of civil disobedience. The philosopher H. J. McCloskey argues that "if violent, intimidatory, coercive disobedience is more effective, it is, other things being equal, more justified than less effective, nonviolent disobedience." In his best-selling *Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order*, Howard Zinn takes a similar position; Zinn states that while the goals of civil disobedience are generally nonviolent, > in the inevitable tension accompanying the transition from a violent world to a non-violent one, the choice of means will almost never be pure, and will involve such complexities that the simple distinction between violence and non-violence does not suffice as a guide ... the very acts with which we seek to do good cannot escape the imperfections of the world we are trying to change. > > Zinn rejects any "easy and righteous dismissal of violence", noting that Thoreau, the popularizer of the term civil disobedience, approved of the armed insurrection of John Brown. He also notes that some major civil disobedience campaigns which have been classified as non-violent, such as the Birmingham campaign, have actually included elements of violence. ### Revolutionary vs. non-revolutionary Non-revolutionary civil disobedience is a simple disobedience of laws on the grounds that they are judged "wrong" by a person's conscience, or as part of an effort to render certain laws ineffective, to cause their repeal, or to exert pressure to get one's political wishes on some other issue. Revolutionary civil disobedience is more of an active attempt to overthrow a government (or to change cultural traditions, social customs or religious beliefs). Revolution does not have to be political, i.e. "cultural revolution", it simply implies sweeping and widespread change to a section of the social fabric. Gandhi's acts have been described as revolutionary civil disobedience. It has been claimed that the Hungarians under Ferenc Deák directed revolutionary civil disobedience against the Austrian government. Thoreau also wrote of civil disobedience accomplishing "peaceable revolution". Howard Zinn, Harvey Wheeler, and others have identified the right espoused in the US Declaration of Independence to "alter or abolish" an unjust government to be a principle of civil disobedience. ### Collective vs. solitary The earliest recorded incidents of collective civil disobedience took place during the Roman Empire. Unarmed Jews gathered in the streets to prevent the installation of pagan images in the Temple in Jerusalem.[*original research?*] In modern times, some activists who commit civil disobedience as a group collectively refuse to sign bail until certain demands are met, such as favourable bail conditions, or the release of all the activists. This is a form of jail solidarity.[*page needed*] There have also been many instances of solitary civil disobedience, such as that committed by Thoreau, but these sometimes go unnoticed. Thoreau, at the time of his arrest, was not yet a well-known author, and his arrest was not covered in any newspapers in the days, weeks and months after it happened. The tax collector who arrested him rose to higher political office, and Thoreau's essay was not published until after the end of the Mexican War. Choices ------- ### Action Civil disobedients have chosen a variety of different illegal acts. Hugo A. Bedau writes, > There is a whole class of acts, undertaken in the name of civil disobedience, which, even if they were widely practiced, would in themselves constitute hardly more than a nuisance (e.g. trespassing at a nuclear-missile installation) ... Such acts are often just a harassment and, at least to the bystander, somewhat inane ... The remoteness of the connection between the disobedient act and the objectionable law lays such acts open to the charge of ineffectiveness and absurdity. > > Bedau also notes, though, that the very harmlessness of such entirely symbolic illegal protests toward public policy goals may serve a propaganda purpose. Some civil disobedients, such as the proprietors of illegal medical cannabis dispensaries and Voice in the Wilderness, which brought medicine to Iraq without the permission of the US government, directly achieve a desired social goal (such as the provision of medication to the sick) while openly breaking the law. Julia Butterfly Hill lived in Luna, a 180-foot (55 m)-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days, preventing its felling. In cases where the criminalized behaviour is pure speech, civil disobedience can consist simply of engaging in the forbidden speech. An example is WBAI's broadcasting of the bit "Filthy Words" from a George Carlin comedy album, which eventually led to the 1978 Supreme Court case of *FCC v. Pacifica Foundation*. Threatening government officials is another classic way of expressing defiance toward the government and unwillingness to stand for its policies. For example, Joseph Haas was arrested for allegedly sending an email to the Lebanon, New Hampshire, city councillors stating, "Wise up or die." More generally, protesters of particular victimless crimes often see fit to openly commit that crime. Laws against public nudity, for instance, have been protested by going naked in public, and laws against cannabis consumption have been protested by openly possessing it and using it at cannabis rallies. Some forms of civil disobedience, such as illegal boycotts, refusals to pay taxes, draft dodging, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and sit-ins, make it more difficult for a system to function. In this way, they might be considered coercive; coercive disobedience has the effect of exposing the enforcement of laws and policies, and it has even operated as an aesthetic strategy in contemporary art practice. Brownlee notes that "although civil disobedients are constrained in their use of coercion by their conscientious aim to engage in moral dialogue, nevertheless they may find it necessary to employ limited coercion to get their issue onto the table". The Plowshares organization temporarily closed GCSB Waihopai by padlocking the gates and using sickles to deflate one of the large domes covering two satellite dishes. Electronic civil disobedience can include web site defacements, redirects, denial-of-service attacks, information theft and data leaks, illegal web site parodies, virtual sit-ins, and virtual sabotage. It is distinct from other kinds of hacktivism in that the perpetrator openly reveals his identity. Virtual actions rarely succeed in completely shutting down their targets, but they often generate significant media attention. Dilemma actions are designed to create a "response dilemma" for public authorities "by forcing them to either concede some public space to protesters or make themselves look absurd or heavy-handed by acting against the protest." ### Compliance Some disciplines of civil disobedience hold that the protester must submit to arrest and cooperate with the authorities. Others advocate falling limp or resisting arrest, especially when it will hinder the police from effectively responding to a mass protest. Many of the same decisions and principles that apply in other criminal investigations and arrests arise also in civil disobedience cases. For example, the suspect may need to decide whether to grant a consent search of his property, and whether to talk to police officers. It is generally agreed within the legal community, and is often believed within the activist community, that a suspect's talking to criminal investigators can serve no useful purpose, and may be harmful. Some civil disobedients are compelled to respond to investigators' questions, sometimes by a misunderstanding of the legal ramifications or a fear of seeming rude. Also, some civil disobedients seek to use the arrest as an opportunity to make an impression on the officers. Thoreau wrote, > My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with—for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel—and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. > > Some civil disobedients feel it is incumbent upon them to accept punishment because of their belief in the validity of the social contract, which is held to bind all to obey the laws that a government meeting certain standards of legitimacy has established, or else suffer the penalties set out in the law. Other civil disobedients who favour the existence of government still do not believe in the legitimacy of their particular government or do not believe in the legitimacy of a particular law it has enacted. Anarchistic civil disobedients do not believe in the legitimacy of any government, so see no need to accept punishment for a violation of criminal law. ### Plea An important decision for civil disobedients is whether to plead guilty. There is much debate on this point, as some believe that it is a civil disobedient's duty to submit to the punishment prescribed by law, while others believe that defending oneself in court will increase the possibility of changing the unjust law. It has also been argued that either choice is compatible with the spirit of civil disobedience. ACT UP's Civil Disobedience Training handbook states that a civil disobedient who pleads guilty is essentially stating, "Yes, I committed the act of which you accuse me. I don't deny it; in fact, I am proud of it. I feel I did the right thing by violating this particular law; I am guilty as charged", but that pleading not guilty sends a message of, "Guilt implies wrong-doing. I feel I have done no wrong. I may have violated some specific laws, but I am guilty of doing no wrong. I, therefore, plead not guilty." A plea of no contest is sometimes regarded as a compromise between the two. One defendant accused of illegally protesting nuclear power, when asked to enter his plea, stated, "I plead for the beauty that surrounds us"; this is known as a "creative plea", and will usually be interpreted as a plea of not guilty. When the Committee for Non-Violent Action sponsored a protest in August 1957, at the Camp Mercury nuclear test site near Las Vegas, Nevada, 13 of the protesters attempted to enter the test site knowing that they faced arrest. At an announced time, one by one they crossed a line and were immediately arrested. They were put on a bus and taken to the Nye County seat of Tonopah, Nevada, and arraigned for trial before the local Justice of the Peace, that afternoon. A civil rights attorney, Francis Heisler, had volunteered to defend the accused, advising them to plead *nolo contendere* rather than guilty or not guilty. They were found guilty and given suspended sentences, conditional on not reentering the test site. Howard Zinn writes, > There may be many times when protesters *choose* to go to jail, as a way of continuing their protest, as a way of reminding their countrymen of injustice. But that is different than the notion that they *must* go to jail as part of a rule connected with civil disobedience. The key point is that the spirit of protest should be maintained all the way, whether it is done by remaining in jail, or by evading it. To accept jail penitently as an accession to "the rules" is to switch suddenly to a spirit of subservience, to demean the seriousness of the protest ... In particular, the neo-conservative insistence on a guilty plea should be eliminated. > > Sometimes the prosecution proposes a plea bargain to civil disobedients, as in the case of the Camden 28, in which the defendants were offered an opportunity to plead guilty to one misdemeanour count and receive no jail time. In some mass arrest situations, the activists decide to use solidarity tactics to secure the same plea bargain for everyone. But some activists have opted to enter a blind plea, pleading guilty without any plea agreement in place. Mahatma Gandhi pleaded guilty and told the court, "I am here to ... submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen." ### Allocution Some civil disobedience defendants choose to make a defiant speech, or a speech explaining their actions, in allocution. In *U.S. v. Burgos-Andujar*, a defendant who was involved in a movement to stop military exercises by trespassing on US Navy property argued to the court in allocution that "the ones who are violating the greater law are the members of the Navy". As a result, the judge increased her sentence from 40 to 60 days. This action was upheld because, according to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, her statement suggested a lack of remorse, an attempt to avoid responsibility for her actions, and even a likelihood of repeating her illegal actions. Some of the other allocution speeches given by the protesters complained about mistreatment from government officials. Tim DeChristopher gave an allocution statement to the court describing the US as "a place where the rule of law was created through acts of civil disobedience" and arguing, "Since those bedrock acts of civil disobedience by our founding fathers, the rule of law in this country has continued to grow closer to our shared higher moral code through the civil disobedience that drew attention to legalized injustice." Legal implications ------------------ Steven Barkan writes that if defendants plead not guilty, "they must decide whether their primary goal will be to win an acquittal and avoid imprisonment or a fine, or to use the proceedings as a forum to inform the jury and the public of the political circumstances surrounding the case and their reasons for breaking the law via civil disobedience." A technical defence may enhance the chances for acquittal but increase the possibility of additional proceedings and of reduced press coverage. During the Vietnam War era, the Chicago Eight used a political defence, but Benjamin Spock used a technical defence. In countries such as the United States, whose laws guarantee the right to a jury trial but do not excuse lawbreaking for political purposes, some civil disobedients seek jury nullification. Over the years, this has been made more difficult by court decisions such as *Sparf v. United States*, which held that the judge need not inform jurors of their nullification prerogative, and *United States v. Dougherty*, which held that the judge need not allow defendants to openly seek jury nullification. Governments have generally not recognized the legitimacy of civil disobedience or viewed political objectives as an excuse for breaking the law. Specifically, the law usually distinguishes between criminal motive and criminal intent; the offender's motives or purposes may be admirable and praiseworthy, but his intent may still be criminal. Hence the saying that "if there is any possible justification of civil disobedience it must come from outside the legal system." One theory is that, while disobedience may be helpful, any great amount of it undermines the law by encouraging general disobedience which is neither conscientious nor of social benefit. Therefore, conscientious lawbreakers must be punished. Michael Bayles argues that if a person violates a law to create a test case as to the constitutionality of a law, and then wins his case, then that act did not constitute civil disobedience. It has also been argued that breaking the law for self-gratification, as in the case of a cannabis user who does not direct his act at securing the repeal of amendment of the law, is not civil disobedience. Likewise, a protester who attempts to escape punishment by committing the crime covertly and avoiding attribution, or by denying having committed the crime, or by fleeing the jurisdiction, is generally not called a civil disobedient. Courts have distinguished between two types of civil disobedience: "Indirect civil disobedience involves violating a law which is not, itself, the object of protest, whereas direct civil disobedience involves protesting the existence of a particular law by breaking that law." During the Vietnam War, courts typically refused to excuse the perpetrators of illegal protests from punishment on the basis of their challenging the legality of the Vietnam War; the courts ruled it was a political question. The necessity defence has sometimes been used as a shadow defence by civil disobedients to deny guilt without denouncing their politically motivated acts, and to present their political beliefs in the courtroom. Court cases such as *United States v. Schoon* have greatly curtailed the availability of the political necessity defence. Likewise, when Carter Wentworth was charged for his role in the Clamshell Alliance's 1977 illegal occupation of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, the judge instructed the jury to disregard his competing harms defence, and he was found guilty. Fully Informed Jury Association activists have sometimes handed out educational leaflets inside courthouses despite admonitions not to; according to the association, many of them have escaped prosecution because "prosecutors have reasoned (correctly) that if they arrest fully informed jury leafleters, the leaflets will have to be given to the leafleter's own jury as evidence." Along with giving the offender his just deserts, achieving crime control via incapacitation and deterrence is a major goal of criminal punishment. Brownlee argues, "Bringing in deterrence at the level of justification detracts from the law's engagement in a moral dialogue with the offender as a rational person because it focuses attention on the threat of punishment and not the moral reasons to follow this law." British judge Lord Hoffman writes, "In deciding whether or not to impose punishment, the most important consideration would be whether it would do more harm than good. This means that the objector has no right not to be punished. It is a matter for the state (including the judges) to decide on utilitarian grounds whether to do so or not." Hoffman also asserted that while the "rules of the game" for protesters were to remain non-violent while breaking the law, the authorities must recognize that demonstrators are acting out of their conscience in pursuit of democracy. "When it comes to punishment, the court should take into account their personal convictions", he said. See also -------- * Anti-establishment * Agorism * Astroturfing * Billboard hacking * Civil resistance * Civilian-based defense * Climate disobedience * Colour revolution * Conscientious objector * Counterculture * Counter-economics * Culture jamming * Demonstration * Dissent * Direct action * Diversity of tactics * Ecoterrorism * Extinction Rebellion * Gene Sharp * Grassroots * Grey market * Hunt sabotage * Indian independence movement * Insubordination * Internet activism * Malicious compliance * Mass incidents in China * Minority influence * Nonconformism to the established Church of England * Non-conformists of the 1930s * Nonviolent resistance * Nonviolent revolution * Off-the-grid * Protest art * Satyagraha * Tree sitting * Underground culture * User revolt Further reading --------------- * Brownlee, Kimberley (2013). "Civil Disobedience". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*. Stanford, California: Stanford University. ISSN 1095-5054. * Dodd, Lynda G. "Parades, Pickets, and Prison: Alice Paul and the Virtues of Unruly Constitutional Citizenship." *Journal of Law and Politics* 24 (2008): 339–433. online, woman suffrage in the United States in 1917. * King, Martin Luther Jr. (1964). *Why We Can't Wait*. New York: Signet Classic (published 2000). ISBN 978-0-451-52753-0. * Perry, Lewis (2013). *Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition*. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. * Suber, Peter (1999). "Civil Disobedience". In Gray, Christopher B. (ed.). *Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia*. Vol. 2. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 110–113. ISBN 978-0-8153-1344-1. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.

Civil disobedience

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience

**Zvolen** (pronounced [ˈzʋɔlen] (); Hungarian: *Zólyom*; German: *Altsohl*) is a town in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina rivers, close to Banská Bystrica. It is surrounded by Poľana mountain from the East, by Kremnické vrchy from the West and by Javorie and Štiavnické vrchy from the South. Zvolen is a seat of a county (Zvolen District). It is also an important transportation hub in Slovakia. Etymology --------- The name is of Slovak (Slavic) origin meaning "the chosen one, splendid, excellent". The Hungarian **Zólyom** and the German **Sohl** were derived from the Latinized form **Zolium** (earliest mention 1135). An adjective "Old" (German: *Altsohl*, Slovak: *Starý Zvolen*, Latin: *Antiquum or Vetus Solium*) distinguish Zvolen from Banská Bystrica (German: *Sohl, Neusohl*). History ------- Zvolen has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. In the ninth century, a Slavic settlement (today the Môťová neighborhood) became a regional center of what is now central Slovakia. Zvolen remained the capital of Zólyom County until the 1760s. In the 11th and 12th centuries, one of the largest medieval castles in Europe, Pustý hrad, was constructed. The town, originally built under the castle, lay on an important trade route (*Via Magna*) from Buda to Kraków. Zvolen was granted town privileges by King Béla IV in the 1230s - as one of the first towns in the Kingdom of Hungary. The privileges were confirmed on 28 December 1243, after the original document was destroyed in war. Later, King Louis I the Great built a new castle, which became a popular hunting resort of the Hungarian kings. The future queen regnant Mary of Hungary and emperor Sigismund celebrated their wedding there in 1385. In the Rákóczi's War of Independence the Kuruc army in the battle of Zvolen defeated the enemy forces from Austria, Denmark, Vojvodina and Hungary. In 1848–49, Ľudovít Štúr was a member of the Diet, with Zvolen as his constituency. In 1871–1872, two new railways were built and Zvolen became an important railroad hub and important industrial center. Zvolen played an important role during the Slovak National Uprising. Two of its armored trains, which were made in the local railway manufactory, Hurban and Štefánik can be seen near the Zvolen castle. Zvolen is an important railroad, an important road hub and has a large timber factory and a technical university, the Technická univerzita vo Zvolene. An airport in nearby Sliač offers direct flights to Prague. The town square was modernized in 2002 and local businesses are popular with tourists. In wintertime an ice rink is constructed in the center and festive celebrations run throughout December. Demographics ------------ Zvolen has a population of 43,147 (as of 31 December 2005). According to the 2001 census, 95.9% of inhabitants were Slovaks and 1.2% Czechs. The religious make-up was 52.5% Roman Catholics, 26.4% people with no religious affiliation, and 15% Lutherans. Sport ----- The local ice hockey team HKm Zvolen plays in the Slovak Extraliga. Notable people -------------- * Bálint Balassi, poet and nobleman * Karol Beck, tennis player * Jozef Cíger-Hronský, writer * Ján Lašák, ice hockey player * Vladimír Maňka, politician * Vladimír Mečiar, politician * František Velecký, actor * Ľudovít Štúr, politician, linguist, writer Twin towns — sister cities -------------------------- Zvolen is a member of the Douzelage, a town twinning association of towns across the European Union. This active town twinning began in 1991 and there are regular events, such as a produce market from each of the other countries and festivals. As of 2019, its members are: * Cyprus Agros, Cyprus * Spain Altea, Spain * Finland Asikkala, Finland * Germany Bad Kötzting, Germany * Italy Bellagio, Italy * Republic of Ireland Bundoran, Ireland * Poland Chojna, Poland * France Granville, France * Denmark Holstebro, Denmark * Belgium Houffalize, Belgium * Austria Judenburg, Austria * Hungary Kőszeg, Hungary * Malta Marsaskala, Malta * Netherlands Meerssen, Netherlands * Luxembourg Niederanven, Luxembourg * Sweden Oxelösund, Sweden * Greece Preveza, Greece * Lithuania Rokiškis, Lithuania * Croatia Rovinj, Croatia * Portugal Sesimbra, Portugal * England Sherborne, England, United Kingdom * Latvia Sigulda, Latvia * Romania Siret, Romania * Slovenia Škofja Loka, Slovenia * Czech Republic Sušice, Czech Republic * Bulgaria Tryavna, Bulgaria * Estonia Türi, Estonia Other twinnings * Finland Imatra, Finland * Poland Zwoleń, Poland * Czech Republic Prachatice, Czech Republic * Hungary Tótkomlós, Hungary * Ukraine Rivne, Ukraine Gallery ------- * * Armored train HurbanArmored train Hurban * City centre of ZvolenCity centre of Zvolen * * Zvolen in 1596Zvolen in 1596 * * Slatina river in ZvolenSlatina river in Zvolen

Zvolen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvolen

**Košice** (UK: /ˈkɒʃɪtsə/ *KOSH-it-sə*, Slovak: [ˈkɔʂitse] ()) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest city in Slovakia, after the capital Bratislava. Being the economic and cultural centre of eastern Slovakia, Košice is the seat of the Košice Region and Košice Self-governing Region, and is home to the Slovak Constitutional Court, three universities, various dioceses, and many museums, galleries, and theatres. In 2013 Košice was the European Capital of Culture, together with Marseille, France. Košice is an important industrial centre of Slovakia, and the U.S. Steel Košice steel mill is the largest employer in the city. The town has extensive railway connections and an international airport. The city has a preserved historical centre which is the largest among Slovak towns. There are heritage protected buildings in Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Art Nouveau styles with Slovakia's largest church: the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth. The long main street, rimmed with aristocratic palaces, Catholic churches, and townsfolk's houses, is a thriving pedestrian zone with boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. The city is known as the first settlement in Europe to be granted its own coat-of-arms. Etymology --------- The first written mention of the city was in 1230 as "Villa Cassa". The name probably comes from the Slavic personal name *Koš*, *Koša* → *Košici* (Koš'people) → *Košice* (1382–1383) with the patronymic Slavic suffix "-ice" through a natural development in Slovak (similar place names are also known from other Slavic countries). In Hungarian *Koša* → *Kasa*, *Kassa* with a vowel mutation typical for the borrowing of old Slavic names in the region (Vojkovce → Vajkócz, Sokoľ → Szakalya, Szakál, Hodkovce → Hatkóc, etc.). The Latinized form *Cassovia* became common in the 15th century. Another theory is a derivation from Old Slovak *kosa*, "clearing", related to modern Slovak *kosiť*, "to reap". Though according to other sources the city name may derive from an old Hungarian the first name which begins with "Ko". Historically, the city has been known as *Kaschau* in German, *Kassa* in Hungarian, *Kaşa* in Turkish, *Cassovia* in Latin, *Cassovie* in French, *Cașovia* in Romanian, *Кошице* (*Košice*) in Russian, Ukrainian and Rusyn, *Koszyce* in Polish and קאשוי *Kashoy* in Yiddish (see here for more names). Below is a chronology of the various names: | Year | Name | Year | Name | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1230 | Villa Cassa | 1420 | Caschowia | | 1257 | Cassa | 1441 | Cassovia, Kassa, Kaschau, Košice | | 1261 | Cassa, Cassa-Superior | 1613–1684 | Cassovia, Kassa, Kaşa, Kossicze | | 1282 | Kossa | 1773 | Cassovia, Kassa, Kaschau, Kossicze | | 1300 | Cossa | 1786 | Cassovia, Kascha, Kaschau, Kossice | | 1307 | Cascha | 1808 | Cassovia, Kaschau, Kassa, Kossice | | 1324 | Casschaw | 1863–1913 | Kassa | | 1342 | Kassa | 1918–1938 | Košice | | 1388 | Cassa-Cassouia | 1938–1945 | Kassa | | 1394 | Cassow | 1945– | Košice | History ------- Historical affiliations > > Kingdom of Hungary 1000 – 1526 > > John Zápolya's Eastern Hungarian Kingdom 1526 – 1551 *(Ottoman vassal)* > > Hajduk rebels of István Bocskai 1604 – 1606 *(Ottoman-backed)* > > Principality of Transylvania *(Ottoman vassal)* 1619 – 1629, 1644 – 1648 > > Kuruc rebellion 1672 – 1682 *(Ottoman-backed)* > > Imre Thököly's Principality of Upper Hungary *(Ottoman vassal)* 1682 – 1686 > > Francis II Rákóczi's insurrection 1703 – 1711 > > Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Hungary 1711–1918 > >  Czechoslovakia 1918–1938 > > Kingdom of Hungary 1938 – 1945 > >  Czechoslovakia 1945–1992 > >  Slovakia 1993–present > > > The first evidence of inhabitance can be traced back to the end of the Paleolithic era. The first written reference to the Hungarian town of Košice (as the royal village – *Villa Cassa*) comes from 1230. After the Mongol invasion in 1241, King Béla IV of Hungary invited German colonists (see: Zipser Germans, Germans of Hungary) to fill the gaps in population. The city was in the historic Abauj County of the Kingdom of Hungary. The city was made of two independent settlements: Lower Kassa and Upper Kassa, amalgamated in the 13th century around the long lens-formed *ring*, of today's Main Street. The first known town privileges come from 1290. The city proliferated because of its strategic location on an international trade route from agriculturally rich central Hungary to central Poland, itself along a greater route connecting the Balkans and the Adriatic and Aegean seas to the Baltic Sea. The privileges given by the king were helpful in developing crafts, business, increasing importance (seat of the royal chamber for Upper Hungary), and for building its strong fortifications. In 1307, the first guild regulations were registered here and were the oldest in the Kingdom of Hungary. As a Hungarian free royal town, Košice reinforced the king's troops in the crucial moment of the bloody Battle of Rozgony in 1312 against the strong aristocratic *Palatine Amadé* Aba (family). In 1347, it became the second-place city in the hierarchy of the Hungarian free royal towns with the same rights as the capital Buda. In 1369, it received its own coat of arms from Louis I of Hungary. The Diet convened by Louis I in Košice decided that women could inherit the Hungarian throne. The significance and wealth of the city at the end of the 14th century was mirrored by the decision to build an entirely new church on the grounds of the previously destroyed smaller St. Elisabeth Church. The construction of the biggest cathedral in the Kingdom of Hungary – St. Elisabeth Cathedral – was supported by Emperor Sigismund, and by the apostolic see itself. Since the beginning of the 15th century, the city played a leading role in the Pentapolitana – the league of towns of five most important cities in Upper Hungary (Bardejov, Levoča, Košice, Prešov, and Sabinov). During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus the town reached its medieval population peak. With an estimated 10,000 inhabitants, it was among the largest medieval cities in Europe. The history of Košice was heavily influenced by the dynastic disputes over the Hungarian throne which, together with the decline of the continental trade, brought the city into stagnation. Vladislaus III of Varna failed to capture the city in 1441. John Jiskra's mercenaries from Bohemia defeated Tamás Székely's Hungarian army in 1449. John I Albert, Prince of Poland, could not capture the city during a six-month-long siege in 1491. In 1526, the city paid homage to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. John Zápolya captured the town in 1536 but Ferdinand I reconquered the city in 1551. In 1554, the settlement became the seat of the Captaincy of Upper Hungary. In 1604, Catholics seized the Lutheran church in Košice. The Calvinist Stephen Bocskay then occupied Košice during his Protestant insurrection against the Habsburg dynasty, with the backing of the Ottomans. The future George I Rákóczi joined him as a military commander there. Giorgio Basta, commander of the Habsburg forces, failed in his attempt to recapture the city. At the Treaty of Vienna (1606), in return for giving back territory that included Košice, the rebels won from the Habsburgs a concession of religious toleration for the Magyar nobility and brokered an Austrian-Turkish peace treaty. Stephen Bocskay died in Košice on December 29, 1606, and was interred there. For some decades during the 17th century Košice was part of the Principality of Transylvania, and consequently a part of the Ottoman Empire and was referred to as *Kaşa* in Turkish. On September 5, 1619, the prince of Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlen captured Košice with the assistance of the future George I Rákóczi in another anti-Habsburg insurrection. By the Peace of Nikolsburg in 1621, the Habsburgs restored the religious toleration agreement of 1606 and recognized Transylvanian rule over the seven Partium counties: Ugocsa County, Bereg County, Zemplén County, Borsod County, Szabolcs County, Szatmár County and Abaúj County (including Košice). Bethlen married Catherine von Hohenzollern, of Johann Sigismund Kurfürst von Brandenburg, in Košice in 1626. After Bethlen's death in 1629, Košice and the rest of the Partium was returned to the Habsburgs. On January 18, 1644, the Diet in Košice elected George I Rákóczi the prince of Hungary. He took the whole of Upper Hungary and joined the Swedish army besieging Brno for a projected march against Vienna. However, his nominal overlord, the Ottoman Sultan, ordered him to end the campaign, though he did so with gains. In the Treaty of Linz (1645), Košice returned to Transylvania again as the Habsburgs recognized George's rule over the seven counties of the Partium. He died in 1648, and Košice was returned to the Habsburgs once more. Subsequently, Košice became a centre of the Counter-Reformation. In 1657, a printing house and university were founded by the Jesuits, funded by Emperor Leopold I. The 1664 Peace of Vasvár at the end of the Austro-Turkish War (1663-1664) awarded Szabolcs and Szatmár counties to the Habsburgs, which put once more positioned Košice further inside the borders of Royal Hungary. In the 1670s the Habsburgs built a modern pentagonal fortress (citadel) south of the city. Also in the 1670s, the city was besieged by Kuruc armies several times, and it again rebelled against the Habsburgs. The rebel leaders were massacred by the Emperor's soldiers on November 26, 1677. Another rebel leader, Imre Thököly captured the city in 1682, making *Kaşa* once again a vassal territory of the Ottoman Empire under the Principality of Upper Hungary until 1686. The Austrian field marshal Aeneas de Caprara took Košice back from the Ottomans in late 1685. In 1704–1711 Prince of Transylvania Francis II Rákóczi made Košice the main base in his War for Independence. By 1713 the fortress had been demolished. When not under Ottoman suzerainty, Košice was the seat of the Habsburg "Captaincy of Upper Hungary" and the seat of the Chamber of Szepes County (Spiš, Zips), which was a subsidiary of the supreme financial agency in Vienna responsible for Upper Hungary). Due to Ottoman occupation of Eger, Košice was the residence of Eger's archbishop from 1596 to 1700. From 1657, it was the seat of the historic Royal University of Kassa (Universitas Cassoviensis), founded by Bishop Benedict Kishdy. The university was transformed into a *Royal Academy* in 1777, then into a *Law Academy* in the 19th century. It was to cease to exist in the turbulent year 1921. After the end of the anti-Habsburg uprisings in 1711, the victorious Austrian armies drove the Ottoman Army back to the south, and this major territorial change created new trade routes which circumvented Košice. The city began to decline and from a rich medieval town became a provincial town known for its military base and mainly dependent on agriculture. In 1723, the Immaculata statue was erected on the site of a former gallows at Hlavná ulica (*Main Street*) to commemorate the plague of 1710–1711. The city also became one of the centers of the Hungarian linguistic revival, including the publication of the first Hungarian-language periodical, called the Magyar Museum, in Hungary in 1788. The city's walls were demolished step by step from the early 19th century to 1856; only the Executioner's Bastion remained among limited parts of the wall. The city became the seat of its own bishopric in 1802. The city's surroundings became a theater of war again during the Revolutions of 1848, when the Imperial cavalry general Franz Schlik defeated the Hungarian army on December 8, 1848, and January 4, 1849. The city was captured by the Hungarian army on February 15, 1849, but the Russian troops drove them back on June 24, 1849. In 1828, there were three manufacturers and 460 workshops. The first factories were established in the 1840s (sugar and nail factories). The first telegram message arrived in 1856, and the railway connected the city to Miskolc in 1860. In 1873, there were already connections to Prešov, Žilina, and Chop, Ukraine (in today's Ukraine). The city gained a public transit system in 1891 when the track was laid down for a horse-drawn tramway. The traction was electrified in 1914. In 1906, Francis II Rákóczi's house of Rodostó was reproduced in Košice, and his remains were buried in the St. Elisabeth Cathedral. After World War I and during the gradual break-up of Austria-Hungary, the city at first became a part of the transient "Eastern Slovak Republic", declared on December 11, 1918, in Košice and earlier in Prešov under the protection of Hungary. On December 29, 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions entered the city, making it part of the newly established Czechoslovakia. However, in June 1919, Košice was occupied again, as part of the Slovak Soviet Republic, a proletarian puppet state of Hungary. The Czechoslovak troops secured the city for Czechoslovakia in July 1919, which was later upheld under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. ### Fate of Košice Jews Jews had lived in Košice since the 16th century but were not allowed to settle permanently. There is a document identifying the local coiner in 1524 as a Jew and claiming that his predecessor was a Jew as well. Jews were allowed to enter the city during the town fair, but were forced to leave it by night, and lived mostly in nearby Rozunfaca. In 1840 the ban was removed, and, a few Jews were living in the town, among them a widow who ran a small Kosher restaurant for the Jewish merchants passing through the town. Košice was ceded to Hungary, by the First Vienna Award, from 1938 until early 1945. The town was bombarded on June 26, 1941, by a still unidentified aircraft, in what became a pretext for the Hungarian government to declare war on the Soviet Union a day later. The German occupation of Hungary led to the deportation of Košice's entire Jewish population of 12,000 and an additional 2,000 from surrounding areas via cattle cars to the concentration camps. In 1946, after the war, Košice was the site of an orthodox festival, with a Mizrachi convention and a Bnei Akiva Yeshiva (school) for Jews, which, later that year, moved with its students to Israel. A memorial plaque in honor to the 12,000 deported Jews from Košice and the surrounding areas in Slovakia was unveiled at the pre-war Košice Orthodox synagogue in 1992. ### Soviet occupation The Soviet Union captured the town in January 1945, and for a short time, it became a temporary capital of the restored Czechoslovak Republic until the Red Army had reached Prague. Among other acts, the Košice Government Programme was declared on April 5, 1945. A large population of ethnic Germans in the area was expelled and sent on foot to Germany or to the Soviet border. After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the city became part of the Eastern Bloc. Several cultural institutions that still exist were founded, and large residential areas around the city were built. The construction and expansion of the East Slovak Ironworks caused the population to grow from 60,700 in 1950 to 235,000 in 1991. Before the breakup of Czechoslovakia (1993), it was the fifth-largest city in the federation. ### Under Slovakia Following the Velvet Divorce and creation of the Slovak Republic, Košice became the second-largest city in the country and became a seat of a constitutional court. Since 1995, it has been the seat of the Archdiocese of Košice. After 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Košice, as a regional metropolitan area, became a major hub for administration, transfer and housing of refugees fleeing from Ukraine. Geography --------- Košice lies at an altitude of 206 metres (676 ft) above sea level and covers an area of 242.77 square kilometres (93.7 sq mi). It is located in eastern Slovakia, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Hungarian, 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Ukrainian, and 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the Polish borders. It is about 400 kilometres (249 mi) east of Slovakia's capital Bratislava and a chain of villages connects it to Prešov which is about 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the north. Košice is on the Hornád River in the Košice Basin, at the easternmost reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains. More precisely, it is a subdivision of the Čierna hora mountains in the northwest and Volovské vrchy mountains in the southwest. The basin is met on the east by the Slanské vrchy mountains. Climate ------- Košice has a humid continental climate (Köppen: *Dfb*), as the city lies in the north temperate zone. The city has four distinct seasons with long, warm summers with cool nights and long, cold, and snowy winters. Precipitation varies little throughout the year with abundance precipitation that falls during summer and only few during winter. The coldest month is January, with an average temperature of −2.6 °C (27.3 °F), and the hottest month is July, with an average temperature of 19.3 °C (66.7 °F). | Climate data for Košice, Slovakia (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1980−present) | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Record high °C (°F) | 13.1(55.6) | 16.5(61.7) | 23.2(73.8) | 28.7(83.7) | 31.7(89.1) | 34.6(94.3) | 38.0(100.4) | 36.1(97.0) | 34.1(93.4) | 26.6(79.9) | 22.4(72.3) | 13.3(55.9) | 38.0(100.4) | | Average high °C (°F) | 1.0(33.8) | 3.7(38.7) | 9.9(49.8) | 16.5(61.7) | 21.2(70.2) | 24.8(76.6) | 26.6(79.9) | 26.8(80.2) | 21.2(70.2) | 14.8(58.6) | 8.1(46.6) | 1.8(35.2) | 14.7(58.5) | | Daily mean °C (°F) | −2.6(27.3) | −0.4(31.3) | 4.5(40.1) | 9.6(49.3) | 14.6(58.3) | 17.5(63.5) | 19.3(66.7) | 19.1(66.4) | 14.8(58.6) | 9.4(48.9) | 3.0(37.4) | −1.3(29.7) | 9.0(48.1) | | Average low °C (°F) | −4.8(23.4) | −3.5(25.7) | 0.0(32.0) | 5.0(41.0) | 9.6(49.3) | 13.2(55.8) | 14.8(58.6) | 14.6(58.3) | 10.1(50.2) | 5.3(41.5) | 1.2(34.2) | −3.3(26.1) | 5.2(41.3) | | Record low °C (°F) | −25.9(−14.6) | −22.3(−8.1) | −16.4(2.5) | −7.2(19.0) | −2.0(28.4) | 2.9(37.2) | 5.6(42.1) | 1.2(34.2) | 0.3(32.5) | −7.5(18.5) | −13.5(7.7) | −19.2(−2.6) | −25.9(−14.6) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 25.7(1.01) | 26.8(1.06) | 23.6(0.93) | 42.4(1.67) | 69.4(2.73) | 87.5(3.44) | 93.5(3.68) | 66.5(2.62) | 50.1(1.97) | 51.1(2.01) | 40.2(1.58) | 36.1(1.42) | 612.9(24.12) | | Average precipitation days | 12.7 | 10.8 | 9.0 | 10.8 | 13.3 | 13.4 | 12.9 | 9.7 | 10.7 | 11.0 | 11.9 | 14.2 | 140.4 | | Average relative humidity (%) | 78 | 72 | 59 | 51 | 51 | 55 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 61 | 76 | 82 | 62 | | Mean monthly sunshine hours | 67 | 86 | 166 | 204 | 266 | 259 | 282 | 258 | 216 | 153 | 68 | 47 | 2,072 | | Source 1: World Meteorological Organisation | | Source 2: Danish Meteorological Institute (humidity and sun 1931–1960) | Demographics ------------ Košice has a population of 228,249 (mid year, 2021). According to the 2011 census, 73.8% of its inhabitants were Slovaks, 2.65% Hungarians, 2% Romani, 0.65% Czechs, 0.68% Rusyns, 0.3% Ukrainians, and 0.13% Germans. 19% of Košice's population did not declare their ethnic affiliation in the 2011 census. The religious makeup was 45% Roman Catholics, 16.6% people with no religious affiliation, 6.12% Greek Catholics, and 2.33% Lutherans, 2% Calvinists and 0.11% Jews. ### Historical demographics According to the researchers the town had a German majority until the mid-16th century, and by 1650, 72.5% of the population may have been Hungarians, 13.2% was German, 14.3% was Slovak or of uncertain origin. The Ottoman Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi mentioned that the city was inhabited by "Hungarians, Germans, Upper Hungarians" in 1661 when the city was under the suzerainty of Ottoman Empire and under Turkish control. The linguistic makeup of the town's population underwent historical changes that alternated between the growth of the ratio of those who claimed Hungarian and those who claimed Slovak as their language. With a population of 28,884 in 1891, just under half (49.9%) of the inhabitants of Košice declared Hungarian, then the official language, as their main means of communication, 33.6% Slovak, and 13.5% German; 72.2% were Roman Catholics, 11.4% Jews, 7.3% Lutherans, 6.7% Greek Catholics, and 4.3% Calvinists. The results of that census are questioned by some historians by a disputed claim that they were manipulated, to increase the percentage of the Magyars during a period of Magyarization. By the 1910 census, which is sometimes accused of being manipulated by the ruling Hungarian bureaucracy, 75.4% of the 44,211 inhabitants claimed Hungarian, 14.8% Slovak, 7.2% German and 1.8% Polish. The Jews were split among other groups by the 1910 census, as only the most frequently-used language, not ethnicity, was registered. The population around 1910 was multidenominational and multiethnic, and the differences in the level of education mirror the stratification of society. The town's linguistic balance began to shift towards Slovak after World War I by Slovakization in the newly established Czechoslovakia. According to the 1930 census, the city had 70,111, with 230 Gypsies (today Roma), 42 245 Czechoslovaks (today Czechs and Slovaks), 11 504 Hungarians, 3 354 Germans, 44 Poles, 14 Romanians, 801 Ruthenians, 27 Serbocroatians (today Serbs and Croatians) and 5 733 Jews. As a consequence of the First and Second Vienna Awards, Košice was ceded to Hungary. During the German occupation of Hungary towards the end of World War II, approximately 10,000 Jews were deported by the Arrow Cross Party and the Nazis and killed in Auschwitz. The ethnic makeup of the town was dramatically changed by the persecution of the town's large Hungarian majority, population exchanges between Hungary and Slovakia and Slovakization and by mass migration of Slovaks into newly built communist-block-microdistricts, which increased the population of Košice four times by 1989 and made it the fastest growing city in Czechoslovakia. Culture ------- Kasárne KulturparkKunsthalle [sk]SPOT VažeckáState Theatre Košice ### Performing arts There are several theatres in Košice. The Košice State Theater was founded in 1945 (then under the name of the East Slovak National Theater). It consists of three ensembles: drama, opera, and ballet. Other theatres include the Marionette Theatre and the Old Town Theatre (*Staromestské divadlo*). The presence of Hungarian and Roma minorities makes it also host the Hungarian "Thália" theatre and the professional Roma theatre "Romathan". Košice is the home of the State Philharmonic Košice (*Štátna filharmónia Košice*), established in 1968 as the second professional symphonic orchestra in Slovakia. It organizes festivals such as the Košice Music Spring Festival, the International Organ Music Festival, and the Festival of Contemporary art. ### Museums and galleries Some of the museums and galleries based in the city include the East Slovak Museum (*Vychodoslovenské múzeum*), originally established in 1872 under the name of the Upper Hungarian Museum. The Slovak Technical Museum (*Slovenské technické múzeum*) with a planetarium, established in 1947, is the only museum in the technical category in Slovakia that specializes in the history and traditions of science and technology. The East Slovak Gallery (*Východoslovenská galéria*) was established in 1951 as the first regional gallery with the aim to document artistic life in present-day eastern Slovakia. ### European Capital of Culture In 2008 Košice won the competition among Slovak cities to hold the prestigious title European Capital of Culture 2013. Project Interface aims at the transformation of Košice from a centre of heavy industry to a postindustrial city with creative potential and new cultural infrastructure. Project authors bring Košice a concept of the creative economy – merging of economy and industry with arts, where transformed urban space encourages development of certain fields of creative industry (design, media, architecture, music and film production, IT technologies, creative tourism). The artistic and cultural program stems from a conception of sustained maintainable activities with long-lasting effects on cultural life in Košice and its region. The main project venues are: * **Kasárne Kulturpark** – 19th-century military barracks turned into new urban space with a centre of contemporary art, exhibition and concert halls and workshops for the creative industry. * **Kunsthalle Košice** – a 1960s disused swimming pool turned into the first Kunsthalle in Slovakia. * **SPOTs** – the 1970s and 1980s disused heat exchangers turned into cultural "spots" in Communist-Era-block-of-flats districts. * **City park, Park Komenského and Mojzesova** – revitalisation of urban spaces. * **Castle of Košice, Amfiteáter, Mansion of Krásna, Handicrafts Street** – reconstruction. * **Tabačka** – a 19th-century tobacco factory turned into a centre of independent culture. The Tabačka Kulturfabrik, DIG gallery, Kotolňa and several artistic residents are located in the area of the former tobacco factory. ### Media The first and the oldest international festival of local TV broadcasters (founded in 1995) – The Golden Beggar, takes place every year in June in Košice. The oldest evening newspaper is the Košický večer. The daily paper in Košice is Korzár. Recently, the daily paper Košice:Dnes (Košice: Today) came into existence. TV stations based in Košice: TV Naša, TV Region and public TV broadcaster RTVS Televízne štúdio Košice. Radio stations based in Košice: Rádio Košice, Dobré rádio, Rádio Kiss, Rádio Šport, and the public broadcaster RTVS Rádio Regina Košice Economy ------- Košice is the economic hub of eastern Slovakia. It accounts for about 9% of the Slovak gross domestic product. The steel mill, U.S. Steel Košice with 13,500 employees, is the largest employer in the city and the largest private employer in the country. The second-largest employer in the east of the country is Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Slovakia. It was established and has been based in Košice since 2006. Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Slovakia had 4,545 employees in Košice in Q4 of 2020, which makes it the second-largest shared service center in Slovakia and one of the top fifteen largest employers in Slovakia. As part of the growing ICT field, Košice IT Valley association was established in 2007 as a joint initiative of educational institutions, government and leading IT companies. In 2012 it was transformed into the cluster. In 2018 the cluster was for the second time certified for **“Cluster Management Excellence Label GOLD”** as the first in central Europe and is one of three certified clusters in the area of information and communication technologies. Other major sectors include mechanical engineering, food industry, services, and trade. GDP per capita in 2001 was €4,004, which was below Slovakia's average of €4,400. The unemployment rate was 8.32% in November 2015, which was below the country's average 10.77% at that time. The city has a balanced budget of 224 million euros, as of 2019[update]). Sights ------ The city centre, and most historical monuments, are located in or around the Main Street (*Hlavná ulica*) and the town has the largest number of protected historical monuments in Slovakia. The most dominant historical monument of the city is Slovakia's largest church, the 14th century Gothic Cathedral of St. Elizabeth; it is the easternmost cathedral of western-style Gothic architecture in Central Europe, and is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Košice. In addition to St. Elizabeth, there is the 14th century St. Michael Chapel, the St. Urban Tower, and the Neo-baroque State Theater in the center of town. The Executioner's Bastion and the Mill Bastion are the remains of the city's previous fortification system. The Church of the Virgin Mary's Birth is the cathedral for the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Košice. Other monuments and buildings of cultural and historical interest are; the old Town Hall, the Old University, the Captain's Palace, Liberation Square, as well as a number of galleries (the East Slovak Gallery) and museums (the East Slovak Museum). There is a Municipal Park located between the historical city centre and the main railway station. The city also has a zoo located northwest of the city, within the borough of Kavečany. ### Places of worship * Cathedral of St. Elizabeth * Dominican Church * Franciscan Church * Hospital Church of Holy Spirit * Plague Chapel of St. Rosalie * Premonstratensian Church, former Jesuit Church * Calvinist Church * Evangelical Church * Synagogue at Puškinová Street *Late Renaissance, early Baroque Jesuits Church**Empire style Pongrác-Forgács Palace**Historicism style Jakab's Palace**Neo-Renaissance Andrássy Palace**Art Nouveau style coffeehouse Slávia* Government ---------- Košice is the seat of the Košice Region, and since 2002 it is the seat of the autonomous Košice Self-governing Region. Additionally, it is the seat of the Slovak Constitutional Court. The city hosts a regional branch of the National Bank of Slovakia (*Národná banka Slovenska*) and consulates of Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Spain and Turkey. The local government is composed of a mayor (Slovak: *primátor*), a city council (*mestské zastupiteľstvo*), a city board (*mestská rada*), city commissions (*Komisie mestského zastupiteľstva*), and a city magistrate's office (*magistrát*). The directly elected mayor is the head and chief executive of the city. The term of office is four years. The previous mayor, František Knapík, was nominated in 2006 by a coalition of four political parties KDH, SMK, and SDKÚ-DS. In 2010 he finished his term of office. The present mayor is Ing. Jaroslav Polaček. He was inaugurated on 10 December 2018. In 2021, the municipality recycled 24.64% of its municipal waste. Administratively, the city of Košice is divided into four districts: Košice I (covering the center and northern parts), Košice II (covering the southwest), Košice III (east), and Košice IV (south) and further into 22 boroughs (wards): Administrative division of Košice| *District* | *Boroughs* | | --- | --- | | Košice I | Džungľa, Kavečany, Sever, Sídlisko Ťahanovce, Staré Mesto, Ťahanovce | | Košice II | Lorinčík, Luník IX, Myslava, Pereš, Poľov, Sídlisko KVP, Šaca, Západ | | Košice III | Dargovských hrdinov, Košická Nová Ves | | Košice IV | Barca, Juh, Krásna, Nad jazerom, Šebastovce, Vyšné Opátske | Education --------- Košice is the second university town in Slovakia, after Bratislava. The Technical University of Košice is its largest university, with 16,015 students, including 867 doctoral students. A second major university is the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, with 7,403 students, including 527 doctoral students. Other universities and colleges include the University of Veterinary Medicine in Košice (1,381 students) and the private Security Management College in Košice (1,168 students). Additionally, the University of Economics in Bratislava, the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, and the Catholic University in Ružomberok each have a branch based in the city. There are 38 public elementary schools, six private elementary schools, three religious elementary schools, and one International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) candidate international school. Overall, they enroll 20,158 pupils. The city's system of secondary education (some middle schools and all high schools) consists of 20 gymnasia with 7,692 students, 24 specialized high schools with 8,812 students, and 13 vocational schools with 6,616 students. Kosice International School (KEIS) is the first international primary school in Eastern Slovakia. It will be an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) international school. Opening in September 2020. Notable personalities --------------------- Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231), patron saint of KošiceFrancis II Rákóczi (1676–1735), Hungarian noblemanFerenc Szálasi (1897–1946), former wartime head of state of HungarySándor Márai (1900–1989), Hungarian writer and journalistMartina Hingis, Swiss tennis player (b. 1980)Tomáš Jurčo, Slovak ice hockey player (b. 1992)Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Slovak tennis player (b. 1994)Viktória Kužmová, Slovak tennis player (b. 1998)David Dobrik, American-based YouTube personality (b. 1996) Transport --------- Public transport in Košice is managed by *Dopravný podnik mesta Košice* ("Public Transport Company of the City of Košice"). The municipal mass transit system is the oldest one in present-day Slovakia, with the first horse-car line beginning operation in 1891 (electrified in 1914). Today, the city's public transportation system is composed of buses (in use since the 1950s), trams, and trolleybuses (since 1993). Košice railway station is a rail hub of eastern Slovakia. The city is connected by rail to Prague, Bratislava, Prešov, Čierna nad Tisou, Humenné, Miskolc (Hungary), and Zvolen. There is a broad gauge track from Ukraine, leading to the steel mill southwest of the city. The D1 motorway connects the city to Prešov, and more motorways and roads are planned around the city. Košice International Airport is located south of the city. Regular direct flights from the airport are available to London Luton and Stansted (from April 2020), Vienna, Warsaw, Düsseldorf and Prague. Regular flights are provided by Czech Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, LOT Polish Airlines and Wizz Air and in code-share by KLM-Air France and Lufthansa. At its peak in the year 2008, it served 590,919 passengers, but the number has since declined. Sports ------ The Košice Peace Marathon (founded in 1924) is the oldest annual marathon in Europe and the third oldest in the entire world, after the Boston Marathon and the Yonkers Marathon. It is run in the historic part of the city and is organized every year on the first Sunday of October. Ice hockey club HC Košice is one of the most successful Slovak hockey clubs. It plays in Slovakia's highest league, the Extraliga, and has won eight titles in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2015; and two titles (1986 and 1988) in the former Czechoslovak Extraliga. Since 2006, their home is the Steel Aréna which has a capacity of 8,343 spectators. Košice was once home to football club MFK Košice until it folded due to bankruptcy. It was the first club from Slovakia reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and won the domestic league twice (1998 and 1999). Another football club FC Košice is currently in the second league, with a new home stadium known as the Košická futbalová Arena (KFA). Košice, along with Bratislava hosted the 2011 and 2019 IIHF World Championship in ice hockey. Košice became the 2016 European City of Sport by the European Capitals of Sports Association (ACES Europe). The sporting events in 2016 included "the International Peace Marathon, several urban runs, a swimming relay contest, the Košice-Tatry- Košice cycling race, the dancesport world championships, the Basketball Euroleague, Volleyball World League and Water Polo World League". Twin towns – sister cities -------------------------- Košice is twinned with: * Hungary Abaújszántó, Hungary (2007) * Hungary Budapest, Hungary (1997) * Turkey Bursa, Turkey (2000) * Germany Cottbus, Germany (1992) * Vietnam Da Nang, Vietnam (2015) * Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2016) * Poland Katowice, Poland (1991) * Poland Krosno, Poland (1991) * Hungary Miskolc, Hungary (1997) * United States Mobile, United States (2000) * Serbia Niš, Serbia (2000) * Czech Republic Ostrava, Czech Republic (2001) * Bulgaria Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2000) * Finland Raahe, Finland (1987) * Poland Rzeszów, Poland (1991) * Ukraine Uzhhorod, Ukraine (1993) * Slovakia Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia (2006) * China Wuhan, China (2012) * Germany Wuppertal, Germany (1980) ### Former twin cities As a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the City Council had terminated cooperation with the following cities: * Belarus Vitebsk, Belarus (2015) * Russia Saint Petersburg, Russia (1995) See also -------- * Košice Peace Marathon * List of people from Košice * List of municipalities and towns in Slovakia * Zlaty dukat External links -------------- Listen to this article (28 minutes) Spoken Wikipedia iconThis audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 1 May 2009 (2009-05-01), and does not reflect subsequent edits.(Audio help · More spoken articles) ### Official sites * Media related to Košice at Wikimedia Commons * Official website of the town of Košice * Official Tourism and Travel Guide to Košice * DPMK – Public Transport Office Site ### Tourism and living information * Košice travel guide from Wikivoyage * Tourist guide * Cassovia Digitalis The Digital City Library *(German/Slovak/Hungarian/English)* * Košice at funiq.eu ### Photographs * Comprehensive photo gallery of Košice (in Slovak) * Panoramic photo gallery of Košice

Košice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%A1ice

**Loki** is a god in Norse mythology. According to some sources, Loki is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mentioned as a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi or Nari and Váli. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. In the form of a mare, Loki was impregnated by the stallion Svaðilfari and gave birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Loki's relation with the gods varies by source; he sometimes assists the gods and sometimes behaves maliciously towards them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk (Old Norse 'thanks'). Loki's positive relations with the gods end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr, and eventually, Odin's specially engendered son Váli binds Loki with the entrails of one of his sons; in the *Prose Edda*, this son, Nari or Narfi, is killed by another son of Loki who is also called Váli. In both the *Prose Edda* and the *Poetic Edda*, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound. The serpent drips venom from above him that Sigyn collects into a bowl; however, she must empty the bowl when it is full, and the venom that drips in the meantime causes Loki to writhe in pain, thereby causing earthquakes. With the onset of Ragnarök, Loki is foretold to slip free from his bonds and to fight against the gods among the forces of the jötnar, at which time he will encounter the god Heimdallr, and the two will slay each other. Loki is referred to in the *Poetic Edda*, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the *Prose Edda* and *Heimskringla*, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; the Norwegian Rune Poems, in the poetry of skalds, and in Scandinavian folklore. Loki may be depicted on the Snaptun Stone, the Kirkby Stephen Stone, and the Gosforth Cross. Scholars have debated Loki's origins and role in Norse mythology, which some have described as that of a trickster god. Loki has been depicted in or referenced in a variety of media in modern popular culture. Etymology and alternate names ----------------------------- The etymology of the name *Loki* has been extensively debated. The name has at times been associated with the Old Norse word *logi* ('flame'), but there seems not to be a sound linguistic basis for this. Rather, the later Scandinavian variants of the name (such as Faroese *Lokki*, Danish *Lokkemand*, Norwegian *Loke* and *Lokke*, Swedish *Luki* and *Luku*) point to an origin in the Germanic root \**luk*-, which denoted things to do with loops (like knots, hooks, closed-off rooms, and locks). This corresponds with usages such as the Swedish *lockanät* and Faroese *lokkanet* ('cobweb', literally 'Lokke's web') and Faroese *lokki*~*grindalokki*~*grindalokkur*, 'daddy-long-legs' referring both to crane flies and harvestmen, modern Swedish *lockespindlar* ("Locke-spiders"). Some Eastern Swedish traditions referring to the same figure use forms in *n*- like *Nokk(e)*, but this corresponds to the \**luk*- etymology insofar as those dialects consistently used a different root, Germanic \**hnuk*-, in contexts where western varieties used \**luk*-: "*nokke* corresponds to *nøkkel*" ('key' in Eastern Scandinavian) "as *loki*~*lokke* to *lykil*" ('key' in Western Scandinavian). While it has been suggested that this association with closing could point to Loki's apocalyptic role at Ragnarök, "there is quite a bit of evidence that Loki in premodern society was thought to be the causer of knots/tangles/loops, or himself a knot/tangle/loop. Hence, it is natural that Loki is the inventor of the fishnet, which consists of loops and knots, and that the word *loki* (*lokke*, *lokki*, *loke*, *luki*) is a term for makers of cobwebs: spiders and the like." Though not prominent in the oldest sources, this identity as a "tangler" may be the etymological meaning of Loki's name. In various poems from the *Poetic Edda* (stanza 2 of *Lokasenna*, stanza 41 of *Hyndluljóð*, and stanza 26 of *Fjölsvinnsmál*), and sections of the *Prose Edda* (chapter 32 of *Gylfaginning*, stanza 8 of *Haustlöng*, and stanza 1 of *Þórsdrápa*) Loki is alternatively referred to as *Loptr*, which is generally considered derived from Old Norse *lopt* meaning "air", and therefore points to an association with the air. The name *Hveðrungr* (Old Norse '?roarer') is also used in reference to Loki, occurring in names for Hel (such as in *Ynglingatal*, where she is called *hveðrungs mær*) and in reference to Fenrir (as in *Völuspa*). Attestations ------------ ### *Poetic Edda* In the *Poetic Edda*, Loki appears (or is referenced) in the poems *Völuspá*, *Lokasenna*, *Þrymskviða*, *Reginsmál*, *Baldrs draumar*, and *Hyndluljóð*. #### *Völuspá* In stanza 35 of the *Poetic Edda* poem *Völuspá*, a völva tells Odin that, among many other things, she sees Sigyn sitting very unhappily with her bound husband, Loki, under a "grove of hot springs". In stanza 51, during the events of Ragnarök, Loki appears free from his bonds and is referred to as the "brother of Býleistr" (here transcribed as *Byleist*): > A ship journeys from the east, Muspell's people are coming, > > over the waves, and Loki steers > > There are the monstrous brood with all the raveners, > > The brother of Byleist is in company with them. > > In stanza 54, after consuming Odin and being killed by Odin's son Víðarr, Fenrir is described as "Loki's kinsman". #### *Lokasenna* The poem *Lokasenna* (Old Norse "Loki's Flyting") centers around Loki flyting with other gods; Loki puts forth two stanzas of insults while the receiving figure responds with a single stanza, and then another figure chimes in. The poem begins with a prose introduction detailing that Ægir, a figure associated with the sea, is hosting a feast in his hall for a number of the gods and elves. There, the gods praise Ægir's servers Fimafeng and Eldir. Loki "could not bear to hear that", and kills the servant Fimafeng. In response, the gods grab their shields, shrieking at Loki, and chase him out of the hall and to the woods. The gods then return to the hall, and continue drinking. ##### Entrance and rejection Loki comes out of the woods and meets Eldir outside of the hall. Loki greets Eldir (and the poem itself begins) with a demand that Eldir tell him what the gods are discussing over their ale inside the hall. Eldir responds that they discuss their "weapons and their prowess in war" and yet no one there has anything friendly to say about Loki. Loki says that he will go into the feast, and that, before the end of the feast, he will induce quarrelling among the gods, and "mix their mead with malice". Eldir responds that "if shouting and fighting you pour out on" to the gods, "they'll wipe it off on you". Loki then enters the hall, and everyone there falls silent upon noticing him. ##### Re-entrance and insults Breaking the silence, Loki says that, thirsty, he had come to these halls from a long way away to ask the gods for a drink of "the famous mead". Calling the gods arrogant, Loki asks why they are unable to speak, and demands that they assign him a seat and a place for him at the feast, or tell him to leave. The skaldic god Bragi is the first to respond to Loki by telling him that Loki will not have a seat and place assigned to him by the gods at the feast, for the gods know what men they should invite. Loki does not respond to Bragi directly, but instead directs his attention to Odin, and states: > Do you remember, Odin, when in bygone days > > we mixed our blood together? > > You said you would never drink ale > > unless it were brought to both of us. > > Odin then asks his silent son Víðarr to sit up, so that Loki (here referred to as the "wolf's father") may sit at the feast, and so that he may not speak words of blame to the gods in Ægir's hall. Víðarr stands and pours a drink for Loki. Prior to drinking, Loki declaims a toast to the gods, with a specific exception for Bragi. Bragi responds that he will give a horse, sword, and ring from his possessions so that he does not repay the gods "with hatred". Loki responds that Bragi will always be short of all of these things, accusing him of being "wary of war" and "shy of shooting". Bragi responds that, were they outside of Ægir's hall, Bragi would be holding Loki's head as a reward for his lies. Loki replies that Bragi is brave when seated, calling him a "bench-ornament", and that Bragi would run away when troubled by an angry, spirited man. The goddess Iðunn interrupts, asking Bragi, as a service to his relatives and adopted relatives, not to say words of blame to Loki in Ægir's hall. Loki tells Iðunn to be silent, calling her the most "man-crazed" of all women, and saying that she placed her washed, bright arms around her brother's slayer. Iðunn says that she will not say words of blame in Ægir's hall, and affirms that she quietened Bragi, who was made talkative by beer, and that she doesn't want the two of them to fight. The goddess Gefjun asks why the two gods must fight, saying that Loki knows that he is joking, and that "all living things love him". Loki responds to Gefjun by stating that Gefjun's heart was once seduced by a "white boy" who gave her a jewel, and who Gefjun laid her thigh over. Odin says that Loki must be insane to make Gefjun his enemy, as her wisdom about the fates of men may equal Odin's own. Loki says that Odin does a poor job in handing out honor in war to men, and that he's often given victory to the faint-hearted. Odin responds that even if this is true, Loki (in a story otherwise unattested) once spent eight winters beneath the earth as a woman milking cows, and during this time bore children. Odin declares this perverse. Loki counters that Odin once practiced seiðr (a type of sorcery) on the island of *Samsey* (now Samsø, Denmark), and, appearing as a wizard, traveled among mankind, which Loki condemns as perverse. Frigg, a major deity who is married to Odin, says that what Loki and Odin did in the ancient past should not be spoken of in front of others, and that ancient matters should always remain hidden. Loki brings up that Frigg is the daughter of Fjörgyn, a personification of the earth, and that she had once taken Odin's brothers Vili and Vé into her embrace. Frigg responds that if there was a boy like her now-deceased son Baldr in the hall, Loki would not be able to escape from the wrath of the gods. Loki reminds Frigg that he is responsible for the death of her son Baldr. The goddess Freyja declares that Loki must be mad, stating that Frigg knows all fate, yet she does not speak it. Loki claims each of the gods and elves that are present have been Freyja's lover. Freyja replies that Loki is lying, that he just wants to "yelp about wicked things" that gods and goddesses are furious with him, and that he will go home thwarted. In response, Loki calls Freyja a malicious witch, and claims that Freyja was once astride her brother Freyr, when all of the other laughing gods surprised her and Freyja then farted. This scenario is otherwise unattested. Njörðr (Freyja and Freyr's father) says that it is harmless for a woman to have a lover or "someone else" beside her husband, and that what is surprising is a "pervert god coming here who has borne children". Loki tells Njörðr to be silent, recalling Njörðr's status as once having been a hostage from the Vanir to the Æsir during the Æsir-Vanir War, that the "daughters of Hymir" once used Njörðr "as a pisspot", urinating in his mouth (an otherwise unattested comment). Njörðr responds that this was his reward when he was sent as a hostage to the Æsir, and that he fathered his son (Freyr), whom no one hates, and is considered a prince of the Æsir. Loki tells Njörðr to maintain his moderation, and that he will not keep it secret any longer that Njörðr fathered this son with his sister (unnamed), although one would expect him to be worse than he turned out. The god Tyr defends Freyr, to which Loki replies that Tyr should be silent, for Tyr cannot "deal straight with people", and points out that it was Loki's son, the wolf Fenrir, who tore Tyr's hand off. (According to the prose introduction to the poem Tyr is now one-handed from having his arm bitten off by Loki's son Fenrir while Fenrir was bound.) Tyr responds that while he may have lost a hand, Loki has lost the wolf, and trouble has come to them both. Further, that Fenrir must now wait in shackles until the onset of Ragnarök. Loki tells Tyr to be silent a second time, and states that Tyr's wife (otherwise unattested) had a son by Loki, and that Tyr never received any compensation for this "injury", further calling him a "wretch". Freyr himself interrupts at this point, and says that he sees a wolf lying before a river mouth, and that, unless Loki is immediately silent, like the wolf, Loki shall also be bound until Ragnarök. Loki retorts that Freyr purchased his consort Gerðr with gold, having given away his sword, which he will lack at Ragnarök. Byggvir (referred to in the prose introduction to the poem as a servant of Freyr) says that if he had as noble a lineage and as an honorable a seat as Freyr, he would grind down Loki, and make all of his limbs lame. Loki refers to Byggvir in terms of a dog, and says that Byggvir is always found at Freyr's ears, or twittering beneath a grindstone. Byggvir says that he is proud to be here by all the gods and men, and that he is said to be speedy. Loki tells him to be silent, that Byggvir does not know how to apportion food among men, and that he hides among the straw and dais when men go to battle. The god Heimdallr says that Loki is drunk and witless, and asks Loki why he won't stop speaking. Loki tells Heimdallr to be silent, that he was fated a "hateful life", that Heimdallr must always have a muddy back, and serve as watchman of the gods. The goddess Skaði says that while Loki now appears light-hearted and "playing" with his "tail-wagging", he will soon be bound with his ice-cold son's guts on a sharp rock by the gods. Loki says that, even if this is his fate, that he was "first and foremost" with the other gods at the killing of Skaði's father, Þjazi. Skaði says that, with these events in mind, "baneful advice" will always come from her "sanctuaries and plains" to Loki. Loki says that Skaði was once gentler in speech to him (referring to himself as the "son of Laufey") when Skaði once invited him to her bed (an event that is unattested elsewhere), and that such events must be mentioned if they are to recall "shameful deeds". Sif goes forth and pours Loki a glass of mead into a crystal cup in a prose narrative. Continuing the poem, Sif welcomes Loki and invites him to take a crystal cup filled with ancient mead, and says that among the children of the Æsir, she is singularly blameless. Loki "takes the horn", drinks it, and says that she would be, if it were so, and states that Sif and Loki had been lovers, despite her marriage to Thor (an affair that is otherwise unattested). Beyla (referred to in the prose introduction to the poem as a servant of Freyr) says that all of the mountains are shaking, that she thinks Thor must be on his way home, and when Thor arrives he will bring peace to those that quarrel there. Loki tells Beyla to be silent, that she is "much imbued with malice", that no worse woman has ever been among the "Æsir's children", and calling her a bad "serving-wench". ##### The arrival of Thor and the bondage of Loki Thor arrives, and tells Loki to be silent, referring to him as an "evil creature", stating that with his hammer Mjöllnir he will silence Loki by hammering his head from his shoulders. Acknowledging that Thor has arrived, Loki asks Thor why he is raging, and says that Thor will not be so bold to fight against the wolf when he swallows Odin at Ragnarök. Thor again tells Loki to be silent, and threatens him with Mjöllnir, adding that he will throw Loki "up on the roads to the east", and thereafter no one will be able to see Loki. Loki states that Thor should never brag of his journeys to the east, claiming that there Thor crouched cowering in the thumb of a glove, mockingly referring to him as a "hero", and adding that such behaviour was unlike Thor. Thor responds by telling Loki to be silent, threatening him with Mjöllnir, and adding that every one of Loki's bones will be broken with it. Loki says he intends to live for a long while yet despite Thor's threats, and taunts Thor about an encounter Thor once had with the Skrýmir (Útgarða-Loki in disguise). Thor again commands Loki to be silent, threatens Loki with Mjöllnir, and says he will send Loki to Hel, below the gates of Nágrind. In response to Thor, Loki says that he "spoke before the Æsir", and "before the sons of the Æsir" what his "spirit urged" him to say, yet before Thor alone he will leave, as he knows that Thor does strike. Loki ends the poetic verses of *Lokasenna* with a final stanza: > Ale you brewed, Ægir, and you will never again hold a feast; > > all your possessions which are here inside— > > may flame play over them, > > and may your back be burnt! > > Following this final stanza a prose section details that after Loki left the hall, he disguised himself as a salmon and hid in the waterfall of Franangrsfors, where the Æsir caught him. The narrative continues that Loki was bound with the entrails of his son Nari, and his son Narfi changed into a wolf. Skaði fastened a venomous snake over Loki's face, and from it poison dripped. Sigyn, his spouse, sat with him holding a basin beneath the dripping venom, yet when the basin became full, she carried the poison away; and during this time the poison dripped on to Loki, causing him to writhe with such violence that all of the earth shook from the force, resulting in what are now known as earthquakes. #### *Þrymskviða* In the poem *Þrymskviða*, Thor wakes and finds that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor turns to Loki first, and tells him that nobody knows that the hammer has been stolen. The two then go to the court of the goddess Freyja, and Thor asks her if he may borrow her feather cloak so that he may attempt to find Mjöllnir. Freyja agrees, saying she would lend it even if it were made of silver and gold, and Loki flies off, the feather cloak whistling. In Jötunheimr, the jötunn Þrymr sits on a burial mound, plaiting golden collars for his female dogs, and trimming the manes of his horses. Þrymr sees Loki, and asks what could be amiss among the Æsir and the Elves; why is Loki alone in the Jötunheimr? Loki responds that he has bad news for both the elves and the Æsir: that Thor's hammer, Mjöllnir, is gone. Þrymr says that he has hidden Mjöllnir eight leagues beneath the earth, from which it will be retrieved if Freyja is brought to marry him. Loki flies off, the feather cloak whistling, away from Jötunheimr and back to the court of the gods. Thor asks Loki if his efforts were successful, and that Loki should tell him while he is still in the air as "tales often escape a sitting man, and the man lying down often barks out lies". Loki states that it was indeed an effort, and also a success, for he has discovered that Þrymr has the hammer, but that it cannot be retrieved unless Freyja is brought to marry Þrymr. The two return to Freyja, and tell her to dress herself in a bridal head dress, as they will drive her to Jötunheimr. Freyja, indignant and angry, goes into a rage, causing all of the halls of the Æsir to tremble in her anger, and her necklace, the famed Brísingamen, falls from her. Freyja pointedly refuses. As a result, the gods and goddesses meet and hold a thing to discuss and debate the matter. At the thing, the god Heimdallr puts forth the suggestion that, in place of Freyja, Thor should be dressed as the bride, complete with jewels, women's clothing down to his knees, a bridal head-dress, and the necklace Brísingamen. Thor rejects the idea, and Loki (here described as "son of Laufey") interjects that this will be the only way to get back Mjöllnir, and points out that without Mjöllnir, the jötnar will be able to invade and settle in Asgard. The gods dress Thor as a bride, and Loki states that he will go with Thor as his maid, and that the two shall drive to Jötunheimr together. After riding together in Thor's goat-driven chariot, the two, disguised, arrive in Jötunheimr. Þrymr commands the jötnar in his hall to spread straw on the benches, for Freyja has arrived to marry him. Þrymr recounts his treasured animals and objects, stating that Freyja was all that he was missing in his wealth. Early in the evening, the disguised Loki and Thor meet with Þrymr and the assembled jötnar. Thor eats and drinks ferociously, consuming entire animals and three casks of mead. Þrymr finds the behaviour at odds with his impression of Freyja, and Loki, sitting before Þrymr and appearing as a "very shrewd maid", makes the excuse that "Freyja's" behaviour is due to her having not consumed anything for eight entire days before arriving due to her eagerness to arrive. Þrymr then lifts "Freyja's" veil and wants to kiss "her" until catching the terrifying eyes staring back at him, seemingly burning with fire. Loki states that this is because "Freyja" had not slept for eight nights in her eagerness. The "wretched sister" of the jötnar appears, asks for a bridal gift from "Freyja", and the jötnar bring out Mjöllnir to "sanctify the bride", to lay it on her lap, and marry the two by "the hand" of the goddess Vár. Thor laughs internally when he sees the hammer, takes hold of it, strikes Þrymr, beats all of the jötnar, and kills the "older sister" of the jötnar. #### *Reginsmál* Loki appears in both prose and the first six stanzas of the poem *Reginsmál*. The prose introduction to *Reginsmál* details that, while the hero Sigurd was being fostered by Regin, son of Hreidmar, Regin tells him that once the gods Odin, Hœnir, and Loki went to Andvara-falls, which contained many fish. Regin, a dwarf, had two brothers; Andvari, who gained food by spending time in the Andvara-falls in the form of a pike, and Ótr, who would often go to the Andvara-falls in the form of an otter. While the three gods are at the falls, Ótr (in the form of an otter) catches a salmon and eats it on a river bank, his eyes shut, when Loki hits and kills him with a stone. The gods think that this is great, and flay the skin from the otter to make a bag. That night, the three gods stay with Hreidmar (the father of Regin, Andvari, and the now-dead Ótr) and show him their catches, including the skin of the otter. Upon seeing the skin, Regin and Hreidmar "seized them and made them ransom their lives" in exchange for filling the otterskin bag the gods had made with gold and covering the exterior of the bag with red gold. Loki is sent to retrieve the gold, and Loki goes to the goddess Rán, borrows her net, and then goes back to the Andvara-falls. At the falls, Loki spreads his net before Andvari (who is in the form of a pike), which Andvari jumps into. The stanzas of the poem then begin: Loki mocks Andvari, and tells him that he can save his head by telling Loki where his gold is. Andvari gives some background information about himself, including that he was cursed by a "norn of misfortune" in his "early days". Loki responds by asking Andvari "what requital" does mankind get if "they wound each other with words". Andvari responds that lying men receive a "terrible requital": having to wade in the river Vadgelmir, and that their suffering will be long. Loki looks over the gold that Andvari possesses, and after Andvari hands over all of his gold, Andvari holds on to but a single ring; the ring Andvarinaut, which Loki also takes. Andvari, now in the form of a dwarf, goes into a rock, and tells Loki that the gold will result in the death of two brothers, will cause strife between eight princes, and will be useless to everyone. Loki returns, and the three gods give Hreidmar the money from the gold hoard and flatten out the otter skin, stretch out its legs, and heap gold atop it, covering it. Hreidmar looks it over, and notices a single hair that has not been covered. Hreidmar demands that it be covered as well. Odin puts forth the ring Andvarinaut, covering the single hair. Loki states that they have now handed over the gold, and that gold is cursed as Andvari is, and that it will be the death of Hreidmar and Regin both. Hreidmar responds that if he had known this before, he would have taken their lives, yet that he believes those are not yet born whom the curse is intended for, and that he does not believe him. Further, with the hoard, he will have red gold for the rest of his life. Hreidmar tells them to leave, and the poem continues without further mention of Loki. #### *Baldrs draumar* In *Baldr draumar*, Odin has awoken a deceased völva in Hel, and questions her repeatedly about his son Baldr's bad dreams. Loki is mentioned in stanza 14, the final stanza of the poem, where the völva tells Odin to ride home, to be proud of himself, and that no one else will come visit until "Loki is loose, escaped from his bonds" and the onset of Ragnarök. #### *Hyndluljóð* Loki is referenced in two stanzas in *Völuspá hin skamma*, found within the poem *Hyndluljóð*. The first stanza notes that Loki produced "the wolf" with the jötunn Angrboða, that Loki himself gave birth to the horse Sleipnir by the stallion Svaðilfari, and that Loki (referred to as the "brother of Býleistr") thirdly gave birth to "the worst of all marvels". This stanza is followed by: > Loki ate some of the heart, the thought-stone of a woman, > > roasted on a linden-wood fire, he found it half-cooked; > > Lopt was impregnated by a wicked woman, > > from whom every ogress on earth is descended. > > In the second of the two stanzas, Loki is referred to as *Lopt*. Loki's consumption of a woman's heart is otherwise unattested. #### *Fjölsvinnsmál* In the poem *Fjölsvinnsmál*, a stanza mentions Loki (as *Lopt*) in association with runes. In the poem, Fjölsviðr describes to the hero Svipdagr that Sinmara keeps the weapon Lævateinn within a chest, locked with nine strong locks (due to significant translation differences, two translations of the stanza are provided here): > > > | | | > | --- | --- | > | *Fjolsvith spake:* > "Lævatein is there, that Lopt with runes > Once made by the doors of death; > In Lægjarn's chest by Sinmora lies it, > And nine locks fasten it firm." | *Fiolsvith.* > Hævatein the twig is named, and Lopt plucked it, > down by the gate of Death. > In an iron chest it lies with Sinmœra, > and is with nine strong locks secured. | > > ### *Prose Edda* #### *Gylfaginning* The *Prose Edda* book *Gylfaginning* tells various myths featuring Loki, including Loki's role in the birth of the horse Sleipnir and Loki's contest with Logi, fire personified. ##### High's introduction Loki first appears in the *Prose Edda* in chapter 20 of the book *Gylfaginning*, where he is referred to as the "ás called Loki" while the enthroned figure of Third explains to "Gangleri" (King Gylfi in disguise) the goddess Frigg's prophetic abilities while citing a stanza of *Lokasenna*. Loki is more formally introduced by High in chapter 34, where he is "reckoned among the Æsir", and High states that Loki is called by some "the Æsir's calumniator", "originator of deceits", and "the disgrace of all gods and men". High says that Loki's alternative name is *Lopt*, that he is the son of the male jötunn Fárbauti, his mother is "Laufey or Nál", and his brothers are Helblindi and Býleistr. High describes Loki as "pleasing and handsome" in appearance, malicious in character, "very capricious in behaviour", and as possessing "to a greater degree than others" learned cunning, and "tricks for every purpose", often getting the Æsir into trouble, and then getting them out of it with his trickery. Sigyn is introduced as being married to Loki, and they have a son named "Nari or Narfi". Otherwise, Loki had three children with the female jötunn Angrboða from Jötunheimr; the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Jörmungandr, and the female being Hel. The gods realized that these three children were being raised in Jötunheimr, and expected trouble from them partially due to the nature of Angrboða, but worse yet Loki. In chapter 35, Gangleri comments that Loki produced a "pretty terrible"—yet important—family. ##### Loki, Svaðilfari, and Sleipnir In chapter 42, High tells a story set "right at the beginning of the gods' settlement, when the gods at established Midgard and built Val-Hall". The story is about an unnamed builder who has offered to build a fortification for the gods that will keep out invaders in exchange for the goddess Freyja, the sun, and the moon. After some debate, the gods agree to these conditions, but place a number of restrictions on the builder, including that he must complete the work within three seasons without the help of any man. The builder makes a single request; that he may have help from his stallion Svaðilfari, and due to Loki's influence, this is allowed. The stallion Svaðilfari performs twice the deeds of strength as the builder, and hauls enormous rocks—to the surprise of the gods. The builder, with Svaðilfari, makes fast progress on the wall, and three days before the deadline of summer, the builder is nearly at the entrance to the fortification. The gods convene, and figure out who is responsible, resulting in a unanimous agreement that, along with most trouble, Loki is to blame (here referred to as *Loki Laufeyjarson*—his surname derived from his mother's name, *Laufey*). The gods declare that Loki deserves a horrible death if he cannot find a scheme that will cause the builder to forfeit his payment, and threaten to attack him. Loki, afraid, swears oaths that he will devise a scheme to cause the builder to forfeit the payment, whatever it may cost himself. That night, the builder drives out to fetch stone with his stallion Svaðilfari, and out from a wood runs a mare. The mare neighs at Svaðilfari, and "realizing what kind of horse it was", Svaðilfari becomes frantic, neighs, tears apart his tackle, and runs towards the mare. The mare runs to the wood, Svaðilfari follows, and the builder chases after. The two horses run around all night, causing the building to be halted and the builder is then unable to regain the previous momentum of his work. The builder goes into a rage, and when the Æsir realize that the builder is a hrimthurs, they disregard their previous oaths with the builder, and call for Thor. Thor arrives, and subsequently kills the builder by smashing the builder's skull into shards with the hammer Mjöllnir. However, Loki "had such dealings" with Svaðilfari that "somewhat later" Loki gives birth to a gray foal with eight legs; the horse Sleipnir—"the best horse among gods and men." ##### Loki, Útgarða-Loki, and Logi In chapter 44, Third reluctantly relates a tale where Thor and Loki are riding in Thor's chariot, which is pulled by his two goats. Loki and Thor stop at the house of a peasant farmer, and there they are given lodging for a night. Thor slaughters his goats, prepares them, puts them in a pot, and Loki and Thor sit down for their evening meal. Thor invites the peasant family who own the farm to share with him the meal he has prepared, but warns them not to break the bones. Afterward, at the suggestion of Loki, the peasant child Þjálfi sucks the bone marrow from one of the goat bones, and when Thor goes to resurrect the goats, he finds one of the goats to be lame. In their terror, the family atones to Thor by giving Thor their son Þjálfi and their daughter Röskva. Minus the goats, Thor, Loki, and the two children continue east until they arrive at a vast forest in Jötunheimr. They continue through the woods until dark. The four seek shelter for the night. They encounter an immense building. Finding shelter in a side room, they experience earthquakes through the night. The earthquakes cause all four but Thor, who grips his hammer in preparation of defense, to be fearful. The building turns out to be the huge glove of Skrymir, who has been snoring throughout the night, causing what seemed to be earthquakes. All four sleep beneath an oak tree near Skrymir in fear. Thor wakes up in the middle of the night, and a series of events occur where Thor twice attempts to kill the sleeping Skrýmir with his hammer. Skrýmir awakes after each attempt, only to say that he detected an acorn falling on his head or that he wonders if bits of tree from the branches above have fallen on top of him. The second attempt awakes Skrýmir. Skrýmir gives them advice; if they are going to be cocky at the keep of Útgarðr it would be better for them to turn back now, for Útgarða-Loki's men there won't put up with it. Skrýmir throws his knapsack onto his back and abruptly goes into the forest. High comments that "there is no report that the Æsir expressed hope for a happy reunion". The four travelers continue their journey until midday. They find themselves facing a massive castle in an open area. The castle is so tall that they must bend their heads back to their spines to see above it. At the entrance to the castle is a shut gate, and Thor finds that he cannot open it. Struggling, all four squeeze through the bars of the gate, and continue to a large hall. Inside the great hall are two benches, where many generally large people sit on two benches. The four see Útgarða-Loki, the king of the castle, sitting. Útgarða-Loki says that no visitors are allowed to stay unless they can perform a feat. Loki, standing in the rear of the party, is the first to speak, claiming that he can eat faster than anyone. Útgarða-Loki comments that this would be a feat indeed, and calls for a being by the name of Logi to come from the benches. A trencher is fetched, placed on the floor of the hall, and filled with meat. Loki and Logi sit down on opposing sides. The two eat as quickly as they can and meet at the midpoint of the trencher. Loki consumed all of the meat off of the bones on his side, yet Logi had not only consumed his meat, but also the bones and the trencher itself. It was evident to all that Loki had lost. In turn, Þjálfi races against a figure by the name of Hugi three times and thrice loses. Thor agrees to compete in a drinking contest but after three immense gulps fails. Thor agrees to lift a large, gray cat in the hall but finds that it arches his back no matter what he does, and that he can raise only a single paw. Thor demands to fight someone in the hall, but the inhabitants say doing so would be demeaning, considering Thor's weakness. Útgarða-Loki then calls for his nurse Elli, an old woman. The two wrestle but the harder Thor struggles the more difficult the battle becomes. Thor is finally brought down to a single knee. Útgarða-Loki says to Thor that fighting anyone else would be pointless. Now late at night, Útgarða-Loki shows the group to their rooms and they are treated with hospitality. The next morning the group gets dressed and prepares to leave the keep. Útgarða-Loki appears, has his servants prepare a table, and they all merrily eat and drink. As they leave, Útgarða-Loki asks Thor how he thought he fared in the contests. Thor says that he is unable to say he did well, noting that he is particularly annoyed that Útgarða-Loki will now speak negatively about him. Útgarða-Loki points out that the group has left his keep and says that he hopes that they never return to it, for if he had an inkling of what he was dealing with he would never have allowed the group to enter in the first place. Útgarða-Loki reveals that all was not what it seemed to the group. Útgarða-Loki was in fact the immense Skrýmir, and that if the three blows Thor attempted to land had hit their mark, the first would have killed Skrýmir. In reality, Thor's blows were so powerful that they had resulted in three square valleys. The contests, too, were an illusion. Útgarða-Loki reveals that Loki had actually competed against wildfire itself (*Logi*, Old Norse "flame"), Þjálfi had raced against thought (*Hugi*, Old Norse "thought"), Thor's drinking horn had actually reached to the ocean and with his drinks he lowered the ocean level (resulting in tides). The cat that Thor attempted to lift was in actuality the world serpent, Jörmungandr, and everyone was terrified when Thor was able to lift the paw of this "cat", for Thor had actually held the great serpent up to the sky. The old woman Thor wrestled was in fact old age (*Elli*, Old Norse "old age"), and there is no one that old age cannot bring down. Útgarða-Loki tells Thor that it would be better for "both sides" if they did not meet again. Upon hearing this, Thor takes hold of his hammer and swings it at Útgarða-Loki but he is gone and so is his castle. Only a wide landscape remains. ### Norwegian rune poem Loki is mentioned in stanza 13 of the Norwegian rune poem in connection with the Younger Futhark Bjarkan rune: > > > | | | > | --- | --- | > | Old Norse: > Bjarkan er laufgrønster líma; > Loki bar flærða tíma. | Modern English: > Birch has the greenest leaves of any shrub; > Loki was fortunate in his deceit. | > > According to Bruce Dickins, the reference to "Loki's deceit" in the poem "is doubtless to Loki's responsibility for Balder's death". Archaeological record --------------------- ### Snaptun Stone In 1950, a semi-circular flat stone featuring a depiction of a mustachioed face was discovered on a beach near Snaptun, Denmark. Made of soapstone that originated in Norway or Sweden, the depiction was carved around the year 1000 CE and features a face with scarred lips. The figure is identified as Loki due to his lips, considered a reference to a tale recorded in *Skáldskaparmál* where sons of Ivaldi stitch up Loki's lips. The stone is identified as a hearth stone; the nozzle of the bellows would be inserted into the hole in the front of the stone, and the air produced by the bellows pushed flame through the top hole, all the while the bellows were protected from the heat and flame. The stone may point to a connection between Loki and smithing and flames. According to Hans Jørgen Madsen, the Snaptun Stone is "the most beautifully made hearth-stone that is known." The stone is housed and on display at the Moesgård Museum near Aarhus, Denmark. ### Kirkby Stephen Stone and Gosforth Cross A fragmentary late 10th-century cross located in St Stephen's Church, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England, features a bound figure with horns and a beard. This figure is sometimes theorized as depicting the bound Loki. Discovered in 1870, the stone consists of yellowish-white sandstone, and now sits at the front of the Kirkby Stephen church. A depiction of a similarly horned and round-shouldered figure was discovered in Gainford, County Durham and is now housed in the Durham Cathedral Library. The mid-11th century Gosforth Cross has been interpreted as featuring various figures from Norse mythology and, like the Kirkby Stephen Stone, is also located in Cumbria. The bottom portion of the west side of the cross features a depiction of a long-haired female, kneeling figure holding an object above another prostrate, bound figure. Above and to their left is a knotted serpent. This has been interpreted as Sigyn soothing the bound Loki. * The bound figure on the Kirkby Stephen StoneThe bound figure on the Kirkby Stephen Stone * Detail from the Gosforth CrossDetail from the Gosforth Cross Scandinavian folklore --------------------- The notion of Loki survived into the modern period in the folklore of Scandinavia. In Denmark, Loki appeared as *Lokke*. In Jutland, the phrases "Lokke slår sin havre" ("Lokke is reaping his oats") and "Lokkemand driver sine geder" ("Lokkemand drives his goats") are thereby recorded in the beginning of the 20th century, the latter with the variation of simply "Lokke". In Zealand the name "Lokke lejemand" ("Lokke the Playing Man") was used. In his study of Loki's appearance in Scandinavian folklore in the modern period, Danish folklorist Axel Olrik cites numerous examples of natural phenomena explained by way of Lokke in popular folk tradition, including rising heat. An example from 1841 reads as follows: > > The expressions: "Lokke (Lokki) sår havre i dag" (Lokke (Lokki) sows oats today), or: "Lokke driver i dag med sine geder" (Lokke herds his goats today), are used in several regions of Jutland, for example in Medelsom shire, the diocese of Viborg etc. ... and stand for the sight in the springtime, when the sunshine generates vapour from the ground, which can be seen as fluttering or shimmering air in the horizon of the flat landscape, similar to the hot steam over a kettle or a burning fire > And in Thy, from the same source: "... when you look at the horizon in clear weather and sunshine, and the air seems to move in shimmering waves, or like a sheet of water which seems to rise and sink in waves." Olrik further cites several different types of plants named after Loki. Olrik detects three major themes in folklore attestations; Lokke appeared as an "air phenomenon", connected with the "home fire", and as a "teasing creature of the night". *Loka Táttur* or *Lokka Táttur* (Faroese "tale—or *þáttr*—of Loki") is a Faroese ballad dating to the late Middle Ages that features the gods Loki, Odin, and Hœnir helping a farmer and a boy escape the wrath of a bet-winning jötunn. The tale notably features Loki as a benevolent god in this story, although his slyness is in evidence as usual. Origin and identification with other figures -------------------------------------------- Regarding scholarship on Loki, scholar Gabriel Turville-Petre comments (1964) that "more ink has been spilled on Loki than on any other figure in Norse myth. This, in itself, is enough to show how little scholars agree, and how far we are from understanding him." ### Origin Loki's origins and role in Norse mythology have been much debated by scholars. In 1835, Jacob Grimm was first to produce a major theory about Loki, in which he advanced the notion of Loki as a "god of fire". In 1889, Sophus Bugge theorized Loki to be variant of Lucifer of Christianity, an element of Bugge's larger effort to find a basis of Christianity in Norse mythology. After World War II, four scholarly theories dominated. The first of the four theories is that of Folke Ström, who in 1956 concluded that Loki is a hypostasis of the god Odin. In 1959, Jan de Vries theorized that Loki is a typical example of a trickster figure. In 1961, by way of excluding all non-Scandinavian mythological parallels in her analysis, Anna Birgitta Rooth concluded that Loki was originally a spider. Anne Holtsmark, writing in 1962, concluded that no conclusion could be made about Loki. ### Identification with Lóðurr A popular theory proposed by a variety of scholars is that *Lóðurr* is "a third name of Loki/Loptr". The main argument for this is that the gods Odin, Hœnir and Loki occur as a trio in *Haustlöng*, in the prose prologue to *Reginsmál* and also in the *Loka Táttur* a Faroese ballad, an example of Norse deities appearing in later folklore. The Odin-kenning "Lóðurr's friend" furthermore appears to parallel the kenning "Loptr's friend" and Loki is similarly referred to as "Hœnir's friend" in *Haustlöng*, strengthening the trio connection. While many scholars agree with this identification, it is not universally accepted. One argument against it is that Loki appears as a malevolent being later in *Völuspá*, seemingly conflicting with the image of Lóðurr as a "mighty and loving" figure. Many scholars, including Jan de Vries and Georges Dumézil, have also identified Lóðurr as being the same deity as Loki. Scholar Haukur Þorgeirsson suggests that *Loki* and *Lóðurr* were different names for the same deity based on that Loki is referred to as Lóður in the rímur *Lokrur*. Þorgeirsson argues that the writer must have had information about the identification from either a tradition or that the author drew the conclusion based on the *Prose Edda*, as Snorri does not mention Lóðurr. Since the contents of the *Poetic Edda* are assumed to have been forgotten around 1400 when the rímur was written, Haukur argues for a traditional identification. Þorgeirsson also points to *Þrymlur* where the same identification is made with Loki and Lóðurr. Haukur says that unless the possible but unlikely idea that the 14th- and 15th-century poets possessed written sources unknown to us is true, the idea must have come from either an unlikely amount of sources from where the poets could have drawn a similar conclusion that Loki and Lóðurr are identical (like some recent scholars) or that remnants of an oral tradition remained. Haukur concludes that if Lóðurr was historically considered an independent deity from Loki, then a discussion of when and why he became identified with Loki is appropriate. ### Binding The scholar John Lindow highlights the recurring pattern of the bound monster in Norse mythology as being particularly associated to Loki. Loki and his three children by Angrboda were all bound in some way, and were all destined to break free at Ragnarok to wreak havoc on the world. He suggests a borrowed element from the traditions of the Caucasus region, and identifies a mythological parallel with the "Christian legend of the bound Antichrist awaiting the Last Judgment". Modern popular culture ---------------------- In the 19th century, Loki was depicted in a variety of ways, some strongly at odds with others. According to Stefan Arvidssen, "the conception of Loki varied during the nineteenth century. Sometimes he was presented as a dark-haired Semitic fifth columnist among the Nordic Aesir, but sometimes he was described as a Nordic Prometheus, a heroic bearer of culture". Loki appears in Richard Wagner's opera cycle *Ring of the Nibelung* as *Loge* (a play on Old Norse *loge*, "fire"), depicted as an ally of the gods (specifically as Wotan's assistant rather than Donner's), although he generally dislikes them and thinks of them as greedy, as they refuse to return the Rhine Gold to its rightful owners. In the conclusion of the first opera *Das Rheingold*, he reveals his hope to turn into fire and destroy Valhalla, and in the final opera *Götterdämmerung* Valhalla is set alight, destroying the Gods. In 2008, five black smokers were discovered between Greenland and Norway, the most northerly group so far discovered, and given the name Loki's Castle, as their shape reminded discoverers of a fantasy castle, and (a University of Bergen press release says) "Loki" was "an appropriate name for a field that was so difficult to locate". Loki appears in Marvel Comics and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by Tom Hiddleston, as a villain (or antihero) who consistently comes into conflict with the superhero Thor, his adopted brother and archenemy. Loki is a central character in Neil Gaiman's novel *American Gods* and an important character in a few arcs of Gaiman's comic *The Sandman*. See also -------- * Dystheism ### Cited sources * Arvidsson, Stefan (2006). *Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science*. University of Chicago Press. * Bellows, Henry Adams (1936). *The Poetic Edda: Translated from the Icelandic with an Introduction and Notes*. Princeton University Press/American Scandinavian Foundation. * Calverley, William Slater (1899). *Notes on the Early Sculptured Cross: Shrines in Monuments in the Present Diocese of Carlisle*. T. Wilson. * Dickins, Bruce (1915). *Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples*. Cambridge University Press. * Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). *Edda*. Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87616-3. * Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). *The Poetic Edda*. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 0-19-283946-2. * Lindow, John (2001). *Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515382-0. * Madsen, Hans Jørgen (1990). "The god Loki from Snaptun". *Oldtidens Ansigt: Faces of the Past*. Det kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab. ISBN 87-7468-274-1. * Hirschfeld, Max (1889). *Untersuchungen zur Lokasenna*. Acta Germanica 1.1 (in German). Berlin: Mayer & Müller. p. 1. Lokka. * Orchard, Andy (1997). *Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend*. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-34520-2. * von Schnurbein, Stefanie (2000). "The function of Loki in Snorri Sturluson's 'Edda'". *History of Religions*. University of Chicago Press. **40** (2): 109–124. doi:10.1086/463618. JSTOR 3176617. * Simek, Rudolf (2007). *Dictionary of Northern Mythology*. translated by Angela Hall. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-513-7. * Thorpe, Benjamin (1907). *The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson*. Norrœna Society. * Turville-Petre, E. O. G. (1964). *Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia*. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Loki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki

The **Noctuidae**, commonly known as **owlet moths**, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other families of the Noctuoidea. It was considered the largest family in Lepidoptera for a long time, but after regrouping Lymantriinae, Catocalinae and Calpinae within the family Erebidae, the latter holds this title now. Currently, Noctuidae is the second largest family in Noctuoidea, with about 1,089 genera and 11,772 species. This classification is still contingent, as more changes continue to appear between Noctuidae and Erebidae. Description ----------- Adult: Most noctuid adults have wings with a variety of shades of browns, grays, and other varied shades and colourations but some subfamilies, such as Acronictinae and Agaristinae, are very colorful, especially those from tropical regions (e.g. *Baorisa hieroglyphica*). They are characterized by a structure in the metathorax called the nodular sclerite or epaulette, which separates the tympanum and the conjunctiva in the tympanal organ. It functions to keep parasites (Acari) out of the tympanal cavity. Another characteristic in this group is trifine hindwing venation, by reduction or absence of the second medial vein (M2). Markings present on the wings of noctuid adults can be helpful in distinguishing species. From the basal location to the outer edge (proximal to distal) on the forewing, there is a claviform (club-shaped) stigma, horizontally oriented with the thicker end closer to the wing's outer edge, located posterior to a discal (round) stigma. These are followed distally by a reniform (kidney-shaped) stigma, which is typically oriented with its concave side facing the wing's outer edge. It is often not possible to discern all of the stigmata on all specimens or species. Crossbands or crosslines may be present, oriented longitudinally from the leading to the trailing edge of the wing. Larva: Commonly green or brown; some species present bright colors, such as the camphorweed cucullia moth (*Cucullia alfarata*). Most are pudgy and smooth with rounded short heads and few setae, but there are some exceptions in some subfamilies (e.g. Acronictinae and Pantheinae). Pupa: The pupae most often range from shiny brown to dark brown. When they newly pupate they are bright brownish orange, but after a few days start to get darker. Eggs: Vary in colors, but all have a spherical shape. Etymology --------- The word Noctuidae is derived from the name of the type genus Noctua, which is the Latin name for the little owl, and the patronymic suffix -idae used typically to form taxonomic family names in animals. The common name "owlet" originally means a small or young owl. The names "armyworms" and "cutworms" are based on the behavior of the larvae of this group, which can occur in destructive swarms and cut the stems of plants. Ecology ------- ### Distribution and diversity This family is cosmopolitan and can be found worldwide except in the Antarctic region. Some species, such as the setaceous Hebrew character (*Xestia c-nigrum*), can be found in the Arctic Circle, specifically in the Yukon territory of western Canada, with an elevation 1,702 m above sea level, where the temperature fluctuates between 23/-25 °C (73/-13 °F). Many species of dart moths have been recorded in elevations as high as 4,000 m above sea level (e.g. *Xestia elisabetha*). Among the places where the number of species has been counted are North America and northern Mexico, with about 2,522 species. 1,576 species are found in Europe, while the other species are distributed worldwide. ### Mutualism Members of Noctuidae, like other butterflies and moths, perform an important role in plant pollination. Some species have developed a stronger connection with their host plants. For example, the lychnis moth (*Hadena bicruris*) has a strange mutualistic relationship with pink plants or carnation plants (Caryophyllaceae), in that larvae feed on the plant while the adults pollinate the flowers. ### Food guilds Herbivory: Caterpillars of most Noctuidae feed on plants; some feed on poisonous plants and are unaffected by their chemical defences; for example, the splendid brocade moth (*Lacanobia splendens*) feeds on cowbane (*Cicuta virosa*), a plant that is notoriously toxic to vertebrates. Predation and cannibalism: During the larval stage, some cutworms readily feed on other insects. One such species is the shivering pinion (*Lithophane querquera*), whose larvae commonly feed on other lepidopteran larvae. Moreover, many noctuid larvae, such as those of the fall armyworm (*Spodoptera frugiperda*) and of genera such as *Heliothis* and *Helicoverpa*, aggressively eat their siblings and often other species of caterpillar. Nectarivory and puddling: Like many Lepidoptera, many species of adult Noctuidae visit flowers for their nectar. They also seek other liquid food resources such as plant juices, honeydew, dung, urea and mud, among others. As is common in members of the order Lepidoptera, courtship in many Noctuidae includes a set of movements in which the female evaluates the male's reproductive fitness. Most noctuid moths produce pheromones that attract the opposite sex. Female pheromones that attract males occur widely and have long been studied, but the study of male pheromones has further to go. ### Reproduction Noctuid moths commonly begin the reproductive season from spring to fall, and mostly are multivoltine, such as the eastern panthea moth (*Panthea furcilla*), which reproduces over the year. Nevertheless, some species have just one brood of offspring (univoltine); among the best known is the lesser yellow underwing (*Noctua comes*). ### Defense This group has a wide range of both chemical and physical defenses. Among the chemical defenses three types stand out. First, the pyrrolizidine alkaloid sequestration usually present in Arctiinae is also found in a few species of noctuids, including the Spanish moth (*Xanthopastis timais*). Another chemical defense is formic acid production, which was thought to be present only in Notodontidae, but later was found in caterpillars of *Trachosea champa*. Finally, the last type of chemical defense is regurgitation of plant compounds, often used by many insects, but the cabbage palm caterpillar (*Litoprosopus futilis*) produces a toxin called toluquinone that deters predators. On the other hand, the main physical defense in caterpillars and adults alike is mimicry. Most owlet moths have drab colors with a variety of patterns suitable to camouflage their bodies. The second physical defense consists in thousands of secondary setae that surround the body. The subfamilies that present this mechanism are Pantheinae and Acronictinae. The third is aposematism, represented by species of Cucullinae. Finally, all adults have another mechanism for defense: a tympanal organ available to hear the echolocation spread out by bats, so the moths can avoid them. Human importance ---------------- ### Agriculture Many species of owlet moths are considered an agricultural problem around the world. Their larvae are typically known as "cutworms" or "armyworms" due to enormous swarms that destroy crops, orchards and gardens every year. The Old World bollworm (*Helicoverpa armigera*) produces losses in agriculture every year that exceed US$2 billion. Additionally, the variegated cutworm (*Peridroma saucia*) is described by many as one of the most damaging pests to vegetables. In West Africa, species including *Busseola fusca*, *Heliocheilus albipunctella*, *Sesamia calamistis*, *Helicoverpa armigera*, and *Spodoptera exempta* are major pests of staple crops such as pearl millet, sorghum, and maize. Systematics ----------- Since molecular analysis began to play a larger role in systematics, the structure of many Lepidoptera groups has been changing and Noctuidae is not an exception. Most recent studies have shown that Noctuidae *sensu stricto* is a monophyletic group, mainly based on trifine venation. Some clades within Noctuidae *sensu lato* have yet to be studied. This taxonomic division represents the subfamilies, tribes and subtribes considered so far. Family Noctuidae Latreille, 1809 Subfamily Acontiinae Guenée, 1841 Tribe Acontiini Guenée, 1841 Tribe Armadini Tribe Chamaecleini Subfamily Acronictinae Harris, 1841 Subfamily Aediinae Subfamily Agaristinae Boisduval, 1833 Subfamily Amphipyrinae Guenée, 1837 Tribe Amphipyrini Guenée, 1837 Tribe Psaphidini Grote, 1896 Subtribe Feraliina Poole, 1995 Subtribe Nocloina Poole, 1995 Subtribe Psaphidina Grote, 1896 Subtribe Triocnemidina Poole, 1995 Subfamily Bagisarinae Crumb, 1956 Subfamily Balsinae Grote, 1896 Subfamily Bryophilinae Guenée, 1852 Subfamily Cobubathinae Wagner & Keegan, 2021 Subfamily Condicinae Poole, 1995 Tribe Condicini Poole, 1995 Tribe Leuconyctini Poole, 1995 Subfamily Cropiinae Keegan & Wagner, 2021 Subfamily Cuculliinae Herrich-Schäffer, 1850 Subfamily Dilobinae Subfamily Dyopsinae Subfamily Eriopinae Herrich-Schäffer, 1851 Subfamily Eucocytiinae Subfamily Eustrotiinae Grote, 1882 Subfamily Grotellinae Subfamily Heliothinae Boisduval, 1828 Subfamily Metoponiinae Herrich-Schäffer, 1851 Tribe Cydosiini Kitching & Rawlins, 1998 Subfamily Noctuinae Latreille, 1809 Tribe Actinotiini Beck, 1996 Tribe Apameini Guenée, 1841 Tribe Arzamini Grote, 1883 Tribe Caradrinini Boisduval, 1840 Subtribe Athetiina Fibiger & Lafontaine, 2005 Subtribe Caradrinina Boisduval, 1840 Tribe Dypterygiini Forbes, 1954 Tribe Elaphriini Beck, 1996 Tribe Episemini Tribe Eriopygini Fibiger & Lafontaine, 2005 Tribe Glottulini Guenée, 1852 Tribe Hadenini Guenée, 1837 Tribe Leucaniini Guenée, 1837 Tribe Noctuini Latreille, 1809 Subtribe Agrotina Harris, 1841 Subtribe Axyliina Subtribe Noctuina Latreille, 1809 Tribe Orthosiini Guenée, 1837 Tribe Phlogophorini Hampson, 1918 Tribe Phosphilini Poole, 1995 Tribe Prodeniini Forbes, 1954 Tribe Pseudeustrotiini Beck, 1996 Tribe Tholerini Beck, 1996 Tribe Xylenini Guenée, 1837 Subtribe Antitypina Forbes & Franclemont, 1954 Subtribe Cosmiina Guenée, 1852 Subtribe Ufeina Crumb, 1956 Subtribe Xylenina Guenée, 1837 Subfamily Oncocnemidinae Forbes & Franclemont, 1954 Subfamily Pantheinae Smith, 1898 Subfamily Plusiinae Boisduval, 1828 Tribe Abrostolini Eichlin & Cunningham, 1978 Tribe Argyrogrammatini Eichlin & Cunningham, 1978 Tribe Plusiini Boisduval, 1828 Subtribe Autoplusiina Kitching, 1987 Subtribe Euchalciina Chou & Lu, 1979 Subtribe Plusiina Boisduval, 1828 Subfamily Raphiinae Subfamily Stiriinae Tribe Annaphilini Tribe Stiriini Grote, 1882 Subtribe Annaphilina Mustelin, 2006 Subtribe Azeniina Poole, 1995 Subtribe Grotellina Poole, 1995 Subtribe Stiriina Grote, 1882 Genera with intervening taxonomy not available include: * *Alastria* * *Epilitha* * *Fabula* * *Lanatopyga* * *Lenisa* * *Neoligia* * *Orohadena* * *Orthomoia* * *Protapamea* * *Proxenus* * *Pseudluperina*

Noctuidae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctuidae

**Auvergne** (/oʊˈvɛərn(jə), oʊˈvɜːrn/; French: [ovɛʁɲ] (); Occitan: *Auvèrnhe* or *Auvèrnha*) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, one of the seven counties of Occitania, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not part of Auvergne. The Auvergne region is composed of the following old provinces: * Auvergne: departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, northwest of Haute-Loire, and extreme south of Allier. The province of Auvergne is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region * Bourbonnais: department of Allier. A small part of Bourbonnais lies outside Auvergne, in the neighbouring Centre-Val de Loire region (south of the department of Cher). * Velay: centre and southeast of department of Haute-Loire. Velay is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region. * a small part of Gévaudan: extreme southwest of Haute-Loire. Gévaudan is essentially inside the Languedoc-Roussillon region. * a small part of Vivarais: extreme southeast of Haute-Loire. Vivarais is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. * a small part of Forez: extreme northeast of Haute-Loire. Forez is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. Velay, Gévaudan, and Vivarais are often considered to be sub-provinces of the old province of Languedoc. Forez is also often considered to be a sub-province of Lyonnais. Therefore, the modern region of Auvergne is composed of the provinces of Auvergne, major part of Bourbonnais, and parts of Languedoc and Lyonnais. 1. ↑ INSEE (31 December 2015). "Populations légales 2013" [2013 legal populations] (in French). Retrieved 30 March 2020. 2. ↑ INSEE. "Produits intérieurs bruts régionaux et valeurs ajoutées régionales de 1990 à 2012" (in French). Retrieved 4 March 2014. 3. ↑ "Auvergne". *The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language* (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 18 February 2019. 4. ↑ "Auvergne". *Collins English Dictionary*. HarperCollins. Retrieved 18 February 2019. 5. ↑ "Auvergne". *Lexico UK English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2022-03-31. 6. ↑ "Auvergne". *Merriam-Webster Dictionary*. Retrieved 18 February 2019. 7. ↑ *Loi n° 2015-29 du 16 janvier 2015 relative à la délimitation des régions, aux élections régionales et départementales et modifiant le calendrier électoral* (in French).

Auvergne (administrative region)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auvergne_(administrative_region)

**Zebras** (US: /ˈziːbrəz/, UK: /ˈzɛbrəz, ˈziː-/) (subgenus ***Hippotigris***) are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (*Equus grevyi*), plains zebra (*E. quagga*), and the mountain zebra (*E. zebra*). Zebras share the genus *Equus* with horses and asses, the three groups being the only living members of the family Equidae. Zebra stripes come in different patterns, unique to each individual. Several theories have been proposed for the function of these stripes, with most evidence supporting them as a deterrent for biting flies. Zebras inhabit eastern and southern Africa and can be found in a variety of habitats such as savannahs, grasslands, woodlands, shrublands, and mountainous areas. Zebras are primarily grazers and can subsist on lower-quality vegetation. They are preyed on mainly by lions, and typically flee when threatened but also bite and kick. Zebra species differ in social behaviour, with plains and mountain zebra living in stable harems consisting of an adult male or stallion, several adult females or mares, and their young or foals; while Grévy's zebra live alone or in loosely associated herds. In harem-holding species, adult females mate only with their harem stallion, while male Grévy's zebras establish territories which attract females and the species is promiscuous. Zebras communicate with various vocalisations, body postures and facial expressions. Social grooming strengthens social bonds in plains and mountain zebras. Zebras' dazzling stripes make them among the most recognisable mammals. They have been featured in art and stories in Africa and beyond. Historically, they have been highly sought after by exotic animal collectors, but unlike horses and donkeys, zebras have never been truly domesticated. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Grévy's zebra as endangered, the mountain zebra as vulnerable and the plains zebra as near-threatened. The quagga (*E. quagga quagga*), a type of plains zebra, was driven to extinction in the 19th century. Nevertheless, zebras can be found in numerous protected areas. Etymology --------- The English name "zebra" derives from Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. Its origins may lie in the Latin *equiferus*, meaning "wild horse". *Equiferus* appears to have entered into Portuguese as *ezebro* or *zebro*, which was originally used for a legendary equine in the wilds of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. In 1591, Italian explorer Filippo Pigafetta recorded "zebra" being used to refer to the African animals by Portuguese visitors to the continent. In ancient times, the African zebra was called *hippotigris* ("horse tiger") by the Greeks and Romans. The word *zebra* was traditionally pronounced with a long initial vowel, but over the course of the 20th century the pronunciation with the short initial vowel became the norm in the dialects of English outside North America. The pronunciation with a long initial vowel remains standard in North American English. Taxonomy -------- Zebras are classified in the genus *Equus* (known as equines) along with horses and asses. These three groups are the only living members of the family Equidae. The plains zebra and mountain zebra were traditionally placed in the subgenus *Hippotigris* (C. H. Smith, 1841) in contrast to the Grévy's zebra which was considered the sole species of subgenus *Dolichohippus* (Heller, 1912). Groves and Bell (2004) placed all three species in the subgenus *Hippotigris*. A 2013 phylogenetic study found that the plains zebra is more closely related to Grévy's zebras than mountain zebras. The extinct quagga was originally classified as a distinct species. Later genetic studies have placed it as the same species as the plains zebra, either a subspecies or just the southernmost population. Molecular evidence supports zebras as a monophyletic lineage. *Equus* originated in North America and direct paleogenomic sequencing of a 700,000-year-old middle Pleistocene horse metapodial bone from Canada implies a date of 4.07 million years ago (mya) for the most recent common ancestor of the equines within the range of 4.0 to 4.5 mya. Horses split from asses and zebras around this time and equines colonised Eurasia and Africa around 2.1–3.4 mya. Zebras and asses diverged from each other close to 2 mya. The mountain zebra diverged from the other species around 1.6 mya and the plains and Grévy's zebra split 1.4 mya. The cladogram of *Equus* below is based on Vilstrup and colleagues (2013) and Jónsson and colleagues (2014): | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | *Equus* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Zebras** | | | | | --- | --- | | | Mountain zebra (*E. zebra*) | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Plains zebra (*E. quagga*) | | | | | Grévy's zebra (*E. grevyi*) | | | | | | | | | | Wild asses | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Kiang (*E. kiang*) | | | | | Onager (*E. hemionus*) | | | | | | | | African wild ass (*E. africanus*) | | | | | | | | | | | | | Horses | | | | | --- | --- | | | Horse (*E. ferus caballus*) | | | | | Przewalski's horse (*E. ferus przewalski*) | | | | | | | | | ### Extant species | Name | Description | Distribution | Subspecies | Chromosomes | Image | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Grévy's zebra (*Equus grevyi*) | Body length of 250–300 cm (98–118 in) with 38–75 cm (15–30 in) tail, 125–160 cm (4.10–5.25 ft) shoulder height and weighs 352–450 kg (776–992 lb); Thin, elongated skull, robust neck and conical ears; narrow striping pattern with concentric rump stripes, white belly and tail base and white line around the ashy muzzle | Eastern Africa including the Horn; arid and semiarid grasslands and shrublands | Monotypic | 46 | | | Plains zebra (*Equus quagga*) | Body length of 217–246 cm (85–97 in) with 47–56 cm (19–22 in) tail, 110–145 cm (43–57 in) shoulder height and weighs 175–385 kg (386–849 lb); Thick bodied with relatively short legs and an obtusely-shaped skull profile with a protruding forehead and a more recessed nose area; broad stripes, horizontal on the rump, with northern populations having more extensive striping while populations further south have whiter legs and bellies and more brown "shadow" stripes. The snout is black. | Eastern and southern Africa; savannahs, grasslands and open woodlands | 6 or monotypic | 44 | | | Mountain zebra (*Equus zebra*) | Body length of 210–260 cm (83–102 in) with 40–55 cm (16–22 in) tail, 116–146 cm (46–57 in) shoulder height and weighs 204–430 kg (450–948 lb); eye sockets more circular and positioned farther back, a squarer nuchal crest, dewlap present under neck and compact hooves; stripes intermediate in width between the other species, with gridiron and horizontal stripes on the rump, while the belly is white and the black muzzle is lined with chestnut or orange | Southwestern Africa; mountains, rocky uplands and Karoo shrubland | 2 | 32 | | ### Fossil record In addition to the three living species, some fossil zebras and relatives have also been identified. *Equus koobiforensis* is an early equine basal to zebras found in the Shungura Formation, Ethiopia and the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and dated to around 2.3 mya. *E. oldowayensis* is identified from remains in Olduvai Gorge dating to 1.8 mya. Fossil skulls of *E. mauritanicus* from Algeria which date to around 1 mya appears to show affinities with the plains zebra. *E. capensis*, known as the Cape zebra, appeared around 2 mya and lived throughout southern and eastern Africa. Non-African equines that may have been basal to zebras include *E. sansaniensis* of Eurasia (circa 2.5 mya) and *E. namadicus* (circa 2.5 mya) and *E. sivalensis* (circa 2.0 mya) of the Indian subcontinent. A 2017 mitochondrial DNA study placed the Eurasian *E. ovodovi* and the subgenus *Sussemionus* lineage as closer to zebras than to asses. ### Hybridisation Fertile hybrids have been reported in the wild between plains and Grévy's zebra. Hybridisation has also been recorded between the plains and mountain zebra, though it is possible that these are infertile due to the difference in chromosome numbers between the two species. Captive zebras have been bred with horses and donkeys; these are known as zebroids. A zorse is a cross between a zebra and a horse; a zonkey, between a zebra and a donkey; and a zoni, between a zebra and a pony. Zebroids are often born sterile with dwarfism. Characteristics --------------- As with all wild equines, zebra have barrel-chested bodies with tufted tails, elongated faces and long necks with long, erect manes. Their thin legs are each supported by a spade-shaped toe covered in a hard hoof. Their dentition is adapted for grazing; they have large incisors that clip grass blades and rough molars and premolars well suited for grinding. Males have spade-shaped canines, which can be used as weapons in fighting. The eyes of zebras are at the sides and far up the head, which allows them to look over the tall grass while feeding. Their moderately long, erect ears are movable and can locate the source of a sound. Unlike horses, zebras and asses have chestnut callosities present only on their front legs. In contrast to other living equines, zebra have longer front legs than back legs. Diagnostic traits of the zebra skull include: its relatively small size with a straight dorsal outline, protruding eye sockets, narrower rostrum, less conspicuous postorbital bar, separation of the metaconid and metastylid of the tooth by a V-shaped canal and rounded enamel wall. ### Stripes Zebras are easily recognised by their bold black-and-white striping patterns. The coat appears to be white with black stripes, as indicated by the belly and legs when unstriped, but the skin is black. Young or foals are born with brown and white coats, and the brown darkens with age. A dorsal line acts as the backbone for vertical stripes along the sides, from the head to the rump. On the snout they curve toward the nostrils, while the stripes above the front legs split into two branches. On the rump, they develop into species-specific patterns. The stripes on the legs, ears and tail are separate and horizontal. Striping patterns are unique to an individual and heritable. During embryonic development, the stripes appear at eight months, but the patterns may be determined at three to five weeks. For each species there is a point in embryonic development where the stripes are perpendicular to the dorsal line and spaced 0.4 mm (0.016 in) apart. However, this happens at three weeks of development for the plains zebra, four weeks for the mountain zebra, and five for Grévy's zebra. The difference in timing is thought to be responsible for the differences in the striping patterns of the different species. Various abnormalities of the patterns have been documented in plains zebras. In melanistic zebras, dark stripes are highly concentrated on the torso but the legs are whiter. "Spotted" individuals have broken up black stripes around the dorsal area. There have even been morphs with white spots on dark backgrounds. Striping abnormalities have been linked to inbreeding. Albino zebras have been recorded in the forests of Mount Kenya, with the dark stripes being blonde. The quagga had brown and white stripes on the head and neck, brown upper parts and a white belly, tail and legs. #### Function The function of stripes in zebras has been discussed among biologists since at least the 19th century. Popular hypotheses include the following: * The **crypsis hypothesis** suggests that the stripes allow the animal to blend in with its environment or break out its outline so predators can not perceive it as a single entity. This was the earliest hypothesis and proponents argued that the stripes were particularly suited for camouflage in tall grassland and woodland habitat. Alfred Wallace also wrote in 1896 that stripes make zebras less noticeable at night. Zebras graze in open habitat and do not behave cryptically, being noisy, fast, and social. They do not freeze when detecting a predator. In addition, lions and hyenas do not appear to perceive the stripes when they are certain distance away during daytime, thus making the stripes useless in disrupting the outline. Stripes also do not appear to make zebras more difficult to find than more solidly coloured animals of similar size, and predators may still be able to detect them by scent or hearing. The camouflaging stripes of woodland living ungulates like bongos and bushbucks are much less vivid with less contrast with the background colour. In addition, unlike tiger stripes, the spatial frequencies of zebra stripes do not line up with their environment. A 2014 study of wild equine species and subspecies could not find any correlations between striping patterns and woodland habitats. Zebras being less noticeable at night than other prey animals is not supported by modern experiments. * The **confusion hypothesis** states that the stripes confuse predators, be it by: making it harder to distinguish individuals in a group as well as determining the number of zebras in a group; making it difficult to determine an individual's outline when the group runs away; reducing a predator's ability to keep track of a target during a chase; dazzling an assailant so they have difficulty making contact; or making it difficult for a predator to deduce the zebra's size, speed and direction via motion dazzle. This theory has been proposed by several biologists since at least the 1970s. A 2014 computer study of zebra stripes found that they may create a wagon-wheel effect and/or barber pole illusion when in motion. The researchers concluded that this could be used against mammalian predators or biting flies. The use of the stripes for confusing mammalian predators has been questioned. The stripes of zebras could make groups seem smaller, and thus more likely to be attacked. Zebras also tend to scatter when fleeing from attackers and thus the stripes could not break up an individual's outline. Lions, in particular, appear to have no difficulty targeting and catching zebras when they get close and take them by ambush. In addition, no correlations have been found between the amount of stripes and populations of mammal predators. Hughes and colleagues (2021) concluded that solidly grey and less contrasted patterns are more likely to escape being caught when in motion. * The **aposematic hypothesis** suggests that the stripes serve as warning colouration. This hypothesis was first suggested by Wallace in 1867 and discussed in more detail by Edward Bagnall Poulton in 1890. As with known aposematic mammals, zebras are recognisable up close, live in more open environments, have a high risk of predation and do not hide or act inconspicuous. However they are frequently preyed on by lions, suggesting that stripes do not work on them but may on smaller predators, and are not slow-moving enough to need to ward off threats. They also do not possess adequate defenses to back up the warning pattern. * The **social function hypothesis** states that stripes serve a role in intraspecific or individual recognition, social bonding, mutual grooming or a signal of fitness. Charles Darwin wrote in 1871 that "a female zebra would not admit the addresses of a male ass until he was painted so as to resemble a zebra" while Wallace stated in 1871 that: "The stripes therefore may be of use by enabling stragglers to distinguish their fellows at a distance". Regarding species and individual identification, zebras have limited range overlap with each other and horses can recognise each other using visual communication. In addition, no correlation has been found between striping and social behaviour or group numbers among equines, and no link has been found between fitness and striping. * The **thermoregulatory hypothesis** suggests that stripes help to control a zebra's body temperature. In 1971, biologist H. A. Baldwin noted that heat would be absorbed by the black stripes and reflected by the white ones. In 1990, zoologist Desmond Morris suggested that the stripes create cooling convection currents. A 2019 study supported this, finding that where the faster air currents of the warmer black stripes meet those of the white, air swirls form. The researchers also concluded that during the hottest times of the day, zebras erect the black hair to release heat from the skin and flatten it to retain heat when it gets cooler. Larison and colleagues (2015) determined that environmental temperature is a strong predictor for zebra striping patterns. Others have found no evidence that zebras have lower body temperatures than other ungulates whose habitat they share, or that striping correlates with temperature. A 2018 experimental study which dressed water-filled metal barrels in horse, zebra and cattle hides concluded that the zebra stripes had no effect on thermoregulation. * The **fly protection hypothesis** holds that the stripes deter blood-sucking flies. Horse flies, in particular, spread diseases that are lethal to equines such as African horse sickness, equine influenza, equine infectious anemia and trypanosomiasis. In addition, zebra hair is about as long as the mouthparts of these flies. This hypothesis is the most strongly supported by the evidence. It was found that flies preferred landing on solidly coloured surfaces over those with black-and-white striped patterns in 1930 by biologist R. Harris, and this was proposed to have been a function of zebra stripes in a 1981 study. A 2014 study found a correlation between striping and overlap with horse and tsetse fly populations and activity. Other studies have found that zebras are rarely targeted by these insect species. Caro and colleagues (2019) studied captive zebras and horses and observed that neither could deter flies from a distance, but zebra stripes kept flies from landing, both on zebras and horses dressed in zebra print coats. There does not appear to be any difference in the effectiveness of repelling flies between the different zebra species; thus the difference in striping patterns may have evolved for other reasons. White or light stripes painted on dark bodies have also been found to reduce fly irritations in both cattle and humans. How the stripes repel flies is less clear. A 2012 study concluded that they disrupt the polarised light patterns these insects use to locate water and habitat, though subsequent studies have refuted this. Stripes do not appear to work like a barber pole against flies since checkered patterns also repel them. There is also little evidence that zebra stripes confuse the insects via aliasing. Takács and colleagues (2022) suggest that, when the animal is in sunlight, temperature gradients between the warmer dark stripes and cooler white stripes prevent horseflies from detecting the warm blood vessels underneath. Caro and colleagues (2023) conclude that the insects are confused by the high colour contrast and relative thinness of the patterns. Natural history --------------- Zebras may travel or migrate to wetter areas during the dry season. Plains zebras have been recorded travelling 500 km (310 mi) between Namibia and Botswana, the longest land migration of mammals in Africa. When migrating, they appear to rely on some memory of the locations where foraging conditions were best and may predict conditions months after their arrival. Plains zebras are more water-dependent and live in moister environments than other species. They usually can be found 10–12 km (6.2–7.5 mi) from a water source. Grévy's zebras can survive almost a week without water but will drink it every day when given the chance, and their bodies maintain water better than cattle. Mountain zebras can be found at elevations of up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft). Zebras sleep for seven hours a day, standing up during the day and lying down during the night. They regularly use various objects as rubbing posts and will roll on the ground. A zebra's diet is mostly grasses and sedges, but they will opportunistically consume bark, leaves, buds, fruits, and roots. Compared to ruminants, zebras have a simpler and less efficient digestive system. Nevertheless, they can subsist on lower-quality vegetation. Zebras may spend 60–80% of their time feeding, depending on the availability of vegetation. The plains zebra is a pioneer grazer, mowing down the upper, less nutritious grass canopy and preparing the way for more specialised grazers, which depend on shorter and more nutritious grasses below. Zebras are preyed on mainly by lions. Leopards, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, brown hyenas and wild dogs pose less of a threat to adults. Nile crocodiles also prey on zebras when they near water. Biting and kicking are a zebra's defense tactics. When threatened by lions, zebras flee, and when caught they are rarely effective in fighting off the big cats. In one study, the maximum speed of a zebra was found to be 50 km/h (31 mph) while a lion was measured at 74 km/h (46 mph). Zebras do not escape lions by speed alone but by sideways turning, especially when the cat is close behind. With smaller predators like hyenas and dogs, zebras may act more aggressively, especially in defense of their young. ### Social structure Zebra species have two basic social structures. Plains and mountain zebras live in stable, closed family groups or harems consisting of one stallion, several mares, and their offspring. These groups have their own home ranges, which overlap, and they tend to be nomadic. Stallions form and expand their harems by recruiting young mares from their natal (birth) harems. The stability of the group remains even when the family stallion is displaced. Plains zebras groups gather into large herds and may create temporarily stable subgroups within a herd, allowing individuals to interact with those outside their group. Females in harems can spend more time feeding, and gain protection both for them and their young. The females have a linear dominance hierarchy with the high-ranking females being the ones that have lived in the group longest. While traveling, the most dominant females and their offspring lead the group, followed by the next most dominant. The family stallion trails behind. Young of both sexes leave their natal groups as they mature; females are usually herded by outside males to become part of their harems. In the more arid-living Grévy's zebras, adults have more fluid associations and adult males establish large territories, marked by dung piles, and mate with the females that enter them. Grazing and drinking areas tend to be separated in these environments and the most dominant males establish territories near watering holes, which attract females with dependent foals and those who simply want a drink, while less dominant males control territories away from water with more vegetation, and only attract mares without foals. Mares may travel through several territories but remain in one when they have young. Staying in a territory offers a female protection from harassment by outside males, as well as access to resources. In all species, excess males gather in bachelor groups. These are typically young males that are not yet ready to establish a harem or territory. With the plains zebra, the oldest males are the most dominant and group membership is stable. Bachelor groups tend to be at the boundaries of herds and during group movements, the bachelors follow behind or along the sides. Mountain zebra bachelor groups may also include young females that have left their natal group early, as well as old, former harem males. A territorial Grévy's zebra stallion may allow non-territorial bachelors in their territory, however when a mare in oestrous is present the territorial stallion keeps other stallions at bay. Bachelors prepare for their future harem roles with play fights and greeting/challenge rituals, which make up most of their activities. Fights between males usually occur over mates and involve biting and kicking. In plains zebra, stallions fight each other over recently matured mares to bring into their group and her family stallion will fight off other males trying to abduct her. As long as a harem stallion is healthy, he is not usually challenged. Only unhealthy stallions have their harems taken over, and even then, the new stallion slowly takes over, peacefully displacing the old one. Agonistic behaviour between male Grévy's zebras occurs at the border of their territories. ### Communication Zebras produce a number of vocalisations and noises. The plains zebra has a distinctive, barking contact call heard as "a-*ha*, a-*ha*, a-*ha*" or "kwa-ha, kaw-ha, ha, ha". The mountain zebra may produce a similar sound while the call of the Grévy's zebra has been described as "something like a hippo's grunt combined with a donkey's wheeze". Loud snorting and rough "gasping" in zebras signals alarm. Squealing is usually made when in pain, but can also be heard in friendly interactions. Zebras also communicate with visual displays, and the flexibility of their lips allows them to make complex facial expressions. Visual displays also consist of head, ear, and tail postures. A zebra may signal an intention to kick by dropping back its ears and whipping its tail. Flattened ears, bared teeth and a waving head may be used as threatening gestures by stallions. Individuals may greet each other by rubbing and sniffing and then mutually rub their cheeks, and move along their bodies towards each other's genitals to sniff. They then may caress their shoulders against each other and lay their heads on one another. This greeting usually occurs between harem or territorial males or among bachelor males playing. Plains and mountain zebras strengthen their social bonds with grooming. Members of a harem nibble and rake along the neck, shoulder, and back with their teeth and lips. Grooming usually occurs between mothers and foals and between stallions and mares. Grooming establishes social rank and eases aggressive behaviour, although Grévy's zebras generally do not perform social grooming. ### Reproduction and parenting Among plains and mountain zebras, the adult females mate only with their harem stallion, while in Grévy's zebras, mating is more promiscuous and the males have larger testes for sperm competition. Female zebras have five to ten day long oestrous cycles; physical signs include a swollen, everted (inside out) labia and copious flows of urine and mucus. Among reaching peak oestrous, mares spread-out their legs, lift their tails and open their mouths when in the presence of a male. Males assess the female's reproductive state with a curled lip and bared teeth (flehmen response) and the female will solicit mating by backing in. Gestation is typically around a year. A few days to a month later, mares can return to oestrus. In harem-holding species, oestrus in a female becomes less noticeable to outside males as she gets older, hence competition for older females is virtually nonexistent. Usually, a single foal is born, which is capable of running within an hour of birth. A newborn zebra will follow anything that moves, so new mothers prevent other mares from approaching their foals as they become more familiar with the mother's striping pattern, smell and voice. At a few weeks old, foals begin to graze, but may continue to nurse for eight to thirteen months. Living in an arid environment, Grévy's zebras have longer nursing intervals and young only begin to drink water three months after birth. In plains and mountain zebras, foals are cared for mostly by their mothers, but if threatened by pack-hunting hyenas and dogs, the entire group works together to protect all the young. The group forms a protective front with the foals in the centre, and the stallion will rush at predators that come too close. In Grévy's zebras, young stay in "kindergartens" when their mothers leave for water. These groups are tended to by the territorial male. A stallion may look after a foal in his territory to ensure that the mother stays, though it may not be his. By contrast, plains zebra stallions are generally intolerant of foals that are not theirs and may practice infanticide and feticide via violence to the pregnant mare. Human relations --------------- ### Cultural significance With their distinctive black-and-white stripes, zebras are among the most recognisable mammals. They have been associated with beauty and grace, with naturalist Thomas Pennant describing them in 1781 as "the most elegant of quadrupeds". Zebras have been popular in photography, with some wildlife photographers describing them as the most photogenic animal. They have become staples in children's stories and wildlife-themed art, such as depictions of Noah's Ark. In children's alphabet books, the animals are often used to represent the letter 'Z'. Zebra stripe patterns are popularly used for body paintings, dress, furniture and architecture. Zebras have been featured in African art and culture for millennia. They are depicted in rock art in Southern Africa dating from 28,000 to 20,000 years ago, though less often than antelope species like eland. How the zebra got its stripes has been the subject of folk tales, some of which involve it being scorched by fire. The Maasai proverb "a man without culture is like a zebra without stripes" has become popular in Africa. The San people connected zebra stripes with water, rain and lighting, and water spirits were conceived of having these markings. For the Shona people, the zebra is a totem animal and is glorified in a poem as an "iridescent and glittering creature". Its stripes have symbolised the union of male and female and at the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe, zebra stripes decorate what is believed to be a *domba*, a school meant to prepare girls for adulthood. In the Shona language, the name *madhuve* means "woman/women of the zebra totem" and is a name for girls in Zimbabwe. The plains zebra is the national animal of Botswana and zebras have been depicted on stamps during colonial and post-colonial Africa. For people of the African diaspora, the zebra represented the politics of race and identity, being both black and white. In cultures outside of its range, the zebra has been thought of as a more exotic alternative to the horse; the comic book character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is depicted riding a zebra and explorer Osa Johnson was photographed riding one. The film *Racing Stripes* features a captive zebra ostracised from the horses and ends up being ridden by a rebellious girl. Zebras have been featured as characters in animated films like *Khumba*, *The Lion King* and the *Madagascar* films and television series such as *Zou*. Zebras have been popular subjects for abstract, modernist and surrealist artists. Such art includes Christopher Wood's *Zebra and Parachute*, Lucian Freud's *The Painter's Room* and *Quince on a Blue Table* and the various paintings of Mary Fedden and Sidney Nolan. Victor Vasarely depicted zebras as black and white lines and connected in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. Carel Weight's *Escape of the Zebra from the Zoo during an Air Raid* was based on a real life incident of a zebra escaping during the bombing of London Zoo and consists of four comic book-like panels. Zebras have lent themselves to products and advertisements, notably for 'Zebra Grate Polish' cleaning supplies by British manufacturer Reckitt and Sons and Japanese pen manufacturer Zebra Co., Ltd. ### Captivity Zebras have been kept in captivity since at least the Roman Empire. In later times, captive zebras have been shipped around the world, often for diplomatic reasons. In 1261, Sultan Baibars of Egypt established an embassy with Alfonso X of Castile and sent a zebra and other exotic animals as gifts. In 1417, a zebra was gifted to the Chinese people by Somalia and displayed before the Yongle Emperor. The fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir received a zebra from Ethiopia in 1620 and Ustad Mansur made a painting of it. In the 1670s, Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes I exported two zebras to the Dutch governor of Jakarta. These animals would eventually be given by the Dutch to the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan. When Queen Charlotte received a zebra as a wedding gift in 1762, the animal became a source of fascination for the people of Britain. Many flocked to see it at its paddock at Buckingham Palace. It soon became the subject of humour and satire, being referred to as "The Queen's Ass", and was the subject of an oil painting by George Stubbs in 1763. The zebra also gained a reputation for being ill-tempered and kicked at visitors. In 1882, Ethiopia sent a zebra to French president Jules Grévy, and the species it belonged to was named in his honour. Attempts to domesticate zebras were largely unsuccessful. It is possible that having evolved under pressure from the many large predators of Africa, including early humans, they became more aggressive, thus making domestication more difficult. However, zebras have been trained throughout history. In Rome, zebras are recorded to have pulled chariots during amphitheatre games starting in the reign of Caracalla (198 to 217 AD). In the late 19th century, the zoologist Walter Rothschild trained some zebras to draw a carriage in England, which he drove to Buckingham Palace to demonstrate that it can be done. However, he did not ride on them knowing that they were too small and aggressive. In the early 20th century, German colonial officers in East Africa tried to use zebras for both driving and riding, with limited success. Conservation ------------ As of 2016–2019, the IUCN Red List of mammals lists the Grévy's zebra as endangered, the mountain zebra as vulnerable and the plains zebra as near-threatened. Grévy's zebra populations are estimated at less than 2,000 mature individuals, but they are stable. Mountain zebras number near 35,000 individuals and their population appears to be increasing. Plains zebra are estimated to number 150,000–250,000 with a decreasing population trend. Human intervention has fragmented zebra ranges and populations. Zebras are threatened by hunting for their hide and meat, and habitat destruction. They also compete with livestock and have their travelling routes obstruct by fences. Civil wars in some countries have also caused declines in zebra populations. By the early 20th century, zebra skins were being used to make rugs and chairs. In the 21st century, zebras may be taken by trophy hunters as zebra skin rugs sell for $1,000 to $2,000. Trophy hunting was rare among African peoples though the San were known to hunt zebra for meat. The quagga (*E. quagga quagga*) population was hunted by early Dutch settlers and later by Afrikaners to provide meat or for their skins. The skins were traded or used locally. The quagga was probably vulnerable to extinction due to its restricted range, and because they were easy to find in large groups. The last known wild quagga died in 1878. The last captive quagga, a female in Amsterdam's Natura Artis Magistra zoo, lived there from 9 May 1867 until it died on 12 August 1883. The Cape mountain zebra, a subspecies of mountain zebra, nearly went extinct due to hunting and habitat destruction, with less than 50 individuals left by the 1950s. Protections from South African National Parks allowed the population to rise to 2,600 by the 2010s. Zebras can be found in numerous protected areas. Important areas for the Grévy's zebra include Yabelo Wildlife Sanctuary and Chelbi Sanctuary in Ethiopia and Buffalo Springs, Samburu and Shaba National Reserves in Kenya. The plains zebra inhabits the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Tsavo and Masai Mara in Kenya, Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, Etosha National Park in Namibia, and Kruger National Park in South Africa. Mountain zebras are protected in Mountain Zebra National Park, Karoo National Park and Goegap Nature Reserve in South Africa as well as Etosha and Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia. See also -------- * Fauna of Africa * Lord Morton's mare * Primitive markings – markings found on other equines * Zonkey (Tijuana) – a donkey painted with zebra stripes ### General bibliography * Caro, Tim (2016). *Zebra Stripes*. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-41101-9. * Plumb, C.; Shaw, S. (2018). *Zebra*. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781780239712.

Zebra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra

| Part of a series on | | --- | | | | | --- | | | | | Constitutionally recognised languages of India | | Category | | 22 Official Languages of the Indian Republic | | Assamese  **·** Bengali  **·** Bodo  **·** Dogri  **·** Gujarati Hindi  **·** Kannada  **·** Kashmiri  **·** Konkani  **·** Maithili Malayalam  **·** Marathi  **·** Meitei (Manipuri)  **·** Nepali Odia  **·** Punjabi  **·** Sanskrit  **·** Santali  **·** Sindhi Tamil  **·** Telugu  **·** Urdu | | Related | | Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India Official Languages Commission Classical Languages of India List of languages by number of native speakers in India | | icon Asia portal flag India portal icon Language portal icon Politics portal | **Modern Standard Hindi** (Devanagari: मानक हिन्दी *Mānak Hindī*), commonly referred to as **Hindi** (Devanāgarī: हिन्दी, *Hindī*), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been described as a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas of North India. Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with English. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Hindi is the *lingua franca* of the Hindi Belt. It is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). Outside India, several other languages are recognised officially as "Hindi" but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other dialects, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Such languages include Fiji Hindi, which has an official status in Fiji, and Caribbean Hindustani, which is spoken in Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. Apart from the script and formal vocabulary, standard Hindi is mutually intelligible with standard Urdu, another recognised register of Hindustani as both share a common colloquial base. Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. If counted together with the mutually intelligible Urdu, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English. According to reports of *Ethnologue* (2022, 25th edition) Hindi is the third most-spoken language in the world including first and second language speakers. Etymology --------- The term *Hindī* originally was used to refer to inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It was borrowed from Classical Persian هندی *Hindī* (Iranian Persian pronunciation: *Hendi*), meaning "of or belonging to *Hind* (India)" (hence, "Indian"). Another name *Hindavī* (हिन्दवी) or *Hinduī* (हिन्दुई) (from Persian: هندوی "of or belonging to the Hindu/Indian people") was often used in the past, for example by Amir Khusrow in his poetry. The terms *"Hindi"* and *"Hindu"* trace back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name *Sindhu* (सिन्धु), referring to the river Indus. The Greek cognates of the same terms are "*Indus*" (for the river) and "*India*" (for the land of the river). History ------- ### Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Shauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit *apabhraṃśa* "corrupt"), which emerged in the 7th century CE. The sound changes that characterised the transition from Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi are: * Compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding geminate consonants, sometimes with spontaneous nasalisation: Skt. *hasta* "hand" > Pkt. *hattha* > *hāth* * Loss of all word-final vowels: *rātri* "night" > *rattī* > *rāt* * Formation of nasalised long vowels from nasal consonants (-VNC- > -V̄̃C-): *bandha* "bond" > *bā̃dh* * Loss of unaccented or unstressed short vowels (reflected in schwa deletion): *susthira* "firm" > *sutthira* > *suthrā* * Collapsing of adjacent vowels (including separated by a hiatus: *apara* "other" > *avara* > *aur* * Final *-m* to *-ṽ*: *grāma* "village" > *gāma* > *gāṽ* * Intervocalic *-ḍ-* to *-ṛ-* or *-l-*: *taḍāga* "pond" > *talāv*, *naḍa* "reed" > *nal*. * *v* > *b*: *vivāha* "marriage" > *byāh* ### Hindustani During the period of Delhi Sultanate, which covered most of today's north India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal and Bangladesh and which resulted in the contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures, the Sanskrit and Prakrit base of Old Hindi became enriched with loanwords from Persian, evolving into the present form of Hindustani. The Hindustani vernacular became an expression of Indian national unity during the Indian Independence movement, and continues to be spoken as the common language of the people of the northern Indian subcontinent, which is reflected in the Hindustani vocabulary of Bollywood films and songs. ### Dialects Before the standardisation of Hindi on the Delhi dialect, various dialects and languages of the Hindi belt attained prominence through literary standardisation, such as Avadhi and Braj Bhasha. Early Hindi literature came about in the 12th and 13th centuries CE. This body of work included the early epics such as renditions of the *Dhola Maru* in the Marwari of Marwar, the *Prithviraj Raso* in the Braj Bhasha of Braj, and the works of Amir Khusrow in the dialect of Delhi. Modern Standard Hindi is based on the Delhi dialect, the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region, which came to replace earlier prestige dialects such as Awadhi and Braj. It has come out from the extraction of Persian and Arabic words from Khariboli. Earliest examples could be found as *Prēm Sāgar* by Lallu Ji Lal, *Batiyāl Pachīsī* of Sadal Misra and *Rānī Kētakī Kī Kahānī* of Insha Allah Khan which were published in Devanagari script during early of the 19th centuries. Urdu – considered another form of Hindustani – acquired linguistic prestige in the latter part of the Mughal period (1800s), and underwent significant Persian influence. Modern Hindi and its literary tradition evolved towards the end of the 18th century. Although Urdu was declared a separate language over time, but major *Urdu* writers continued to refer to their tongue as **Hindi** or **Hindavi** till the early of 19th century. As Ghulam Hamdan Mushafi wrote in his poem:- > *Mushafi Farsi ko Taq peh rakh,* *Ab hai Asha'r- e-**Hindavi** ka Riwaaj* > > And Mir Taqi Mir has written in his *Shayari*:- > *Na Jane log kehte hai kis ko Suroor-e-Qalb, Aya nehi yeh lafz to **Hindi** Zuban ke beec* > > John Gilchrist was principally known for his study of the Hindustani language, which was adopted as the lingua franca of northern India (including what is now present-day Pakistan) by British colonists and indigenous people. He compiled and authored *An English-Hindustani Dictionary*, *A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language*, *The Oriental Linguist*, and many more. His lexicon of Hindustani was published in the Perso-Arabic script, Nāgarī script, and in Roman transliteration. He is also known for his role in the foundation of University College London and for endowing the Gilchrist Educational Trust. In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi. However, in 2014, Urdu was accorded second official language status in the state. ### Independent India After independence, the government of India instituted the following conventions:[*original research?*] * standardisation of grammar: In 1954, the Government of India set up a committee to prepare a grammar of Hindi; The committee's report was released in 1958 as *A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi*. * standardisation of the orthography, using the Devanagari script, by the Central Hindi Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Culture to bring about uniformity in writing, to improve the shape of some Devanagari characters, and introducing diacritics to express sounds from other languages. On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India replacing Urdu's previous usage in British India. To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favour of Hindi, most notably Beohar Rajendra Simha along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, on the 50th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September 1949, the efforts came to fruition following the adoption of Hindi as the official language. Now, it is celebrated as Hindi Day. Official status --------------- ### India Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official language of the Indian Commonwealth. Under Article 343, the official languages of the Union have been prescribed, which includes Hindi in Devanagari script and English: > (1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals. > > (2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union. > > Article 351 of the Indian constitution states: > It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. > > It was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the Union Government by 1965 (per directives in Article 344 (2) and Article 351), with state governments being free to function in the language of their own choice. However, widespread resistance to the imposition of Hindi on non-native speakers, especially in South India (such as those in Tamil Nadu) led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English indefinitely for all official purposes, although the constitutional directive for the Union Government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained and has strongly influenced its policies. Article 344 (2b) stipulates that the official language commission shall be constituted every ten years to recommend steps for progressive use of Hindi language and imposing restrictions on the use of the English language by the union government. In practice, the official language commissions are constantly endeavouring to promote Hindi but not imposing restrictions on English in official use by the union government. At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following Indian states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Hindi is an official language of Gujarat, along with Gujarati. It acts as an additional official language of West Bengal in blocks and sub-divisions with more than 10% of the population speaking Hindi. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of official language in the following Union Territories: Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Although there is no specification of a national language in the constitution, it is a widely held belief that Hindi is the national language of India. This is often a source of friction and contentious debate. In 2010, the Gujarat High Court clarified that Hindi is not the national language of India because the constitution does not mention it as such. In 2021, in a Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case involving Gangam Sudhir Kumar Reddy, the Bombay High Court claimed Hindi is the national language while refusing Reddy bail, after he argued against his statutory rights being read in Hindi, despite being a native Telugu speaker. Reddy has filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court, challenging the Bombay High Court's observation, and contended that it failed to appreciate that Hindi is not the national language in India. In 2021, Indian food delivery company Zomato landed in controversy when a customer care executive told an app user from Tamil Nadu, "For your kind information Hindi is our national language." Zomato responded by firing the employee, after which she was reprimanded and shortly reinstated. In 2018, The Supreme Court has stayed a judgment of Madhya Pradesh High Court that held that the Hindi version of enactment will prevail if there is a variation in its Hindi version and English version. The prominence thus attached to English over Hindi in the judgement underlines the social significance of English over Hindi. ### Fiji Outside Asia, the Awadhi language (an Eastern Hindi dialect) with influence from Bhojpuri, Bihari languages, Fijian and English is spoken in Fiji. It is an official language in Fiji as per the 1997 Constitution of Fiji, where it referred to it as "Hindustani"; however, in the 2013 Constitution of Fiji, it is simply called "Fiji Hindi" as the official language. It is spoken by 380,000 people in Fiji. ### Nepal Hindi is spoken as a first language by about 77,569 people in Nepal according to the 2011 Nepal census, and further by 1,225,950 people as a second language. A Hindi proponent, Indian-born Paramananda Jha, was elected vice-president of Nepal. He took his oath of office in Hindi in July 2008. This created protests in the streets for 5 days; students burnt his effigies; there was general strike in 22 districts. Nepal Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that his oath in Hindi was invalid and he was kept "inactive" as vice-president. An "angry" Jha said, "I cannot be compelled to take the oath now in Nepali. I might rather take it in English." ### South Africa Hindi is a protected language in South Africa. According to the Constitution of South Africa, the Pan South African Language Board must promote and ensure respect for Hindi along with other languages. According to a doctoral dissertation by Rajend Mesthrie in 1985, although Hindi and other Indian languages have existed in South Africa for the last 125 years, there are no academic studies of any of them - of their use in South Africa, their evolution and current decline. ### United Arab Emirates Hindi is adopted as the third official court language in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. As a result of this status, the Indian workforce in UAE can file their complaints to the labour courts in the country in their own mother-tongue. Geographical distribution ------------------------- Hindi is the lingua franca of northern India (which contains the Hindi Belt), as well as an official language of the Government of India, along with English. In Northeast India a pidgin known as Haflong Hindi has developed as a *lingua franca* for the people living in Haflong, Assam who speak other languages natively. In Arunachal Pradesh, Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively. Hindi is quite easy to understand for many Pakistanis, who speak Urdu, which, like Hindi, is a standard register of the Hindustani language; additionally, Indian media are widely viewed in Pakistan. A sizeable population in Afghanistan, especially in Kabul, can also speak and understand Hindi-Urdu due to the popularity and influence of Bollywood films, songs and actors in the region. Hindi is also spoken by a large population of Madheshis (people having roots in north-India but having migrated to Nepal over hundreds of years) of Nepal. Apart from this, Hindi is spoken by the large Indian diaspora which hails from, or has its origin from the "Hindi Belt" of India. A substantially large North Indian diaspora lives in countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, South Africa, Fiji and Mauritius, where it is natively spoken at home and among their own Hindustani-speaking communities. Outside India, Hindi speakers are 8 million in Nepal; 863,077 in the United States of America; 450,170 in Mauritius; 380,000 in Fiji; 250,292 in South Africa; 150,000 in Suriname; 100,000 in Uganda; 45,800 in the United Kingdom; 20,000 in New Zealand; 20,000 in Germany; 26,000 in Trinidad and Tobago; 3,000 in Singapore. Comparison with Modern Standard Urdu ------------------------------------ Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible. Both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary of native Prakrit and Sanskrit-derived words. However, Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and contains more Sanskrit-derived words than Urdu, whereas Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script and uses more Arabic and Persian loanwords compared to Hindi. Because of this, as well as the fact that the two registers share an identical grammar, a consensus of linguists consider them to be two standardised forms of the same language, Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu. Hindi is the most commonly used official language in India. Urdu is the national language and *lingua franca* of Pakistan and is one of 22 official languages of India, also having official status in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Script ------ Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida. Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Unlike Sanskrit, Devanagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark schwa deletion in spoken Standard Hindi. ### Romanization The Government of India uses Hunterian transliteration as its official system of writing Hindi in the Latin script. Various other systems also exist, such as IAST, ITRANS and ISO 15919. Romanized Hindi, also called Hinglish, is the dominant form of Hindi online. In an analysis of YouTube comments, Palakodety et al., identified that 52% of comments were in Romanized Hindi, 46% in English, and 1% in Devanagari Hindi. Phonology --------- Vocabulary ---------- Traditionally, Hindi words are divided into five principal categories according to their etymology: * **Tatsam** (तत्सम transl. "same as that") words: These are words which are spelled the same in Hindi as in Sanskrit (except for the absence of final case inflections). They include words inherited from Sanskrit via Prakrit which have survived without modification (e.g. Hindi नाम *nām* / Sanskrit नाम *nāma*, "name"; Hindi कर्म *karm* / Sanskrit कर्म *karma*, "deed, action; karma"), as well as forms borrowed directly from Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. प्रार्थना *prārthanā*, "prayer"). Pronunciation, however, conforms to Hindi norms and may differ from that of classical Sanskrit. Amongst nouns, the *tatsam* word could be the Sanskrit non-inflected word-stem, or it could be the nominative singular form in the Sanskrit nominal declension. * **Ardhatatsam** (अर्धतत्सम transl. "semi-tatsama") words: Such words are typically earlier loanwords from Sanskrit which have undergone sound changes subsequent to being borrowed. (e.g. Hindi सूरज *sūraj* from Sanskrit सूर्य *sūrya*) * **Tadbhav** (तद्भव transl. "born of that") words: These are native Hindi words derived from Sanskrit after undergoing phonological rules (e.g. Sanskrit कर्म *karma*, "deed" becomes Shauraseni Prakrit कम्म *kamma*, and eventually Hindi काम *kām*, "work") and are spelled differently from Sanskrit. * **Deshaj** (देशज transl. "of the country") words: These are words that were not borrowings but do not derive from attested Indo-Aryan words either. Belonging to this category are onomatopoetic words or ones borrowed from local non-Indo-Aryan languages. * **Videshī** (विदेशी transl. "foreign") words: These include all loanwords from non-indigenous languages. The most frequent source languages in this category are Persian, Arabic, English and Portuguese. Examples are क़िला *qila* "fort" from Persian, कमेटी *kameṭī* from English *committee* and साबुन *sābun* "soap" from Arabic. Hindi also makes extensive use of loan translation (calqueing) and occasionally phono-semantic matching of English. ### Prakrit Hindi has naturally inherited a large portion of its vocabulary from Shauraseni Prakrit, in the form of *tadbhava* words. This process usually involves compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding consonant clusters in Prakrit, e.g. Sanskrit *tīkṣṇa* > Prakrit *tikkha* > Hindi *tīkhā*. ### Sanskrit Much of Modern Standard Hindi's vocabulary is borrowed from Sanskrit as *tatsam* borrowings, especially in technical and academic fields. The formal Hindi standard, from which much of the Persian, Arabic and English vocabulary has been replaced by neologisms compounding *tatsam* words, is called *Śuddh Hindi* (pure Hindi), and is viewed as a more prestigious dialect over other more colloquial forms of Hindi. Excessive use of *tatsam* words sometimes creates problems for native speakers. They may have Sanskrit consonant clusters which do not exist in native Hindi, causing difficulties in pronunciation. As a part of the process of Sanskritization, new words are coined using Sanskrit components to be used as replacements for supposedly foreign vocabulary. Usually these neologisms are calques of English words already adopted into spoken Hindi. Some terms such as *dūrbhāṣ* "telephone", literally "far-speech" and *dūrdarśan* "television", literally "far-sight" have even gained some currency in formal Hindi in the place of the English borrowings *(ṭeli)fon* and *ṭīvī*. ### Persian Hindi also features significant Persian influence, standardised from spoken Hindustani.[*page needed*] Early borrowings, beginning in the mid-12th century, were specific to Islam (e.g. *Muhammad*, *islām*) and so Persian was simply an intermediary for Arabic. Later, under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, Persian became the primary administrative language in the Hindi heartland. Persian borrowings reached a heyday in the 17th century, pervading all aspects of life. Even grammatical constructs, namely the izafat, were assimilated into Hindi. The status of Persian language then and thus its influence, is also visible in Hindi proverbs: | | | | --- | --- | | हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या, पढ़े लिखे को फ़ारसी क्या । | What is mirror to a hand with bangles, What is Persian to a literate. | After Partition the Indian government advocated for a policy of Sanskritization leading to a marginalisation of the Persian element in Hindi. However, many Persian words (e.g. *muśkil* "difficult", *bas* "enough", *havā* "air", *x(a)yāl* "thought", *kitab* "Book", *khud* "Self") have remained entrenched in Modern Standard Hindi, and a larger amount are still used in Urdu poetry written in the Devanagari script. ### Arabic Arabic also shows influence in Hindi, often via Persian but sometimes directly. Sample list of loaned Arabic words used in Hindi| Arabic word | Hindi word(Devanagari) | Gloss | | --- | --- | --- | | وقت *waqt* | वक़्त *vaqt* | time | | قميص *qamīṣ* | क़मीस *qamīz* | shirt | | كتاب *kitāb* | किताब *kitāb* | book | | نصيب *naṣīb* | नसीब *nasīb* | destiny | | كرسي *kursiyy* | कुर्सी *kursī* | chair | | حساب *ḥisāb* | हिसाब *hisāb* | calculation | | قانون *qānūn* | क़ानून *qānūn* | law | | خبر *ḵabar* | ख़बर *xabar* | news | | دنيا *dunyā* | दुनिया *duniyā* | world | Media ----- ### Literature Hindi literature is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being *Bhakti* (devotional – Kabir, Raskhan); *Śṛṇgār* (beauty – Keshav, Bihari); *Vīgāthā* (epic); and *Ādhunik* (modern). Medieval Hindi literature is marked by the influence of Bhakti movement and the composition of long, epic poems. It was primarily written in other varieties of Hindi, particularly Avadhi and Braj Bhasha, but to a degree also in Delhavi, the basis for Modern Standard Hindi. During the British Raj, Hindustani became the prestige dialect. *Chandrakanta*, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri in 1888, is considered the first authentic work of prose in modern Hindi. The person who brought realism in Hindi prose literature was Munshi Premchand, who is considered the most revered figure in the world of Hindi fiction and progressive movement. Literary, or *Sāhityik*, Hindi was popularised by the writings of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Bhartendu Harishchandra and others. The rising numbers of newspapers and magazines made Hindustani popular with educated people. The *Dvivedī Yug* ("Age of Dwivedi") in Hindi literature lasted from 1900 to 1918. It is named after Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, who played a major role in establishing Modern Standard Hindi in poetry and broadening the acceptable subjects of Hindi poetry from the traditional ones of religion and romantic love. In the 20th century, Hindi literature saw a romantic upsurge. This is known as *Chāyāvād* (*shadow-ism*) and the literary figures belonging to this school are known as *Chāyāvādī*. Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan Pant, are the four major *Chāyāvādī* poets. *Uttar Ādhunik* is the post-modernist period of Hindi literature, marked by a questioning of early trends that copied the West as well as the excessive ornamentation of the *Chāyāvādī* movement, and by a return to simple language and natural themes. ### Internet Hindi literature, music, and film have all been disseminated via the internet. In 2015, Google reported a 94% increase in Hindi-content consumption year-on-year, adding that 21% of users in India prefer content in Hindi. Many Hindi newspapers also offer digital editions. Sample text ----------- The following is a sample text in High Hindi, of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations): Hindi in Devanagari Script अनुच्छेद 1(एक): सभी मनुष्य जन्म से स्वतन्त्र तथा मर्यादा और अधिकारों में समान होते हैं। वे तर्क और विवेक से सम्पन्न हैं तथा उन्हें भ्रातृत्व की भावना से परस्पर के प्रति कार्य करना चाहिए। Transliteration (ISO) *Anucchēd 1 (ēk): Sabhī manuṣya janma sē svatantra tathā maryādā aur adhikārō̃ mē̃ samān hōtē haĩ. Vē tark aur vivēk sē sampanna haĩ tathā unhē̃ bhrātr̥tva kī bhāvanā sē paraspar kē pratī kārya karnā cāhiē.* Transcription (IPA) [ənʊtːʃʰeːd eːk | səbʰiː mənʊʂjə dʒənmə seː sʋət̪ənt̪ɾə t̪ətʰaː məɾjaːd̪aː ɔːɾ əd̪ʰɪkaːɾõː mẽː səmaːn hoːteː hɛ̃ː‖ ʋeː t̪əɾk ɔːɾ ʋɪʋeːk seː səmpənːə hɛ̃ː t̪ətʰaː ʊnʰẽː bʰɾaːtɾɪt̪ʋə kiː bʰaːʋənaː seː pəɾəspəɾ keː pɾət̪iː kaːɾjə kəɾnaː tʃaːhɪeː‖] Gloss (word-to-word) Article 1 (one) *–* All humans birth from independent and dignity and rights in equal are. They logic and conscience from endowed are and they fraternity in the spirit of each other towards work should. Translation (grammatical) Article 1 *–* All humans are born independent and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with logic and conscience and they should work towards each other in the spirit of fraternity. See also -------- * Hindi Belt * Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum) * Hindi Divas – the official day to celebrate Hindi as a language. * Languages of India * Languages with official status in India * Indian states by most spoken scheduled languages * List of English words of Hindi or Urdu origin * List of Hindi channels in Europe (by type) * List of languages by number of native speakers in India * List of Sanskrit and Persian roots in Hindi * World Hindi Secretariat ### Bibliography * Bhatia, Tej K. (11 September 2002). *Colloquial Hindi: The Complete Course for Beginners*. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-83534-8. Retrieved 19 July 2014. * Grierson, G. A. *Linguistic Survey of India* Vol I-XI, Calcutta, 1928, ISBN 81-85395-27-6 (searchable database). * Koul, Omkar N. (2008). *Modern Hindi grammar* (PDF). Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press. ISBN 978-1-931546-06-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014. * McGregor, R.S. (1995). *Outline of Hindi grammar: With exercises* (3. ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Pr. ISBN 978-0-19-870008-1. Retrieved 19 July 2014. * Frawley, William (2003). *International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: AAVE-Esparanto. Vol.1*. Oxford University Press. p. 481. ISBN 978-0-195-13977-8. * Parthasarathy, R.; Kumar, Swargesh (2012). *Bihar Tourism: Retrospect and Prospect*. Concept Publishing Company. p. 120. ISBN 978-8-180-69799-9. * Masica, Colin (1991). *The Indo-Aryan Languages*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2. * Ohala, Manjari (1999). "Hindi". In International Phonetic Association (ed.). *Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: a Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet*. Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–103. ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0. * Sadana, Rashmi (2012). *English Heart, Hindi Heartland: the Political Life of Literature in India*. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26957-6. Retrieved 19 July 2014. * Shapiro, Michael C. (2001). "Hindi". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl (eds.). *An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present*. New England Publishing Associates. pp. 305–309. * Shapiro, Michael C. (2003). "Hindi". In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.). *The Indo-Aryan Languages*. Routledge. pp. 250–285. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5. * Snell, Rupert; Weightman, Simon (1989). *Teach Yourself Hindi* (2003 ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-142012-9. * Taj, Afroz (2002) *A door into Hindi*. Retrieved 8 November 2005. * Tiwari, Bholanath ([1966] 2004) *हिन्दी भाषा (Hindī Bhasha)*, Kitab Pustika, Allahabad, ISBN 81-225-0017-X. ### Dictionaries * McGregor, R.S. (1993), *Oxford Hindi–English Dictionary* (2004 ed.), Oxford University Press, USA. * Hardev Bahri (1989), *Learners' Hindi-English dictionary*, Delhi: Rajapala * Mahendra Caturvedi (1970), *A practical Hindi-English dictionary*, Delhi: National Publishing House * Academic Room Hindi Dictionary Mobile App developed in the Harvard Innovation Lab (iOS, Android and Blackberry) * John Thompson Platts (1884), *A dictionary of Urdū, classical Hindī, and English* (reprint ed.), LONDON: H. Milford, p. 1259, retrieved 6 July 2011 ### Further reading * Bangha, Imre (2018). "Hindi". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). *Encyclopaedia of Islam* (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830. * Bhatia, Tej K. *A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition*. Leiden, Netherlands & New York, NY: E.J. Brill, 1987. ISBN 90-04-07924-6

Hindi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi

**Lake Titicaca** (/tɪtɪˈkɑːkə/; Spanish: *Lago Titicaca* [ˈlaɣo titiˈkaka]; Quechua: *Titiqaqa Qucha*) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By both volume of water and by surface area, it is the largest lake in South America. Lake Titicaca has a surface elevation of 3,812 m (12,507 ft). The "highest lake" claim is generally considered to refer to commercial craft. Numerous smaller lakes around the world are at higher elevations. For many years, the largest vessel afloat on the lake was the 2,200-ton (2,425 U.S. tons), 79 m (259 ft) SS *Ollanta*. Today, the largest vessel is most likely the similarly sized train barge/float *Manco Capac*, operated by PeruRail. Overview -------- The lake is located at the northern end of the endorheic Altiplano basin high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The western part of the lake lies within the Puno Region of Peru, and the eastern side is located in the Bolivian La Paz Department. The lake consists of two nearly separate subbasins connected by the Strait of Tiquina, which is 800 m (2,620 ft) across at the narrowest point. The larger subbasin, *Lago Grande* (also called *Lago Chucuito*), has a mean depth of 135 m (443 ft) and a maximum depth of 284 m (932 ft). The smaller subbasin, Wiñaymarka (also called *Lago Pequeño*, "little lake"), has an average depth of 9 m (30 ft) and a maximum depth of 40 m (131 ft). The overall average depth of the lake is 107 m (351 ft). Five major river systems feed into Lake Titicaca. In order of their relative flow volumes these are Ramis, Coata, Ilave, Huancané, and Suchez. More than 20 other smaller streams empty into Titicaca. The lake has 41 islands, some of which are densely populated. Having only a single season of free circulation, the lake is monomictic, and water passes through Lago Huiñaimarca and flows out the single outlet at the Río Desaguadero, which then flows south through Bolivia to Lake Poopó. This only accounts for about 10% of the lake's water balance. Evapotranspiration, caused by strong winds and intense sunlight at high altitude, balances the remaining 90% of the water loss. It is nearly a closed lake. Since 2000, Lake Titicaca has experienced constantly receding water levels. Between April and November 2009 alone, the water level dropped by 81 cm (32 in), reaching the lowest level since 1949. This drop is caused by shortened rainy seasons and the melting of glaciers feeding the tributaries of the lake. Water pollution is also an increasing concern because cities in the Titicaca watershed grow, sometimes outpacing solid waste and sewage treatment infrastructure. According to the Global Nature Fund (GNF), Titicaca's biodiversity is threatened by water pollution and the introduction of new species by humans. In 2012, the GNF nominated the lake "Threatened Lake of the Year". Temperature ----------- The cold sources and winds over the lake give it an average surface temperature of 10 to 14 °C (50 to 57 °F). In the winter (June – September), mixing occurs with the deeper waters, which are always between 10 and 11 °C (50 and 52 °F). Name ---- Neither the protohistoric nor prehistoric name for Lake Titicaca is known. Given the various Indigenous groups that occupied the Lake Titicaca region, it likely lacked a single, commonly accepted name in prehistoric times and at the time the Spaniards arrived. The terms *titi* and *caca* can be translated in multiple ways. In Aymara, *titi* can be translated as either puma, lead, or a heavy metal. The word *caca* (*kaka*) can be translated as white or grey hairs of the head and the term *k’ak’a* can be translated as either crack or fissure, or alternatively, comb of a bird. According to Weston La Barre, the Aymara considered in 1948 that the proper name of the lake is *titiq’aq’a,* which means gray, discolored, lead-colored puma. This phrase refers to the sacred carved rock found on the Isla del Sol. In addition to names including the term *titi* and/or *caca,* Lake Titicaca was also known as *Chuquivitu* in the 16th century. This name can be loosely translated as lance point. This name survives in modern usage in which the large lake is occasionally referred to as *Lago Chucuito.* Stanish argues that the logical explanation for the origin of the name Titicaca is a corruption of the term *thakhsi cala,* which is the 15th- to the 16th-century name of the sacred rock on the Isla del Sol. Given the lack of a common name for Lake Titicaca in the 16th century, the Spaniards are thought to have used the name of the site of the most important indigenous shrine in the region, *thakhsi cala* on the Isla del Sol, as the name for the lake. In time and with usage, this name developed into *Titicaca.* Locally, the lake goes by several names. The southeast quarter of the lake is separate from the main body (connected only by the Strait of Tiquina) and the Bolivians call it Lago Huiñaymarca (also Wiñay Marka, which in Aymara means the Eternal City) and the larger part Lago Chucuito. The large lake also is occasionally referred to as Lago Mayor, and the small lake as Lago Menor. In Peru, these smaller and larger parts are referred to as Lago Pequeño and Lago Grande, respectively. Ecology ------- Lake Titicaca is home to more than 530 aquatic species. The lake holds large populations of water birds and was designated as a Ramsar Site on August 26, 1998. Several threatened species such as the huge Titicaca water frog and the flightless Titicaca grebe are largely or entirely restricted to the lake, and the Titicaca orestias has likely become extinct (last seen in 1938) due to competition and predation by the introduced rainbow trout and the silverside *Odontesthes bonariensis*. In addition to the Titicaca orestias, native fish species in the lake's basin are other species of *Orestias*, and the catfish *Trichomycterus dispar*, *T. rivulatus*, and *Astroblepus stuebeli* (the last species not in the lake itself, but in associated ecosystems). The many *Orestias* species in Lake Titicaca differ significantly in both habitat preference and feeding behavior. About 90% of the fish species in the basin are endemic, including 23 species of *Orestias* that only are found in the lake. In addition to the threatened Titicaca grebe, some of the birds associated with water at Titicaca are the white-tufted grebe, Puna ibis, Chilean flamingo, Andean gull, Andean lapwing, white-backed stilt, greater yellowlegs, snowy egret, black-crowned night-heron, Andean coot, common gallinule, plumbeous rail, various ducks, wren-like rushbird, many-colored rush-tyrant, and yellow-winged blackbird. Titicaca is home to 24 described species of freshwater snails (15 endemics, including several tiny *Heleobia* spp.) and less than half a dozen bivalves (all in family Sphaeriidae), but in general these are very poorly known and their taxonomy is in need of a review. The lake also has an endemic species flock of amphipods consisting of 11 *Hyalella* (an additional Titicaca *Hyalella* species is nonendemic). Reeds and other aquatic vegetation are widespread in Lake Titicaca. Totora sedges grow in water shallower than 3 m (10 ft), less frequently to 5.5 m (18 ft), but macrophytes, notably *Chara* and *Potamogeton*, occur down to 10 m (33 ft). In sheltered shallow waters, such as the harbour of Puno, *Azolla*, *Elodea*, *Lemna* and *Myriophyllum* are common. Geology ------- The Tinajani Basin, in which Lake Titicaca lies, is an intermontane basin. This basin is a pull-apart basin created by strike-slip movement along regional faults starting in the late Oligocene and ending in the late Miocene. The initial development of the Tinajani Basin is indicated by volcanic rocks, which accumulated between 27 and 20 million years ago within this basin. They lie upon an angular unconformity which cuts across pre-basin strata. Lacustrine sediments of the Lower Tinajani Formation, which are exposed within the Tinajani Basin, demonstrate the presence of a pre-Quaternary, ancestral Lake Titicaca within it between 18 and 14 million years ago (Mya). Little is known about the prehistory of Lake Titicaca between 14 Mya and 370,000 BP because the lake sediments dating to this period lie buried beneath the bottom of Lake Titicaca and have not yet been sampled by continuous coring. The Lake Titicaca drilling project recovered a 136-m-long drill core of sediments from the bottom of Lake Titicaca at a depth of 235 m (771 ft) and at a location just east of Isla del Sol. This core contains a continuous record of lake sedimentation and paleoenvironmental conditions for Lake Titicaca back to about 370,000 BP. For this period of time, Lake Titicaca was typically fresher and had higher lake levels during periods of expanded regional glaciation that corresponded to global glacial periods. During periods of reduced regional glaciation that corresponded to global interglacial periods, Lake Titicaca had typically low lake levels. Lacustrine sediments and associated terraces provide evidence for the past existence of five major prehistoric lakes that occupied the Tinajani Basin during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Within the northern Altiplano (Tinajani Basin), these prehistoric lakes were Lake Mataro at an elevation of 3,950 m (12,960 ft), Lake Cabana at an elevation of 3,900 m (12,800 ft), Lake Ballivián at an elevation of 3,860 m (12,660 ft), Lake (North) Minchin at an elevation of 3,825 m (12,549 ft), and Lake (North) Tauca at an elevation 3,815 m (12,516 ft). The age of Lake Mataro is uncertain—it may date back to the Late Pliocene. Lake Cabana possibly dates to the Middle Pleistocene. Lake Ballivián existed between 120,000 and 98,000 BP. Two high lake stands, between 72,000 and 68,000 BP and 44,000–34,000 BP, have been discerned for Lake Minchin within the Altiplano. Another ancient lake in the area is Ouki. The high lake levels of Lake Tauca have been dated as having occurred between 18,100 and 14,100 BP. Underwater Archaeology ---------------------- Underwater excavations and surveys in and around Khoa reef, near the Island of Khoa, have recovered thousands of artifacts. These artifacts consist of ceramic feline incense burners, carved juvenile llamas, and well-crafted metal, shell, and stone ornaments. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Lake Titicaca was a mythical place and the location of a pilgrimage complex for the Incas. Part of this complex included Khoa reef as a location where offerings dropped into the lake. Climate ------- Lake Titicaca has a borderline subtropical highland/alpine climate with cool to cold temperatures for most of the year. The average annual precipitation is 610 mm (24 in) mostly falling in summer thunderstorms. Winters are dry with very cold nights and mornings and warm afternoons. Below are the average temperatures of the town of Juliaca, in the northern part of the lake. | Climate data for Juliaca, Peru (1961–1990) | | --- | | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | | Average high °C (°F) | 16.7(62.1) | 16.7(62.1) | 16.5(61.7) | 16.8(62.2) | 16.6(61.9) | 16.0(60.8) | 16.0(60.8) | 17.0(62.6) | 17.6(63.7) | 18.6(65.5) | 18.8(65.8) | 17.7(63.9) | 17.1(62.8) | | Average low °C (°F) | 3.6(38.5) | 3.5(38.3) | 3.2(37.8) | 0.6(33.1) | −3.8(25.2) | −7.0(19.4) | −7.5(18.5) | −5.4(22.3) | −1.4(29.5) | 0.3(32.5) | 1.5(34.7) | 3.0(37.4) | −0.8(30.6) | | Average precipitation mm (inches) | 133.3(5.25) | 108.7(4.28) | 98.5(3.88) | 43.3(1.70) | 9.9(0.39) | 3.1(0.12) | 2.4(0.09) | 5.8(0.23) | 22.1(0.87) | 41.1(1.62) | 55.3(2.18) | 85.9(3.38) | 609.4(23.99) | | Source: Hong Kong Observatory, | Islands ------- ### Uros The "Floating Islands" are small, human-made islands constructed by the Uros (or Uru) people from layers of cut totora, a thick, buoyant sedge that grows abundantly in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. The Uros harvest the sedges that naturally grow on the lake's banks to make the islands by continuously adding sedges to the surface. According to legend, the Uru people originated in the Amazon and migrated to the area of Lake Titicaca in the pre-Columbian era, where they were oppressed by the local population and were unable to secure land of their own. They built the sedge islands, which could be moved into deep water or to different parts of the lake, as necessary, for greater safety from their hostile neighbors on land. Golden in color, many of the islands measure about 15 by 15 m (50 by 50 ft), and the largest are roughly half the size of a football field. Each island contains several thatched houses, typically belonging to members of a single extended family. Some of the islands have watchtowers and other buildings, also constructed of sedges. Historically, most of the Uros islands were located near the middle of the lake, about 14 km (9 mi) from the shore; however, in 1986, after a major storm devastated the islands, many Uros rebuilt closer to shore. As of 2011[update], about 1,200 Uros lived on an archipelago of 60 artificial islands, clustering in the western corner of the lake near Puno, Titicaca's major Peruvian port town. The islands have become one of Peru's tourist attractions, allowing the Uros to supplement their hunting and fishing by conveying visitors to the islands by motorboat and selling handicrafts. ### Amantani Amantani is another small island on Lake Titicaca populated by Quechua speakers. About 4,000 people live in 10 communities on the roughly circular 15 km2 (6 sq mi) island. Two mountain peaks, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth) and ancient ruins are on the top of both peaks. The hillsides that rise up from the lake are terraced and planted with wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. Most of the small fields are worked by hand. Long stone fences divide the fields, and cattle and sheep graze on the hillsides. No cars and no hotels are on the island. Since machines are not allowed on the island, all agriculture is done by hand. A few small stores sell basic goods, and a health clinic and six schools are found. Electricity was produced by a generator and provided limited power a few hours each day, but with the rising price of petroleum, they no longer use the generator. Most families use candles or flashlights powered by batteries or hand cranks. Small solar panels have recently been installed on some homes. Some of the families on Amantani open their homes to tourists for overnight stays and provide cooked meals, arranged through tour guides. The families who do so are required to have a special room set aside for the tourists and must conform to a code specified by the tourist companies that help them. Guests typically take food staples (cooking oil, rice, etc., but no sugar products, as they have no dental facilities) as a gift, or school supplies for the children on the island. The islanders hold nightly traditional dance shows for the tourists, where they offer to dress them up in their traditional clothes and allow them to participate. ### Taquile Taquile is a hilly island located 45 km (28 mi) east of Puno. It is narrow and long and was used as a prison during the Spanish Colony and into the 20th century. In 1970, it became property of the Taquile people, who have inhabited the island since then. The current population is around 2,200. The island is 5.5 by 1.6 km (3.42 by 0.99 mi) in size (maximum measurements), with an area of 5.72 km2 (2.21 sq mi). The highest point of the island is 4,050 m (13,290 ft) above sea level, and the main village is at 3,950 m (12,960 ft). Pre-Inca ruins are found on the highest part of the island, and agricultural terraces on hillsides. From the hillsides of Taquile, one has a view of the tops of Bolivian mountains. The inhabitants, known as *Taquileños*, are southern Quechua speakers. Taquile is especially known for its handicraft tradition, which is regarded as being of the highest quality. "Taquile and Its Textile Art" were honored by being proclaimed "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO. Knitting is exclusively performed by males, starting at age eight. The women exclusively make yarn and weave. Taquileans are also known for having created an innovative, community-controlled tourism model, offering home stays, transportation, and restaurants to tourists. Ever since tourism started coming to Taquile in the 1970s, the *Taquileños* have slowly lost control over the mass day-tourism operated by non-Taquileans. They have thus developed alternative tourism models, including lodging for groups, cultural activities, and local guides who have completed a 2-year training program. The local Travel Agency, Munay Taquile, has been established to regain control over tourism. The people in Taquile run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code *ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla,* (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy). The island is divided into six sectors or *suyus* for crop rotation purposes. The economy is based on fishing, terraced farming based on potato cultivation, and tourist-generated income from the roughly 40,000 tourists who visit each year. ### Isla del Sol Situated on the Bolivian side of the lake with regular boat links to the town of Copacabana, Bolivia, Isla del Sol ("Island of the Sun") is one of the largest islands of the lake. Geographically, the terrain is harsh; it is a rocky, hilly island. No motor vehicles or paved roads are on the island. The main economic activity of the approximately 800 families on the island is farming, with fishing and tourism augmenting the subsistence economy. Over 180 ruins remain on the island. Most of these date to the Inca period around the 15th century AD. Many hills on the island contain terraces, which adapt steep and rocky terrain to agriculture. Among the ruins on the island are the Sacred Rock, a labyrinth-like building called Chinkana, Kasa Pata, and Pilco Kaima. In the religion of the Incas, the sun god was believed to have been born here. During 1987–92, Johan Reinhard directed underwater archaeological investigations off of the Island of the Sun, recovering Inca and Tiahuanaco offerings. These artifacts are currently on display in the site museum of the village of Challapampa. ### Isla de la Luna Isla de la Luna is situated east from the bigger Isla del Sol. Both islands belong to the La Paz Department of Bolivia. According to legends that refer to Inca mythology Isla de la Luna (Spanish for "island of the moon") is where Viracocha commanded the rising of the moon. Ruins of a supposed Inca nunnery (Mamakuna) occupy the oriental shore. Archaeological excavations indicate that the Tiwanaku peoples (around 650–1000 AD) built a major temple on the Island of the Moon. Pottery vessels of local dignitaries dating from this period have been excavated on islands in Lake Titicaca. Two of them were found in the 19th century and are now in the British Museum in London. The structures seen on the island today were built by the Inca (*circa* 1450–1532) directly over the earlier Tiwanaku ones. ### Suriki Suriki lies in the Bolivian part of lake Titicaca (in the southeastern part also known as lake Wiñaymarka). Suriki is thought to be the last place where the art of reed boat construction survives, at least as late as 1998. Craftsmen from Suriqui helped Thor Heyerdahl in the construction of several of his projects, such as the reed boats *Ra II* and *Tigris*, and a balloon gondola. Transport --------- The dual gauge car float *Manco Capac* links PeruRail's 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge line at Puno with the Bolivian railways' 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) meter gauge line at Guaqui. ### History The lake has had a number of steamships, each of which was built in the United Kingdom in "knock down" form with bolts and nuts, disassembled into many hundreds of pieces, transported to the lake, and then riveted together and launched. In 1862 Thames Ironworks on the River Thames built the iron-hulled sister ships SS *Yavari* and SS *Yapura* under contract to the James Watt Foundry of Birmingham. The ships were designed as combined cargo, passenger, and gunboats for the Peruvian Navy. After several years' delay in delivery from the Pacific coast to the lake, *Yavari* was launched in 1870 and *Yapura* in 1873. *Yavari* was 30 m (100 ft) long, but in 1914 her hull was lengthened for extra cargo capacity and she was re-engined as a motor vessel. In November 1883, during the final phase of the War of the Pacific, the Chilean military command sent the Chilean torpedo boat *Colo Colo* to the lake, via railroad, from Mollendo to Puno to control the area. It was the first warship to navigate the lake. In 1892, William Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton on the River Clyde in Scotland built SS *Coya*. She was 52 m (170 ft) long and was launched on the lake in 1893. In 1905, Earle's Shipbuilding at Kingston upon Hull on the Humber built SS *Inca*. By then, a railway served the lake, so the ship was delivered in kit form by rail. At 67 m (220 ft) long and 1,809 tons (1,994 U.S. tons), *Inca* was the lake's largest ship thus far. In the 1920s, Earle's supplied a new bottom for the ship, which also was delivered in kit form. Trade continued to grow, so in 1930, Earle's built SS *Ollanta*. Her parts were landed at the Pacific Ocean port of Mollendo and brought by rail to the lake port of Puno. At 79 m (260 ft) long and 2,200 tons (425 U.S. tons), she was considerably larger than the *Inca*, so first a new slipway had to be built to build her. She was launched in November 1931. In 1975, *Yavari* and *Yapura* were returned to the Peruvian Navy, which converted *Yapura* into a hospital ship and renamed her BAP *Puno*. The Navy discarded *Yavari*, but in 1987, charitable interests bought her and started restoring her. She is now moored at Puno Bay and provides static tourist accommodation while her restoration continues. *Coya* was beached in 1984, but restored as a floating restaurant in 2001. *Inca* survived until 1994, when she was broken up. *Ollanta* is no longer in scheduled service, but PeruRail has been leasing her for tourist charter operations. See also -------- * Chiripa culture * Extremes on Earth * Taraco Peninsula * Titicaca National Reservation * Ilave River * Tourism in Peru * Yampupata Peninsula

Lake Titicaca

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca

The **Afroasiatic languages** (or **Afro-Asiatic**, sometimes **Afrasian**), also known as **Hamito-Semitic** or **Semito-Hamitic**, are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara and Sahel. Altogether, over 500 million people are native speakers of an Afroasiatic language, constituting the fourth-largest language family after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Niger–Congo. Most linguists divide the family into six branches: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Semitic, and Omotic. The vast majority of Afroasiatic languages—and the totality of those outside Semitic—are thought to be indigenous to the African continent. Arabic, if counted as a single language, is by far the most widely spoken within the family, with around 300 million native speakers concentrated primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. Other major Afroasiatic languages include the Chadic Hausa language with over 34 million speakers, the Semitic Amharic language with 25 million, and the Cushitic Somali language with 15 million. Other Afroasiatic languages with native speakers numbering in the millions include the Cushitic Sidaama language, the Semitic Tigrinya language and the Omotic Wolaitta language, but most languages within the family are much smaller in size. There are many well-attested Afroasiatic languages from antiquity that have since died or gone extinct, including Egyptian and the Semitic languages Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Phoenician, Amorite, and Ugaritic. While there is no consensus among historical linguists as to where Proto-Afroasiatic—the common ancestor of all Afroasiatic languages—was originally spoken, most agree on a place of origin situated somewhere in northeastern Africa. Proposed locations for this Afroasiatic homeland include the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the eastern Sahara, and the Levant. There is likewise no consensus as to when Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken, with dates ranging from 18,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE—even at the latest dating, this makes Afroasiatic the oldest language family accepted by linguists today. Comparative study of Afroasiatic is hindered by the fact that while the Semitic and Egyptian branches are attested in writing as early as the fourth millennium BCE, the languages of the Berber, Cushitic, and Omotic branches often were not recorded until the 19th or 20th centuries. While systematic sound laws have not yet been established to explain the relationships between the various branches of Afroasiatic, the languages share a number of common features. One of the most important for establishing membership in the branch is a common set of pronouns. Other widely shared features include a prefix m- which creates nouns from verbs, evidence for alternations between the vowel "a" and a high vowel in the forms of the verb, similar methods of marking gender and plurality, and some details of phonology such as the presence of pharyngeal fricatives. Other features found in multiple branches include a specialized verb conjugation using suffixes (Egyptian, Semitic, Berber), a specialized verb conjugation using prefixes (Semitic, Berber, Cushitic), verbal prefixes deriving middle (t-), causative (s-), and passive (m-) verb forms (Semitic, Berber, Egyptian, Cushitic), and a suffix used to derive adjectives (Egyptian, Semitic). Name ---- In current scholarship, the most common names for the family are *Afroasiatic* (or *Afro-Asiatic*), *Hamito-Semitic*, and *Semito-Hamitic*. Other proposed names that have yet to find widespread acceptance include *Erythraic*/*Erythraean*, *Lisramic*, *Noahitic*, and *Lamekhite*. Friedrich Müller introduced the name "Hamito-Semitic" to describe the family in his *Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft* (1876). The variant "Semito-Hamitic" is mostly used in older Russian sources. The elements of the name were derived from the names of two sons of Noah as attested in the Book of Genesis's Table of Nations passage: *Semitic* from the first-born Shem, and *Hamitic* from the second-born Ham (Genesis 5:32). Within the Table of Nations, each of Noah's sons is presented as being the progenitor of several apparently-related people groups: Shem was the father of the Jews, Assyrians, and Arameans, among myriad others; Ham likewise sired the Egyptians and Cushites. This genealogy reflects the political and cultural inclinations of the authors and original audience, rather than the literal origins of these people groups and the languages they spoke. For example, according to the Table the Canaanites are descendants of Ham, even though Hebrew is now classified as a Canaanite language, while the Elamites are ascribed to Shem despite their language being totally unrelated to Hebrew. The term *Semitic* for the Semitic languages had already been coined in 1781 by August Ludwig von Schlözer, following an earlier suggestion by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1710. *Hamitic* was coined by Ernest Renan in 1855 to refer to languages that appeared similar to the Semitic languages, but were not themselves provably a part of the family. The belief in a connection between Africans and the Biblical Ham, which had existed at least as far back as Isidore of Seville in the 6th century CE, led scholars in the early 19th century to speak vaguely of "Hamian" or "Hamitish" languages. The term "Hamito-Semitic" has largely fallen out of favor among scholars writing in English but continues to see frequent usage in work written in other languages, such as German. Several issues with the label "Hamito-Semitic" have led many scholars to abandon that term and criticize its continued use. One common objection is that the *Hamitic* component inaccurately suggests that a monophyletic "Hamitic" branch exists alongside Semitic. In addition, Joseph Greenberg has argued that "Hamitic" possesses racial connotations, and that "Hamito-Semitic" overstates the centrality of the Semitic languages within the family. By contrast, Victor Porkhomovsky suggests that the label is simply an inherited convention, and doesn't imply a duality of Semitic and "Hamitic" any more than "Indo-European" implies a duality of Indic and "European". Because of its use by several important scholars and in the titles of significant works of scholarship, the total replacement of "Hamito-Semitic" is difficult. While Greenberg ultimately popularized the name "Afroasiatic" in 1960, it was seemingly originally coined by Maurice Delafosse (as French *afroasiatique*) in 1914. The name refers to the fact that it is the only major language family with large populations in both Africa and Asia. Due to concerns that "Afroasiatic" could imply the inclusion of *all* languages spoken across Africa and Asia, the name "Afrasian" (Russian: *afrazijskije*) was proposed by Igor Diakonoff in 1980. At present it predominantly sees use among Russian scholars. The names *Lisramic*—based on the Afroasiastic root *\*lis-* ("tongue") and the Egyptian word *rmṯ* ("person")—and *Erythraean*—referring to the core area around which the languages are spoken, the Red Sea—have also been proposed. Distribution and branches ------------------------- Scholars generally consider Afroasiatic to have between five and eight branches. The five that are universally agreed upon are Berber (also called "Libyco-Berber"), Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. Most specialists consider the Omotic languages to constitute a sixth branch. Due to the presumed distance of relationship between the various branches, many scholars prefer to refer to Afroasiatic as a "linguistic phylum" rather than a "language family". M. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro and Silvia Štubňová Nigrelli write that there are about 400 languages in Afroasiatic; Ethnologue lists 375 languages. Many scholars estimate fewer languages; exact numbers vary depending on what is considered a language and what is considered a dialect. ### Berber The Berber (or Libyco-Berber) languages are spoken today by perhaps 16 million people. They are often considered to constitute a single language with multiple dialects. Other scholars, however, argue that they are a group of around twelve languages, about as different from each other as the Romance or Germanic languages. In the past, Berber languages were spoken throughout North Africa except in Egypt; since the 7th century CE, however, they have been heavily affected by Arabic and have been replaced by it in many places. There are two extinct languages potentially related to modern Berber. The first is the Numidian language, represented by over a thousand short inscriptions in the Libyco-Berber alphabet, found throughout North Africa and dating from the 2nd century BCE onward. The second is the Guanche language, which was formerly spoken on the Canary Islands and went extinct in the 17th century CE. The first longer written examples of modern Berber varieties only date from the 16th or 17th centuries CE. ### Chadic Chadic languages number between 150 and 190, making Chadic the largest family in Afroasiatic. The Chadic languages are typically divided into three major branches, East Chadic, Central Chadic, and West Chadic. Most Chadic languages are located in the Chad basin, with the exception of Hausa. Hausa is the largest Chadic language by native speakers, and is spoken by a large number of people as a lingua franca in Northern Nigeria. It may have as many as 80 to 100 million first and second language speakers. Eight other Chadic languages have around 100,000 speakers; other Chadic languages often have few speakers and may be endangered of going extinct. Only about 40 Chadic languages have been fully described by linguists. ### Cushitic There are about 30 Cushitic languages, more if Omotic is included, spoken around the Horn of Africa and in Sudan and Tanzania. The Cushitic family is traditionally split into four branches: the single language of Beja (c. 3 million speakers), the Agaw languages, Eastern Cushitic, and Southern Cushitic. Only one Cushitic language, Oromo, has more than 25 million speakers; other languages with more than a million speakers include Somali, Saho-Afar, Hadiyya, and Sidaama. Many Cushitic languages have relatively few speakers. Cushitic does not appear to be related to the written ancient languages known from its area, Meroitic or Old Nubian. The oldest text in a Cushitic language probably dates from around 1770; written orthographies were only developed for a select number of Cushitic languages in early 20th century. ### Egyptian The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. Egyptian is first attested in writing around 3000 BCE and finally went extinct around 1300 CE, making it the language with the longest written history in the world. Egyptian is usually divided into two major periods, Earlier Egyptian (c. 3000-1300 BCE), which is further subdivided into Old Egyptian and Middle Egyptian, and Later Egyptian (1300 BCE-1300 CE), which is further subdivided into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic. Coptic is the only stage written alphabetically to show vowels, whereas Egyptian was previously written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, which only represent consonants. In the Coptic period, there is evidence for six major dialects, which presumably existed previously but are obscured by pre-Coptic writing; additionally, Middle Egyptian appears to be based on a different dialect than Old Egyptian, which in turn shows dialectal similarities to Late Egyptian. Egyptian was replaced by Arabic as the spoken language of Egypt, but Coptic continues to be the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. ### Omotic The c. 30 Omotic languages are still mostly undescribed by linguists. They are all spoken in southwest Ethiopia except for the Ganza language, spoken in Sudan. Omotic is typically split into North Omotic (or Aroid) and South Omotic, with the latter more influenced by the Nilotic languages; it is unclear whether the Dizoid group of Omotic languages belongs to the Northern or Southern group. The two Omotic languages with the most speakers are Wolaitta and Gamo-Gofa-Dawro, with about 1.2 million speakers each. A majority of specialists consider Omotic to constitute a sixth branch of Afroasiatic. Omotic was formerly considered part of the Cushitic branch; some scholars continue to consider it part of Cushitic. Other scholars have questioned whether it is Afroasiatic at all, due its lack of several typical aspects of Afroasiatic morphology. ### Semitic There are between 40 and 80 languages in the Semitic family. Today, Semitic languages are spoken across North Africa, Western Asia, and the Horn of Africa, as well as on the island of Malta, making them the sole Afroasiatic branch with members originating outside Africa. Arabic, spoken in both Asia and Africa, is by far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language today, with around 300 million native speakers, while the Ethiopian Amharic has around 25 million. Most authorities divide Semitic into two branches: East Semitic, which includes the extinct Akkadian language and West Semitic, which includes Arabic, Aramaic, the Canaanite languages (including Hebrew), as well as the Ethiopian Semitic languages such as Ge'ez and Amharic. The classification within West Semitic remains contested. The only group with an African origin is Ethiopian Semitic. The oldest written attestations of Semitic languages come from Mesopotamia, Northern Syria, and Egypt and date as early as c. 3000 BCE. ### Other proposed branches There there are also other proposed branches, but none has so far convinced a majority of scholars: * Linguist H. Fleming proposed that the near-extinct Ongota language is a separate branch of Afroasiatic; however, this is only one of several competing theories. About half of current scholarly hypotheses on Ongota's origins align it with Afroasiatic in some way. * Robert Hetzron proposed that Beja is not part of Cushitic, but a separate branch. The prevailing opinion, however, is that Beja is a branch of Cushitic. * The extinct Meroitic language has been proposed to represent a branch of Afroasiatic. Although an Afroasiatic connection is sometimes viewed as refuted, it continues to be defended by scholars such as Edward Lipiński. * The Kujarge language is usually considered part of the Chadic languages; however, Roger Blench has proposed that it may be a separate branch of Afroasiatic. ### Further subdivisions Some proposed Afroasiatic subdivisions| Fleming 1983 | Ehret 1995 | Bender 1997 | Diakonoff 1988 | Militarev 2005 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | * **Omotic** * Afroasiatic + **Semitic** + Old East Africa Cushitic + Erythraic - **Cushitic** - *Beja* - ***Egyptian*** - Berber-Chadic * **Berber** * **Chadic** | * **Omotic** * Erythraean + **Cushitic** + North Erythrean - **Chadic** - Boreafrasian * ***Egyptian*** * **Berber** * **Semitic** | * **Omotic** * **Chadic** * Central Afroasiatic + ***Egyptian*** + Macro-Cushtic - **Berber** - **Cushitic** - **Semitic** | * East–West Afrasian + **Semitic** + **Cushitic** + **Berber** (Berbero-Libyan) * North-South Afrasian + ***Egyptian*** + **Chadic** + **Omotic** | * Cushomotic + **Cushitic** + **Omotic** * North Afrasian + **Semitic** + African North Afrasian - ***Egyptian*** - Chado-Berber * **Chadic** * **Berber** | There is no agreement on the relationships between and subgrouping of the different Afroasiatic branches. Whereas Marcel Cohen (1947) claimed he saw no evidence for internal subgroupings, numerous other scholars have made proposals, with Carsten Peust counting 27 as of 2012. Common trends in proposals as of 2019 include using common or lacking grammatical features to argue that Omotic was the first language to branch off, often followed by Chadic. In contrast to scholars who argue for an early split of Chadic from Afroasiatic, scholars of the Russian school tend to argue that Chadic and Egyptian are closely related, and scholars who rely on percentage of shared lexicon often group Chadic with Berber. Three scholars who agree on an early split between Omotic and the other subbranches, but little else, are Harold Fleming (1983), Christopher Ehret (1995), and Lionel Bender (1997). In contrast, scholars relying on shared lexicon often produce a Cushitic-Omotic group. Additionally, the minority of scholars who favor an Asian origin of Afroasiatic tend to place Semitic as the first branch to split off. Disagreement on which features are innovative and which are inherited from Proto-Afroasiatic produces radically different trees, as can be seen by comparing the trees produced by Ehret and Igor Diakonoff. Responding to the above, Tom Güldemann criticizes attempts at finding subgroupings based on common or lacking morphology by arguing that the presence or absence of morphological features is not a useful way of discerning subgroupings in Afroasiatic, because it can not be excluded that families currently lacking certain features did not have them in the past; this also means that the presence of morphological features cannot be taken as defining a subgroup. Peust notes that other factors that can obscure genetic relationships between languages include the poor state of present documentation and understanding of particular language families (historically with Egyptian, presently with Omotic). Gene Gragg likewise argues that more needs to be known about Omotic still, and that Afroasiatic linguists have still not found convincing isoglosses on which to base genetic distinctions. One way of avoiding the problem of determining which features are original and which are inherited is to use a computational methodology such as lexicostatistics, with one of the earliest attempts being Fleming 1983. This is also the method used by Alexander Militarev and Sergei Starostin to create a family tree. Fleming (2006) was a more recent attempt by Fleming, with a different result from Militarev and Starostin. Hezekiah Bacovcin and David Wilson argue that this methodology is invalid for discerning linguistic sub-relationship. They note the method's inability to detect various strong commonalities even between well-studied branches of AA. Classification history ---------------------- A relationship between Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and the Berber languages was perceived as early as the 9th century CE by the Hebrew grammarian and physician Judah ibn Quraysh, who is regarded as a forerunner of Afroasiatic studies. The French orientalist Guillaume Postel had also pointed out similarities between Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic in 1538, and Hiob Ludolf noted similarities also to Ge'ez and Amharic in 1701. This family was formally described and named "Semitic" by August Ludwig von Schlözer in 1781. In 1844, Theodor Benfey first described the relationship between Semitic and the Egyptian language and connected both to the Berber and the Cushitic languages (which he called "Ethiopic"). In the same year T.N. Newman suggested a relationship between Semitic and the Hausa language, an idea that was taken up by early scholars of Afroasiatic. In 1855, Ernst Renan named these languages, related to Semitic but not Semitic, "Hamitic," in 1860 Carl Lottner proposed that they belonged to a single language family, and in 1876 Friedrich Müller first described them as a "Hamito-Semitic" language family. Müller assumed that there existed a distinct "Hamitic" branch of the family that consisted of Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic. He did not include the Chadic languages, though contemporary Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius argued for the relation of Hausa to the Berber languages. Some scholars would continue to regard Hausa as related to the other Afroasiatic languages, but the idea was controversial: many scholars refused to admit that the largely unwritten, "Negroid" Chadic languages were in the same family as the "Caucasian" ancient civilizations of the Egyptians and Semites. An important development in the history of Afroasiatic scholarship - and the history of African linguistics - was the creation of the "Hamitic theory" or "Hamitic hypothesis" by Lepsius, fellow Egyptologist Christian Bunsen, and linguist Christian Bleek. This theory connected the "Hamites", the originators of Hamitic languages, with (supposedly culturally superior) "Caucasians", who were assumed to have migrated into Africa and intermixed with indigenous "Negroid" Africans in ancient times. The "Hamitic theory" would serve as the basis for Carl Meinhof's highly influential classification of African languages in his 1912 book **Die Sprache der Hamiten**. On one hand, the "Hamitic" classification was justified partially based on linguistic features: for example, Meinhof split the presently-understood Chadic family into "Hamito-Chadic", and an unrelated non-Hamitic "Chadic" based on which languages possessed grammatical gender. On the other hand, the classification also relied on non-linguistic anthropological and culturally contingent features, such as skin color, hair type, and lifestyle. Ultimately, Meinhof's classification of Hamitic proved to include languages from every presently-recognized language family within Africa. The first scholar to question to existence of "Hamitic languages" was Marcel Cohen in 1924, with skepticism also expressed by A. Klingenheben and Dietrich Westermann during the 1920s and '30s. However, Meinhof's "Hamitic" classification remained prevalent throughout the early 20th century until it was definitively disproven by Joseph Greenberg in the 1940s, based on racial and anthropological data. Instead, Greenberg proposed a Afroasiatic family consisting of five branches: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. Reluctance among some scholars to recognize Chadic as a branch of Afroasiatic persisted as late as the 1980s. In 1969, Harold Fleming proposed that a group of languages classified by Greenberg as Cushitic were in fact their own independent "Omotic" branch—a proposal that has been widely, if not universally, accepted. These six branches now constitute an academic consensus on the genetic structure of the family. Greenberg relied on his own method of mass comparison of vocabulary items rather than the comparative method of demonstrating regular sound correspondences to establish the family. An alternative classification, based on the pronominal and conjugation systems, was proposed by A.N. Tucker in 1967. As of 2023, widely accepted sound correspondences between the different branches have not yet been firmly established. Nevertheless, morphological traits attributable to the proto-language and the establishment of cognates throughout the family have confirmed its genetic validity. Origin ------ ### Timeline There is no consensus as to when Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken. The absolute latest date for when Proto-Afroasiatic could have been extant is c. 4000 BCE, after which Egyptian and the Semitic languages are firmly attested. However, in all likelihood these languages began to diverge well before this hard boundary. The estimations offered by scholars as to when Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken vary widely, ranging from 18,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE. An estimate at the youngest end of this range still makes Afroasiatic the oldest proven language family. Contrasting proposals of an early emergence, Tom Güldemann has argued that less time may have been required for the divergence than is usually assumed, as it is possible for a language to rapidly restructure due to areal contact, with the evolution of Chadic (and likely also Omotic) serving as pertinent examples. ### Location Likewise, no consensus exists as to where proto-Afroasiatic originated. Scholars have proposed locations for the Afroasiatic homeland across Africa and western Asia. Roger Blench writes that the debate posseses "a strong ideological flavor", with associations between an Asian origin and "high civilization". An additional complicating factor is the lack of agreement on the subgroupings of Afroasiatic (see Further subdivisions) - this makes associating archaeological evidence with the spread of Afroasiatic particularly difficult. Nevertheless, there is a long-accepted link between the speakers of Proto-Southern Cushitic languages and the East African Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (5000 ago), and archaeological evidence associates the Proto-Cushitic speakers with economic transformations in the Sahara dating c. 8,500 ago, as well as the speakers of the Proto-Zenati variety of the Berber languages with an expansion across the Maghreb in the 5th century CE. An origin somewhere on the African continent has broad scholarly support, and is seen as being well-supported by the linguistic data. Most scholars more narrowly place the homeland near the geographic center of its present distribution, "in the southeastern Sahara or adjacent Horn of Africa." The Afroasiatic languages spoken in Africa are not more closely related to each other than they are to Semitic, as one would expect if only Semitic had remained in an Western Asian homeland while all other branches had spread from there. Likewise, all Semitic languages are fairly similar to each other, whereas the African branches of Afroasiatic are very diverse; this suggests the rapid spread of Semitic out of Africa. Proponents of an origin of Afroasiatic within Africa assume the proto-language to have been spoken by pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers, arguing that there is no evidence of words in Proto-Afroasiatic related to agriculture or animal husbandry. Christopher Ehret, O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman also argue that archaeology does not indicate a spread of migrating farmers into Africa, but rather a gradual incorporation of animal husbandry into indigenous foraging cultures. A significant minority of scholars supports an Asian origin of Afroasiatic, most of whom are specialists in Semitic or Egyptian studies. The main proponent of an Asian origin is the linguist Alexander Militarev, who argues that Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken by early agriculturalists in the Levant and subsequently spread to Africa. Militarev associates the speakers of Proto-Afroasiatic with the Levantine Post-Natufian Culture, arguing that the reconstructed lexicon of flora and fauna, as well as farming and pastoralist vocabulary indicates that Proto-AA must have been spoken in this area. Scholar Jared Diamond and archaeologist Peter Bellwood have taken up Militarev's arguments as part of their general argument that the spread of linguistic macrofamilies (such as Indo-European, Bantu, and Austro-Asiatic) can be associated with the development of agriculture; they argue that there is clear archaeological support for farming spreading from the Levant into Africa via the Nile valley. Phonological characteristics ---------------------------- Afroasiatic languages share a number of phonetic and phonological features. ### Syllable structure Egyptian, Cushitic, Berber, Omotic, and most languages in the Semitic branch all require a syllable to begin with a consonant (with the exception of some grammatical prefixes). Igor Diakonoff argues that this constraint goes back to Proto-Afroasiatic. Some Chadic languages allow a syllable to begin with a vowel, however in many Chadic languages verbs must begin with a consonant. In Cushitic and Chadic languages, a glottal stop or glottal fricative may be inserted to prevent a word from beginning with a vowel. Typically, syllables only begin with a single consonant. With the exception of some Chadic languages, all Afroasiatic languages allow both closed and open syllables; many Chadic languages do not allow a syllable to end in a consonant. Most words end in a vowel in Omotic and Cushitic, making syllable-final consonant clusters rare. Diakonoff argues that proto-Afroasiatic syllables disallowed consonant clusters or vowels at the end of a syllable. Syllable weight plays an important role in AA, especially in Chadic; it can affect the form of affixes attached to a word. ### Consonant systems Several Afroasiatic languages have large consonant inventories, and it is likely that this is inherited from proto-Afroasiatic. All Afroasiatic languages contain stops and fricatives; some branches have additional types of consonants such as affricates and lateral consonants. AA languages tend to have pharyngeal fricative consonants, with Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic sharing ħ and ʕ. In all AA languages, consonants can be bilabial, alveolar, velar, and glottal, with additional places of articulation found in some branches or languages. Additionally, the glottal stop (ʔ) usually exists as a phoneme, and there tends to be no phonemic contrast between [p] and [f] or [b] and [v]. In Cushitic, the Ethiopian Semitic language Tigrinya, and some Chadic languages, there is no underlying phoneme [p] at all. Most, if not all branches of Afroasiatic distinguish between voiceless, voiced, and "emphatic" consonants. The emphatic consonants are typically formed deeper in the throat than the others; they can be realized variously as glottalized, pharyngealized, uvularized, ejective, and/or implosive consonants in the different branches. It is generally agreed that only the obstruents had a contrast between voiceless and voiced forms in Proto-Afroasiatic, whereas continuants were voiceless. A form of long-distance consonant assimilation known as consonant harmony is attested in Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and Semitic: it usually affects features such as pharyngealization, palatalization, and labialization. Several Omotic languages have "sibilant harmony", meaning that all sibilants (s, sh, z, ts, etc.) in a word must match. ### Consonant incompatibility Examples of root consonant incompatibilities from Egyptian, after Allen 2020a| consonant | cannot occur with | | --- | --- | | p | b, f, m, h | | r | ꜣ, b | | ḫ | h, ḥ, ẖ, q, k, g, ṯ, ḏ | | s | ḥ, z | | t | ꜥ, z, q, g, d, ḏ | Restrictions against the co-occurrence of certain, usually similar, consonants in verbal roots can be found in all Afroasiatic branches, though they are only weakly attested in Chadic and Omotic. The most widespread constraint is against two different labial consonants (other than *w*) occurring together in a root, a constraint which can be found in all branches but Omotic. Another widespread constraint is against two non-identical lateral obstruents, which can be found in Egyptian, Chadic, Semitic, and probably Cushitic. Such rules do not always apply for nouns, numerals, or denominal verbs, and do not affect prefixes or suffixes added to the root. Roots that may have contained sequences that were possible in Proto-Afroasiatic but are disallowed in the daughter languages are assumed to have undergone consonant dissimilation or assimilation. A set of constraints, developed originally by Joseph Greenberg on the basis of Arabic, has been claimed to be typical for Afroasiatic languages. Greenberg divided Semitic consonants into four types: "back consonants" (glottal, pharyngeal, uvular, laryngeal, and velar consonants), "front consonants" (dental or alveolar consonants), liquid consonants, and labial consonants. He showed that, generally, any consonant from one of these groups could combine with consonants from any other group, but could not be used together with consonants from the same group. Additionally, he showed that Proto-Semitic restricted a sequence of two identical consonants in the first and second position of the triliteral root. These rules also have a number of exceptions: 1. velar consonants can occur with pharyngeals or laryngeals; 2. dental consonants can co-occur with sibilants; However, there are no Proto-Semitic verbal roots with *ḍ* and a sibilant, and roots with *d* and a sibilant are uncommon. In all attested cases of a dental and a sibilant, the sibilant occurs in first position and the dental in second. Similar exceptions can be demonstrated for the other AA branches that have these restrictions to their root formation. James P. Allen has demonstrated that slightly different rules apply to Egyptian: for instance, Egyptian allows two identical consonants in some roots, and disallows velars from occurring with pharyngeals. ### Vowel systems There is a large variety of vocalic systems in AA, and attempts to reconstruct the vocalic system of Proto-Afroasiatic vary considerably. All branches of Afroasiatic have a limited number of underlying vowels (between two and seven), but the number of phonetic vowels can be much larger. The quality of the underlying vowels varies considerably by language; the most common vowel throughout AA is schwa. In the different languages, central vowels are often inserted to break up consonant clusters (a form of epenthesis). Various Semitic, Cushitic, Berber, and Chadic languages, including Arabic, Amharic, Berber, Somali, and East Dangla, also exhibit various types of vowel harmony. ### Tones The majority of AA languages are tonal languages: phonemic tonality is found in Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic languages, but absent in Berber and Semitic. There is no information on whether Egyptian had tones. In contemporary Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic languages, tone is primarily a grammatical feature: it encodes various grammatical functions, only differentiating lexical roots in a few cases. In some Chadic and some Omotic languages every syllable has to have a tone, whereas in most Cushitic languages this is not the case. Some scholars postulate that Proto-Afroasiatic may have had tone, while others believe it arose later from a pitch accent. Examples of tones marking lexical and morphological changes in some AA languages, after Frajzyngier 2012| Language | Examples | | --- | --- | | Somali (Cushitic) | díbi *bull*, absolutive case | dibi *bull*, nominative case | dibí *bull*, genitive case | | ínan, *boy* | inán *girl* | | Bench (Omotic) | k'áyts' *work! do it!* (active imperative) | k'àyts' *be done!* (passive imperative) | | Hausa (Chadic) | màatáa *woman, wife* | máatáa *women, wives* | | dáfàa *to cook* (infinitive) | dàfáa *cook!* (imperative) | Similarities in grammar, syntax, and morphology ----------------------------------------------- At present, there is no generally accepted reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic grammar, syntax, or morphology, nor one for any of the sub-branches besides Egyptian. This means that it is difficult to know which features in Afroasiatic languages are retentions, and which are innovations. Moreover, all Afroasiatic languages have long been in contact with other language families and with each other, leading to the possibility of widespread borrowing both within Afroasiatic and from unrelated languages. There are nevertheless a number of commonly observed features in Afroasiatic morphology and derivation, including, the use of suffixes, infixes, vowel lengthening and shortening as a morphological change, as well as the use of tone changes to indicate morphology. Further commonalities and differences are explored in more detail below. ### General features #### Word order It remains unclear what word order Proto-Afroasiatic had. Berber, Egyptian, and most Semitic languages are verb-initial languages, whereas Cushitic, Omotic and some Semitic subgroups are verb-final languages. Proto-Chadic is reconstructed as having verb-initial word order, but most Chadic languages have subject-verb-object word order. #### Reduplication and gemination Afroasiatic Languages use the processes of reduplication and gemination (which often overlap in meaning) to derive nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs throughout the AA language family. Gemination in particular is one of the typical features of AA. Full or partial reduplication of the verb is often used to derive forms showing repeated action (pluractionality), though it is unclear if this is an inherited feature or has been widely borrowed. ### Nouns #### Grammatical gender and number Use of T on feminine nouns, using data from Souag 2023| Kabyle (Berber) | Hausa (Chadic) | Beja (Cushitic) | Egyptian | Arabic (Semitic) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | wəl-t 'daughter' | yārinyà-r̃ 'the girl' (r̃ < final -t) | ʔo:(r)-t 'a daughter' t-ʔo:r 'the daughter' | zꜣ-t 'daughter' | bin-t 'daughter' | The assignment of nouns and pronouns to either masculine or feminine gender is present in all branches - but not all languages - of the Afroasiatic family. This sex-based gender system is widely agreed to derive from Proto-Afroasiatic. In most branches, gender is an inherent property of nouns. Additionally, even when nouns are not cognates, they tend to have the same gender throughout Afroasiatic ("gender stability"). In Egyptian, Semitic, and Berber, a feminine suffix -t is attested to mark feminine nouns; in some Cushitic and Chadic languages, a feminine -t suffix or prefix (lexicalized from a demonstrative) is used to mark definiteness. In addition to these uses, -t also functions as a diminutive, pejorative, and/or singulative marker in some languages. Some examples of internal plurals in AA, using data from Gragg 2019 and Meyer & Wolff 2019| Language | Meaning | Singular | Plural | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Ge'ez (Semitic) | king | nɨgus | nägäs-t | | Teshelhiyt (Berber) | country | ta-mazir-t | ti-mizar | | Afar (Cushitic) | body | galab | galo:b-a | | Hausa (Chadic) | stream | gulbi | gulà:be: | | Mubi (Chadic) | eye | irin | aràn | Afroasiatic languages have a variety of ways of marking plurals; in some branches, nouns change gender from singular to plural (gender polarity), while in others, plural forms are ungendered. In addition to marking plurals via a number of affixes (with the suffixes -\*uu/-\*w and -\*n(a) widely attested), several AA languages make use of internal vowel change (apophony) and/or insertion (epenthesis). These so-called "internal a" or "broken" plurals are securely attested in Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic, although it is unclear if the Chadic examples are an independent development. Another common method of forming plurals is reduplication. #### Noun cases and states Subject-Object case marking in some AA branches, using data in Gragg 2019, Huehnergard 2011 and Bender 2000| Case | Oromo (Cushitic) | Berber | Akkadian (Semitic) | Wolaitta (Omotic) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | | Nominative/bound | nam-**(n)i** *boy* | intal-t-**i** *girl* | **u**-frux *boy* | t-frux-t *girl* | šarr-**u**-m *king* | šarr-at-**u**-m *queen* | keett-**i** *house* | macci-**yo** *woman* | | Accusative/absolutive/unbound | nam-**a** | intal-**a** | **a**-frux | t-**a**-frux-t | šarr-**a**-m | šarr-at-**a**-m | keett-**a** | macci-**ya** | Nouns cases are found in the Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, and Omotic. They are not found in Chadic languages, and there is no evidence for cases in Egyptian. A common pattern in AA languages with case is for the nominative to be marked by *-u* or *-i*, and the accusative to be marked by *-a*. However, the number and types of cases varies across AA and also within the individual branches. Some languages in AA have a marked nominative alignment, a feature which may date back to Proto-Afroasiatic. Zygmont Frajzyngier states that a general characteristic of case marking in AA languages is that it tends to mark roles such as genitive, dative, locative, etc. rather than the subject and object. Noun states in different AA branches, using data from Allen 2020, Lipiński 2001, Mous 2012, and Kossmann 2012| Language | Free/absolute state | Construct State | Additional state | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Aramaic (Semitic) | malkā(h) *queen* | malkat | Emphatic: malkətā | | Coptic (Egyptian) | jôj *head* | jaj- | Pronominal: jô- | | Iraqw (Cushitic) | afee *mouths* | afé-r | - | | Riffian (Berber) | a-ryaz *man* | - | Annexed: wə-ryaz | A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." Linguists use the term "state" to refer to different things in different languages. In Cushitic and Semitic, nouns exist in the "free state" or the "construct state". The construct state is a special, usually reduced form of a noun, which is used when the noun is possessed by another noun (Semitic) or is modified by an adjective or relative clause (Cushitic). Edward Lipiński refers to Semitic nouns as having four states: absolute (free/indeterminate), construct, determinate, and predicate. Coptic and Egyptian grammar also refers to nouns having a "free" (absolute) state, a "construct state," and a "pronominal state." The construct state is used when a noun becomes unstressed as the first element of a compound, whereas the pronominal state is used when the noun has a suffixed possessive pronoun. Berber instead contrasts between the "free state" and the "annexed state," the latter of which is used for a variety of purposes, including for subjects placed after a verb and after certain prepositions. ### Modifiers and agreement There is no strict distinction between adjectives, nouns, and adverbs in Afroasaiatic. All branches of Afroasiatic have a lexical category of adjectives except for Chadic; some Chadic languages do have adjectives, however. In Berber languages, adjectives are rare and are mostly replaced by nouns of quality and stative verbs. In different languages, adjectives (and other modifiers) must either precede or follow the noun. In most AA languages, numerals precede the noun. In those languages that have adjectives, they can take gender and number markings, which, in some cases, agree with the gender and number of the noun they are modifying. However, in Omotic, adjectives do not agree with nouns: sometimes, they only but take gender and number marking only when they are used as nouns, in other cases, they take gender and number marking only when they follow the noun (the noun then receives no marking). Masculine, Feminine, Plural agreement patterns in N T N, using data from Greenberg 1960| Language | meaning | Masculine | Feminine | Plural | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Old South Arabian (Semitic) | this | ð-**n** | ð-**t** | ʔl-**n** | | Egyptian | this | (p-n) | **t**-n | **n**-n | | Beja (Cushitic) | this | be-**n** | be-**t** | bal-**īn** | | Tuareg (Berber) | relative verb form | ilkəm-**ən** | təlkəm-**ət** | ilkəm-**ən-in** | | Hausa (Chadic) | possessive base | **n**a- | **t**a- | **n**a- | A widespread pattern of gender and number marking in Afroasiatic, found on demonstratives, articles, adjectives, and relative markers, is a consonant N for masculine, T for feminine, and N for plural. This can be found in Semitic, Egyptian, Beja, Berber, and Chadic. A system K (masculine), T (feminine), and H (plural) can be found in Cushitic, Chadic, with masculine K also appearing in Omotic. The feminine marker T is one of the most consistent aspects across the different branches of AA. ### Verb forms #### Consonantal root structures A widely attested feature in AA languages is a consonantal structure into which various vocalic "templates" are placed. This structure is particularly visible in the verbs, and is particularly noticeable in Semitic. Besides for Semitic, vocalic templates are well attested for Cushitic and Berber, where, along with Chadic, it is less productive; it is absent in Omotic. For Egyptian, evidence for the root-and-template structure exists from Coptic. In Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, verbs have no inherent vowels at all; the vowels found in a given verb are dependent on the vocalic template. In Chadic, verb stems can include an inherent vowel as well. Most Semitic verbs are triliteral (have three consonants), whereas most Chadic, Omotic, and Cushitic verbs are biliteral (having two consonants). The degree to which the Proto-AA verbal root was triliteral is debated. It may have originally been mostly biconsonantal, to which various affixes (verbal extensions) were then added and lexicalized. Examples of verbal templates in AA languages, after Gragg 2019| Language | Akkadian (Semitic) | Berber | Beja (Cushitic) | Ron/Daffo (Chadic) | Coptic (Egyptian) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Root | p-r-s *to divide* | k-n-f *to roast* | d-b-l *to gather* | m-(w)-t *to die* | k-t *to build* | | Templates | iprus- (preterite) | ǎknəf (aorist) | -dbil- (past) | mot (perfective) | kôt (infintive) | | iparras- (present) | əknǎf (perfective) | -i:-dbil- (aorist) | mwaát (imperfective) | kêt (qualitative) | | iptaras (perfect) | əkǎnnǎf (imperfective) | i:-dbil- (modal) | | | əknəf (neg. perfective) | da:n-bi:l (present sg) | | əkənnəf (neg. imperfective) | -e:-dbil- (present pl) | | | -dabi:l- (negative) | As part of these templates, the alternation (apophony) between high vowels (e.g. i, u) and a low vowel (a) in verbal forms is usually described as one of the main characteristics of AA languages: this change codes a variety of different functions. It is unclear whether this system is a common AA trait; the Chadic examples, for instance, show signs of originally deriving from affixes, which could explain the origins of the alterations in other languages as well. #### Tenses, aspects, and moods (TAMs) There is no agreement about which tenses, aspects, or moods (TAMs) Proto-Afroasiatic might have had. Most grammars of AA posit a distinction between perfective and imperfective verbal aspects, which can be found in Cushitic, Berber, Semitic, most Chadic languages, and some Omotic languages. The Egyptian verbal system diverges greatly from that found in the other branches. Additionally, it is common in Afroasiatic languages for the present/imperfective form to be a derived (marked) form of the verb, whereas in most other languages and language families the present tense is the default form of the verb. Another common trait across the family is the use of a suppletive imperative for verbs of motion. #### "Prefix conjugation" Conjugation of verbs using prefixes that mark person, number, and gender can be found in Semitic, Berber, and in Cushitic, where it is only found on a small set of frequent verbs. These prefixes are clearly cognate across the branches, although their use within the verbal systems of the individual languages varies. There is a general pattern in which n- is used for the first person plural, whereas t- is used for all forms of the second person regardless of plurality or gender, as well as feminine singular. Prefixes of ʔ- (glottal stop) for the first person singular and y- for the third person masculine can also be reconstructed. As there is no evidence for the "prefix conjugation" in Omotic, Chadic, or Egyptian, it is unclear whether this was a Proto-Afroasiatic feature that has been lost in those branches or is a shared innovation among Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic. The "prefix conjugation" in Afroasiatic, following Gragg 2019| Number | Person | Gender | Akkadian (Semitic) | Berber | Beja (Cushitic) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Preterite | Present | Aorist | Imperfective | "Old Past" | "Old Present" | "New Present" | | Singular | 1 | a-prus | a-parras | ăknəf-ăʕ | əkănnăf-ăʕ | ʔ-i:-dbíl | ʔ-a-dbíl | ʔ-a-danbí:l | | 2 | m | ta-prus | ta-parras | t-ăknəf-ət | t-əkănnăf-ət | t-i:-dbíl-a | t-i-dbíl-a | danbí:l-a | | f | ta-prus-i: | ta-parras-i | t-i:-dbíl-i | t-i-dbíl-i | danbí:l-i | | 3 | m | i-prus | i-parras | y-ăknəf | y-əkănnăf | ʔ-i:-dbíl | ʔ-i-dbíl | danbí:l | | f | ta-prus | ta-parras | t-ăknəf | t-əkănnăf | t-i:-dbíl | t-i-dbíl | | Plural | 1 | ni-prus | ni-parras | n-ăknəf | n-əkănnăf | n-i:-dbíl | n-i-dbíl | n-e:-dbíl | | 2 | m | ta-prus-a: | a-parras | t-ăknəf-ăm | t-əkănnăf-ăm | t-i:-dbíl-na | t-i-dbíl-na | t-e:-dbíl-na | | f | ta-parras | t-ăknəf-măt | t-əkănnăf-măt | | 3 | m | i-prus-u: | ta-parras-i: | ăknəf-ăn | əkănnăf-ăn | ʔ-i:-dbíl | ʔ-i-dbíl | ʔ-e:-dbíl-na | | f | i-prus-a: | i-parras | ăknəf-năt | əkănnăf-năt | | #### "Suffix conjugation" Some AA branches have what is called a "suffix conjugation", formed by adding pronominal suffixes to indicate person, gender, and number to a verbal adjective. In Akkadian, Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic this forms a "stative conjugation", used to express the state or result of an action; the same endings as in Akkadian and Egyptian are also present in the West Semitic perfective verb form. In Akkadian and Egyptian, the suffixes appear to be reduced forms of the independent pronouns (see Pronouns); the obvious correspondence between the endings in the two branches has been argued to show that Egyptian and Semitic are closely related. While some scholars posit an AA origin for this form, it is possible that the Berber and Cushitic forms are independent developments, as they show significant differences from the Egyptian and Semitic forms. The Cushitic forms in particular may be derived from morphology found in subordinate clauses. The "suffix conjugation" in Afroasiatic, following Gragg 2019| Number | Person | Gender | Akkadian (Semitic) | Egyptian | Berber | Afar (Cushitic) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Singular | 1 | pars-a:ku | sḏm-kw | măttit-ăʕ | miʕ-iyo-h | | 2 | m | pars-a:ta | sḏm-tj | măttit-ət | miʕ-ito-h | | f | pars-a:ti | | 3 | m | paris | sḏm-w | măttit | meʕ-e-h | | f | pars-at | sḏm-tj | măttit-ăt | | Plural | 1 | pars-a:nu | sḏm-wjn | măttit-it | miʕ-ino-h | | 2 | m | pars-a:tunu | sḏm-tjwnj | miʕ-ito:nu-h | | f | pars-a:tina | | 3 | m | pars-u: | sḏm-wj | moʕ-o:nu-h | | f | pars-a: | | ### Common derivational affixes #### M-prefix noun derivation A prefix in m- is the most widely attested affix in AA that is used to derive nouns. It forms agent nouns, place nouns, and instrument nouns. In some branches, it can also derive abstract nouns and participles. Omotic, meanwhile, shows evidence for a non-productive prefix mV- associated with the feminine gender. Christopher Ehret has argued that this prefix is a later development that was not present in Proto-Afro-Asiatic, but rather derived from a PAA indefinite pronoun \*m-. Such an etymology is rejected by A. Zaborski and Gábor Takács, the latter of whom argues for a PAA *\*ma-* that unites all or some of the meanings in the modern languages. Examples of m-prefix noun derivations, using data from Meyer & Wolff 2019, Beylage 2018, and Wilson 2020| Language | Root | Agent/Instrument | Place/Abstract | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Egyptian | swr *to drink* | m-swr *drinking bowl* | - | | Arabic (Semitic) | k-t-b *to write* | mu-katib-un *writer* | ma-ktab-un *school* | | Hausa (Chadic) | hayf- *to give birth* | má-hàif-íi *father* | má-háif-áa *birthplace* | | Beja (Cushitic) | firi *to give birth* | - | mi-frey *birth* | | Tuareg (Berber) | äks *to eat* | em-äks *eater* | - | #### Verbal extensions Common verbal extensions in Afroasiatic, using data from Wilson 2020, Bubenik 2023, and Kossmann 2007| Language | Causative \*s- | Reflexive/middle \*t- | Passive \*n- | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Akkadian (Semitic) | u-š-apris 'make cut' | mi-t-gurum 'agree (with one another)' | i-p-paris (> \*i-n-paris) 'be cut' | | Figuig (Berber) | ssu-fəɣ 'let out' | i-ttə-ska 'it has been built' | mmu-bḍa 'divide oneself' | | Beja (Cushitic) | s-dabil 'make gather' | t-dabil 'be gathered' | m-dabaal 'gather each other' | | Egyptian | s-ꜥnḫ 'make live' | pr-tj 'is sent forth' | n-hp 'escape' | Many AA languages use prefixes or suffixes (verbal extensions) to encode various pieces of information about the verb. Three derivational prefixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Afroasiatic: \*s- 'causative', \*t- 'middle voice' or 'reflexive', and \*n- 'passive'; the prefixes appear with various related meanings in the individual daughter languages and branches. Christopher Ehret has proposed that Proto-Afroasiatic originally had as many as thirty-seven separate verbal extensions, many of which then became fossilized as third consonants. This theory has been criticized by some, such as Andrzej Zaborski and Alan Kaye, as being too many extensions to be realistic, though Zygmont Frajzyngier and Erin Shay note that some Chadic languages have as many as twelve extensions. #### "Nisba" derivation The so-called "Nisba" is a suffix used to derive adjectives from nouns and, in Egyptian, also from prepositions. It is found in Egyptian, Semitic, and possibly, in some relic forms, Berber. The suffix has the same basic form in Egyptian and Semitic, taking the form -i(y) in Semitic and being written -j in Egyptian. The Semitic and Cushitic genitive case in -i/-ii may be related to "nisba" adjective derivation. "Nisba" derivation in Semitic and Egyptian, using data from Wilson 2020 and Beylage 2018| Language | Noun/preposition | Derived adjective | | --- | --- | --- | | Hebrew (Semitic) | yārēaḥ *moon* | yərēḥī *lunar* | | Egyptian | nṯr *god* | nṯr.j *divine* | | ḥr *upon* | ḥr.j *upper, which is upon* | Due to its presence in the oldest attested and best-known AA branches, nisba derivation is often thought of as a "quintessentially Afroasiatic feature". Christopher Ehret argues for its presence in Proto-Afroasiatic and for its attestation in some form in all branches, with a shape *-\*ay* in addition to -*\*iy* in some cases. Vocabulary comparison --------------------- ### Pronouns The forms of the pronouns are very stable throughout Afroasiatic (excluding Omotic), and they have been used as one of the chief tools for determining whether a language belongs to the family. However, there is no consensus on what the reconstructed set of Afroasiatic pronouns might have looked like. A common characteristic of AA languages is the existence of a special set of "independent" pronouns, which are distinct from subject pronouns. They can occur together with subject pronouns but cannot fulfill an object function. Also common are dependent/affix pronouns (used for direct objects and to mark possession). For most branches, the first person pronouns contain a nasal consonant (n, m), whereas the third person displays a sibilant consonant (s, sh). Other commonalities are masculine and feminine forms used in both the second and third persons, except in Cushitic and Omotic. These pronouns tend to show a masculine "u" and a feminine "i". The Omotic forms of the personal pronouns differ from the others, with only the plural forms in North Omotic appearing potentially to be cognate. Pronouns in the Afroasiatic family, following Gragg 2019| Meaning | North Omotic (Yemsa) | Beja Cushitic (Baniamer) | East Cushitic (Somali) | West Chadic (Hausa) | East Chadic (Mubi) | Egyptian | East Semitic (Akkadian) | West Semitic (Arabic) | Berber (Tashelhiyt) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 'I' (ind.) | tá | aní | aní-ga | ni: | ndé | jnk | ana:ku | ʔana | nkki | | 'me, my' (dep.) | -ná- -tá- | -u: | -ʔe | na | ní | -j wj | -i: -ya | -i: -ni: | -i | | 'we' (ind.) | ìnno | hinín | anná-ga inná-ga | mu: | ána éné | jnn | ni:nu: | naħnu | nkkwni | | 'you' (masc. sing. ind.) | né | barú:k | adí-ga | kai | kám | nt-k | at-ta | ʔan-ta | kiji | | 'you' (fem. sing. ind.) | batú:k | ke: | kín | nt-ṯ | at-ti | ʔan-ti | kmmi (f) | | 'you' (masc. sing., dep.) | -né- | -ú:k(a) | ku | ka | ká | -k | -ka | -ka | -k | | 'you' (fem. sing., dep.) | -ú:k(i) | ku | ki | kí | -ṯ | -ki | -ki | -m | | 'you' (plural, dep.) | -nitì- | -ú:kna | idin | ku | ká(n) | -ṯn | -kunu (m) -kina (f) | -kum (m) -kunna (f) | -un (m) -un-t (f) | | 'he' (ind.) | bár | barú:s | isá-ga | ši: | ár | nt-f | šu | - | ntta (m) | | 'she' (ind.) | batú:s | ijá-ga | ita | tír | nt-s | ši | hiya | ntta-t | | 'he' (dep.) | -bá- | -ūs | - | ši | à | -f sw | -šu | -hu | -s | | 'she' (dep.) | ta | dì | -s sy | -ša | -ha: | | ### Numerals Unlike in the Indo-European or Austronesian language families, numerals in AA languages cannot be traced to a proto-system. The Cushitic and Chadic numeral systems appear to have originally been base 5. The system in Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic, however, has independent words for the numbers 6-9. Thus, it is possible that the numerals in Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic are more closely related, whereas the Cushitic and Chadic numerals are more closely related to each other. Modern Chadic numeral systems are sometimes decimal, having separate names for the numbers 1-10, and sometimes base-5, deriving the numbers 6-9 from the numbers 1-5 in some way. Some families show more than one word for a numeral: Chadic, Semitic, and Berber each have two words for two, and Semitic has four words for one. Andrzej Zaborski further notes that the numbers "one," "two," and "five" are particularly susceptible to replacement by new words, with "five" often based on a word meaning "hand". Another factor making comparisons of AA numeral systems difficult is the possibility of borrowing. Only some Berber languages maintain the native Berber numeral system, with many using Arabic loans for higher numbers and some from any numeral beyond two. In some Berber languages, the roots for one and two are also borrowed from Arabic. Some South Cushitic numerals are borrowed from Nilotic languages, other Cushitic numerals have been borrowed from Ethiopian Semitic languages. | | | Numerals from throughout Afroasiatic, using data from Blažek 2017, Blažek 2018, Lipiński 2001, and Frajzyngier & Shay 2012a| Meaning | Egyptian | Tuareg (Berber) | Akkadian (East Semitic) | Arabic (West Semitic) | Beja (North Cushitic) | West Central Oromo (Cushitic) | Lele (East Chadic) | Gidar (Central Chadic) | Bench (North Omotic) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | One | m. | wꜥ | yiwən, yan, iğ | ištēn | wāḥid | gáal | tokko | pínà | tákà | mat' | | f. | wꜥ.t | yiwət, išt | ištiāt | wāḥida | gáat | | Two | m. | sn.wj | sin, sən | šinā | ʔiṯnāni | máloob | lama | sò | súlà | nam | | f. | sn.tj | snat, sənt | šittā | ʔiṯnatāni | máloot | | Three | m. | ḫmt.w | ḵraḍ, šaṛḍ | šalāšat | ṯalāṯa | mháy | sadii | súbù | hókù | kaz | | f. | ḫmt.t | ḵraṭt, šaṛṭ | šalāš | ṯalāṯ | mháyt | | Four | m. | (j)fd.w | kkuẓ | erbet(t) | ʔarbaʕa | faḍíg | afur | pórìn | póɗó | od | | f. | (j)fd.t | kkuẓt | erba | ʔarbaʕ | faḍígt | | Five | m. | dj.w | səmmus, afus | ḫamšat | ḫamsa | áy | šani | bày | ɬé | ut͡ʃ | | f. | dj.t | səmmust | ḫamiš | ḫams | áyt | | Six | m | sjs.w | sḍis | šiššet | sitta | aságwir | jaha | ménéŋ | ɬré | sapm | | f. | sjs.t | sḍist | šiš(š) | sitt | asagwitt | | Seven | m | sfḫ.w | sa | sebet(t) | sabʕa | asarámaab | tolba | mátàlíŋ | bùhúl | napm | | f. | sfḫ.t | sat | seba | sabʕ | asarámaat | | Eight | m. | ḫmn.w | tam | samānat | ṯamāniya | asúmhay | saddet | jurgù | dòdòpórò | nyartn | | f. | ḫmn.t | tamt | samānē | ṯamānin | asúmhayt | | Nine | m. | psḏ.w | tẓa | tišīt | tisʕa | aššaḍíg | sagal | célà | váyták | irstn | | f. | psḏ.t | tẓat | tiše | tisʕ | aššaḍígt | | Ten | m. | mḏ.w | mraw | ešeret | ʕašara | támin | kuḍan | gòrò | kláù | tam | | f. | mḏ.t | mrawt | ešer | ʕašr | támint | ### Cognates Afroasiatic languages share a vocabulary of Proto-Afroasiatic origin to varying extents. Writing in 2004, John Huehnergard notes the great difficulty in establishing cognate sets across the family. Identifying cognates is difficult because the languages in question are often separated by thousands of years of development and many languages within the family have long been in contact with each other, raising the possibility of loanwords. Work is also hampered because of the poor state of documentation of many languages. There are two etymological dictionaries of Afroasiatic, one by Christopher Ehret, and one by Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova, both from 1995. Both works provide highly divergent reconstructions and have been heavily criticized by other scholars. Andrzej Zaborski refers to Orel and Stolbova's reconstructions as "controversial", and Ehret's as "not acceptable to many scholars". Tom Güldemann argues that much comparative work in Afroasiatic suffers from not attempting first to reconstruct smaller units within the individual branches, but instead comparing words in the individual languages. Nevertheless, both dictionaries agree on some items and some proposed cognates are uncontroversial. Such cognates tend to rely on relatively simple sound correspondences. | | | Some widely recognized cognates in Afroasiatic, following Hayward 2000, Gragg 2019, and Huehnergard 2004| Meaning | Proto-Afroasiatic | Omotic | Cushitic | Chadic | Egyptian | Semitic | Berber | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Ehret 1995 | Orel & Stolbova 1995 | | to strike, to squeeze | - | \*bak- | Gamo *bak-* 'strike' | Afar *bak* | Wandala *bak* 'to strike, beat' | *bk* 'kill (with a sword)' | Arabic *bkk* 'to squeeze, tear' | Tuareg *bakkat* 'to strike, pound' | | blood | \*dîm- \*dâm- | \*dam- | Kaffa *damo* 'blood'; Aari *zomʔi* 'to blood' | (cf. Oromo *di:ma* 'red') | Bolewa *dom* | (cf. *jdmj* 'red linen') | Akkadian *damu* 'blood' | Ghadames *dəmmm-ən* 'blood' | | food | - | \*kamaʔ- / \*kamay- | - | Afar *okm-* 'to eat' | Hausa *ka:ma:ma:* 'snack'; Tumak *ka:m* 'mush' | *kmj* 'food' | - | - | | to be old, elder | \*gâd-/gûd- | \*gad- | - | Oromo *gada* 'age group, generation'; Burji *gad-uwa* 'old man' | Ngizim *gad'e* 'old' | - | Arabic *gadd-* 'grandfather, ancestor' | - | | to say | \*geh- | \*gay- | Sheko *ge* 'to say'; Aari *gai-* 'to say' | - | Hausa *gaya* 'to say' | *ḏwj* 'to call, say' | (cf. Hebrew *gʕy* 'to shout') | - | | tongue | \*lis'- 'to lick' | \*les- 'tongue' | Kaffa *mi-laso* 'tongue' | - | Mwaghavul *liis* tongue, Gisiga *eles* 'tongue | *ns* 'tongue' | Akkadian *liša:nu* 'tongue' | Kabyle *iləs* 'tongue' | | to die | \*maaw- | \*mawut- | - | Rendille *amut* 'to die, to be ill' | Hausa *mutu* 'to die', Mubi *ma:t* 'to die' | *mwt* 'to die' | Hebrew *mwt*, 'to die' Ge'ez *mo:ta* 'to die' | Kabyle *ammat* 'to die' | | to fly, to soar | \*pîr- | \*pir- | (cf. Yemsa *fill-* 'to jump'; Dime *far* 'to jump') | Beja *fir* 'to fly' | Hausa *fi:ra* 'to soar'; Mafa *parr*, *perr* 'bird's flight' | *pꜣ* 'to fly'; *prj* 'to soar, rise' | Ugaritic *pr* 'to flee'; Arabic *frr* 'to flee' | Ahogar *fərə-t* 'to fly' | | name | \*sǔm / \*sǐm- | \*süm- | - | - | Hausa *su:na:* 'name'; Sura *sun* 'name'; Ga'anda *ɬim* 'name' | - | Akkadian *šumu* 'name' | - | | to sour | \*s'ăm- | - | Mocha *č'àm-* 'to be bitter' | PEC *\*cam-* 'to rot' | *\*s'am* 'sour' | *smj* 'curds' | Arabic *sumūț* 'to begin to turn sour' | - | | to spit | \*tuf- | \*tuf- | - | Beja *tuf* 'to spit'; Kemant *təff y-* 'to spit'; Somali *tuf* 'to spit' | - | *tf* 'to spit' | Aramaic *tpp* 'to spit'; Arabic *tff* 'to spit' | - | | to rend, tear | \*zaaʕ- | - | Gamo *zaʔ* 'to rend, split' | Dahalo *ḏaaʕ-* 'to rend, to tear (of an animal tearing its prey)' Kw'adza *daʔ-* 'to bite' | Ngizim *dáar-* 'to cut into long strips' | - | Arabic *zaʕy-* 'to snatch violently from, tear out' | - | *Abbreviations:* PEC='Proto-Eastern Cushtic'. 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"Semitic Root Incompatibilities and Historical Linguistics". *Journal of Semitic Studies*. **56** (1): 1–18. doi:10.1093/jss/fgq056. * Wilson, David (2020). *A Concatenative Analysis of Diachronic Afro-Asiatic Morphology* (Thesis). University of Pennsylvania. * Winand, Jean (2023). "Afroasiatic Lexical Comparison: An Egyptologist's Point of View". In Almansa-Villatoro, M. Victoria; Štubňová Nigrelli, Silvia (eds.). *Ancient Egyptian and Afroasiatic: Rethinking the Origins*. Eisenbrauns. pp. 35–50. ISBN 9781646022120. * Zaborski, Andrzej (1987). "Basic Numerals in Cushitic". In Jungraithmayr, Herrmann; Mueller, Walter W. (eds.). *Proceedings of the Fourth International Hamito-Semitic Congress*. John Benjamins. pp. 317–347. * Zaborski, Andrzej (2011). "Afro-Asiatic Languages". In Edzard, Lutz; Jong, Rudolf de (eds.). *Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics* (Managing Editors Online ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1570-6699\_eall\_EALL\_COM\_0008.

Afroasiatic languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroasiatic_languages

**U**, or **u**, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is *u* (pronounced /ˈjuː/), plural *ues*. History ------- U derives from the Semitic waw, as does F, and later, Y, W, and V. Its oldest ancestor goes to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and is probably from a hieroglyph of a mace or fowl, representing the sound [v] or the sound [w]. This was borrowed to Phoenician, where it represented the sound [w], and seldom the vowel [u]. In Greek, two letters were adapted from the Phoenician waw. The letter was adapted, but split in two, with the first one of the same name (Ϝ) being adapted to represent [w], and the second one being Upsilon (Υ), which was originally adapted to represent [u], later fronted, becoming [y]. In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as U, taking the form of modern-day V — either directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediary — to represent the same /u/ sound, as well as the consonantal /w/, *num* — originally spelled *NVM* — was pronounced /num/ and *via* was pronounced [ˈwia]. From the 1st century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal /w/ developed into /β/ (kept in Spanish), then later to /v/. During the late Middle Ages, two forms of U developed, which were both used for /v/ or the vowel /u/. The pointed form 'V' was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form 'U' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas 'valour' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed 'haue' and 'vpon', respectively. The first recorded use of 'U' and 'V' as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where 'V' preceded 'U'. Printers eschewed capital 'V' and 'U' into the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762. The rounded variant became the modern-day version of U and its former pointed form became V. Pronunciation and use --------------------- Pronunciations of Uu| *Languages in italics do not use the Latin alphabet; the table refers to latinizations* | | --- | | Language | Dialect(s) | Pronunciation (IPA) | Environment | Notes | | Afrikaans | /y/ | | | | *Chinese* | *Standard Chinese* | /u/ | After the Pinyin consonants ⟨b⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨zh⟩, ⟨ch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨w⟩ | In Pinyin | | /y/ | After the Pinyin consonants ⟨j⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨y⟩. To make the /y/ sound after the consonants ⟨n⟩ or ⟨l⟩, ⟨ü⟩ is used. | | Danish | /u/ | Usually | | | /ʊ/ | Before two consonants | | | Dutch | /œ/ | Before two consonants | | | /y/ | Usually | | | English | /ɛ/ | In "bury" and "burial" | | | /ɪ/ | In "busy" and "business" | | | /(j)u/ | Stressed and not preceding a consonant | | | /ʊ/ | Sometimes | | | /ʌ/ | Usually | | | /w/ | Following ⟨q⟩ or ⟨g⟩ and preceding a vowel | | | *silent* | Following ⟨q⟩ or ⟨g⟩ and preceding vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩, usually in French loanwords | | | Esperanto | /u/ | | | | Faroese | /ʊ/ | Before two consonants | | | /u/ | Usually | | | French | /y/ | Usually | | | /ɥ/ | Before vowels | | | German | /ʊ/ | Before two consonants | | | /u/ | Usually | | | Icelandic | /u/ | Usually | | | /ʏ/ | Before two consonants | | | Indonesian | Standard Indonesian | /u/ | Always | | | Italian | /u/ | Usually | | | /w/ | Before vowels | | | *Japanese* | /ɯ/ | Usually | | | *silent* | Unstressed, between two consonants | | | Lithuanian | /ʊ/ | | | | Low German | /ʊ/ | Before two consonants | | | /u/ | Usually | | | Malay | /u/ | Usually | | | /w/ | Before vowels | | | Norwegian | /ɵ/ | Before two consonants | | | /ʉ/ | Usually | | | Portuguese | /u/ | Usually | | | /w/ | Before vowels | | | /ɐ/ | Only in some recent loanwords | | | Spanish | /u/ | Usually | | | /w/ | Before vowels | | | Swedish | /ɵ/ | Before two consonants | | | /ʉ/ | Usually | | | Welsh | Northern dialects | /ɨ/ | | | | Southern dialects | /ɪ/ | | | ### English In English, the letter ⟨u⟩ has four main pronunciations. There are "long" and "short" pronunciations. Short ⟨u⟩, found originally in closed syllables, most commonly represents /ʌ/ (as in 'duck'), though it retains its old pronunciation /ʊ/ after labial consonants in some words (as in 'put') and occasionally elsewhere (as in 'sugar'). Long ⟨u⟩, found originally in words of French origin (the descendant of Old English long u was respelled as ⟨ou⟩), most commonly represents /juː/ (as in 'mule'), reducing to /uː/ after ⟨r⟩ (as in 'rule'), ⟨j⟩ (as in 'June') and sometimes (or optionally) after ⟨l⟩ (as in 'lute'), and after additional consonants in American English (see do–dew merger). (After ⟨s⟩, /sjuː, zjuː/ have assimilated to /ʃuː, ʒuː/ in some words) In a few words, short ⟨u⟩ represents other sounds, such as /ɪ/ in 'business' and /ɛ/ in 'bury'. The letter ⟨u⟩ is used in the digraphs ⟨au⟩ /ɔː/, ⟨ou⟩ (various pronunciations, but usually /aʊ/), and with the value of "long u" in ⟨eu⟩, ⟨ue⟩, and in a few words ⟨ui⟩ (as in 'fruit'). It often has the sound /w/ before a vowel in the sequences ⟨qu⟩ (as in 'quick'), ⟨gu⟩ (as in 'anguish'), and ⟨su⟩ (as in 'suave'), though it is silent in final *-que* (as in 'unique') and in many words with ⟨gu⟩ (as in 'guard'). Additionally, the letter ⟨u⟩ is used in text messaging, Internet and other written slang to denote 'you', by virtue of both being pronounced /juː/. One thing to note is that certain varieties of the English language (i.e. British English, Canadian English, etc.) use the letter U in words such as *colour*, *labour*, *valour*, etc.; however, in American English the letter is not used and said words mentioned are spelled as *color* and so on. It is the thirteenth most frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 2.8% in words. ### Other languages In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨u⟩ represents the close back rounded vowel /u/ or a similar vowel. In French orthography the letter represents the close front rounded vowel (/y/); /u/ is represented by ⟨ou⟩. In Dutch and Afrikaans, it represents either /y/, or a near-close near-front rounded vowel (/ʏ/); likewise, the phoneme /u/ is represented by ⟨oe⟩. In Welsh orthography the letter can represent a long close front unrounded vowel (/iː/) or short near-close near-front unrounded vowel (/ɪ/) in Southern dialects. In Northern dialects, the corresponding long and short vowels are a long close central unrounded vowel (/ɨː/) and a short lowered close central unrounded vowel (/ɨ̞/), respectively. /uː/ and /ʊ/ are represented by ⟨w⟩. Other uses ---------- The symbol 'U' is the chemical symbol for uranium. In the context of Newtonian mechanics 'U' is the symbol for the potential energy of a system. 'u' is the symbol for the atomic mass unit and 'U' is the symbol for one enzyme unit. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the close back rounded vowel is represented by the lower case ⟨u⟩. U is also the source of the mathematical symbol ∪, representing a union. It is used mainly for Venn diagrams and geometry. It is used as for *micro-* in metric measurements as a replacement for the Greek letter μ (mu), of which it is a graphic approximation when that Greek letter is not available, as in "`um`" for μm (micrometer). Some universities, such as the University of Miami and the University of Utah, are locally known as "The U". U (or sometimes RU) is a standard height unit of measure in rack units, with each U equal to 44.50 millimetres (1.75 in). U is also used the letter in the coat of arms/flag of the Ustaše. *U* is an honorific in Burmese. Related characters ------------------ ### Ancestors, descendants and siblings * 𐤅: Semitic letter Waw, from which the following symbols originally derive + Υ υ : Greek letter Upsilon, from which U derives - V v : Latin letter V, descended from U * W w : Latin letter W, descended from V/U - Y y : Latin letter Y, also descended from Upsilon - У у : Cyrillic letter U, which also derives from Upsilon - Ү ү : Cyrillic letter Ue + Ϝ ϝ : Greek letter Digamma - F f : Latin letter F, derived from Digamma * IPA-specific symbols related to U: ʊ ɥ * Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to U: + U+1D1C ᴜ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL U + U+1D41 ᵁ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL U + U+1D58 ᵘ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL U + U+1D64 ᵤ LATIN SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER U + U+1D1D ᴝ LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS U + U+1D1E ᴞ LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS DIAERESIZED U + U+1D59 ᵙ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL SIDEWAYS U * Teuthonista phonetic transcription-specific symbols related to U: + U+AB4E ꭎ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH SHORT RIGHT LEG + U+AB4F ꭏ LATIN SMALL LETTER U BAR WITH SHORT RIGHT LEG + U+AB51 ꭑ LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED UI + U+AB52 ꭒ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LEFT HOOK + U+AB5F ꭟ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL U WITH LEFT HOOK * ᶸ : Modifier letter small capital u is used for phonetic transcription * Ꞿ ꞿ : Glottal U, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic * U with diacritics: Ŭ ŭ Ʉ ʉ ᵾ ᶶ Ꞹ ꞹ Ụ ụ Ü ü Ǜ ǜ Ǘ ǘ Ǚ ǚ Ǖ ǖ Ṳ ṳ Ú ú Ù ù Û û Ṷ ṷ Ǔ ǔ Ȗ ȗ Ű ű Ŭ ŭ Ư ư Ứ ứ Ừ ừ Ử ử Ự ự Ữ Ữ Ủ ủ Ū ū Ū̀ ū̀ Ū́ ū́ Ṻ ṻ Ū̃ ū̃ Ũ ũ Ṹ ṹ Ṵ ṵ ᶙ Ų ų Ų́ ų́ Ų̃ ų̃ Ȕ ȕ Ů ů + U+A7B8 Ꞹ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH STROKE and U+A7B9 ꞹ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH STROKE are used in the Mazahua language and feature a bar diacritic ### Ligatures and abbreviations * ∪ : Union * ∩ : Intersection, an upside-down upper case "U" Computing codes --------------- Character information| Preview | U | u | | --- | --- | --- | | Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U | LATIN SMALL LETTER U | | Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | | Unicode | 85 | U+0055 | 117 | U+0075 | | UTF-8 | 85 | 55 | 117 | 75 | | Numeric character reference | &#85; | &#x55; | &#117; | &#x75; | | EBCDIC family | 228 | E4 | 164 | A4 | | ASCII 1 | 85 | 55 | 117 | 75 | 1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings. Other representations --------------------- | | | | --- | --- | | NATO phonetic | Morse code | | Uniform | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | ⠥ | | Signal flag | Flag semaphore | American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) | British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) | Braille dots-136 Unified English Braille |

U

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U

**Quantum mechanics** is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale. Quantum mechanics differs from classical physics in that energy, momentum, angular momentum, and other quantities of a bound system are restricted to discrete values (quantization); objects have characteristics of both particles and waves (wave–particle duality); and there are limits to how accurately the value of a physical quantity can be predicted prior to its measurement, given a complete set of initial conditions (the uncertainty principle). Quantum mechanics arose gradually from theories to explain observations that could not be reconciled with classical physics, such as Max Planck's solution in 1900 to the black-body radiation problem, and the correspondence between energy and frequency in Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, which explained the photoelectric effect. These early attempts to understand microscopic phenomena, now known as the "old quantum theory", led to the full development of quantum mechanics in the mid-1920s by Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Paul Dirac and others. The modern theory is formulated in various specially developed mathematical formalisms. In one of them, a mathematical entity called the wave function provides information, in the form of probability amplitudes, about what measurements of a particle's energy, momentum, and other physical properties may yield. Overview and fundamental concepts --------------------------------- Quantum mechanics allows the calculation of properties and behaviour of physical systems. It is typically applied to microscopic systems: molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles. It has been demonstrated to hold for complex molecules with thousands of atoms, but its application to human beings raises philosophical problems, such as Wigner's friend, and its application to the universe as a whole remains speculative. Predictions of quantum mechanics have been verified experimentally to an extremely high degree of accuracy. A fundamental feature of the theory is that it usually cannot predict with certainty what will happen, but only give probabilities. Mathematically, a probability is found by taking the square of the absolute value of a complex number, known as a probability amplitude. This is known as the Born rule, named after physicist Max Born. For example, a quantum particle like an electron can be described by a wave function, which associates to each point in space a probability amplitude. Applying the Born rule to these amplitudes gives a probability density function for the position that the electron will be found to have when an experiment is performed to measure it. This is the best the theory can do; it cannot say for certain where the electron will be found. The Schrödinger equation relates the collection of probability amplitudes that pertain to one moment of time to the collection of probability amplitudes that pertain to another. One consequence of the mathematical rules of quantum mechanics is a tradeoff in predictability between different measurable quantities. The most famous form of this uncertainty principle says that no matter how a quantum particle is prepared or how carefully experiments upon it are arranged, it is impossible to have a precise prediction for a measurement of its position and also at the same time for a measurement of its momentum. Another consequence of the mathematical rules of quantum mechanics is the phenomenon of quantum interference, which is often illustrated with the double-slit experiment. In the basic version of this experiment, a coherent light source, such as a laser beam, illuminates a plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate. The wave nature of light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to interfere, producing bright and dark bands on the screen – a result that would not be expected if light consisted of classical particles. However, the light is always found to be absorbed at the screen at discrete points, as individual particles rather than waves; the interference pattern appears via the varying density of these particle hits on the screen. Furthermore, versions of the experiment that include detectors at the slits find that each detected photon passes through one slit (as would a classical particle), and not through both slits (as would a wave). However, such experiments demonstrate that particles do not form the interference pattern if one detects which slit they pass through. Other atomic-scale entities, such as electrons, are found to exhibit the same behavior when fired towards a double slit. This behavior is known as wave–particle duality. Another counter-intuitive phenomenon predicted by quantum mechanics is quantum tunnelling: a particle that goes up against a potential barrier can cross it, even if its kinetic energy is smaller than the maximum of the potential. In classical mechanics this particle would be trapped. Quantum tunnelling has several important consequences, enabling radioactive decay, nuclear fusion in stars, and applications such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and the tunnel diode. When quantum systems interact, the result can be the creation of quantum entanglement: their properties become so intertwined that a description of the whole solely in terms of the individual parts is no longer possible. Erwin Schrödinger called entanglement "...*the* characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought". Quantum entanglement enables the counter-intuitive properties of quantum pseudo-telepathy, and can be a valuable resource in communication protocols, such as quantum key distribution and superdense coding. Contrary to popular misconception, entanglement does not allow sending signals faster than light, as demonstrated by the no-communication theorem. Another possibility opened by entanglement is testing for "hidden variables", hypothetical properties more fundamental than the quantities addressed in quantum theory itself, knowledge of which would allow more exact predictions than quantum theory can provide. A collection of results, most significantly Bell's theorem, have demonstrated that broad classes of such hidden-variable theories are in fact incompatible with quantum physics. According to Bell's theorem, if nature actually operates in accord with any theory of *local* hidden variables, then the results of a Bell test will be constrained in a particular, quantifiable way. Many Bell tests have been performed, using entangled particles, and they have shown results incompatible with the constraints imposed by local hidden variables. It is not possible to present these concepts in more than a superficial way without introducing the actual mathematics involved; understanding quantum mechanics requires not only manipulating complex numbers, but also linear algebra, differential equations, group theory, and other more advanced subjects. Accordingly, this article will present a mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics and survey its application to some useful and oft-studied examples. Mathematical formulation ------------------------ In the mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum mechanics, the state of a quantum mechanical system is a vector ψ {\displaystyle \psi } \psi belonging to a (separable) complex Hilbert space H {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}} {\mathcal {H}}. This vector is postulated to be normalized under the Hilbert space inner product, that is, it obeys ⟨ ψ , ψ ⟩ = 1 {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,\psi \rangle =1} {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,\psi \rangle =1}, and it is well-defined up to a complex number of modulus 1 (the global phase), that is, ψ {\displaystyle \psi } \psi and e i α ψ {\displaystyle e^{i\alpha }\psi } {\displaystyle e^{i\alpha }\psi } represent the same physical system. In other words, the possible states are points in the projective space of a Hilbert space, usually called the complex projective space. The exact nature of this Hilbert space is dependent on the system – for example, for describing position and momentum the Hilbert space is the space of complex square-integrable functions L 2 ( C ) {\displaystyle L^{2}(\mathbb {C} )} {\displaystyle L^{2}(\mathbb {C} )}, while the Hilbert space for the spin of a single proton is simply the space of two-dimensional complex vectors C 2 {\displaystyle \mathbb {C} ^{2}} {\mathbb C}^{2} with the usual inner product. Physical quantities of interest – position, momentum, energy, spin – are represented by observables, which are Hermitian (more precisely, self-adjoint) linear operators acting on the Hilbert space. A quantum state can be an eigenvector of an observable, in which case it is called an eigenstate, and the associated eigenvalue corresponds to the value of the observable in that eigenstate. More generally, a quantum state will be a linear combination of the eigenstates, known as a quantum superposition. When an observable is measured, the result will be one of its eigenvalues with probability given by the Born rule: in the simplest case the eigenvalue λ {\displaystyle \lambda } \lambda is non-degenerate and the probability is given by | ⟨ λ → , ψ ⟩ | 2 {\displaystyle |\langle {\vec {\lambda }},\psi \rangle |^{2}} {\displaystyle |\langle {\vec {\lambda }},\psi \rangle |^{2}}, where λ → {\displaystyle {\vec {\lambda }}} {\displaystyle {\vec {\lambda }}} is its associated eigenvector. More generally, the eigenvalue is degenerate and the probability is given by ⟨ ψ , P λ ψ ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,P\_{\lambda }\psi \rangle } {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,P_{\lambda }\psi \rangle }, where P λ {\displaystyle P\_{\lambda }} P_{\lambda } is the projector onto its associated eigenspace. In the continuous case, these formulas give instead the probability density. After the measurement, if result λ {\displaystyle \lambda } \lambda was obtained, the quantum state is postulated to collapse to λ → {\displaystyle {\vec {\lambda }}} {\displaystyle {\vec {\lambda }}}, in the non-degenerate case, or to P λ ψ / ⟨ ψ , P λ ψ ⟩ {\displaystyle P\_{\lambda }\psi /{\sqrt {\langle \psi ,P\_{\lambda }\psi \rangle }}} {\displaystyle P_{\lambda }\psi /{\sqrt {\langle \psi ,P_{\lambda }\psi \rangle }}}, in the general case. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics thus stems from the act of measurement. This is one of the most difficult aspects of quantum systems to understand. It was the central topic in the famous Bohr–Einstein debates, in which the two scientists attempted to clarify these fundamental principles by way of thought experiments. In the decades after the formulation of quantum mechanics, the question of what constitutes a "measurement" has been extensively studied. Newer interpretations of quantum mechanics have been formulated that do away with the concept of "wave function collapse" (see, for example, the many-worlds interpretation). The basic idea is that when a quantum system interacts with a measuring apparatus, their respective wave functions become entangled so that the original quantum system ceases to exist as an independent entity. For details, see the article on measurement in quantum mechanics. The time evolution of a quantum state is described by the Schrödinger equation: i ℏ d d t ψ ( t ) = H ψ ( t ) . {\displaystyle i\hbar {\frac {d}{dt}}\psi (t)=H\psi (t).} {\displaystyle i\hbar {\frac {d}{dt}}\psi (t)=H\psi (t).} Here H {\displaystyle H} H denotes the Hamiltonian, the observable corresponding to the total energy of the system, and ℏ {\displaystyle \hbar } \hbar is the reduced Planck constant. The constant i ℏ {\displaystyle i\hbar } i\hbar is introduced so that the Hamiltonian is reduced to the classical Hamiltonian in cases where the quantum system can be approximated by a classical system; the ability to make such an approximation in certain limits is called the correspondence principle. The solution of this differential equation is given by ψ ( t ) = e − i H t / ℏ ψ ( 0 ) . {\displaystyle \psi (t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }\psi (0).} {\displaystyle \psi (t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }\psi (0).} The operator U ( t ) = e − i H t / ℏ {\displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }} {\displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }} is known as the time-evolution operator, and has the crucial property that it is unitary. This time evolution is deterministic in the sense that – given an initial quantum state ψ ( 0 ) {\displaystyle \psi (0)} \psi (0)  – it makes a definite prediction of what the quantum state ψ ( t ) {\displaystyle \psi (t)} \psi(t) will be at any later time. Some wave functions produce probability distributions that are independent of time, such as eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. Many systems that are treated dynamically in classical mechanics are described by such "static" wave functions. For example, a single electron in an unexcited atom is pictured classically as a particle moving in a circular trajectory around the atomic nucleus, whereas in quantum mechanics, it is described by a static wave function surrounding the nucleus. For example, the electron wave function for an unexcited hydrogen atom is a spherically symmetric function known as an *s* orbital (Fig. 1). Analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation are known for very few relatively simple model Hamiltonians including the quantum harmonic oscillator, the particle in a box, the dihydrogen cation, and the hydrogen atom. Even the helium atom – which contains just two electrons – has defied all attempts at a fully analytic treatment. However, there are techniques for finding approximate solutions. One method, called perturbation theory, uses the analytic result for a simple quantum mechanical model to create a result for a related but more complicated model by (for example) the addition of a weak potential energy. Another method is called "semi-classical equation of motion", which applies to systems for which quantum mechanics produces only small deviations from classical behavior. These deviations can then be computed based on the classical motion. This approach is particularly important in the field of quantum chaos. ### Uncertainty principle One consequence of the basic quantum formalism is the uncertainty principle. In its most familiar form, this states that no preparation of a quantum particle can imply simultaneously precise predictions both for a measurement of its position and for a measurement of its momentum. Both position and momentum are observables, meaning that they are represented by Hermitian operators. The position operator X ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {X}}} {\hat {X}} and momentum operator P ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {P}}} \hat{P} do not commute, but rather satisfy the canonical commutation relation: [ X ^ , P ^ ] = i ℏ . {\displaystyle [{\hat {X}},{\hat {P}}]=i\hbar .} {\displaystyle [{\hat {X}},{\hat {P}}]=i\hbar .} Given a quantum state, the Born rule lets us compute expectation values for both X {\displaystyle X} X and P {\displaystyle P} P, and moreover for powers of them. Defining the uncertainty for an observable by a standard deviation, we have σ X = ⟨ X 2 ⟩ − ⟨ X ⟩ 2 , {\displaystyle \sigma \_{X}={\sqrt {\langle {X}^{2}\rangle -\langle {X}\rangle ^{2}}},} {\displaystyle \sigma _{X}={\sqrt {\langle {X}^{2}\rangle -\langle {X}\rangle ^{2}}},} and likewise for the momentum: σ P = ⟨ P 2 ⟩ − ⟨ P ⟩ 2 . {\displaystyle \sigma \_{P}={\sqrt {\langle {P}^{2}\rangle -\langle {P}\rangle ^{2}}}.} {\displaystyle \sigma _{P}={\sqrt {\langle {P}^{2}\rangle -\langle {P}\rangle ^{2}}}.} The uncertainty principle states that σ X σ P ≥ ℏ 2 . {\displaystyle \sigma \_{X}\sigma \_{P}\geq {\frac {\hbar }{2}}.} {\displaystyle \sigma _{X}\sigma _{P}\geq {\frac {\hbar }{2}}.} Either standard deviation can in principle be made arbitrarily small, but not both simultaneously. This inequality generalizes to arbitrary pairs of self-adjoint operators A {\displaystyle A} A and B {\displaystyle B} B. The commutator of these two operators is [ A , B ] = A B − B A , {\displaystyle [A,B]=AB-BA,} {\displaystyle [A,B]=AB-BA,} and this provides the lower bound on the product of standard deviations: σ A σ B ≥ 1 2 | ⟨ [ A , B ] ⟩ | . {\displaystyle \sigma \_{A}\sigma \_{B}\geq {\frac {1}{2}}\left|\langle [A,B]\rangle \right|.} {\displaystyle \sigma _{A}\sigma _{B}\geq {\frac {1}{2}}\left|\langle [A,B]\rangle \right|.} Another consequence of the canonical commutation relation is that the position and momentum operators are Fourier transforms of each other, so that a description of an object according to its momentum is the Fourier transform of its description according to its position. The fact that dependence in momentum is the Fourier transform of the dependence in position means that the momentum operator is equivalent (up to an i / ℏ {\displaystyle i/\hbar } {\displaystyle i/\hbar } factor) to taking the derivative according to the position, since in Fourier analysis differentiation corresponds to multiplication in the dual space. This is why in quantum equations in position space, the momentum p i {\displaystyle p\_{i}} p_{i} is replaced by − i ℏ ∂ ∂ x {\displaystyle -i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}} {\displaystyle -i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}}, and in particular in the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation in position space the momentum-squared term is replaced with a Laplacian times − ℏ 2 {\displaystyle -\hbar ^{2}} -\hbar ^{2}. ### Composite systems and entanglement When two different quantum systems are considered together, the Hilbert space of the combined system is the tensor product of the Hilbert spaces of the two components. For example, let A and B be two quantum systems, with Hilbert spaces H A {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}\_{A}} {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{A}} and H B {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}\_{B}} {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{B}}, respectively. The Hilbert space of the composite system is then H A B = H A ⊗ H B . {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}\_{AB}={\mathcal {H}}\_{A}\otimes {\mathcal {H}}\_{B}.} {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{AB}={\mathcal {H}}_{A}\otimes {\mathcal {H}}_{B}.} If the state for the first system is the vector ψ A {\displaystyle \psi \_{A}} {\displaystyle \psi _{A}} and the state for the second system is ψ B {\displaystyle \psi \_{B}} {\displaystyle \psi _{B}}, then the state of the composite system is ψ A ⊗ ψ B . {\displaystyle \psi \_{A}\otimes \psi \_{B}.} {\displaystyle \psi _{A}\otimes \psi _{B}.} Not all states in the joint Hilbert space H A B {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}\_{AB}} {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{AB}} can be written in this form, however, because the superposition principle implies that linear combinations of these "separable" or "product states" are also valid. For example, if ψ A {\displaystyle \psi \_{A}} {\displaystyle \psi _{A}} and ϕ A {\displaystyle \phi \_{A}} \phi _{A} are both possible states for system A {\displaystyle A} A, and likewise ψ B {\displaystyle \psi \_{B}} {\displaystyle \psi _{B}} and ϕ B {\displaystyle \phi \_{B}} \phi _{B} are both possible states for system B {\displaystyle B} B, then 1 2 ( ψ A ⊗ ψ B + ϕ A ⊗ ϕ B ) {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}\left(\psi \_{A}\otimes \psi \_{B}+\phi \_{A}\otimes \phi \_{B}\right)} {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}\left(\psi _{A}\otimes \psi _{B}+\phi _{A}\otimes \phi _{B}\right)} is a valid joint state that is not separable. States that are not separable are called entangled. If the state for a composite system is entangled, it is impossible to describe either component system A or system B by a state vector. One can instead define reduced density matrices that describe the statistics that can be obtained by making measurements on either component system alone. This necessarily causes a loss of information, though: knowing the reduced density matrices of the individual systems is not enough to reconstruct the state of the composite system. Just as density matrices specify the state of a subsystem of a larger system, analogously, positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) describe the effect on a subsystem of a measurement performed on a larger system. POVMs are extensively used in quantum information theory. As described above, entanglement is a key feature of models of measurement processes in which an apparatus becomes entangled with the system being measured. Systems interacting with the environment in which they reside generally become entangled with that environment, a phenomenon known as quantum decoherence. This can explain why, in practice, quantum effects are difficult to observe in systems larger than microscopic. ### Equivalence between formulations There are many mathematically equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics. One of the oldest and most common is the "transformation theory" proposed by Paul Dirac, which unifies and generalizes the two earliest formulations of quantum mechanics – matrix mechanics (invented by Werner Heisenberg) and wave mechanics (invented by Erwin Schrödinger). An alternative formulation of quantum mechanics is Feynman's path integral formulation, in which a quantum-mechanical amplitude is considered as a sum over all possible classical and non-classical paths between the initial and final states. This is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of the action principle in classical mechanics. ### Symmetries and conservation laws The Hamiltonian H {\displaystyle H} H is known as the *generator* of time evolution, since it defines a unitary time-evolution operator U ( t ) = e − i H t / ℏ {\displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }} {\displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/\hbar }} for each value of t {\displaystyle t} t. From this relation between U ( t ) {\displaystyle U(t)} U(t) and H {\displaystyle H} H, it follows that any observable A {\displaystyle A} A that commutes with H {\displaystyle H} H will be *conserved*: its expectation value will not change over time. This statement generalizes, as mathematically, any Hermitian operator A {\displaystyle A} A can generate a family of unitary operators parameterized by a variable t {\displaystyle t} t. Under the evolution generated by A {\displaystyle A} A, any observable B {\displaystyle B} B that commutes with A {\displaystyle A} A will be conserved. Moreover, if B {\displaystyle B} B is conserved by evolution under A {\displaystyle A} A, then A {\displaystyle A} A is conserved under the evolution generated by B {\displaystyle B} B. This implies a quantum version of the result proven by Emmy Noether in classical (Lagrangian) mechanics: for every differentiable symmetry of a Hamiltonian, there exists a corresponding conservation law. Examples -------- ### Free particle The simplest example of a quantum system with a position degree of freedom is a free particle in a single spatial dimension. A free particle is one which is not subject to external influences, so that its Hamiltonian consists only of its kinetic energy: H = 1 2 m P 2 = − ℏ 2 2 m d 2 d x 2 . {\displaystyle H={\frac {1}{2m}}P^{2}=-{\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m}}{\frac {d^{2}}{dx^{2}}}.} {\displaystyle H={\frac {1}{2m}}P^{2}=-{\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m}}{\frac {d^{2}}{dx^{2}}}.} The general solution of the Schrödinger equation is given by ψ ( x , t ) = 1 2 π ∫ − ∞ ∞ ψ ^ ( k , 0 ) e i ( k x − ℏ k 2 2 m t ) d k , {\displaystyle \psi (x,t)={\frac {1}{\sqrt {2\pi }}}\int \_{-\infty }^{\infty }{\hat {\psi }}(k,0)e^{i(kx-{\frac {\hbar k^{2}}{2m}}t)}\mathrm {d} k,} {\displaystyle \psi (x,t)={\frac {1}{\sqrt {2\pi }}}\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }{\hat {\psi }}(k,0)e^{i(kx-{\frac {\hbar k^{2}}{2m}}t)}\mathrm {d} k,} which is a superposition of all possible plane waves e i ( k x − ℏ k 2 2 m t ) {\displaystyle e^{i(kx-{\frac {\hbar k^{2}}{2m}}t)}} {\displaystyle e^{i(kx-{\frac {\hbar k^{2}}{2m}}t)}}, which are eigenstates of the momentum operator with momentum p = ℏ k {\displaystyle p=\hbar k} {\displaystyle p=\hbar k}. The coefficients of the superposition are ψ ^ ( k , 0 ) {\displaystyle {\hat {\psi }}(k,0)} {\displaystyle {\hat {\psi }}(k,0)}, which is the Fourier transform of the initial quantum state ψ ( x , 0 ) {\displaystyle \psi (x,0)} {\displaystyle \psi (x,0)}. It is not possible for the solution to be a single momentum eigenstate, or a single position eigenstate, as these are not normalizable quantum states. Instead, we can consider a Gaussian wave packet: ψ ( x , 0 ) = 1 π a 4 e − x 2 2 a {\displaystyle \psi (x,0)={\frac {1}{\sqrt[{4}]{\pi a}}}e^{-{\frac {x^{2}}{2a}}}} {\displaystyle \psi (x,0)={\frac {1}{\sqrt[{4}]{\pi a}}}e^{-{\frac {x^{2}}{2a}}}} which has Fourier transform, and therefore momentum distribution ψ ^ ( k , 0 ) = a π 4 e − a k 2 2 . {\displaystyle {\hat {\psi }}(k,0)={\sqrt[{4}]{\frac {a}{\pi }}}e^{-{\frac {ak^{2}}{2}}}.} {\displaystyle {\hat {\psi }}(k,0)={\sqrt[{4}]{\frac {a}{\pi }}}e^{-{\frac {ak^{2}}{2}}}.} We see that as we make a {\displaystyle a} a smaller the spread in position gets smaller, but the spread in momentum gets larger. Conversely, by making a {\displaystyle a} a larger we make the spread in momentum smaller, but the spread in position gets larger. This illustrates the uncertainty principle. As we let the Gaussian wave packet evolve in time, we see that its center moves through space at a constant velocity (like a classical particle with no forces acting on it). However, the wave packet will also spread out as time progresses, which means that the position becomes more and more uncertain. The uncertainty in momentum, however, stays constant. ### Particle in a box The particle in a one-dimensional potential energy box is the most mathematically simple example where restraints lead to the quantization of energy levels. The box is defined as having zero potential energy everywhere *inside* a certain region, and therefore infinite potential energy everywhere *outside* that region. For the one-dimensional case in the x {\displaystyle x} x direction, the time-independent Schrödinger equation may be written − ℏ 2 2 m d 2 ψ d x 2 = E ψ . {\displaystyle -{\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m}}{\frac {d^{2}\psi }{dx^{2}}}=E\psi .} -{\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m}}{\frac {d^{2}\psi }{dx^{2}}}=E\psi . With the differential operator defined by p ^ x = − i ℏ d d x {\displaystyle {\hat {p}}\_{x}=-i\hbar {\frac {d}{dx}}} {\hat {p}}_{x}=-i\hbar {\frac {d}{dx}} the previous equation is evocative of the classic kinetic energy analogue, 1 2 m p ^ x 2 = E , {\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2m}}{\hat {p}}\_{x}^{2}=E,} {\frac {1}{2m}}{\hat {p}}_{x}^{2}=E, with state ψ {\displaystyle \psi } \psi in this case having energy E {\displaystyle E} E coincident with the kinetic energy of the particle. The general solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the particle in a box are ψ ( x ) = A e i k x + B e − i k x E = ℏ 2 k 2 2 m {\displaystyle \psi (x)=Ae^{ikx}+Be^{-ikx}\qquad \qquad E={\frac {\hbar ^{2}k^{2}}{2m}}} {\displaystyle \psi (x)=Ae^{ikx}+Be^{-ikx}\qquad \qquad E={\frac {\hbar ^{2}k^{2}}{2m}}} or, from Euler's formula, ψ ( x ) = C sin ⁡ ( k x ) + D cos ⁡ ( k x ) . {\displaystyle \psi (x)=C\sin(kx)+D\cos(kx).\!} {\displaystyle \psi (x)=C\sin(kx)+D\cos(kx).\!} The infinite potential walls of the box determine the values of C , D , {\displaystyle C,D,} {\displaystyle C,D,} and k {\displaystyle k} k at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} x=0 and x = L {\displaystyle x=L} x=L where ψ {\displaystyle \psi } \psi must be zero. Thus, at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} x=0, ψ ( 0 ) = 0 = C sin ⁡ ( 0 ) + D cos ⁡ ( 0 ) = D {\displaystyle \psi (0)=0=C\sin(0)+D\cos(0)=D} {\displaystyle \psi (0)=0=C\sin(0)+D\cos(0)=D} and D = 0 {\displaystyle D=0} D=0. At x = L {\displaystyle x=L} x=L, ψ ( L ) = 0 = C sin ⁡ ( k L ) , {\displaystyle \psi (L)=0=C\sin(kL),} {\displaystyle \psi (L)=0=C\sin(kL),} in which C {\displaystyle C} C cannot be zero as this would conflict with the postulate that ψ {\displaystyle \psi } \psi has norm 1. Therefore, since sin ⁡ ( k L ) = 0 {\displaystyle \sin(kL)=0} {\displaystyle \sin(kL)=0}, k L {\displaystyle kL} {\displaystyle kL} must be an integer multiple of π {\displaystyle \pi } \pi , k = n π L n = 1 , 2 , 3 , … . {\displaystyle k={\frac {n\pi }{L}}\qquad \qquad n=1,2,3,\ldots .} k={\frac {n\pi }{L}}\qquad \qquad n=1,2,3,\ldots . This constraint on k {\displaystyle k} k implies a constraint on the energy levels, yielding E n = ℏ 2 π 2 n 2 2 m L 2 = n 2 h 2 8 m L 2 . {\displaystyle E\_{n}={\frac {\hbar ^{2}\pi ^{2}n^{2}}{2mL^{2}}}={\frac {n^{2}h^{2}}{8mL^{2}}}.} {\displaystyle E_{n}={\frac {\hbar ^{2}\pi ^{2}n^{2}}{2mL^{2}}}={\frac {n^{2}h^{2}}{8mL^{2}}}.} A finite potential well is the generalization of the infinite potential well problem to potential wells having finite depth. The finite potential well problem is mathematically more complicated than the infinite particle-in-a-box problem as the wave function is not pinned to zero at the walls of the well. Instead, the wave function must satisfy more complicated mathematical boundary conditions as it is nonzero in regions outside the well. Another related problem is that of the rectangular potential barrier, which furnishes a model for the quantum tunneling effect that plays an important role in the performance of modern technologies such as flash memory and scanning tunneling microscopy. ### Harmonic oscillator As in the classical case, the potential for the quantum harmonic oscillator is given by V ( x ) = 1 2 m ω 2 x 2 . {\displaystyle V(x)={\frac {1}{2}}m\omega ^{2}x^{2}.} {\displaystyle V(x)={\frac {1}{2}}m\omega ^{2}x^{2}.} This problem can either be treated by directly solving the Schrödinger equation, which is not trivial, or by using the more elegant "ladder method" first proposed by Paul Dirac. The eigenstates are given by ψ n ( x ) = 1 2 n n ! ⋅ ( m ω π ℏ ) 1 / 4 ⋅ e − m ω x 2 2 ℏ ⋅ H n ( m ω ℏ x ) , {\displaystyle \psi \_{n}(x)={\sqrt {\frac {1}{2^{n}\,n!}}}\cdot \left({\frac {m\omega }{\pi \hbar }}\right)^{1/4}\cdot e^{-{\frac {m\omega x^{2}}{2\hbar }}}\cdot H\_{n}\left({\sqrt {\frac {m\omega }{\hbar }}}x\right),\qquad } {\displaystyle \psi _{n}(x)={\sqrt {\frac {1}{2^{n}\,n!}}}\cdot \left({\frac {m\omega }{\pi \hbar }}\right)^{1/4}\cdot e^{-{\frac {m\omega x^{2}}{2\hbar }}}\cdot H_{n}\left({\sqrt {\frac {m\omega }{\hbar }}}x\right),\qquad } n = 0 , 1 , 2 , … . {\displaystyle n=0,1,2,\ldots .} {\displaystyle n=0,1,2,\ldots .} where *Hn* are the Hermite polynomials H n ( x ) = ( − 1 ) n e x 2 d n d x n ( e − x 2 ) , {\displaystyle H\_{n}(x)=(-1)^{n}e^{x^{2}}{\frac {d^{n}}{dx^{n}}}\left(e^{-x^{2}}\right),} {\displaystyle H_{n}(x)=(-1)^{n}e^{x^{2}}{\frac {d^{n}}{dx^{n}}}\left(e^{-x^{2}}\right),} and the corresponding energy levels are E n = ℏ ω ( n + 1 2 ) . {\displaystyle E\_{n}=\hbar \omega \left(n+{1 \over 2}\right).} {\displaystyle E_{n}=\hbar \omega \left(n+{1 \over 2}\right).} This is another example illustrating the discretization of energy for bound states. ### Mach–Zehnder interferometer The Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) illustrates the concepts of superposition and interference with linear algebra in dimension 2, rather than differential equations. It can be seen as a simplified version of the double-slit experiment, but it is of interest in its own right, for example in the delayed choice quantum eraser, the Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester, and in studies of quantum entanglement. We can model a photon going through the interferometer by considering that at each point it can be in a superposition of only two paths: the "lower" path which starts from the left, goes straight through both beam splitters, and ends at the top, and the "upper" path which starts from the bottom, goes straight through both beam splitters, and ends at the right. The quantum state of the photon is therefore a vector ψ ∈ C 2 {\displaystyle \psi \in \mathbb {C} ^{2}} {\displaystyle \psi \in \mathbb {C} ^{2}} that is a superposition of the "lower" path ψ l = ( 1 0 ) {\displaystyle \psi \_{l}={\begin{pmatrix}1\\0\end{pmatrix}}} {\displaystyle \psi _{l}={\begin{pmatrix}1\\0\end{pmatrix}}} and the "upper" path ψ u = ( 0 1 ) {\displaystyle \psi \_{u}={\begin{pmatrix}0\\1\end{pmatrix}}} {\displaystyle \psi _{u}={\begin{pmatrix}0\\1\end{pmatrix}}}, that is, ψ = α ψ l + β ψ u {\displaystyle \psi =\alpha \psi \_{l}+\beta \psi \_{u}} {\displaystyle \psi =\alpha \psi _{l}+\beta \psi _{u}} for complex α , β {\displaystyle \alpha ,\beta } \alpha ,\beta . In order to respect the postulate that ⟨ ψ , ψ ⟩ = 1 {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,\psi \rangle =1} {\displaystyle \langle \psi ,\psi \rangle =1} we require that | α | 2 + | β | 2 = 1 {\displaystyle |\alpha |^{2}+|\beta |^{2}=1} {\displaystyle |\alpha |^{2}+|\beta |^{2}=1}. Both beam splitters are modelled as the unitary matrix B = 1 2 ( 1 i i 1 ) {\displaystyle B={\frac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}{\begin{pmatrix}1&i\\i&1\end{pmatrix}}} {\displaystyle B={\frac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}{\begin{pmatrix}1&i\\i&1\end{pmatrix}}}, which means that when a photon meets the beam splitter it will either stay on the same path with a probability amplitude of 1 / 2 {\displaystyle 1/{\sqrt {2}}} 1/{\sqrt {2}}, or be reflected to the other path with a probability amplitude of i / 2 {\displaystyle i/{\sqrt {2}}} {\displaystyle i/{\sqrt {2}}}. The phase shifter on the upper arm is modelled as the unitary matrix P = ( 1 0 0 e i Δ Φ ) {\displaystyle P={\begin{pmatrix}1&0\\0&e^{i\Delta \Phi }\end{pmatrix}}} {\displaystyle P={\begin{pmatrix}1&0\\0&e^{i\Delta \Phi }\end{pmatrix}}}, which means that if the photon is on the "upper" path it will gain a relative phase of Δ Φ {\displaystyle \Delta \Phi } {\displaystyle \Delta \Phi }, and it will stay unchanged if it is in the lower path. A photon that enters the interferometer from the left will then be acted upon with a beam splitter B {\displaystyle B} B, a phase shifter P {\displaystyle P} P, and another beam splitter B {\displaystyle B} B, and so end up in the state B P B ψ l = i e i Δ Φ / 2 ( − sin ⁡ ( Δ Φ / 2 ) cos ⁡ ( Δ Φ / 2 ) ) , {\displaystyle BPB\psi \_{l}=ie^{i\Delta \Phi /2}{\begin{pmatrix}-\sin(\Delta \Phi /2)\\\cos(\Delta \Phi /2)\end{pmatrix}},} {\displaystyle BPB\psi _{l}=ie^{i\Delta \Phi /2}{\begin{pmatrix}-\sin(\Delta \Phi /2)\\\cos(\Delta \Phi /2)\end{pmatrix}},} and the probabilities that it will be detected at the right or at the top are given respectively by p ( u ) = | ⟨ ψ u , B P B ψ l ⟩ | 2 = cos 2 ⁡ Δ Φ 2 , {\displaystyle p(u)=|\langle \psi \_{u},BPB\psi \_{l}\rangle |^{2}=\cos ^{2}{\frac {\Delta \Phi }{2}},} {\displaystyle p(u)=|\langle \psi _{u},BPB\psi _{l}\rangle |^{2}=\cos ^{2}{\frac {\Delta \Phi }{2}},} p ( l ) = | ⟨ ψ l , B P B ψ l ⟩ | 2 = sin 2 ⁡ Δ Φ 2 . {\displaystyle p(l)=|\langle \psi \_{l},BPB\psi \_{l}\rangle |^{2}=\sin ^{2}{\frac {\Delta \Phi }{2}}.} {\displaystyle p(l)=|\langle \psi _{l},BPB\psi _{l}\rangle |^{2}=\sin ^{2}{\frac {\Delta \Phi }{2}}.} One can therefore use the Mach–Zehnder interferometer to estimate the phase shift by estimating these probabilities. It is interesting to consider what would happen if the photon were definitely in either the "lower" or "upper" paths between the beam splitters. This can be accomplished by blocking one of the paths, or equivalently by removing the first beam splitter (and feeding the photon from the left or the bottom, as desired). In both cases there will be no interference between the paths anymore, and the probabilities are given by p ( u ) = p ( l ) = 1 / 2 {\displaystyle p(u)=p(l)=1/2} {\displaystyle p(u)=p(l)=1/2}, independently of the phase Δ Φ {\displaystyle \Delta \Phi } {\displaystyle \Delta \Phi }. From this we can conclude that the photon does not take one path or another after the first beam splitter, but rather that it is in a genuine quantum superposition of the two paths. Applications ------------ Quantum mechanics has had enormous success in explaining many of the features of our universe, with regards to small-scale and discrete quantities and interactions which cannot be explained by classical methods. Quantum mechanics is often the only theory that can reveal the individual behaviors of the subatomic particles that make up all forms of matter (electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, and others). Solid-state physics and materials science are dependent upon quantum mechanics. In many aspects modern technology operates at a scale where quantum effects are significant. Important applications of quantum theory include quantum chemistry, quantum optics, quantum computing, superconducting magnets, light-emitting diodes, the optical amplifier and the laser, the transistor and semiconductors such as the microprocessor, medical and research imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and electron microscopy. Explanations for many biological and physical phenomena are rooted in the nature of the chemical bond, most notably the macro-molecule DNA. Relation to other scientific theories ------------------------------------- ### Classical mechanics The rules of quantum mechanics assert that the state space of a system is a Hilbert space and that observables of the system are Hermitian operators acting on vectors in that space – although they do not tell us which Hilbert space or which operators. These can be chosen appropriately in order to obtain a quantitative description of a quantum system, a necessary step in making physical predictions. An important guide for making these choices is the correspondence principle, a heuristic which states that the predictions of quantum mechanics reduce to those of classical mechanics in the regime of large quantum numbers. One can also start from an established classical model of a particular system, and then try to guess the underlying quantum model that would give rise to the classical model in the correspondence limit. This approach is known as quantization. When quantum mechanics was originally formulated, it was applied to models whose correspondence limit was non-relativistic classical mechanics. For instance, the well-known model of the quantum harmonic oscillator uses an explicitly non-relativistic expression for the kinetic energy of the oscillator, and is thus a quantum version of the classical harmonic oscillator. Complications arise with chaotic systems, which do not have good quantum numbers, and quantum chaos studies the relationship between classical and quantum descriptions in these systems. Quantum decoherence is a mechanism through which quantum systems lose coherence, and thus become incapable of displaying many typically quantum effects: quantum superpositions become simply probabilistic mixtures, and quantum entanglement becomes simply classical correlations. Quantum coherence is not typically evident at macroscopic scales, except maybe at temperatures approaching absolute zero at which quantum behavior may manifest macroscopically. Many macroscopic properties of a classical system are a direct consequence of the quantum behavior of its parts. For example, the stability of bulk matter (consisting of atoms and molecules which would quickly collapse under electric forces alone), the rigidity of solids, and the mechanical, thermal, chemical, optical and magnetic properties of matter are all results of the interaction of electric charges under the rules of quantum mechanics. ### Special relativity and electrodynamics Early attempts to merge quantum mechanics with special relativity involved the replacement of the Schrödinger equation with a covariant equation such as the Klein–Gordon equation or the Dirac equation. While these theories were successful in explaining many experimental results, they had certain unsatisfactory qualities stemming from their neglect of the relativistic creation and annihilation of particles. A fully relativistic quantum theory required the development of quantum field theory, which applies quantization to a field (rather than a fixed set of particles). The first complete quantum field theory, quantum electrodynamics, provides a fully quantum description of the electromagnetic interaction. Quantum electrodynamics is, along with general relativity, one of the most accurate physical theories ever devised. The full apparatus of quantum field theory is often unnecessary for describing electrodynamic systems. A simpler approach, one that has been used since the inception of quantum mechanics, is to treat charged particles as quantum mechanical objects being acted on by a classical electromagnetic field. For example, the elementary quantum model of the hydrogen atom describes the electric field of the hydrogen atom using a classical − e 2 / ( 4 π ϵ 0 r ) {\displaystyle \textstyle -e^{2}/(4\pi \epsilon \_{\_{0}}r)} {\displaystyle \textstyle -e^{2}/(4\pi \epsilon _{_{0}}r)} Coulomb potential. This "semi-classical" approach fails if quantum fluctuations in the electromagnetic field play an important role, such as in the emission of photons by charged particles. Quantum field theories for the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force have also been developed. The quantum field theory of the strong nuclear force is called quantum chromodynamics, and describes the interactions of subnuclear particles such as quarks and gluons. The weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force were unified, in their quantized forms, into a single quantum field theory (known as electroweak theory), by the physicists Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg. ### Relation to general relativity Even though the predictions of both quantum theory and general relativity have been supported by rigorous and repeated empirical evidence, their abstract formalisms contradict each other and they have proven extremely difficult to incorporate into one consistent, cohesive model. Gravity is negligible in many areas of particle physics, so that unification between general relativity and quantum mechanics is not an urgent issue in those particular applications. However, the lack of a correct theory of quantum gravity is an important issue in physical cosmology and the search by physicists for an elegant "Theory of Everything" (TOE). Consequently, resolving the inconsistencies between both theories has been a major goal of 20th- and 21st-century physics. This TOE would combine not only the models of subatomic physics but also derive the four fundamental forces of nature from a single force or phenomenon. One proposal for doing so is string theory, which posits that the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries gravitational force. Another popular theory is loop quantum gravity (LQG), which describes quantum properties of gravity and is thus a theory of quantum spacetime. LQG is an attempt to merge and adapt standard quantum mechanics and standard general relativity. This theory describes space as an extremely fine fabric "woven" of finite loops called spin networks. The evolution of a spin network over time is called a spin foam. The characteristic length scale of a spin foam is the Planck length, approximately 1.616×10−35 m, and so lengths shorter than the Planck length are not physically meaningful in LQG. Philosophical implications -------------------------- Unsolved problem in physics: Is there a preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics? How does the quantum description of reality, which includes elements such as the "superposition of states" and "wave function collapse", give rise to the reality we perceive? (more unsolved problems in physics) Since its inception, the many counter-intuitive aspects and results of quantum mechanics have provoked strong philosophical debates and many interpretations. The arguments centre on the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, the difficulties with wavefunction collapse and the related measurement problem, and quantum nonlocality. Perhaps the only consensus that exists about these issues is that there is no consensus. Richard Feynman once said, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." According to Steven Weinberg, "There is now in my opinion no entirely satisfactory interpretation of quantum mechanics." The views of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and other physicists are often grouped together as the "Copenhagen interpretation". According to these views, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is not a *temporary* feature which will eventually be replaced by a deterministic theory, but is instead a *final* renunciation of the classical idea of "causality". Bohr in particular emphasized that any well-defined application of the quantum mechanical formalism must always make reference to the experimental arrangement, due to the complementary nature of evidence obtained under different experimental situations. Copenhagen-type interpretations remain popular in the 21st century. Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, was troubled by its apparent failure to respect some cherished metaphysical principles, such as determinism and locality. Einstein's long-running exchanges with Bohr about the meaning and status of quantum mechanics are now known as the Bohr–Einstein debates. Einstein believed that underlying quantum mechanics must be a theory that explicitly forbids action at a distance. He argued that quantum mechanics was incomplete, a theory that was valid but not fundamental, analogous to how thermodynamics is valid, but the fundamental theory behind it is statistical mechanics. In 1935, Einstein and his collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published an argument that the principle of locality implies the incompleteness of quantum mechanics, a thought experiment later termed the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox. In 1964, John Bell showed that EPR's principle of locality, together with determinism, was actually incompatible with quantum mechanics: they implied constraints on the correlations produced by distance systems, now known as Bell inequalities, that can be violated by entangled particles. Since then several experiments have been performed to obtain these correlations, with the result that they do in fact violate Bell inequalities, and thus falsify the conjunction of locality with determinism. Bohmian mechanics shows that it is possible to reformulate quantum mechanics to make it deterministic, at the price of making it explicitly nonlocal. It attributes not only a wave function to a physical system, but in addition a real position, that evolves deterministically under a nonlocal guiding equation. The evolution of a physical system is given at all times by the Schrödinger equation together with the guiding equation; there is never a collapse of the wave function. This solves the measurement problem. Everett's many-worlds interpretation, formulated in 1956, holds that *all* the possibilities described by quantum theory *simultaneously* occur in a multiverse composed of mostly independent parallel universes. This is a consequence of removing the axiom of the collapse of the wave packet. All possible states of the measured system and the measuring apparatus, together with the observer, are present in a real physical quantum superposition. While the multiverse is deterministic, we perceive non-deterministic behavior governed by probabilities, because we do not observe the multiverse as a whole, but only one parallel universe at a time. Exactly how this is supposed to work has been the subject of much debate. Several attempts have been made to make sense of this and derive the Born rule, with no consensus on whether they have been successful. Relational quantum mechanics appeared in the late 1990s as a modern derivative of Copenhagen-type ideas, and QBism was developed some years later. History ------- Quantum mechanics was developed in the early decades of the 20th century, driven by the need to explain phenomena that, in some cases, had been observed in earlier times. Scientific inquiry into the wave nature of light began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when scientists such as Robert Hooke, Christiaan Huygens and Leonhard Euler proposed a wave theory of light based on experimental observations. In 1803 English polymath Thomas Young described the famous double-slit experiment. This experiment played a major role in the general acceptance of the wave theory of light. During the early 19th century, chemical research by John Dalton and Amedeo Avogadro lent weight to the atomic theory of matter, an idea that James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann and others built upon to establish the kinetic theory of gases. The successes of kinetic theory gave further credence to the idea that matter is composed of atoms, yet the theory also had shortcomings that would only be resolved by the development of quantum mechanics. While the early conception of atoms from Greek philosophy had been that they were indivisible units – the word "atom" deriving from the Greek for "uncuttable" – the 19th century saw the formulation of hypotheses about subatomic structure. One important discovery in that regard was Michael Faraday's 1838 observation of a glow caused by an electrical discharge inside a glass tube containing gas at low pressure. Julius Plücker, Johann Wilhelm Hittorf and Eugen Goldstein carried on and improved upon Faraday's work, leading to the identification of cathode rays, which J. J. Thomson found to consist of subatomic particles that would be called electrons. The black-body radiation problem was discovered by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1859. In 1900, Max Planck proposed the hypothesis that energy is radiated and absorbed in discrete "quanta" (or energy packets), yielding a calculation that precisely matched the observed patterns of black-body radiation. The word *quantum* derives from the Latin, meaning "how great" or "how much". According to Planck, quantities of energy could be thought of as divided into "elements" whose size (*E*) would be proportional to their frequency (*ν*): E = h ν   {\displaystyle E=h\nu \ } E=h\nu \ , where *h* is Planck's constant. Planck cautiously insisted that this was only an aspect of the processes of absorption and emission of radiation and was not the *physical reality* of the radiation. In fact, he considered his quantum hypothesis a mathematical trick to get the right answer rather than a sizable discovery. However, in 1905 Albert Einstein interpreted Planck's quantum hypothesis realistically and used it to explain the photoelectric effect, in which shining light on certain materials can eject electrons from the material. Niels Bohr then developed Planck's ideas about radiation into a model of the hydrogen atom that successfully predicted the spectral lines of hydrogen. Einstein further developed this idea to show that an electromagnetic wave such as light could also be described as a particle (later called the photon), with a discrete amount of energy that depends on its frequency. In his paper "On the Quantum Theory of Radiation," Einstein expanded on the interaction between energy and matter to explain the absorption and emission of energy by atoms. Although overshadowed at the time by his general theory of relativity, this paper articulated the mechanism underlying the stimulated emission of radiation, which became the basis of the laser. This phase is known as the old quantum theory. Never complete or self-consistent, the old quantum theory was rather a set of heuristic corrections to classical mechanics. The theory is now understood as a semi-classical approximation to modern quantum mechanics. Notable results from this period include, in addition to the work of Planck, Einstein and Bohr mentioned above, Einstein and Peter Debye's work on the specific heat of solids, Bohr and Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen's proof that classical physics cannot account for diamagnetism, and Arnold Sommerfeld's extension of the Bohr model to include special-relativistic effects. In the mid-1920s quantum mechanics was developed to become the standard formulation for atomic physics. In 1923, the French physicist Louis de Broglie put forward his theory of matter waves by stating that particles can exhibit wave characteristics and vice versa. Building on de Broglie's approach, modern quantum mechanics was born in 1925, when the German physicists Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan developed matrix mechanics and the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger invented wave mechanics. Born introduced the probabilistic interpretation of Schrödinger's wave function in July 1926. Thus, the entire field of quantum physics emerged, leading to its wider acceptance at the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927. By 1930 quantum mechanics had been further unified and formalized by David Hilbert, Paul Dirac and John von Neumann with greater emphasis on measurement, the statistical nature of our knowledge of reality, and philosophical speculation about the 'observer'. It has since permeated many disciplines, including quantum chemistry, quantum electronics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. It also provides a useful framework for many features of the modern periodic table of elements, and describes the behaviors of atoms during chemical bonding and the flow of electrons in computer semiconductors, and therefore plays a crucial role in many modern technologies. While quantum mechanics was constructed to describe the world of the very small, it is also needed to explain some macroscopic phenomena such as superconductors and superfluids. See also -------- * Bra–ket notation * Einstein's thought experiments * List of textbooks on classical and quantum mechanics * Macroscopic quantum phenomena * Phase-space formulation * Regularization (physics) * Two-state quantum system Explanatory notes ----------------- 1. ↑ See, for example, Precision tests of QED. The relativistic refinement of quantum mechanics known as quantum electrodynamics (QED) has been shown to agree with experiment to within 1 part in 108 for some atomic properties. 2. ↑ Physicist John C. Baez cautions, "there's no way to understand the interpretation of quantum mechanics without also being able to *solve quantum mechanics problems* – to understand the theory, you need to be able to use it (and vice versa)". Carl Sagan outlined the "mathematical underpinning" of quantum mechanics and wrote, "For most physics students, this might occupy them from, say, third grade to early graduate school – roughly 15 years. [...] The job of the popularizer of science, trying to get across some idea of quantum mechanics to a general audience that has not gone through these initiation rites, is daunting. Indeed, there are no successful popularizations of quantum mechanics in my opinion – partly for this reason." 3. ↑ A momentum eigenstate would be a perfectly monochromatic wave of infinite extent, which is not square-integrable. Likewise, a position eigenstate would be a Dirac delta distribution, not square-integrable and technically not a function at all. Consequently, neither can belong to the particle's Hilbert space. Physicists sometimes introduce fictitious "bases" for a Hilbert space comprising elements outside that space. These are invented for calculational convenience and do not represent physical states. 4. ↑ See, for example, the Feynman Lectures on Physics for some of the technological applications which use quantum mechanics, e.g., transistors (vol **III**, pp. 14–11 ff), integrated circuits, which are follow-on technology in solid-state physics (vol **II**, pp. 8–6), and lasers (vol **III**, pp. 9–13). 5. ↑ see macroscopic quantum phenomena, Bose–Einstein condensate, and Quantum machine 6. ↑ The published form of the EPR argument was due to Podolsky, and Einstein himself was not satisfied with it. In his own publications and correspondence, Einstein used a different argument to insist that quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory. Further reading --------------- The following titles, all by working physicists, attempt to communicate quantum theory to lay people, using a minimum of technical apparatus. * Chester, Marvin (1987). *Primer of Quantum Mechanics*. John Wiley. ISBN 0-486-42878-8 * Cox, Brian; Forshaw, Jeff (2011). *The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen*. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1-84614-432-5. * Richard Feynman, 1985. *QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter*, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08388-6. Four elementary lectures on quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory, yet containing many insights for the expert. * Ghirardi, GianCarlo, 2004. *Sneaking a Look at God's Cards*, Gerald Malsbary, trans. Princeton Univ. Press. The most technical of the works cited here. Passages using algebra, trigonometry, and bra–ket notation can be passed over on a first reading. * N. David Mermin, 1990, "Spooky actions at a distance: mysteries of the QT" in his *Boojums All the Way Through*. Cambridge University Press: 110–76. * Victor Stenger, 2000. *Timeless Reality: Symmetry, Simplicity, and Multiple Universes*. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. Chpts. 5–8. Includes cosmological and philosophical considerations. More technical: * Bernstein, Jeremy (2009). *Quantum Leaps*. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03541-6. * Bohm, David (1989). *Quantum Theory*. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-65969-5. * Binney, James; Skinner, David (2008). *The Physics of Quantum Mechanics*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-968857-9. * Eisberg, Robert; Resnick, Robert (1985). *Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles* (2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-87373-0. * Bryce DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds., 1973. *The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics*, Princeton Series in Physics, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08131-X * Everett, Hugh (1957). "Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics". *Reviews of Modern Physics*. **29** (3): 454–462. Bibcode:1957RvMP...29..454E. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454. S2CID 17178479. * Feynman, Richard P.; Leighton, Robert B.; Sands, Matthew (1965). *The Feynman Lectures on Physics*. Vol. 1–3. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-7382-0008-8. * D. Greenberger, K. Hentschel, F. Weinert, eds., 2009. *Compendium of quantum physics, Concepts, experiments, history and philosophy*, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg. * Griffiths, David J. (2004). *Introduction to Quantum Mechanics* (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-111892-8. OCLC 40251748. A standard undergraduate text. * Max Jammer, 1966. *The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics*. McGraw Hill. * Hagen Kleinert, 2004. *Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics, Statistics, Polymer Physics, and Financial Markets*, 3rd ed. Singapore: World Scientific. Draft of 4th edition. Archived 2008-06-15 at the Wayback Machine * L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz (1977). *Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory*. Vol. 3 (3rd ed.). Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0-08-020940-1. Online copy * Liboff, Richard L. (2002). *Introductory Quantum Mechanics*. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-8053-8714-8. * Gunther Ludwig, 1968. *Wave Mechanics*. London: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-203204-1 * George Mackey (2004). *The mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics*. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-43517-2. * Merzbacher, Eugen (1998). *Quantum Mechanics*. Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-88702-7. * Albert Messiah, 1966. *Quantum Mechanics* (Vol. I), English translation from French by G.M. Temmer. North Holland, John Wiley & Sons. Cf. chpt. IV, section III. online * Omnès, Roland (1999). *Understanding Quantum Mechanics*. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00435-8. OCLC 39849482. * Scerri, Eric R., 2006. *The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance*. Oxford University Press. Considers the extent to which chemistry and the periodic system have been reduced to quantum mechanics. ISBN 0-19-530573-6 * Shankar, R. (1994). *Principles of Quantum Mechanics*. Springer. ISBN 978-0-306-44790-7. * Stone, A. Douglas (2013). *Einstein and the Quantum*. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13968-5. * Transnational College of Lex (1996). *What is Quantum Mechanics? A Physics Adventure*. Language Research Foundation, Boston. ISBN 978-0-9643504-1-0. OCLC 34661512. * Veltman, Martinus J.G. (2003), *Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics*. **On Wikibooks** * This Quantum World Course material * Quantum Cook Book and PHYS 201: Fundamentals of Physics II by Ramamurti Shankar, Yale OpenCourseware * *Modern Physics: With waves, thermodynamics, and optics* – an online textbook. * MIT OpenCourseWare: Chemistry and Physics. See 8.04, 8.05 and 8.06 * 5½ Examples in Quantum Mechanics * Imperial College Quantum Mechanics Course. Philosophy * Ismael, Jenann. "Quantum Mechanics". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*. * Krips, Henry. "Measurement in Quantum Theory". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*.

Quantum mechanics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics

The **Germany national football team** (German: *Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft*) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (*Deutscher Fußball-Bund*), founded in 1900. Between 1949 and 1990, separate German national teams were recognised by FIFA due to Allied occupation and division: the DFB's team representing the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly referred to as West Germany in English between 1949 and 1990), the Saarland team representing the Saar Protectorate (1950–1956) and the East Germany team representing the German Democratic Republic (1952–1990). The latter two were absorbed along with their records; the present team represents the reunified Federal Republic. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" following reunification in 1990. Germany is one of the most successful national teams in international competitions, having won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), same as Italy, and only one less than the most successful team, Brazil. Germany has also won three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and one Confederations Cup (2017). They have also been second place in the European Championships three times, four times in the World Cup, and a further four third-place finishes at World Cups. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup. At the end of the 2014 World Cup, Germany earned the second highest Elo rating of any national football team in history, with 2,223 points. Germany is also the only European nation that has won a FIFA World Cup in the Americas. On 1 August 2021, Hansi Flick became head coach of the team, after Joachim Löw announced that he would step down after UEFA Euro 2020. History ------- ### Early years (1899–1942) On 18 April 1897, an early international game on German soil was played in Hamburg when a selection team from the Danish Football Association defeated a selection team from the Hamburg-Altona Football Association, 5–0. Between 1899 and 1901, prior to the formation of a national team, there were five international matches between Germany and English selection teams, which are today not recognised as official by either nation's football association (in part because England fielded their amateur side, which was an overflow or B team). All five matches ended in large defeats for the Germany teams, including a 12–0 loss at White Hart Lane in September 1901. Eight years after the establishment of the German Football Association (DFB) in 1900, the first official match of the Germany national football team was played on 5 April 1908, against Switzerland in Basel, with the Swiss winning 5–3. A follow-up to the earlier series between England Amateurs and Germany occurred in March 1909 at Oxford's White House Ground and resulted in Germany's largest official defeat to date: 9-0 (this time, the match was recognised and recorded as official by the DFB but not by the FA, again due to the amateur side being fielded). These early confrontations formed the beginning of the rich rivalry between the two teams: one of the longest and most enduring international rivalries in football. Julius Hirsch was the first Jewish player to represent the Germany national football team, which he joined in 1911. Hirsch scored four goals for Germany against the Netherlands in 1912, becoming the first German to score four goals in a single match. Gottfried Fuchs scored a world record 10 goals for Germany in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm on 1 July, becoming the top scorer of the tournament; his international record was not surpassed until 2001 when Australia's Archie Thompson scored 13 goals in a 31–0 defeat of American Samoa. He was Jewish, and the German Football Association erased all references to him from their records between 1933 and 1945. As of 2016, he was still the top German scorer for one match. At that time the players were selected by the DFB, as there was no dedicated coach. The first manager of the Germany national team was Otto Nerz, a school teacher from Mannheim, who served in the role from 1926 to 1936. The German FA could not afford travel to Uruguay for the first World Cup staged in 1930 during the Great Depression, but finished third in the 1934 World Cup in their first appearance in the competition. After a poor showing at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Sepp Herberger became coach. In 1937 he put together a squad which was soon nicknamed the *Breslau Elf* (the Breslau Eleven) in recognition of their 8–0 win over Denmark in the then German city of Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland). After Austria became part of Germany in the *Anschluss* of March 1938, the Austrian national team – one of Europe's best sides at the time due to professionalism – was disbanded despite having already qualified for the 1938 World Cup. Nazi politicians ordered five or six ex-Austrian players, from the clubs Rapid Vienna, Austria Vienna, and First Vienna FC, to join the "all-German" team on short notice in a staged show of unity for political reasons. At the 1938 World Cup in France, this "united" Germany national team managed only a 1–1 draw against Switzerland and then lost the replay 2–4 in front of a hostile crowd in Paris. That early exit stands as Germany's worst World Cup result, and one of just three occasions the team failed to progress from the group stage – the next would not occur until the 2018 tournament, and it would be repeated in 2022. During World War II, the team played over 30 international games between September 1939 and November 1942. National team games were then suspended, as most players had to join the armed forces. Many of the national team players were gathered together under coach Herberger as *Rote Jäger* through the efforts of a sympathetic air force officer trying to protect the footballers from the most dangerous wartime service. ### Three Germany national teams (1945–1990) After World War II, Germany was banned from competition in most sports until 1950. The DFB was not a full member of FIFA, and none of the three new German states – West Germany, East Germany, and Saarland – entered the 1950 World Cup qualifiers. The Federal Republic of Germany, which was referred to as West Germany, continued the DFB. With recognition by FIFA and UEFA, the DFB maintained and continued the record of the pre-war team. Switzerland was the first team that played West Germany in 1950, with the latter qualifying for the 1954 World Cup and the former hosting it. The Saarland, a French protectorate between 1947 and 1956, did not join French organisations, and was barred from participating in pan-German ones. It sent their own team to the 1952 Summer Olympics and to the 1954 World Cup qualifiers. In 1957, Saarland acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1949, the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was founded. In 1952 the *Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR* (DFV) was established and the East Germany national football team took to the field. They were the only team to beat the 1974 FIFA World Cup winning West Germans in the only meeting of the two sides of the divided nation. East Germany won the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. After German reunification in 1990, the eastern football competition was reintegrated into the DFB. ### 1954 World Cup victory West Germany, captained by Fritz Walter, met in the 1954 World Cup against Turkey, Yugoslavia and Austria. When playing favourites Hungary in the group stage, West Germany lost 3–8, and faced the Hungarian "Mighty Magyars" again in the final. Hungary had gone unbeaten for 32 consecutive matches, and West Germany snapped the streak by winning 3–2, with Helmut Rahn scoring the winning goal. The success is called "The Miracle of Bern" (*Das Wunder von Bern*). ### Memorable losses: Wembley goal and game of the century (1958–1970) After finishing fourth in the 1958 World Cup and reaching only the quarter-finals in the 1962 World Cup, the DFB made changes. Professionalism was introduced, and the best clubs from the various Regionalligas were assembled into the new Bundesliga. In 1964, Helmut Schön took over as coach, replacing Herberger who had been in office for 28 years. In the 1966 World Cup, West Germany reached the final after beating the USSR in the semi-final, facing hosts England. In extra time, the first goal by Geoff Hurst was one of the most contentious goals in the history of the World Cup: the linesman signalled the ball had crossed the line for a goal, after bouncing down from the crossbar, when replays showed it did not appear to have fully crossed the line. Hurst then scored another goal giving England a 4–2 win. West Germany in the 1970 World Cup knocked England out in the quarter-finals 3–2, before they suffered a 4–3 extra-time loss in the semi-final against Italy. This match with five goals in extra time is one of the most dramatic in World Cup history, and is called the "Game of the Century" in both Italy and Germany. West Germany claimed third by beating Uruguay 1–0. Gerd Müller finished as the tournament's top scorer with 10 goals. ### 1974 World Cup title on home soil In 1971, Franz Beckenbauer became captain of the national team, and he led West Germany to victory at the European Championship at Euro 1972, defeating the Soviet Union 3–0 in the final. As hosts of the 1974 World Cup, they won their second World Cup, defeating the Netherlands 2–1 in the final in Munich. Two matches in the 1974 World Cup stood out for West Germany. The first group stage saw a politically charged match as West Germany played a game against East Germany. The East Germans won 1–0 but it made a scant difference to West Germany as only the West Germans acquired a good record and thus advanced to the knockout stage. The West Germans advanced to the final against the Johan Cruijff-led Dutch team and their brand of "Total Football". The Dutch took the lead from a penalty. However, West Germany tied the match on a penalty by Paul Breitner, and won it with Gerd Müller's fine finish soon after. ### Late 1970s and early 1980s West Germany failed to defend their titles in the next two major international tournaments. They lost to Czechoslovakia in the UEFA Euro 1976 final in a penalty shootout 5–3, their last penalty shootout loss in a major tournament as of 2022. In the 1978 World Cup, Germany was eliminated in the second group stage after losing 3–2 to Austria. Schön retired as coach afterward, and the post was taken over by his assistant, Jupp Derwall. West Germany's first tournament under Derwall was successful, as they earned their second European title at Euro 1980 after defeating Belgium 2–1 in the final. West Germany started the 1982 World Cup with a 1–2 upset by newcomers Algeria in their first match, but advanced to the second round with a controversial 1–0 win over Austria. In the semi-final against France, they tied the match 3–3 and won the penalty shootout 5–4. In the final, they were defeated by Italy 1–3. During this period, West Germany's Gerd Müller racked up fourteen goals in two World Cups (1970 and 1974). His ten goals in 1970 are the third-most ever in a tournament. Müller's all-time World Cup record of 14 goals was broken by Ronaldo in 2006; this was then further broken by Miroslav Klose in 2014 with 16 goals. ### Beckenbauer's managing success (1984–1990) After West Germany were eliminated in the first round of Euro 1984, Franz Beckenbauer returned to the national team to replace Derwall as manager. At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, West Germany finished as runners-up for the second consecutive tournament after beating France 2–0 in the semi-finals, but losing to the Diego Maradona-led Argentina in the final, 2–3. In Euro 1988, after drawing Italy 1–1 and beating both Denmark and Spain 2–0 in the group stage, West Germany's hopes of winning the tournament on home soil were spoiled by the Netherlands, as the Dutch beat them 2–1 in the semi-finals. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, West Germany won their third World Cup title, in its unprecedented third consecutive final appearance. Captained by Lothar Matthäus, they defeated Yugoslavia (4–1), UAE (5–1), the Netherlands (2–1), Czechoslovakia (1–0), and England (1–1, 4–3 on penalty kicks) on the way to a final rematch against Argentina in Rome. West Germany won 1–0, with the only goal being a penalty scored in the 85th minute by Andreas Brehme. Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as the national team's captain in 1974, thus became the first person to win the World Cup as both captain and manager, and the second to win as player and manager, after Mario Zagallo of Brazil. ### Olympic football |- | Bronze medal – third place| 1988 Seoul | Team}} Prior to 1984, Olympic football was an amateur event, meaning that only non-professional players could participate due to this, West Germany was never able to achieve the same degree of success at the Olympics as at the World Cup. The first medal coming in the 1988 Olympics, when they won the bronze medal after beating Italy 3–0 in the 3rd place match. West Germany also reached the second round in both 1972 and 1984. On the other hand, due to having an ability to field its top-level players who were classified as amateurs on a technicality East Germany did better, winning a gold, a silver and two bronze medals (one representing the United Team of Germany). ### Berti Vogts years (1990–1998) In February 1990, months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany and West Germany were drawn together in UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying Group 5. In November 1990, the East German association Deutscher Fußball-Verband integrated into the DFB, by which time the East Germany team had ceased operations, playing its last match on 12 September 1990. The unified Germany national team completed the European Championship qualifying group. The East German 1990–91 league continued, with a restructuring of German leagues in 1991–92. The first game with a unified Germany national team was against Switzerland on 19 December. After the 1990 World Cup, assistant Berti Vogts took over as the national team coach from the retiring Beckenbauer. In Euro 1992, Germany reached the final, but lost 0–2 to underdogs Denmark. In the 1994 World Cup, they were upset 1–2 in the quarterfinals by Bulgaria. Reunified Germany won its first major international title at Euro 1996, becoming European champions for the third time. They defeated hosts England in the semi-finals, and the Czech Republic 2–1 in the final on a golden goal in extra time. However, in the 1998 World Cup, Germany were eliminated in the quarterfinals in a 0–3 defeat to Croatia, all goals being scored after defender Christian Wörns received a straight red card. Vogts stepped down afterwards and was replaced by Erich Ribbeck. ### Erich Ribbeck and Rudi Völler years (2000–2004) In Euro 2000, the team went out in the first round, drawing with Romania, then suffering a 1–0 defeat to England and were routed 3–0 by Portugal (which fielded their backup players, having already advanced). Ribbeck resigned, and was replaced by Rudi Völler. Coming into the 2002 World Cup, expectations of Germany were low due to poor results in the qualifiers, and not directly qualifying for the finals for the first time. The team advanced through group play, and in the knockout stages they produced three consecutive 1–0 wins against Paraguay, the United States, and co-hosts South Korea. Oliver Neuville scored two minutes from time against Paraguay and Michael Ballack scored both goals in the US and South Korea games, although he picked up a second yellow card against South Korea for a tactical foul and was suspended for the subsequent match. This set up a final against Brazil, the first World Cup meeting between the two. Germany lost 0–2 thanks to two Ronaldo goals. Nevertheless, German captain and goalkeeper Oliver Kahn won the Golden Ball, the first time in the World Cup that a goalkeeper was named the best player of the tournament. Germany again exited in the first round of Euro 2004, drawing their first two matches and losing the third to the Czech Republic (who had fielded a second-string team). Völler resigned afterwards, and Jürgen Klinsmann was appointed head coach. ### Resurgence under Klinsmann (2004–2006) Klinsmann's main task was to lead the national team to a good showing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He relieved goalkeeper Kahn of the captaincy and announced that Kahn and longtime backup Jens Lehmann would be competing for the position of starting goaltender, a decision that angered Kahn and Lehmann eventually won that contest. Expectations for the team were low, which was not helped by veteran defender Christian Wörns being dropped (after Wörns criticised Klinsmann for designating him only as a backup player on the squad), a choice roundly panned in Germany. Italy routed Germany 4–1 in a March 2006 exhibition game, and Klinsmann bore the brunt of the criticism as the team was ranked only 22nd in the world entering the 2006 World Cup. As World Cup hosts, Germany won all three group stage matches to finish top of their group. The team defeated Sweden 2–0 in the round of 16, and Argentina in the quarter-finals in a penalty shootout. The semi-final against Italy was scoreless until near the end of extra time when Germany conceded two goals. In the third place match, Germany defeated Portugal 3–1. Miroslav Klose was awarded the Golden Boot for his tournament-leading five goals. ### Löw era (2006–2021) #### Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 Germany's entry into the Euro 2008 qualifying round was marked by the promotion of Joachim Löw to head coach, since Klinsmann resigned. At UEFA Euro 2008, Germany won two out of three matches in group play to advance to the knockout round. They defeated Portugal 3–2 in the quarterfinal, and won their semi-final against Turkey. Germany lost the final against Spain 0–1, finishing as the runners-up. In the 2010 World Cup, Germany won the group and advanced to the knockout stage. In the round of 16, Germany defeated England 4–1. The game controversially had a valid goal by Frank Lampard disallowed. In the quarter-finals, Germany defeated Argentina 4–0, and Miroslav Klose tied German Gerd Müller's record of 14 World Cup goals. In the semi-final, Germany lost 1–0 to Spain. Germany defeated Uruguay 3–2 to take third place (their second third place after 2006). German Thomas Müller won the Golden Boot and the Best Young Player Award. In Euro 2012, Germany was placed in group B along with Portugal, Netherlands, and Denmark. Germany won all three group matches. Germany defeated Greece in the quarter-final and set a record of 15 consecutive wins in all competitive matches. In the semi-finals, Germany lost to Italy, 1–2. #### 2014 World Cup victory Germany were placed in Group G of the 2014 World Cup, with Portugal, Ghana, and the United States. They first faced Portugal in a match billed by some as the "team of all the talents against the team of The Talent (Cristiano Ronaldo)", routing the Portuguese 4–0 thanks to a hat-trick by Thomas Müller. In their match with Ghana, they led the game with Götze's second half goal, but then conceded two consecutive goals. Klose scored a goal to level Germany 2–2, his 15th World Cup goal to join former Brazil striker Ronaldo at the pinnacle of World Cup Finals scorers. They then went on to defeat the Klinsmann-led United States 1–0, securing them a spot in the round of sixteen against Algeria. The round of sixteen knockout match against Algeria remained goalless after regulation time, resulting in extra time. In the 92nd minute, André Schürrle scored a goal from a Thomas Müller pass. Mesut Özil scored Germany's second goal in the 120th minute. Algeria managed to score one goal in injury time and the match ended 2–1. Germany secured a place in the quarter-final, where they would face France. In the quarter-final match against France, Mats Hummels scored in the 13th minute. Germany won the game 1–0 to advance to a record fourth consecutive semi-finals. The 7–1 semi-final win against Brazil was one of the most memorable games in World Cup history; Germany scored four goals in just less than seven minutes and were 5–0 up by the 30th minute with goals from Thomas Müller, Miroslav Klose, Sami Khedira and two from Toni Kroos. Germany's 7–0 in the second half was the highest score against Brazil in a single game. Germany conceded a late goal to Brazil's Oscar. It was Brazil's worst ever World Cup defeat, whilst Germany broke multiple World Cup records with the win, including the record broken by Klose, the first team to reach four consecutive World Cup semi-finals, the first team to score seven goals in a World Cup Finals knockout phase game, the fastest five consecutive goals in World Cup history (four of which in just 400 seconds), and the first team to score five goals in the first half in a World Cup semi-final. The World Cup final was held at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on 13 July, and billed as the world's best player (Lionel Messi) versus the world's best team (Germany). Mario Götze's 113th-minute goal helped Germany beat Argentina 1–0, becoming the first-ever European team to win a FIFA World Cup in the Americas and the second European team to win the title outside Europe. #### Euro 2016 to 2017 Confederations Cup After several players retired from the team following the 2014 World Cup win, including Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker and Miroslav Klose, the team had a disappointing start in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers. They defeated Scotland 2–1 at home, then suffered a 2–0 loss at Poland (the first in their history), a 1–1 draw against the Republic of Ireland, and a 4–0 win over Gibraltar. The year ended with an away 0–1 friendly win against Spain. Troubles during qualifying for the 2016 European Championship continued, drawing at home, as well as losing away, to Ireland; the team also only narrowly defeated Scotland on two occasions, but handily won the return against Poland and both games against Gibraltar (who competed for the first time). They would eventually win their group and qualify for the tournament through a 2–1 victory against Georgia on 11 October 2015. On 13 November 2015, Germany played a friendly against France in Paris when a series of terrorist attacks took place in the city, some in the direct vicinity of the Stade de France, where the game was held. For security reasons, the team spent the night inside the stadium, accompanied by the French squad who stayed behind in an act of comradery. Four days later, Germany was scheduled to face the Netherlands at Hanover's HDI-Arena, in another friendly. After initial security reservations, the DFB decided to play the match on 15 November. After reports about a concrete threat to the stadium, the match was cancelled 90 minutes before kickoff. Germany began their campaign for a fourth European title with a 2–0 win against Ukraine on 12 June 2016. Against Poland, Germany was held to a 0–0 draw but concluded Group C play with a 1–0 win against Northern Ireland. In the Round of 16, Germany faced Slovakia and earned a comfortable 3–0 win. Germany then faced off against rivals Italy in the quarter-finals. Mesut Özil opened the scoring in the 65th minute for Germany, before Leonardo Bonucci drew even after converting a penalty in the 78th minute. The score remained 1–1 after extra time, and Germany beat Italy 6–5 in a penalty shootout. It was the first time Germany had overcome Italy in a major tournament. The Germans lost to hosts France 2–0 in the semi-finals, their first competitive win against Germany in 58 years. Germany qualified for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup after winning the 2014 World Cup, and won the last version of the Confederations Cup after a 1–0 win against Chile in the final at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. #### Disappointment at the 2018 World Cup, 2018–19 UEFA Nations League and Euro 2020 After winning all their qualifying matches and the Confederations Cup the previous year, Germany started their 2018 World Cup campaign with a defeat to Mexico, their first loss in an opening match since the 1982 World Cup. Germany defeated Sweden 2–1 in their second game via an injury-time winner from Toni Kroos, but was subsequently eliminated following a 2–0 loss to South Korea, their first exit in the first round since 1938 and first ever in the group stage since the format had been reintroduced in 1950. Following the World Cup, Germany's struggles continued into the inaugural UEFA Nations League. After a 0–0 draw at home against France, they lost 3–0 against the Netherlands and 1–2 in the rematch against France three days later; the latter result being their fourth loss in six competitive matches. These results meant that Germany could not advance to the 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals and faced the prospect of possible relegation to League B in the next Nations League. After the Netherlands' win against France, the relegation to League B was originally confirmed, but due to the overhaul of the format for the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, Germany was spared from relegation to League B. In March 2021, the DFB announced that Löw would step down as Germany's manager after Euro 2021. Later that month, Germany lost 1–2 at home to North Macedonia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, their first World Cup qualification defeat since losing 5–1 to England in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and only their third in history. On 25 May 2021, the DFB announced that former assistant manager Hansi Flick will replace Löw as head coach. At Euro 2020 (delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Germany were drawn with World Cup champions France (to whom they lost 1–0) and reigning European champions Portugal (whom they defeated 4–2, albeit with the help of two Portuguese own goals), with each group having only two guaranteed qualifiers for the next phase, plus a chance for the third-placed team. In the final group match, the Hungarians who took the lead twice, only to draw. Germany then lost 2–0 to England in the round of 16, their first round of 16 exit in a major tournament. ### Revival under Flick and 2022 World Cup disappointment (2021–present) Following Germany's disappointment at Euro 2020, Hansi Flick, former Bayern Munich manager, took over as coach of the national team. Success only followed from there, as Germany went on to beat Liechtenstein, Armenia, Iceland, Romania and North Macedonia in a month's succession. On 11 October 2021, Germany beat North Macedonia 4–0 to become the first team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the 2022–23 Nations League, Germany recorded their first-ever competitive win against Italy as the Germans beat the visitors 5–2. This was Germany's fourth game and first win in the league, however the Germans finished third in the group. In the 2022 World Cup, Germany were drawn into Group E with Spain, Japan and Costa Rica. The campaign started with a shock 2–1 defeat to Japan. Germany drew 1–1 with Spain, and then were knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage for the second consecutive tournament, despite a 4–2 win over Costa Rica, missing out on a place in the knockout stages on goal difference. Team image ---------- ### Kits and crest The national team's home kit has been traditionally a white shirt, black shorts, and white socks. The colours are derived from the 19th-century flag of the North German State of Prussia. Since 1988, many of the home kit's designs incorporate details patterned after the modern German flag. For the 2014 World Cup, Germany's kit was white shorts rather than the traditional black due to FIFA's kit clashing rule for the tournament. The away shirt colour has changed several times. Historically, a green shirt with white shorts is the most often used alternative colour combination, derived from the DFB colours – though it is often erroneously reported that the choice is in recognition of the fact that Ireland, whose home shirts are green, were the first nation to play Germany in a friendly game after World War II. However, the first team to play Germany after WWII, as stated above, was actually Switzerland. Other colours such as red, grey and black have also been used. A change from black to red came in 2005 on the request of Jürgen Klinsmann, but Germany played every game at the 2006 World Cup in its home white colours. In 2010, the away colours then changed back to a black shirt and white shorts, but at the World Cup, the team dressed up in the black shorts from the home kit. The kit used by Germany returned to a green shirt on its away kit, but then changed again to red-and-black striped shirts with white stripes and letters and black shorts. Adidas AG is the longstanding kit provider to the national team, a sponsorship that began in 1954 and is contracted to continue until at least 2022. In the 70s, Germany wore Erima kits (a German brand, formerly a subsidiary of Adidas). As a common practice, three stars were added above the crest in 1996, symbolising Germany's World Cup titles in 1954, 1974 and 1990. In 2014, a fourth star was added after Germany were crowned world champions for the fourth time. #### Kit suppliers | Kit supplier | Period | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Leuzela | unknown–1954 | Germany wore Leuzela kits during the 1954 FIFA World Cup | | Umbro | 1966–1970 | Germany wore Umbro kits during the 1966 and 1970 FIFA World Cups | | Adidas | 1954–present | In the 1970s, Germany wore Erima kits(a German brand, formerly a subsidiary of Adidas). | #### Kit deals | Kit supplier | Period | Contract | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Announcement | Duration | | Adidas | 1954–present | 20 June 2016 | 2019–2022 (4 years) | Per year: €50 million ($56.7 million) Total: €250 million ($283.5 million) | | 10 September 2018 | 2023–2026 (4 years) | Undisclosed | ### Home stadium Germany plays its home matches among various stadiums, in rotation, around the country. They have played home matches in 43 different cities so far, including venues that were German at the time of the match, such as Vienna, Austria, which staged three games between 1938 and 1942. National team matches have been held most often in Berlin (46 matches), which was the venue of Germany's first home match (in 1908 against England). Other common host cities include Hamburg (34 matches), Stuttgart (32), Hanover (28) and Dortmund. Munich also hosted noteworthy matches including the 1974 World Cup final. ### Media coverage Germany's qualifying and friendly matches are televised by privately owned RTL; Nations League by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. World Cup & European Championships matches featuring the Germany national team are among the most-watched events in the history of television in Germany. Results and fixtures -------------------- The following is a list of match results in the last twelve months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.   Win   Draw   Loss   Fixture ### 2022 Germany  v  Hungary | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 23 September 2022 2022–23 UEFA Nations League | **Germany** | **0–1** | **Hungary** | Leipzig | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | | Report | * Szalai 17' | Stadium: Red Bull ArenaAttendance: 39,513Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia) | England  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 26 September 2022 2022–23 UEFA Nations League | **England** | **3–3** | **Germany** | London | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | * Shaw 72' * Mount 75' * Kane 83' (pen.) | Report | * Gündoğan 52' (pen.) * Havertz 67', 87' | Stadium: Wembley StadiumAttendance: 78,949Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) | Oman  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 16 November 2022 Friendly | **Oman** | **0–1** | **Germany** | Muscat | | 18:00 CET (UTC+01:00) | | Report | * Füllkrug 80' | Stadium: Sultan Qaboos Sports ComplexAttendance: 25,654Referee: Mohammed Al Hoaish (Saudi Arabia) | Germany  v  Japan | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 23 November 2022 2022 FIFA World Cup Group E | **Germany** | **1–2** | **Japan** | Al Rayyan | | 14:00 CET (UTC+01:00) | * Gündoğan 33' (pen.) | Report | * Dōan 75' * Asano 83' | Stadium: Khalifa International StadiumAttendance: 42,608Referee: Iván Barton (El Salvador) | Spain  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 27 November 2022 2022 FIFA World Cup Group E | **Spain** | **1–1** | **Germany** | Al Khor | | 20:00 CET (UTC+01:00) | * Morata 62' | Report | * Füllkrug 83' | Stadium: Al Bayt StadiumAttendance: 68,895Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) | Costa Rica  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 December 2022 2022 FIFA World Cup Group E | **Costa Rica** | **2–4** | **Germany** | Al Khor | | 20:00 CET (UTC+01:00) | * Tejeda 58' * Vargas 70' | Report | * Gnabry 10' * Havertz 73', 85' * Füllkrug 89' | Stadium: Al Bayt StadiumAttendance: 67,054Referee: Stéphanie Frappart (France) | ### 2023 Germany  v  Peru | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 25 March 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **2–0** | **Peru** | Mainz | | 20:45 CET (UTC+01:00) | * Füllkrug 12', 33' | Report | | Stadium: Mewa ArenaAttendance: 25,384Referee: Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi (Italy) | Germany  v  Belgium | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 28 March 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **2–3** | **Belgium** | Cologne | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | * Füllkrug 44' (pen.) * Gnabry 87' | Report | * Carrasco 6' * Lukaku 9' * De Bruyne 78' | Stadium: RheinEnergieStadionAttendance: 42,910Referee: Willy Delajod (France) | Germany  v  Ukraine | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 12 June 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **3–3** | **Ukraine** | Bremen | | 18:00 CEST (UTC+02:00) | * Füllkrug 6' * Havertz 83' * Kimmich 90+1' (pen.) | Report | * Tsyhankov 19', 56' * Rüdiger 23' (o.g.) | Stadium: WeserstadionAttendance: 35,795Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece) | Poland  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 16 June 2023 Friendly | **Poland** | **1–0** | **Germany** | Warsaw | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | * Kiwior 31' | Report | | Stadium: Stadion NarodowyAttendance: 57,098Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel) | Germany  v  Colombia | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 20 June 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **0–2** | **Colombia** | Gelsenkirchen | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | | Report | * Díaz 54' * Cuadrado 82' (pen.) | Stadium: Arena AufSchalkeAttendance: 50,421Referee: Halil Umut Meler (Turkey) | Germany  v  Japan | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 9 September 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **v** | **Japan** | Wolfsburg | | 20:45 CEST (UTC+02:00) | | Report | | Stadium: Volkswagen Arena | Germany  v  France | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 12 September 2023 Friendly | **Germany** | **v** | **France** | Dortmund | | 21:00 CEST (UTC+02:00) | | Report | | Stadium: Westfalenstadion | United States  v  Germany | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 14 October 2023 Friendly | **United States** | **v** | **Germany** | East Hartford | | 21:00 CEST (UTC+02:00) | | Report | | Stadium: Pratt & Whitney Stadium | Coaching staff -------------- | Position | Name | | --- | --- | | Head coach | Germany Hansi Flick | | Assistant coaches | Germany Marcus Sorg | | Germany Danny Röhl | | Fitness coach | Germany Yann-Benjamin Kugel | | Goalkeeping coach | Switzerland Andreas Kronenberg | | Team doctor | Germany Tim Meyer | | National team director | Germany Rudi Völler | Players ------- ### Current squad The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Ukraine, Poland and Colombia on 12, 16 and 20 June 2023, respectively. *Information correct as of 20 June 2023, after the match against Colombia.* | No. | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Goals | Club | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | 1GK | Marc-André ter Stegen | (1992-04-30) 30 April 1992 (age 31) | 34 | 0 | Spain Barcelona | | 12 | 1GK | Kevin Trapp | (1990-07-08) 8 July 1990 (age 32) | 7 | 0 | Germany Eintracht Frankfurt | | 22 | 1GK | Bernd Leno | (1992-03-04) 4 March 1992 (age 31) | 9 | 0 | England Fulham | | --- | | 2 | 2DF | Antonio Rüdiger | (1993-03-03) 3 March 1993 (age 30) | 60 | 2 | Spain Real Madrid | | 3 | 2DF | David Raum | (1998-04-22) 22 April 1998 (age 25) | 18 | 0 | Germany RB Leipzig | | 4 | 2DF | Matthias Ginter | (1994-01-19) 19 January 1994 (age 29) | 51 | 2 | Germany SC Freiburg | | 5 | 2DF | Thilo Kehrer | (1996-09-21) 21 September 1996 (age 26) | 27 | 0 | England West Ham United | | 13 | 2DF | Benjamin Henrichs | (1997-02-23) 23 February 1997 (age 26) | 10 | 0 | Germany RB Leipzig | | 15 | 2DF | Nico Schlotterbeck | (1999-12-01) 1 December 1999 (age 23) | 10 | 0 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | | 20 | 2DF | Robin Gosens | (1994-07-05) 5 July 1994 (age 28) | 16 | 2 | Italy Inter Milan | | 25 | 2DF | Marius Wolf | (1995-05-27) 27 May 1995 (age 28) | 5 | 0 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | | 26 | 2DF | Malick Thiaw | (2001-08-08) 8 August 2001 (age 21) | 2 | 0 | Italy AC Milan | | --- | | 6 | 3MF | Joshua Kimmich *(captain)* | (1995-02-08) 8 February 1995 (age 28) | 79 | 6 | Germany Bayern Munich | | 7 | 3MF | Kai Havertz | (1999-06-11) 11 June 1999 (age 24) | 37 | 13 | England Chelsea | | 8 | 3MF | Leon Goretzka | (1995-02-06) 6 February 1995 (age 28) | 53 | 14 | Germany Bayern Munich | | 14 | 3MF | Jamal Musiala | (2003-02-26) 26 February 2003 (age 20) | 23 | 1 | Germany Bayern Munich | | 17 | 3MF | Julian Brandt | (1996-05-02) 2 May 1996 (age 27) | 42 | 3 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | | 18 | 3MF | Jonas Hofmann | (1992-07-14) 14 July 1992 (age 30) | 21 | 4 | Germany Borussia Mönchengladbach | | 21 | 3MF | İlkay Gündoğan | (1990-10-24) 24 October 1990 (age 32) | 67 | 17 | England Manchester City | | 23 | 3MF | Emre Can | (1994-01-12) 12 January 1994 (age 29) | 41 | 1 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | | 24 | 3MF | Florian Wirtz | (2003-05-03) 3 May 2003 (age 20) | 8 | 0 | Germany Bayer Leverkusen | | --- | | 9 | 4FW | Niclas Füllkrug | (1993-02-09) 9 February 1993 (age 30) | 9 | 7 | Germany Werder Bremen | | 19 | 4FW | Leroy Sané | (1996-01-11) 11 January 1996 (age 27) | 53 | 11 | Germany Bayern Munich | ### Recent call-ups The following players have also been called up for the team within the last twelve months. | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Goals | Club | Latest call-up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | GK | Manuel Neuer | (1986-03-27) 27 March 1986 (age 37) | 117 | 0 | Germany Bayern Munich | 2022 FIFA World Cup INJ | | GK | Oliver Baumann | (1990-06-02) 2 June 1990 (age 33) | 0 | 0 | Germany 1899 Hoffenheim | v.  England, 26 September 2022 | | --- | | DF | Lukas Klostermann | (1996-06-03) 3 June 1996 (age 27) | 22 | 0 | Germany RB Leipzig | v.  Poland, 16 June 2023 | | DF | Christian Günter | (1993-02-28) 28 February 1993 (age 30) | 8 | 0 | Germany SC Freiburg | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | DF | Josha Vagnoman | (2000-12-11) 11 December 2000 (age 22) | 1 | 0 | Germany VfB Stuttgart | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | DF | Armel Bella-Kotchap | (2001-12-11) 11 December 2001 (age 21) | 2 | 0 | England Southampton | v.  Peru, 25 March 2023 INJ | | DF | Niklas Süle | (1995-09-03) 3 September 1995 (age 27) | 45 | 1 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | 2022 FIFA World Cup | | --- | | MF | Mario Götze | (1992-06-03) 3 June 1992 (age 31) | 66 | 17 | Germany Eintracht Frankfurt | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | MF | Felix Nmecha | (2000-10-10) 10 October 2000 (age 22) | 1 | 0 | Germany VfL Wolfsburg | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | MF | Maximilian Arnold | (1994-05-27) 27 May 1994 (age 29) | 3 | 0 | Germany VfL Wolfsburg | v.  England, 26 September 2022 | | MF | Marco Reus | (1989-05-31) 31 May 1989 (age 34) | 48 | 15 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | v.  Hungary, 23 September 2022 INJ | | --- | | FW | Timo Werner | (1996-03-06) 6 March 1996 (age 27) | 57 | 24 | Germany RB Leipzig | v.  Poland, 16 June 2023 | | FW | Kevin Schade | (2001-11-27) 27 November 2001 (age 21) | 2 | 0 | England Brentford | v.  Ukraine, 12 June 2023 | | FW | Serge Gnabry | (1995-07-14) 14 July 1995 (age 27) | 41 | 22 | Germany Bayern Munich | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | FW | Mërgim Berisha | (1998-05-11) 11 May 1998 (age 25) | 2 | 0 | Germany FC Augsburg | v.  Belgium, 28 March 2023 | | FW | Thomas Müller | (1989-09-13) 13 September 1989 (age 33) | 121 | 44 | Germany Bayern Munich | 2022 FIFA World Cup | | FW | Karim Adeyemi | (2002-01-18) 18 January 2002 (age 21) | 4 | 1 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | 2022 FIFA World Cup | | FW | Youssoufa Moukoko | (2004-11-20) 20 November 2004 (age 18) | 2 | 0 | Germany Borussia Dortmund | 2022 FIFA World Cup | | FW | Lukas Nmecha | (1998-12-14) 14 December 1998 (age 24) | 7 | 0 | Germany VfL Wolfsburg | v.  Hungary, 23 September 2022 | | --- INJ Withdrew due to injury | Individual records ------------------ ### Player records *As of 1 December 2022* *Players in **bold** are still active with Germany.* *This list does not include players who represented East Germany.* #### Most capped players | Rank | Player | Caps | Goals | Period | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Lothar Matthäus | 150 | 23 | 1980–2000 | | 2 | Miroslav Klose | 137 | 71 | 2001–2014 | | 3 | Lukas Podolski | 130 | 49 | 2004–2017 | | 4 | **Thomas Müller** | 121 | 44 | 2010–present | | Bastian Schweinsteiger | 24 | 2004–2016 | | 6 | **Manuel Neuer** | 117 | 0 | 2009–present | | 7 | Philipp Lahm | 113 | 5 | 2004–2014 | | 8 | Jürgen Klinsmann | 108 | 47 | 1987–1998 | | 9 | Toni Kroos | 106 | 17 | 2010–2021 | | 10 | Jürgen Kohler | 105 | 2 | 1986–1998 | #### Top goalscorers | Rank | Player | Goals | Caps | Average | Period | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Miroslav Klose (list) | 71 | 137 | 0.52 | 2001–2014 | | 2 | Gerd Müller (list) | 68 | 62 | 1.1 | 1966–1974 | | 3 | Lukas Podolski | 49 | 130 | 0.38 | 2004–2017 | | 4 | Rudi Völler | 47 | 90 | 0.52 | 1982–1994 | | Jürgen Klinsmann | 108 | 0.44 | 1987–1998 | | 6 | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 45 | 95 | 0.47 | 1976–1986 | | 7 | **Thomas Müller** | 44 | 121 | 0.37 | 2010–present | | 8 | Uwe Seeler | 43 | 72 | 0.6 | 1954–1970 | | 9 | Michael Ballack | 42 | 98 | 0.43 | 1999–2010 | | 10 | Oliver Bierhoff | 37 | 70 | 0.53 | 1996–2002 | #### Captains | Player | Period | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Fritz Szepan | 1934–1939 | | | Paul Janes | 1939–1942 | | | Fritz Walter | 1951–1956 | First official captain of the West Germany national football teamWorld Cup winning captain (1954) | | Hans Schäfer | 1952–1962 | First West German player to play in three World Cup tournaments(1954, 1958, 1962) | | Helmut Rahn | 1958–1959 | | | Herbert Erhardt | 1959–1962 | | | Hans Schäfer | 1962 | | | Uwe Seeler | 1962–1970 | | | Wolfgang Overath | 1970–1972 | | | Franz Beckenbauer | 1972–1977 | European Championship winning captain (1972)World Cup winning captain (1974) | | Berti Vogts | 1977–1978 | | | Sepp Maier | 1978–1979 | | | Bernard Dietz | 1979–1981 | European Championship winning captain (1980) | | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 1981–1986 | | | Harald Schumacher | 1986 | | | Klaus Allofs | 1986–1987 | | | Lothar Matthäus | 1988–1994 | World Cup winning captain (1990)First captain of the unified Germany national football team | | Jürgen Klinsmann | 1995–1998 | European Championship winning captain (1996) | | Oliver Bierhoff | 1998–2001 | | | Oliver Kahn | 2001–2004 | | | Michael Ballack | 2004–2010 | | | Philipp Lahm | 2010–2014 | World Cup winning captain (2014) | | Bastian Schweinsteiger | 2014–2016 | | | Manuel Neuer | 2016–2017 | | | Julian Draxler | 2017 | Confederations Cup winning captain (2017) | | Manuel Neuer | 2017–present | | #### Player of the Year * 2010: Bastian Schweinsteiger * 2011: Mesut Özil * 2012: Mesut Özil * 2013: Mesut Özil * 2014: Toni Kroos * 2015: Mesut Özil * 2016: Mesut Özil * 2017: Joshua Kimmich * 2018: Marco Reus * 2019: Matthias Ginter * 2020: Manuel Neuer * 2021: Joshua Kimmich * 2022: Jamal Musiala ### Manager records Most manager appearances Joachim Löw: 198 Team records ------------ ### 15 consecutive wins in all competitive matches (world record) | Date | Opponent | Venue | | Result | Type | Scorers | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 10 July 2010 |  Uruguay | Port Elizabeth, RSA | \* | 3–2 | WC 2010 3rd place | Müller 19', Jansen 56', Khedira 82' | | 3 September 2010 |  Belgium | Brussels, BEL | A | 1–0 | EC 2012 Qualification | Klose 51' | | 7 September 2010 |  Azerbaijan | Köln | H | 6–1 | EC 2012 Qualification | Westermann 28', Podolski 45+1', Klose 45+2', 90+2', Sadygov 53' (o.g.), Badstuber 86' | | 8 October 2010 |  Turkey | Berlin | H | 3–0 | EC 2012 Qualification | Klose 42', 87', Özil 79' | | 12 October 2010 |  Kazakhstan | Astana, KAZ | A | 3–0 | EC 2012 Qualification | Klose 48', Gómez 76', Podolski 85' | | 26 March 2011 |  Kazakhstan | Kaiserslautern | H | 4–0 | EC 2012 Qualification | Klose 3', 88', Müller 25', 43' | | 3 June 2011 |  Austria | Vienna, AUT | A | 2–1 | EC 2012 Qualification | Gómez 44', 90' | | 7 June 2011 |  Azerbaijan | Baku, AZE | A | 3–1 | EC 2012 Qualification | Özil 30', Gómez 41', Schürrle 90+3' | | 2 September 2011 |  Austria | Gelsenkirchen | H | 6–2 | EC 2012 Qualification | Klose 8', Özil 23', 47', Podolski 28', Schürrle 83', Götze 88' | | 7 October 2011 |  Turkey | Istanbul, TUR | A | 3–1 | EC 2012 Qualification | Gómez 35', Müller 66', Schweinsteiger 86' (pen.) | | 11 October 2011 |  Belgium | Düsseldorf | H | 3–1 | EC 2012 Qualification | Özil 30', Schürrle 33', Gómez 48' | | 9 June 2012 |  Portugal | Lviv, UKR | \* | 1–0 | EC 2012 Group | Gómez 72' | | 13 June 2012 |  Netherlands | Kharkiv, UKR | \* | 2–1 | EC 2012 Group | Gómez 24', 38' | | 17 June 2012 |  Denmark | Lviv, UKR | \* | 2–1 | EC 2012 Group | Podolski 19', Bender 80' | | 22 June 2012 |  Greece | Gdańsk, POL | \* | 4–2 | EC 2012 Quarter final | Lahm 39', Khedira 61', Klose 68', Reus 74' | Competitive record ------------------ * 1930–1938 as → →  Germany * 1950–1990 as  West Germany * 1994–present as  Germany   **Champions**    **Runners-up**    Third place     Tournament played fully or partially on home soil   Germany has won the FIFA World Cup four times, behind only Brazil's five. It has finished as runners-up four times. In terms of semi-final appearances, Germany leads with 13, two more than Brazil's 11, who have participated in every single tournament. From 1954 to 2014 (16 tournaments), Germany reached at least the stage of the last eight teams, before being eliminated in the group stage in 2018. Germany has also qualified for every one of the 19 World Cups for which it has entered – it did not enter the inaugural competition in Uruguay of 1930 for economic reasons, and were banned from the 1950 World Cup as the DFB was reinstated as a FIFA member only two months after this tournament. Germany has also won the European Championship three times, the joint-most with Spain. France and Italy, with two titles each, are the only other multiple winners. Germany finished as runners-up three times. The Germans have qualified for every European Championship tournament except for the first European Championship they entered in 1968. For that tournament, Germany was in the only group of three teams and thus only played four qualifying games. The deciding game was a scoreless draw in Albania which gave Yugoslavia the edge, having won in their neighbour country. The team finished outside the top eight in only three occasions: group stage eliminations in 2000 and 2004 alongside a round of 16 exit in 2020. In the other editions Germany participated in they reached nine times at least the semi-finals, an unparalleled record in Europe. *See also East Germany and Saarland for the results of these separate Germany teams, and Austria for the team that was merged into the Germany national team from 1938 to 1945.* ### FIFA World Cup | FIFA World Cup finals record | | Qualification record | | --- | --- | --- | | Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D\* | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Campaign | | Uruguay 1930 | *Did not enter* | | *Did not enter* | — | | Italy 1934 | **Third place** | **3rd** | **4** | **3** | **0** | **1** | **11** | **8** | Squad | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 1934 | | France 1938 | First round | 10th | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | Squad | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 1938 | | Brazil 1950 | *Banned from entering* | *Banned from entering* | 1950 | | Switzerland 1954 | **Champions** | **1st** | **6** | **5** | **0** | **1** | **25** | **14** | Squad | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 1954 | | Sweden 1958 | Fourth place | 4th | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 14 | Squad | *Qualified as defending champions* | 1958 | | Chile 1962 | Quarter-finals | 7th | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | Squad | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 5 | 1962 | | England 1966 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **6** | **4** | **1** | **1** | **15** | **6** | Squad | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 1966 | | Mexico 1970 | **Third place** | **3rd** | **6** | **5** | **0** | **1** | **17** | **10** | Squad | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 1970 | | West Germany 1974 | **Champions** | **1st** | **7** | **6** | **0** | **1** | **13** | **4** | Squad | *Qualified as hosts* | 1974 | | Argentina 1978 | Second group stage | 6th | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 5 | Squad | *Qualified as defending champions* | 1978 | | Spain 1982 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **7** | **3** | **2** | **2** | **12** | **10** | Squad | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 3 | 1982 | | Mexico 1986 | **2nd** | **7** | **3** | **2** | **2** | **8** | **7** | Squad | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 9 | 1986 | | Italy 1990 | **Champions** | **1st** | **7** | **5** | **2** | **0** | **15** | **5** | Squad | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 1990 | | United States 1994 | Quarter-finals | 5th | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | Squad | *Qualified as defending champions* | 1994 | | France 1998 | 7th | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | Squad | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 23 | 9 | 1998 | | South Korea Japan 2002 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **7** | **5** | **1** | **1** | **14** | **3** | Squad | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 19 | 12 | 2002 | | Germany 2006 | **Third place** | **3rd** | **7** | **5** | **1** | **1** | **14** | **6** | Squad | *Qualified as hosts* | 2006 | | South Africa 2010 | **3rd** | **7** | **5** | **0** | **2** | **16** | **5** | Squad | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 5 | 2010 | | Brazil 2014 | **Champions** | **1st** | **7** | **6** | **1** | **0** | **18** | **4** | Squad | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 10 | 2014 | | Russia 2018 | Group stage | 22nd | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Squad | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 4 | 2018 | | Qatar 2022 | 17th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | Squad | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 36 | 4 | 2022 | | Total | 4 titles | 20/22 | 112 | 68 | 21\* | 23 | 232 | 130 | | 104 | 83 | 18 | 3 | 328 | 74 | Total | *\*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.* ### FIFA Confederations Cup | FIFA Confederations Cup record | | --- | | Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D\* | L | GF | GA | Squad | | 1992 | *did not enter* | | 1995 | *did not qualify* | | 1997 | *did not enter* | | 1999 | Group stage | 5th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Squad | | 2001 | *did not qualify* | | 2003 | *did not enter* | | 2005 | **Third place** | **3rd** | **5** | **3** | **1** | **1** | **15** | **11** | Squad | | 2009 | *did not qualify* | | 2013 | | | 2017 | **Champions** | **1st** | **5** | **4** | **1** | **0** | **12** | **5** | Squad | | Total | 1 title | 3/10 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 22 | | ### UEFA European Championship | UEFA European Championship record | | Qualification record | | --- | --- | --- | | Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D\* | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Campaign | | France 1960 | *Did not enter* | | *Did not enter* | | Spain 1964 | | Italy 1968 | *Did not qualify* | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1968 | | Belgium 1972 | **Champions** | **1st** | **2** | **2** | **0** | **0** | **5** | **1** | Squad | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 1972 | | Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1976 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **2** | **1** | **1\*** | **0** | **6** | **4** | Squad | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 17 | 5 | 1976 | | Italy 1980 | **Champions** | **1st** | **4** | **3** | **1** | **0** | **6** | **3** | Squad | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 1980 | | France 1984 | Group stage | 5th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | Squad | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 | 1984 | | West Germany 1988 | **Semi-finals** | **3rd** | **4** | **2** | **1** | **1** | **6** | **3** | Squad | *Qualified as hosts* | | Sweden 1992 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **5** | **2** | **1** | **2** | **7** | **8** | Squad | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 1992 | | England 1996 | **Champions** | **1st** | **6** | **4** | **2\*** | **0** | **10** | **3** | Squad | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 10 | 1996 | | Belgium Netherlands 2000 | Group stage | 15th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Squad | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 4 | 2000 | | Portugal 2004 | 12th | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Squad | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 2004 | | Austria Switzerland 2008 | **Runners-up** | **2nd** | **6** | **4** | **0** | **2** | **10** | **7** | Squad | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 35 | 7 | 2008 | | Poland Ukraine 2012 | **Semi-finals** | **3rd** | **5** | **4** | **0** | **1** | **10** | **6** | Squad | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 7 | 2012 | | France 2016 | **3rd** | **6** | **3** | **2\*** | **1** | **7** | **3** | Squad | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 24 | 9 | 2016 | | Europe 2020 | Round of 16 | 15th | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | Squad | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 30 | 7 | 2020 | | Germany 2024 | *Qualified as hosts* | *Qualified as hosts* | | Total | 3 Titles | 14/17 | 53 | 27 | 13\* | 13 | 78 | 55 | — | | 106 | 76 | 20 | 10 | 267 | 68 | Total | *\*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.* ### UEFA Nations League | UEFA Nations League record | | --- | | League phase | | Finals | | Season | LG | GP | Pos | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | P/R | RK | Year | Pos | Pld | W | D\* | L | GF | GA | Squad | | 2018–19 | A | 1 | 3rd | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | Same position | 11th | Portugal 2019 | *Did not qualify* | | 2020–21 | A | 4 | 2nd | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 13 | Same position | 8th | Italy 2021 | | 2022–23 | A | 3 | 3rd | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 9 | Same position | 10th | Netherlands 2023 | | 2024–25 | A | *To be determined* | 2025 | *To be determined* | | Total | 16 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 24 | 29 | 8th | Total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | *\*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.* Honours ------- ### Major competitions **FIFA World Cup** * **Champions**: 1954, 1974, 1990, 2014 * Runners-up: 1966, 1982, 1986, 2002 * Third place: 1934, 1970, 2006, 2010 * Fourth place: 1958 **UEFA European Championship** * **Champions**: 1972, 1980, 1996 * Runners-up: 1976, 1992, 2008 * Third place: 1988, 2012, 2016 **Summer Olympic Games** * **Gold Medal**: 1976 * Silver Medal: 1980 * Bronze Medal: 1964, 1972, 1988 * Fourth place: 1952 **FIFA Confederations Cup** * **Champions**: 2017 * Third place: 2005 | Overview | | --- | | Event | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place | 4th place | | FIFA World Cup | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | | UEFA European Championship | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | | Summer Olympic Games | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | | FIFA Confederations Cup | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | UEFA Nations League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | Total | 9 | 8 | 11 | 2 | ### Minor competitions **U.S. Cup** * **Champions**: 1993 **Swiss Centenary Tournament** * **Champions**: 1995 **Four Nations Tournament** * Third place: 1988 **Azteca 2000 Tournament** * Third place: 1985 ### Awards **FIFA World Cup Fair Play Trophy** * Winners: 1974 **FIFA World Cup Most Entertaining Team** * Winners: 2010 **FIFA Confederations Cup Fair Play Award** * Winners: 2017 **FIFA Team of the Year** * Winners: 1993, 2014, 2017 **Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year** * Winners: 2015 **World Soccer World Team of the Year** * Winners: 1990, 2014 **Unofficial Football World Championships** * Holders: 31 times **German Sports Team of the Year** * Winners: 1966, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1990, 1996, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 **Silbernes Lorbeerblatt** * Winners: 1954, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1990, 1996, 2014 **Gazzetta Sports World Team of the Year** * Winners: 1980, 1990, 2014 **Bambi Award** * Winners: 1986, 1996 **Deutscher Fernsehpreis** * Winners: 2010 **Golden Hen** * Winners: 2006, 2010, 2014 See also -------- * Germany national football team results * Germany national football team manager * Germany Olympic football team * Germany national under-21 football team * Germany national youth football team (includes U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19 and U-20 squads) * Germany women's national football team * East Germany national football team * East Germany Olympic football team * Germany–England * Germany–France * Germany–Italy * Germany–Netherlands | Awards and achievements | | --- | | Preceded by*Award established* | **FIFA Team of the Year** 1993 | Succeeded by Brazil | | Preceded by Spain | **FIFA Team of the Year** 2014 | Succeeded by Belgium | | Preceded by Argentina | **FIFA Team of the Year** 2017 | Succeeded by Belgium | | Preceded by Bayern Munich | **Laureus World Team of the Year** 2015 | Succeeded by New Zealand | Template:Navboxes

Germany national football team

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_national_football_team

The term **tribe** is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. Its definition is contested, in part due to conflicting theoretical understandings of social and kinship structures, and also reflecting the problematic application of this concept to extremely diverse human societies. The concept is often contrasted by anthropologists with other social and kinship groups, being hierarchically larger than a lineage or clan, but smaller than a chiefdom, nation or state. These terms are equally disputed. In some cases tribes have legal recognition and some degree of political autonomy from national or federal government, but this legalistic usage of the term may conflict with anthropological definitions. In the United States, Native American tribes are legally considered to have "domestic dependent nation" status within the territorial United States, with a government-to-government relationship with the federal government. Etymology --------- The modern English word *tribe* stems from Middle English *tribu*, which ultimately derives from Latin *tribus*. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it remains unclear if this form is the result of a borrowing from a Romance language source (such as Old French *tribu*) or if the form is a result of borrowing directly from Latin (the Middle English plural *tribuz* 1250 may be a direct representation of Latin plural *tribūs*). Modern English *tribe* may also be a result of a common pattern wherein English borrows nouns directly from Latin and drops suffixes, including *-us*. Latin *tribus* is generally held by linguists to be a compound formed from two elements: *tri-* 'three' and *bhu*, *bu*, *fu*, a verbal root meaning 'to be'. Latin *tribus* is held to derive from the Proto-Indo-European compound \**tri-dʰh₁u/o-* ('rendered in three, tripartite division'; compare with Umbrian *trifu* 'trinity, district', Sanskrit *trídha* 'threefold'). Classification -------------- Considerable debate has accompanied efforts to define and characterize tribes. In the popular imagination, tribes reflect a primordial social structure from which all subsequent civilizations and states developed. Anthropologist Elman Service presented a system of classification for societies in all human cultures, based on the evolution of social inequality and the role of the state. This system of classification contains four categories: * Hunter-gatherer bands that are generally egalitarian * Tribal societies with some limited instances of social rank and prestige * Stratified tribal societies led by chieftains (see Chiefdom) * Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments Tribes are therefore considered to be a political unit formed from an organisation of families (including clans and lineages) based on social or ideological solidarity. Membership of a tribe may be understood as being based on factors such as kinship ("clan"), ethnicity ("race"), language, dwelling place, political group, religious beliefs, oral tradition and/or cultural practices. Archaeologists continue to explore the development of pre-state tribes. Current research suggests that tribal structures constituted one type of adaptation to situations providing plentiful yet unpredictable resources. Such structures proved flexible enough to coordinate production and distribution of food in times of scarcity, without limiting or constraining people during times of surplus. anthropologist Morton Fried argued in 1967 that bands organized into tribes in order to resist the violence and exploitation of early kingdoms and states. He wrote: > In fact, there is no absolute necessity for a tribal stage as defined by Sahlins and Service, no necessity, that is, for such a stage to appear in the transit from a single settlement with embedded political organization, to a complex-state structured polity. Such a developmental process could have gone on within a unit that we may conceptualize as a city-state, such a unit as Jericho might have become in its later stages … tribalism can be viewed as reaction to the formation of complex political structure rather than a necessary preliminary stage in its evolution. > > ### Controversy and usage deprecation The term "tribe" was in common use in the field of anthropology until the late 1950s and 1960s. The continued use of the term has attracted controversy among anthropologists and other academics active in the social sciences, with scholars of anthropological and ethnohistorical research challenging the utility of the concept. In 1970, anthropologist J. Clyde Mitchell wrote: The tribe, a long respected category of analysis in anthropology, has recently been the object of some scrutiny by anthropologists ... Doubts about the utility of the tribe as an analytical category have almost certainly arisen out of the rapid involvement of peoples, even in the remotest parts of the globe, in political, economic and sometimes direct social relationship with industrial nations. The doubts, however, are based ultimately on the definition and meaning which different scholars give to the term 'tribe', its adjective 'tribal', and its abstract form 'tribalism'. Despite the membership boundaries for a tribe being conceptually simple, in reality they are often vague and subject to change over time. In his 1975 study, *The Notion of the Tribe*, Fried provided numerous examples of tribes that encompassed members who spoke different languages and practiced different rituals, or who shared languages and rituals with members of other tribes. Similarly, he provided examples of tribes in which people followed different political leaders, or followed the same leaders as members of other tribes. He concluded that tribes in general are characterized by fluid boundaries, heterogeneity and dynamism, and are not parochial. Part of the difficulty with the term is that it seeks to construct and apply a common conceptual framework across diverse cultures and peoples. Different anthropologists studying different peoples therefore draw conflicting conclusions about the nature, structure and practices of tribes. Writing on the Kurdish peoples, anthropologist Martin van Bruinessen argued, "the terms of standard anthropological usage, 'tribe', 'clan' and 'lineage' appear to be a straitjacket that ill fits the social reality of Kurdistan". There are further negative connotations of the term "tribe" that have reduced its use. Writing in 2013, scholar Matthew Ortoleva noted that "like the word *Indian*, *[t]ribe* is a word that has connotations of colonialism." Survival International says "It is important to make the distinction between *tribal* and *indigenous* because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law as well as problems in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples." Present-day ----------- Few tribes today remain isolated from the development of the modern state system. Tribes have lost their legitimacy to conduct traditional functions, such as tithing, delivering justice and defending territory, with these being replaced by states functions and institutions, such as taxation, law courts and the military. Most have suffered decline and loss of cultural identity. Some have adapted to the new political context and transformed their culture and practices in order to survive, whilst others have secured legal rights and protections. Fried proposed that most surviving tribes do not have their origin in pre-state tribes, but rather in pre-state bands. Such "secondary" tribes, he suggested, developed as modern products of state expansion. Bands comprise small, mobile, and fluid social formations with weak leadership. They do not generate surpluses, pay no taxes, and support no standing army. Fried argued that secondary tribes develop in one of two ways. First, states could set them up as means to extend administrative and economic influence in their hinterland, where direct political control costs too much. States would encourage (or require) people on their frontiers to form more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such polities could begin producing surpluses and taxes, and would have a leadership responsive to the needs of neighboring states (the so-called tribes of the United States or British India provide good examples of this). The British favored the label "aboriginal tribe" for some communities. India adopted a republican constitution in 1950, after three years of debate in its Constituent Assembly. During the debate, Jaipal Singh, a member of Munda tribe from Central India advocated for special provisions for the 'Adibasi' -- a translation into Hindi of 'aboriginal'. His arguments proved persuasive. These communities were to have seats in the legislatures and positions in government employment 'reserved' for them. Each of the prepared a list of communities that deserved special protections. These names were listed in a "Schedule" (appendix) to the Constitution. So these came to be called the 'Scheduled Tribes', often abbreviated to ST. Second, bands could form "secondary" tribes as a means to defend against state expansion. Members of bands would form more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such polities could begin producing surpluses that could support a standing army that could fight against states, and they would have a leadership that could co-ordinate economic production and military activities. In the Native American tribes of North America, tribes are considered sovereign nations, that have retained their sovereignty or been granted legal recognition by the federal government. See also -------- * Band society * Ethnic religion * Federally recognized tribes in the United States * Matrilineality * Meenas * Micronation * New Tribal Revolution * Nomad * Pantribal sodalities * Patrilineality * Segmentary society * Social group * Stateless society * Tribal chief * Tribal name * Tribal sovereignty * Tribal warfare * Tribalism + Neotribalism * Tribe (Internet) * Twelve Tribes of Israel External links --------------

Tribe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe

The **grey parrot** (***Psittacus erithacus***), also known as the **Congo grey parrot**, **Congo African grey parrot** or **African grey parrot**, is an Old World parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot *(Psittacus timneh)* once was identified as a subspecies of the grey parrot, but has since been elevated to a full species. Taxonomy -------- The grey parrot was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his *Systema Naturae*. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus *Psittacus* and coined the binomial name *Psittacus erithacus*. Linnaeus erroneously specified the type locality as "Guinea": the locality was later designated as Ghana in West Africa. The genus name is Latin for "parrot". The specific epithet *erithacus* is Latin and is derived from the Ancient Greek εριθακος (*erithakos*) for an unknown bird that was said to mimic human sounds, perhaps the black redstart. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The Timneh parrot was formerly treated as a subspecies of the grey parrot but is now considered to be a separate species based mainly on the results from a genetic and morphological study published in 2007. Although Linnaeus placed all the parrots known to him in the genus *Psittacus*, only the grey parrot and the Timneh parrot are now assigned to this genus. Description ----------- The grey parrot is a medium-sized, predominantly grey, black-billed parrot. Its typical weight is 400 g (14 oz), with an approximate length of 33 cm (13 in), and a wingspan of 46–52 cm (18–20+1⁄2 in). The grey colour on the head and wings is generally darker than its body. The head and body feathers have slight white edges. The tail feathers are red. Due to selection by parrot breeders, some grey parrots are partly or completely red. Both sexes appear similar. The colouration of juveniles is similar to that of adults, but typically their eyes are dark grey to black, in comparison to the yellow irises around dark pupils of the adult birds, and their undertail coverts are tinged with grey. Adults weigh 418–526 g (14+3⁄4–18+1⁄2 oz). Grey parrots may live for 40–60 years in captivity, although their mean lifespan in the wild appears to be shorter—approximately 23 years. They start breeding at an age of 3–5 years and lay 3-5 eggs per brood. Distribution and habitat ------------------------ The grey parrot is native to equatorial Africa, including Angola, Cameroon, the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. The species is found inside a range from Kenya to the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. Current estimates for the global population are uncertain and range from 630,000 to 13 million birds. Populations are decreasing worldwide. The species seems to favor dense forests, but can also be found at forest edges and in more open vegetation types, such as gallery and savanna forests. A population study published in 2015 found that the species had been "virtually eliminated" from Ghana with numbers declining 90 to 99% since 1992. They were found in only 10 of 42 forested areas, and three roosts that once held 700–1200 birds each, now had only 18 in total. Local people mainly blamed the pet trade and the felling of timber for the decline. Populations are thought to be stable in Cameroon. In the Congo, an estimated 15,000 are taken every year for the pet trade, from the eastern part of the country, although the annual quota is stated to be 5,000. Grey parrots have escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, U.S., but no evidence indicates that the population is breeding naturally. Behaviour and ecology --------------------- ### Wild bird behaviours Little is known about the behaviours and activities of these birds in the wild. In addition to a lack of research funding, it can be particularly difficult to study these birds in wild situations due to their status as prey animals, which leads them to have rather secretive personalities. It has been shown that wild greys may also imitate a wide variety of sounds they hear, much like their captive relatives. Two greys were recorded while roosting in Zaire and researchers reported that they had a repertoire of over 200 different sounds, including nine imitations of other wild bird songs and one of a bat. ### Diet They are mostly frugivorous as most of their diet consists of fruit, nuts, and seeds. The species prefers oil palm fruit and they eat flowers and tree bark, as well as insects and snails. In the wild, the grey parrot is partly a ground feeder. In captivity, they may be fed bird pellets, a variety of fruits such as pear, orange, pomegranate, apple, and banana, and vegetables such as carrot, cooked sweet potato, celery, fresh kale, peas, and green beans. They also need a source of calcium. ### Breeding Grey parrots are monogamous breeders who nest in tree cavities. Each mated pair of parrots needs their own tree for their nest. The hen lays three to five eggs, which she incubates for 30 days while being fed by her mate. The adults defend their nesting sites. Grey parrot chicks require feeding and care from their parents in the nest. The parents take care of them until 4–5 weeks after they are fledged. Young leave the nest at the age of 12 weeks. Little is known about the courtship behavior of this species in the wild. They weigh 12–14 g (7⁄16–1⁄2 oz) at hatching and 372–526 g (13+1⁄8–18+1⁄2 oz) when they leave their parents. * Two eggs and a newly hatched chickTwo eggs and a newly hatched chick * One-day-old chickOne-day-old chick * Older chickOlder chick * 13 week-old chick13 week-old chick Diseases -------- Young grey parrots are more commonly infected by psittacine beak and feather disease than adults. Infected birds may show symptoms such as loss of appetite, fluffy feathers, sluggishness, and reduced walking abilities due to brittle bones. Also, grey parrots are more likely to have rhinitis which is an inflammatory and infectious disease of the nasal cavity. Birds may exhibit signs like wheezing, sneezing, nasal snuffling, and swelling or occlusion of the nares. Treatment options include gentle debridement and nasal irrigation. Conservation ------------ Natural predators for this species include palm-nut vultures and several raptors. Monkeys target eggs and the young for food. Grey parrots in captivity have been observed to be susceptible to fungal infections, bacterial infections, nutritional insufficiency, malignant tumors, psittacine beak and feather disease, tapeworms, and blood-worms. Humans are by far the largest threat to wild grey populations. Between 1994 and 2003, more than 359,000 grey parrots were traded on the international market. Approximately 21% of the wild population was being harvested every year. Mortality rates are extremely high between the time they are captured and they reach the market, ranging from 60 to 66%. This species also is hunted for its meat and for its body parts, which are used in traditional medicines. As a result of the extensive harvest of wild birds, in addition to habitat loss, this species is believed to be undergoing a rapid decline in the wild and therefore, has been rated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In October 2016, the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Fauna and Flora (CITES) extended the highest level of protection to grey parrots by listing the species under Appendix 1, which regulates international trade in the species. In 2021, the Kenyan government held a short amnesty, during which grey parrot owners could pay a fee to obtain a permit for their birds and facilitate legal ownership. Following the expiry of this time period, it is now illegal to own this species without a permit. Relationship to humans ---------------------- The species is common in captivity and regularly kept by humans as a companion parrot, prized for its ability to mimic human speech, which makes it one of the most popular avian pets. An escaped pet in Japan was returned to his owner after repeating the owner's name and address. Grey parrots are notorious for mimicking noises heard in their environment and using them tirelessly. They are highly intelligent birds, needing extensive behavioral and social enrichment as well as extensive attention in captivity or else they may become distressed. Feather plucking is a common symptom seen among such distressed grey parrots, affecting up to 40% of captive individuals. They may also be prone to behavioural problems due to their sensitive nature. Social isolation hastens stress and aging. The grey parrot is a highly social species which relies on a flock-type structure, even when raised in captivity. Because they are so dependent on the other birds within their flock, much of their speech and vocal ability is acquired through interaction with the humans with whom they reside. Both wild and captive parrots have been shown to use contact calls, which allow them to interact with their flock mates and communicate information about their location, detection of predators, availability of food, and safety status. In addition, contact calls are used to form strong social bonds with their flock mates, or in the case of captive greys, with their human housemates. In captivity, they have been shown to display communicative competence, meaning they not only use human language correctly, but also in such a way that is appropriate for the social situation which they are in. Intelligence and cognition -------------------------- Grey parrots are highly intelligent and are considered by many to be one of the most intelligent species of psittacines. Many individuals have been shown to perform at the cognitive level of a four- to six-year-old human child in some tasks. Several studies have been conducted, indicating a suite of higher-level cognitive abilities. Experiments have shown that grey parrots can learn number sequences and can learn to associate human voices with the faces of the humans who create them. It has been reported that grey parrots are capable of using existing known English words to create new labels for objects which the bird does not know the name. For example "banerry" ("banana" + "cherry") for "apple", "banana crackers" for "dried banana chips" or "yummy bread" for "cake". The American scientist Irene Pepperberg's research with Alex the parrot showed his ability to learn more than 100 words, differentiating between objects, colours, materials and shapes. Pepperberg spent several decades working with Alex, and wrote numerous scientific papers on experiments performed, indicating his advanced cognitive abilities. One such study found that Alex had the ability to add numbers as well as having a zero-like concept, similar to that of young children and apes. In addition to their striking cognitive abilities, grey parrots have displayed altruistic behavior and concern for others. Researchers found that while blue-headed macaws were unlikely to share a nut with other members of their own species, grey parrots would actively give their conspecific partner a nut, even if it meant that they would not be able to get one themselves. When the roles were reversed, their partners were overwhelmingly likely to return the favor, foregoing their own nut to their partner's benefits. This indicates not only a display of selflessness but also an act of reciprocity. A 2012 study demonstrated that captive grey parrots have individual musical preferences. When presented with the opportunity to choose between two different pieces of music via a touch screen monitor located in their cage, the two birds in the test consistently chose different songs, to which they then danced and sang along. Some pet grey parrots have also been observed using the music feature of smart speakers (such as Alexa or Amazon Echo) to verbally request playback of specific favored songs. Some research has shown that foot preference can be linked to the number of words a particular parrot may know and use. Researchers found that grey parrots who prefer to use their right foot showed a marked increase in the number of words within their lexicon as compared to parrots who were left-footed. Scientists postulate that parrots may have lateralization of brain function, much like mammals do. Mutations --------- Grey mutations occur naturally in the wild, such as the Blue Ino (albino), the Incomplete Ino, and the Blue varietals. The Blue Ino is all white. The Incomplete Ino has light pigmentation. The Blue has a white tail. Breeders from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia have bred greys intensively since the 1800s. These bred varieties include the Red Pied, F2 Pied, Grizzles, Ino, Incomplete, Parino, Lutino, Cinnamon, and Red Factor. South African bird breeder Von van Antwerpen and New Zealand partner Jaco Bosman selected F2 Pieds and created the first Red Factor Greys. They are rare, may be predominantly red-pigmented, and vary in price depending upon the extent of the red plumage displayed.

Grey parrot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_parrot

The **Polish–Soviet War** (late autumn 1918 / 14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was primarily fought between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, on territories which were formerly held by the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On 13 November 1918, after the collapse of the Central Powers and the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Vladimir Lenin's Russia annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (which it had signed with the Central Powers in March 1918) and started moving forces in the western direction to recover and secure the *Ober Ost* regions vacated by the German forces that the Russian state had lost under the treaty. Lenin saw the newly independent Poland (formed in October–November 1918) as the bridge which his Red Army would have to cross to assist other communist movements and to bring about more European revolutions. At the same time, leading Polish politicians of different orientations pursued the general expectation of restoring the country's pre-1772 borders. Motivated by this idea, Polish Chief of State Józef Piłsudski (in office from 14 November 1918) began moving troops east. In 1919, while the Soviet Red Army was still preoccupied with the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the Polish Army moved into territories regarded by many Poles as Polish "Kresy". That year, they took most of present-day Lithuania and Belarus. By July 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Eastern Galicia and had emerged victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War of November 1918 to July 1919. In the eastern part of Ukraine bordering on Russia, Symon Petliura tried to defend the Ukrainian People's Republic, but as the Bolsheviks gained the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, they advanced westward towards the disputed Ukrainian lands and made Petliura's forces retreat. Reduced to a small amount of territory in the west, Petliura was compelled to seek an alliance with Piłsudski, officially concluded in April 1920. Piłsudski believed that the best way for Poland to secure favorable borders was by military action and that he could easily defeat the Red Army forces. His Kiev Offensive commenced in late April 1920 and resulted in the takeover of Kiev by Polish and allied Ukrainian forces on 7 May. The Soviet armies in the area, which were weaker, had not been decisively defeated, as they avoided major confrontations and withdrew. Support from the local population disappointed Piłsudski, because a mass, pro-Ukrainian uprising under Petlura was not organized, and Ukrainians would rather join the Red Army. The Red Army responded to the Polish offensive with counterattacks: from 5 June on the southern Ukrainian front and from 4 July on the northern front. The technological advantage on the Polish side put pressure on the rear and allowed for an orderly retreat. The Soviet operation pushed the Polish forces back westward all the way to Warsaw, the Polish capital, while the Directorate of Ukraine fled to Western Europe. Fears of Soviet troops arriving at the German borders increased the interest and involvement of the Western powers in the war. In mid-summer the fall of Warsaw seemed certain but in mid-August the tide had turned again after the Polish forces achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw (12 to 25 August 1920). In the wake of the eastward Polish advance that followed, the Soviets sued for peace, and the war ended with a ceasefire on 18 October 1920. The Peace of Riga, signed on 18 March 1921, divided the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. The war and the treaty negotiations determined the Soviet–Polish border for the rest of the interwar period. Poland's eastern border was established at about 200 km east of the Curzon Line (a 1920 British proposal for Poland's border, based on the version approved in 1919 by the Entente leaders as the limit of Poland's expansion in the eastern direction). The new Soviet-Polish border divided what are today the countries of Ukraine and Belarus. The peace negotiations – on the Polish side conducted chiefly by Piłsudski's opponents and against his will – ended with the official recognition of the two new Soviet republics, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR, which became parties to the treaty. This outcome and the new border agreed on precluded any possibility of the formation of the *Intermarium* Polish-led federation of states that Piłsudski had envisaged or of meeting his other eastern-policy goals. Names and dates --------------- The war is known by several names. "Polish–Soviet War" is the most common but other names include "Russo–Polish War" (or "Polish–Russian War") and "Polish–Bolshevik War". This last term (or just "Bolshevik War" (Polish: *Wojna bolszewicka*)) is most common in Polish sources. In some Polish sources it is also referred to as the "War of 1920" (Polish: *Wojna 1920 roku*). There is disagreement over the dates of the war. The *Encyclopædia Britannica* begins its "Russo-Polish War" article with the date range 1919–1920 but then states, "Although there had been hostilities between the two countries during 1919, the conflict began when the Polish head of state Józef Piłsudski formed an alliance with the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petlyura (21 April 1920) and their combined forces began to overrun Ukraine, occupying Kiev on 7 May." Some Western historians, including Norman Davies, consider mid-February 1919 the beginning of the war. However, military confrontations between forces that can be considered officially Polish and the Red Army were already happening by late autumn 1918 and in January 1919. The city of Vilnius, for example, was taken by the Soviets on 5 January 1919. The ending year of the conflict is variously given as either 1920 or 1921; this confusion stems from the fact that while the ceasefire came into force on 18 October 1920, the official treaty ending the war was signed on 18 March 1921. While the events of late 1918 and 1919 can be described as a border conflict and only in spring 1920 were both sides engaged in an all-out war, the warfare that took place in late April 1920 was an escalation of the fighting that had begun a year and a half earlier. Background ---------- The war's main territories of contention lie in what is now Ukraine and Belarus. Until the mid-13th century, they formed part of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. After a period of internal wars and the 1240 Mongol invasion, the lands became objects of expansion for the Kingdom of Poland and for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the first half of the 14th century, the Principality of Kiev and the land between the Dnieper, Pripyat, and Daugava (Western Dvina) rivers became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1352, Poland and Lithuania divided the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia between themselves. In 1569, in accordance with the terms of the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania, some of the Ukrainian lands passed to the Polish Crown. Between 1772 and 1795, many of the East Slavic territories became part of the Russian Empire in the course of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania. In 1795 (the Third Partition of Poland), Poland lost formal independence. After the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815, much of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Russian control and became the autonomous Congress Poland (officially the Kingdom of Poland). After young Poles refused conscription to the Imperial Russian Army during the January Uprising of 1863, Tsar Alexander II stripped Congress Poland of its separate constitution, attempted to force general use of the Russian language and took away vast tracts of land from Poles. Congress Poland was incorporated more directly into imperial Russia by being divided into ten provinces, each with an appointed Russian military governor and all under complete control of the Russian Governor-General at Warsaw. In the aftermath of World War I, the map of Central and Eastern Europe changed drastically. The German Empire's defeat rendered obsolete Berlin's plans for the creation of Eastern European German-dominated states (*Mitteleuropa*), which included another rendition of the Kingdom of Poland. The Russian Empire collapsed, which resulted in the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The Russian state lost territory due to the German offensive and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed by the emergent Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Several nations of the region saw a chance for independence and seized their opportunity to gain it. With the defeat of Germany in the Western Front and the withdrawal of the Imperial German Army in the Eastern Front, Soviet Russia disavowed the treaty and proceeded to recover many of the former territories of the Russian Empire. However, preoccupied with the civil war, it did not have the resources to react swiftly to the national rebellions. In November 1918, Poland became a sovereign state. Among the several border wars fought by the Second Polish Republic was the successful Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919) against Germany. The historic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth included vast territories in the east. They had been incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1772–1795 and had remained its parts, as the Northwest Territory, until World War I. After the war they were contested by the Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Latvian interests. In newly independent Poland, politics were strongly influenced by Józef Piłsudski. On 11 November 1918, Piłsudski was made head of Polish armed forces by the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland, a body installed by the Central Powers. Subsequently, he was recognized by many Polish politicians as temporary chief of state and exercised in practice extensive powers. Under the Small Constitution of 20 February 1919, he became chief of state. As such, he reported to the Legislative Sejm. With the collapse of the Russian and German occupying authorities, virtually all of Poland's neighbours began fighting over borders and other issues. The Finnish Civil War, the Estonian War of Independence, the Latvian War of Independence, and the Lithuanian Wars of Independence were all fought in the Baltic Sea region. Russia was overwhelmed by domestic struggles. In early March 1919, the Communist International was established in Moscow. The Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in March and the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April. Winston Churchill, in a conversation with Prime Minister David Lloyd George, commented sarcastically: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies begin." The Polish–Soviet War was the longest lasting of the international engagements. The territory of what had become Poland had been a major battleground during World War I and the new country lacked political stability. It had won the hard-fought Polish–Ukrainian War against the West Ukrainian People's Republic by July 1919 but had already become embroiled in new conflicts with Germany (the 1919–1921 Silesian Uprisings) and the January 1919 border conflict with Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, Soviet Russia focused on thwarting the counterrevolution and the 1918–1925 intervention by the Allied powers. The first clashes between Polish and Soviet forces occurred in autumn and winter 1918/1919, but it took a year and a half for a full-scale war to develop. The Western powers considered any significant territorial expansion of Poland, at the expense of Russia or Germany, to be highly disruptive to the post-World War I order. Among other factors, the Western Allies did not want to give Germany and Russia a reason to conspire together. The rise of the unrecognized Bolshevik regime complicated this rationale. The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, regulated Poland's western border. The Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920) had not made a definitive ruling in regard to Poland's eastern border but on 8 December 1919, the Allied Supreme War Council issued a provisional boundary (its later version would be known as the Curzon Line). It was an attempt to define the areas that had an "indisputably Polish ethnic majority". The permanent border was contingent on the Western powers' future negotiations with White Russia, presumed to prevail in the Russian Civil War. Piłsudski and his allies blamed Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski for this outcome and caused his dismissal. Paderewski, embittered, withdrew from politics. The leader of Russia's new Bolshevik government, Vladimir Lenin, aimed to regain control of the territories abandoned by Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 (the treaty was annulled by Russia on 13 November 1918) and to set up Soviet governments in the emerging countries in the western parts of the former Russian Empire. The more ambitious goal was to also reach Germany, where he expected a socialist revolution to break out. He believed that Soviet Russia could not survive without the support of a socialist Germany. By the end of summer 1919, the Soviets had taken over most of eastern and central Ukraine (formerly parts of the Russian Empire) and driven the Directorate of Ukraine from Kiev. In February 1919, they set up the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (Litbel). The government there was very unpopular because of the terror it had imposed and the collection of food and goods for the army. Officially, the Soviet government denied charges of trying to invade Europe. As the Polish–Soviet War progressed, particularly while Poland's Kiev Offensive was being repelled in June 1920, Soviet policymakers, including Lenin, increasingly saw the war as the opportunity to spread the revolution westward. According to the historian Richard Pipes, the Soviets had prepared for their own strike against Galicia (the disputed eastern part of which had been acquired by Poland in the course of the Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918–1919) already before the Kiev Offensive. From late 1919, Lenin, encouraged by the Red Army's civil war victories over the White Russian anti-communist forces and their Western allies, began to envision the future of world revolution with greater optimism. The Bolsheviks proclaimed the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat and agitated for a worldwide communist community. They intended to link the revolution in Russia with a communist revolution in Germany they had hoped for and to assist other communist movements in Europe. To be able to provide direct physical support to revolutionaries in the West, the Red Army would have to cross the territory of Poland. According to the historian Andrzej Chwalba, however, the scenario was different in late 1919 and winter–spring 1920. The Soviets, facing decreasing revolutionary fervor in Europe and having to deal with Russia's own problems, attempted to make peace with its neighbors, including Poland. According to Aviel Roshwald, (Piłsudski) "hoped to incorporate most of the territories of the defunct Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into the future Polish state by structuring it as the Polish-led, multinational federation." Piłsudski had wanted to break up the Russian Empire and set up the *Intermarium* federation of nominally independent states: Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and other Central and East European countries that emerged from the crumbling empires after World War I. In Piłsudski's vision, Poland would replace a truncated and vastly reduced Russia as the great power of Eastern Europe. His plan excluded negotiations prior to military victory. He had hoped that the new Poland-led union would become a counterweight to any potential imperialist intentions of Russia or Germany. Piłsudski believed that there could be no independent Poland without a Ukraine free of Russian control, thus his main interest was in splitting Ukraine from Russia. He used military force to expand the Polish borders in Galicia and Volhynia and crush a Ukrainian attempt at self-determination in the disputed territories east of the Curzon Line, which contained a significant Polish minority. On 7 February 1919, Piłsudski spoke on the subject of Poland's future frontiers: "At the moment Poland is essentially without borders and all that we can gain in this regard in the west depends on the Entente – on the extent to which it may wish to squeeze Germany. In the east, it's a different matter; there are doors here that open and close and it depends on who forces them open and how far". Polish military forces had thus set out to expand far in the eastern direction. As Piłsudski imagined, "Closed within the boundaries of the 16th century, cut off from the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, deprived of land and mineral wealth of the South and South-east, Russia could easily move into the status of second-grade power. Poland, as the largest and strongest of the new states, could easily establish a sphere of influence stretching from Finland to the Caucasus". Piłsudski's concepts appeared progressive and democratic in comparison with the rival National Democracy's idea of direct incorporation and Polonization of the disputed eastern lands, but he used his "federation" idea instrumentally. As he wrote to his close associate Leon Wasilewski in April 1919, (for now) "I want to be neither an imperialist nor a federalist. ... Taking into account that, in this God's world, an empty talk of the brotherhood of people and nations as well as the American little doctrines seem to be winning, I gladly side with the federalists". According to Chwalba, the differences between Piłsudski's vision of Poland and that of his rival National Democratic leader Roman Dmowski were more rhetorical than real. Piłsudski had made many obfuscating statements, but never specifically stated his views regarding Poland's eastern borders or political arrangements he intended for the region. ### Preliminary hostilities From late 1917, Polish revolutionary military units were formed in Russia. They were combined into the Western Rifle Division in October 1918. In summer 1918, a short-lived Polish communist government, led by Stefan Heltman, was created in Moscow. Both the military and civilian structures were meant to facilitate the eventual introduction of communism into Poland in the form of a Polish Soviet Republic. Given the precarious situation resulting from the withdrawal of German forces from Belarus and Lithuania and the expected arrival of the Red Army there, Polish Self-Defence had been organized in autumn 1918 around major concentrations of Polish population, such as Minsk, Vilnius and Grodno. They were based on the Polish Military Organisation and were recognized as part of the Polish Armed Forces by the decree of Polish Chief of State Piłsudski, issued on 7 December 1918. The German *Soldatenrat* of *Ober Ost* declared on 15 November that its authority in Vilnius would be transferred to the Red Army. In late autumn 1918, the Polish 4th Rifle Division fought the Red Army in Russia. The division operated under the authority of the Polish Army in France and General Józef Haller. Politically, the division fought under the Polish National Committee (KNP), recognized by the Allies as a temporary government of Poland. In January 1919, per Piłsudski's decision, the 4th Rifle Division became part of the Polish Army. The Polish Self-Defence forces were defeated by the Soviets at a number of locations. Minsk was taken by the Russian Western Army on 11 December 1918. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia was declared there on 31 December. After three days of heavy fighting with the Western Rifle Division, the Self-Defence units withdrew from Vilnius on 5 January 1919. Polish–Soviet skirmishes continued in January and February. The Polish armed forces were hurriedly formed to fight in several border wars. Two major formations manned the Russian front in February 1919: the northern, led by General Wacław Iwaszkiewicz-Rudoszański, and the southern, under General Antoni Listowski. ### Polish–Ukrainian War On 18 October 1918, the Ukrainian National Council was formed in Eastern Galicia, still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it was led by Yevhen Petrushevych. The establishment of a Ukrainian state there was proclaimed in November 1918; it had become known as the West Ukrainian People's Republic and it claimed Lwów as its capital. Because of Russia-related political considerations, the Ukrainian attempts failed to generate support of the Entente powers. Key buildings in Lwów were seized by the Ukrainians on 31 October 1918. On 1 November, Polish residents of the city counterattacked and the Polish–Ukrainian War began. Lwów was under Polish control from 22 November. To Polish politicians, the Polish claim to Lwów and eastern Galicia was indisputable; in April 1919, the Legislative Sejm unanimously declared that all of Galicia should be annexed by Poland. In April to June 1919, the Polish Blue Army of General Józef Haller arrived from France. It consisted of over 67,000 well-equipped and highly trained soldiers. The Blue Army helped drive the Ukrainian forces east past the Zbruch River and decisively contributed to the outcome of the war. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was defeated by mid-July and eastern Galicia had come under Polish administration. The destruction of the West Ukrainian Republic confirmed the belief held by many Ukrainians that Poland was the main enemy of their nation. From January 1919 fighting also took place in Volhynia, where the Poles faced the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic led by Symon Petliura. The Polish offensive resulted in a takeover of the western part of the province. The Polish–Ukrainian warfare there was discontinued from late May, and in early September an armistice was signed. On 21 November 1919, after contentious deliberations, the Allied Supreme War Council mandated Polish control over eastern Galicia for 25 years, with guarantees of autonomy for the Ukrainian population. The Conference of Ambassadors, which replaced the Supreme War Council, recognized the Polish claim to eastern Galicia in March 1923. ### Polish intelligence Jan Kowalewski, a polyglot and amateur cryptographer, broke the codes and ciphers of the army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and of General Anton Denikin's White Russian forces. In August 1919, he became chief of the Polish General Staff's cryptography section in Warsaw. By early September, he had gathered a group of mathematicians from the University of Warsaw and the University of Lwów (most notably the founders of the Polish School of Mathematics – Stanisław Leśniewski, Stefan Mazurkiewicz and Wacław Sierpiński), who succeeded in breaking the Soviet Russian ciphers as well. During the Polish–Soviet War, the Polish decryption of Red Army radio messages made it possible to use Polish military forces efficiently against Soviet Russian forces and to win many individual battles, most importantly the Battle of Warsaw. War --- ### Early progression of the conflict On 5 January 1919, the Red Army took Vilnius, which led to the establishment of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (Litbel) on 28 February. On 10 February, Soviet Russia's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin wrote to Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski, proposing resolution of matters of disagreement and establishment of relations between the two states. It was one of the series of notes exchanged by the two governments in 1918 and 1919. In February, Polish troops marched east to face the Soviets; the new Polish parliament declared the need to liberate "the northeast provinces of Poland with their capital in Wilno". After the German World War I troops had been evacuated from the region, the Battle of Bereza Kartuska, a Polish–Soviet skirmish, took place. It occurred during a local Polish offensive action of 13–16 February, led by General Antoni Listowski, near Byaroza, Belarus. The event has been presented as the beginning of the war of liberation by the Polish side, or of Polish aggression by the Russian side. By late February, the Soviet westward offensive had come to a halt. As the low-level warfare continued, the Polish units crossed the Neman River, took Pinsk on 5 March and reached the outskirts of Lida; on 4 March, Piłsudski ordered further movement to the east stopped. The Soviet leadership had become preoccupied with the issue of providing military assistance to the Hungarian Soviet Republic and with the Siberian offensive of the White Army, led by Alexander Kolchak. Fighting the Polish–Ukrainian War, by July 1919 Polish armies eliminated the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Secretly preparing an assault on Soviet-held Vilnius, in early April Piłsudski was able to shift some of the forces used in Ukraine to the northern front. The idea was to create a *fait accompli* and to prevent the Western powers from granting the territories claimed by Poland to White movement's Russia (the Whites were expected to prevail in the Russian Civil War). A new Polish offensive started on 16 April. Five thousand soldiers, led by Piłsudski, headed for Vilnius. Advancing to the east, the Polish forces took Lida on 17 April, Novogrudok on 18 April, Baranavichy on 19 April and Grodno on 28 April. Piłsudski's group entered Vilnius on 19 April and captured the city after two days of fighting. The Polish action drove the Litbel government from its proclaimed capital. Upon the taking of Vilnius, in pursuit of his federation objectives, Piłsudski issued a "Proclamation to the inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania" on 22 April. It was sharply criticized by his rival National Democrats, who demanded direct incorporation of the former Grand Duchy lands by Poland and signaled their opposition to Piłsudski's territorial and political concepts. Piłsudski had thus proceeded to restore the historic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by military means, leaving the necessary political determinations for later. On 25 April, Lenin ordered the Western Front commander to reclaim Vilnius as soon as possible. The Red Army formations that attacked the Polish forces were defeated by Edward Rydz-Śmigły's units between 30 April and 7 May. While the Poles extended their holdings further, the Red Army, unable to accomplish its objectives and facing intensified combat with the White forces elsewhere, withdrew from its positions. The Polish "Lithuanian–Belarusian Front" was established on 15 May and placed under command of General Stanisław Szeptycki. In a statute passed on 15 May, Polish Sejm called for the inclusion of the eastern borderline nations in the Polish state as autonomous entities. It was intended to make a positive impression on the participants of the Paris Peace Conference. At the conference, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ignacy Paderewski declared Poland's support for self-determination of the eastern nations, in line with Woodrow Wilson's doctrine and in an effort to secure Western support for Poland's policies in regard to Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. The Polish offensive was discontinued around the line of German trenches and fortifications from World War I, because of high likelihood of Poland's war with Germany over territorial and other issues. Half of Poland's military strength had been concentrated on the German front by mid-June. The offensive in the east was resumed at the end of June, following the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty, signed and ratified by Germany, preserved the *status quo* in western Poland. On the southern front in Volhynia, in May and in July the Polish forces confronted the Red Army, which was in process of pushing Petliura's Ukrainian units out of the contested territories. The rural Orthodox population there was hostile to the Polish authorities and actively supported the Bolsheviks. Also in Podolia and near the eastern reaches of Galicia, the Polish armies kept slowly advancing to the east until December. They crossed the Zbruch River and displaced Soviet forces from a number of localities. The Polish forces took Minsk on 8 August. The Berezina River was reached on 18 August. On 28 August, tanks were deployed for the first time and the town of Babruysk was captured. By 2 September, Polish units reached the Daugava River. Barysaw was taken on 10 September and parts of Polotsk on 21 September. By mid-September, the Poles secured the region along the Daugava from the Dysna River to Daugavpils. The frontline had also extended south, cutting through Polesia and Volhynia; along the Zbruch River it reached the Romanian border. A Red Army assault between the Daugava and Berezina Rivers was repelled in October and the front had become relatively inactive with sporadic encounters only, as the line designated by Piłsudski to be the goal of the Polish operation in the north was reached. In autumn 1919, the Sejm voted to incorporate into Poland the conquered territories up to the Daugava and Berezina Rivers, including Minsk. The Polish successes in summer 1919 resulted from the fact that the Soviets prioritized the warfare with the White forces, which was more crucial for them. The successes created an illusion of Polish military prowess and Soviet weakness. As Piłsudski put it, "I am not worried about the strength of Russia; if I wanted to, I could go now, say to Moscow, and no one would be able to resist my power ...". The offensive was restrained in late summer by Piłsudski, because he did not want to improve the strategic situation of the advancing Whites. In early summer 1919, the White movement had gained the initiative and its forces, commanded by Anton Denikin and known as the Volunteer Army, marched on Moscow. Piłsuski refused to join the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War because he considered the Whites more threatening to Poland than the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski's adversarial relationship with tsarist Russia went back to the earlier stages of his career. He engaged in warfare with Soviet Russia from the beginning of his tenure as Polish commander-in-chief. Based on this experience, he underestimated the strength of the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski also thought he could get a better deal for Poland from the Bolsheviks than from the Whites, who represented, in his opinion, the old Russian imperial policies, hostile to strong Poland and Ukraine independent from Russia, Piłsudski's main objectives. The Bolsheviks had proclaimed the partitions of Poland to be invalid and declared their support for self-determination of the Polish nation. Piłsudski thus speculated that Poland would be better off with the internationalist Bolsheviks, who were also alienated from the Western powers, than with the restored Russian Empire, its traditional nationalism, and its partnership with Western politics. By his refusal to join the attack on Lenin's struggling government, he ignored strong pressure from the Triple Entente leaders and possibly saved the Bolshevik government in summer to fall 1919, although a full-scale attack by the Poles to support Denikin would not have been possible. Mikhail Tukhachevsky later commented on the likely disastrous consequences for the Bolsheviks if the Polish government undertook military cooperation with Denikin at the time of his advance on Moscow. In a book he later published, Denikin pointed at Poland as the savior of the Bolshevik power. Denikin twice appealed to Piłsudski for help, in summer and in autumn 1919. According to Denikin, "The defeat of the south of Russia will make Poland face the power that will become a calamity for the Polish culture and will threaten the existence of the Polish state". According to Piłsudski, "The lesser evil is to facilitate a White Russia's defeat by Red Russia. ... With any Russia, we fight for Poland. Let all that filthy West talk all they want; we're not going to be dragged into and used for the fight against the Russian revolution. Quite to the contrary, in the name of permanent Polish interests, we want to make it easier for the revolutionary army to act against the counter-revolutionary army." On 12 December, the Red Army pushed Denikin out of Kiev. The self-perceived interests of Poland and White Russia were irreconcilable. Piłsudski wanted to break up Russia and create a powerful Poland. Denikin, Alexander Kolchak and Nikolai Yudenich wanted territorial integrity for the "one, great and indivisible Russia". Piłsudski held the Bolshevik military forces in low regard and thought of Red Russia as easy to defeat. The victorious in the civil war communists were going to be pushed far to the east and deprived of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic lands, and the southern Caucasus; they would no longer constitute a threat to Poland. From the beginning of the conflict, many peace initiatives had been declared by the Polish and Russian sides, but they were intended as cover or stalling for time, as each side concentrated on military preparations and moves. One series of Polish-Soviet negotiations commenced in Białowieża after the termination of the summer 1919 military activities; they were moved in early November 1919 to Mikashevichy. Piłsudski's associate Ignacy Boerner [pl] met there with Lenin's emissary Julian Marchlewski. Buoyed by their armies' successes in the Russian Civil War, the Soviet government rejected the tough Polish armistice conditions in December. Piłsudski broke off the Mikashevichy talks two days after the Soviet takeover of Kiev, but major military operations had not been resumed. Early in the talks, Boerner informed Marchlewski that Poland had no intention of renewing its offensive; it allowed the Soviets to move forty-three thousand troops from the Polish front to fight Denikin. The only exception to the Polish policy of front stabilization since autumn 1919 was the winter attack on Daugavpils. Edward Rydz-Śmigły's previous attempts to capture the city in summer and early autumn had been unsuccessful. A secret political and military pact regarding a common attack on Daugavpils was signed between representatives of Poland and the Latvian Provisional Government on 30 December. On 3 January 1920, Polish and Latvian forces (30,000 Poles and 10,000 Latvians) commenced a joint operation against the surprised enemy. The Bolshevik 15th Army withdrew and had not been pursued; the fighting terminated on 25 January. The taking of Daugavpils was accomplished primarily by the 3rd Legions Infantry Division under Rydz-Śmigły. Afterwards, the town and its vicinity were handed over to the Latvians. The outcome of the campaign disrupted communications between Lithuanian and Russian forces. A Polish garrison was stationed in Daugavpils until July 1920. Simultaneously, the Latvian authorities pursued peace negotiations with the Soviets, which resulted in the signing of a preliminary armistice. Piłsudski and the Polish diplomacy were not notified and had not been aware of this development. The fighting in 1919 resulted in the formation of a very long frontline, which, according to the historian Eugeniusz Duraczyński, favored Poland at this stage. In late 1919 and early 1920, Piłsudski undertook his gargantuan task of breaking up Russia and creating the *Intermarium* bloc of countries. Given the refusal of Lithuania and other eastern Baltic region countries to participate in the project, he set his sights on Ukraine. ### Abortive peace process In late autumn 1919, to many Polish politicians it appeared that Poland had achieved strategically desirable borders in the east and therefore fighting the Bolsheviks should be terminated and peace negotiations should commence. The pursuit of peace also dominated popular sentiments and anti-war demonstrations had taken place. The leadership of Soviet Russia confronted at that time a number of pressing internal and external problems. In order to effectively address the difficulties, they wanted to stop the warfare and offer peace to their neighbors, hoping to be able to come out of the international isolation they had been subjected to. Courted by the Soviets, the potential allies of Poland (Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, or the South Caucasus states) were unwilling to join a Polish-led anti-Soviet alliance. Faced with the diminishing revolutionary fervor in Europe, the Soviets were inclined to delay their hallmark project, a Soviet republic of Europe, to some indefinite future. The peace offers sent to Warsaw by Russia's Foreign Secretary Georgy Chicherin and other Russian governing institutions between late December 1919 and early February 1920 had not been responded to. The Soviets proposed a favorable for Poland troop demarcation line consistent with the current military frontiers, leaving permanent border determinations for later. While the Soviet overtures generated considerable interests on the parts of the socialist, agrarian and nationalist political camps, the attempts of the Polish Sejm to prevent further warfare turned futile. Józef Piłsudski, who ruled over the military and to a considerable degree over the weak civilian government, prevented any movement toward peace. By late February, he directed the Polish representatives to engage in pretended negotiations with the Soviets. Piłsudski and his collaborators stressed what they saw as the increasing with time Polish military advantage over the Red Army and their belief that the state of war had created highly favorable conditions for Poland's economic development. On 4 March 1920, General Władysław Sikorski initiated a new offensive in Polesia; the Polish forces had driven a wedge between Soviet forces to the north (Belarus) and south (Ukraine). The Soviet counter-offensive in Polesia and Volhynia was pushed back. Polish–Russian peace negotiations in March 1920 produced no results. Piłsudski was not interested in a negotiated solution to the conflict. Preparations for a large-scale resumption of hostilities were being finalized and the newly declared (over the protest of a majority of parliamentary deputies) marshal and his circle expected the planned new offensive to lead to the fulfillment of Piłsudski's federalist ideas. On 7 April, Chicherin accused Poland of rejecting the Soviet peace offer and notified the Allies of the negative developments, urging them to prevent the forthcoming Polish aggression. The Polish diplomacy claimed the necessity to counteract the immediate threat of a Soviet assault in Belarus, but the Western opinion, to whom the Soviet arguments seemed reasonable, rejected the Polish narrative. The Soviet forces on the Belarusian front were weak at the time and the Bolsheviks had no plans for an offensive action. ### Piłsudski's alliance with Petliura Having resolved Poland's armed conflicts with the emerging Ukrainian states to Poland's satisfaction, Piłsudski was able to work on a Polish–Ukrainian alliance against Russia. On 2 December 1919, Andriy Livytskyi and other Ukrainian diplomats declared their readiness to give up the Ukrainian claims to eastern Galicia and western Volhynia, in return for Poland's recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). The Treaty of Warsaw, Piłsudski's agreement with Hetman Symon Petliura, the exiled Ukrainian nationalist leader, and two other members of the Directorate of Ukraine, was signed on 21 April 1920. It appeared to be Piłsudski's major success, potentially signifying the beginning of a successful implementation of his long-held designs. Petliura, who formally represented the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which had *de facto* been defeated by the Bolsheviks, fled with some Ukrainian troops to Poland, where he found political asylum. His control extended only to a sliver of land near the Polish-controlled areas. Petliura had therefore little choice but to accept the Polish offer of alliance, largely on Polish terms, as determined by the outcome of the recent warfare between the two nations. By concluding an agreement with Piłsudski, Petliura accepted the Polish territorial gains in western Ukraine and the future Polish–Ukrainian border along the Zbruch River. In exchange for renouncing the Ukrainian territorial claims, he was promised independence for Ukraine and Polish military assistance in reinstating his government in Kiev. Given the powerful opposition against Piłsudski's eastern policy in war-tired Poland, the negotiations with Petliura were conducted in secrecy and the text of the 21 April agreement remained secret. Poland recognized in it Ukraine's right to parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (before 1772) east of the Zbruch. A military convention was added on 24 April; it placed Ukrainian units under Polish command. By 1 May, a Polish–Ukrainian trade agreement was negotiated. It had not been signed, to prevent its far-ranging provisions anticipating exploitation of Ukraine by Poland from being revealed and from causing catastrophic damage to Petliura's political reputation. For Piłsudski, the alliance gave his campaign for the *Intermarium* federation an actual starting point and potentially the most important federation partner, satisfied his demands regarding parts of Polish eastern border relevant to the proposed Ukrainian state and laid a foundation for a Polish-dominated Ukrainian state between Russia and Poland. According to Richard K. Debo, while Petliura could not contribute real strength to the Polish offensive, for Piłsudski the alliance provided some camouflage for the "naked aggression involved". For Petliura, it was the final chance to preserve the Ukrainian statehood and at least a theoretical independence of the Ukrainian heartlands, despite his acceptance of the loss of West Ukrainian lands to Poland. The British and the French did not recognize the UPR and blocked its admission to the League of Nations in autumn 1920. The treaty with the Ukrainian republic did not generate any international support for Poland. It caused new tensions and conflicts, especially within the Ukrainian movements that aimed for the country's independence. Regarding the deal they had concluded, both leaders encountered strong opposition in their respective countries. Piłsudski faced stiff opposition from Roman Dmowski's National Democrats, who opposed Ukrainian independence. To protest the alliance and the upcoming war over Ukraine, Stanisław Grabski resigned the chairmanship of the foreign affairs committee in Polish parliament, where the National Democrats were a dominant force (their approval would be needed to finalize any future political settlement). Petliura was criticized by many Ukrainian politicians for entering a pact with the Poles and for abandoning western Ukraine (after the destruction of the West Ukrainian People's Republic, western Ukraine was – from their point of view – occupied by Poland). During their occupation of the territory meant for the UPR, Polish officials engaged in forced requisitions, some of which were intended for troop supply, but also in extensive looting of Ukraine and its people. It ranged from activities approved and promoted at the highest level, such as the widespread theft of trains loaded with goods, to plunder perpetrated by Polish soldiers in Ukrainian countryside and cities. In his 29 April and 1 May letters to General Kazimierz Sosnkowski and Prime Minister Leopold Skulski, Piłsudski emphasized that the railroad booty had been enormous, but he could not divulge further because the appropriations took place in violation of Poland's treaty with Ukraine. The alliance with Petliura gave Poland 15,000 allied Ukrainian troops at the beginning of the Kiev campaign, which increased to 35,000 by recruitment and from Soviet deserters during the war. According to Chwalba, 60,000 Polish soldiers and 4,000 Ukrainians took part in the original offensive; there were only 22,488 Ukrainian soldiers on the Polish food ration list as of 1 September 1920. ### From Kiev Offensive to armistice #### Polish forces The Polish Army was made up of soldiers who had served in the armies of the partitioning empires (especially professional officers), as well as many new enlistees and volunteers. The soldiers had come from different armies, formations, backgrounds and traditions. While veterans of Piłsudski's Polish Legions and the Polish Military Organisation formed a privileged stratum, integrating the Greater Poland Army and the Polish Army from France into the national force presented many challenges. The unification of the Greater Poland Army led by General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki (a highly regarded force of 120,000 soldiers), and the Polish Army from France led by General Józef Haller, with the main Polish Army under Józef Piłsudski, had been finalized on 19 October 1919 in Kraków, in a symbolic ceremony. Within the young Polish state whose continuous existence was uncertain, members of many groups resisted conscription. For example, Polish peasants and small town dwellers, Jews, or Ukrainians from Polish-controlled territories tended to avoid service in Polish armed forces for different reasons. The Polish military was overwhelmingly ethnically Polish and Catholic. The intensifying desertion problem in summer 1920 led to the introduction of death penalty for desertion in August. The summary military trials and the executions often took place on the same day. Female soldiers functioned as members of the Voluntary Legion of Women; they were normally assigned auxiliary duties. A system of military training for officers and soldiers was established with significant help from the French Military Mission to Poland. The Polish Air Force had about two thousand planes, mostly old. 45% of them had been captured from the enemy. Only two hundred could be airborne at any given time. They were used for various purposes including combat, but mostly for reconnaissance. 150 French pilots and navigators flew as part of the French Mission. According to Norman Davies, estimating the strength of the opposing sides is difficult and even generals often had incomplete reports of their own forces. The Polish forces grew from approximately 100,000 by the end of 1918 to over 500,000 in early 1920 and 800,000 in the spring of that year. Before the Battle of Warsaw, the army reached the total strength of about one million soldiers, including 100,000 volunteers. The Polish armed forces were aided by military members of Western missions, especially the French Military Mission. Poland was supported, in addition to the allied Ukrainian forces (over twenty thousand soldiers), by Russian and Belarusian units and volunteers of many nationalities. Twenty American pilots served in the Kościuszko Squadron. Their contributions in spring and summer 1920 on the Ukrainian front were considered to be of critical importance. Russian anti-Bolshevik units fought on the Polish side. About one thousand White soldiers fought in summer 1919. The largest Russian formation was sponsored by the Russian Political Committee represented by Boris Savinkov and commanded by General Boris Permikin. The "3rd Russian Army" reached over ten thousand battle-ready soldiers and in early October 1920 was dispatched to the front to fight on the Polish side; they did not engage in combat because of the armistice that took effect at that time. Six thousand soldiers fought valiantly on the Polish side in the "Cossack" Russian units from 31 May 1920. Various smaller Belarusian formations fought in 1919 and 1920. However, the Russian, Cossack and Belarusian military organizations had their own political agendas and their participation has been marginalized or omitted in the Polish war narrative. Soviet losses and the spontaneous enrollment of Polish volunteers allowed rough numerical parity between the two armies; by the time of the Battle of Warsaw, the Poles may have had gained a slight advantage in numbers and logistics. One of the major formations on the Polish side was the First Polish Army. #### Red Army In early 1918, Lenin and Leon Trotsky embarked on the rebuilding of the Russian armed forces. The new Red Army was established by the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) on 28 January, to replace the demobilized Imperial Russian Army. Trotsky became commissar of war on 13 March and Georgy Chicherin took over Trotsky's previous job as foreign minister. On 18 April, the Commissar Bureau was created; it initiated the practice of assigning political commissars to military formations. One million German soldiers occupied the western Russian Empire, but on 1 October, after the first indications of German defeat in the West, Lenin ordered general conscription with the intention of building a multi-million member army. While over 50,000 former tsarist officers had joined the White Volunteer Army, 75,000 of them ended up in the Bolshevik Red Army by summer 1919. The Revolutionary Military Council of the Russian Republic was established in September 1918. It was chaired by Trotsky. Trotsky lacked military experience or expertise, but knew how to mobilize troops and was a master of war propaganda. Revolutionary war councils of particular fronts and armies were placed under the council of the republic. The system was intended as implementation of the concept of collective leadership and management of military affairs. The Red Army's chief commander, from July 1919, was Sergey Kamenev; he was installed by Joseph Stalin. Kamenev's Field Staff was led by former tsarist generals. His every decision had to be approved by the Military Council. The actual command center was placed in an armored train, used by Trotsky to travel around the front areas and coordinate military activity. Hundreds of thousands of recruits deserted from the Red Army, which resulted in 600 public executions in the second half of 1919. The army, however, conducted operations on several fronts and had remained an effective fighting force. Officially, there were five million soldiers in the Red Army as of 1 August 1920, but only 10 or 12 percent of them could be counted as the actual fighting force. Female volunteers served in combat on the same basis as men, also in Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army. The Red Army was particularly weak in the areas of logistics, supplies, and communication. Great quantities of Western arms had been captured from the White and Allied forces and domestic production of military equipment kept increasing throughout the war. Still, the stocks were often critically short. As in the Polish Army, boots had been in short supply and many fought barefoot. There were relatively few Soviet airplanes (220 at the most at the Western Front) and the Polish air formations soon came to dominate the air space. When the Poles launched their Kiev Offensive, the Russian Southwestern Front had about 83,000 Soviet soldiers, including 29,000 front-line troops. The Poles had some numerical superiority, which was estimated from 12,000 to 52,000 personnel. During the Soviet counter-offensive in mid-1920, on all fronts, the Soviets numbered about 790,000, at least 50,000 more than the Poles. Mikhail Tukhachevsky estimated that he had 160,000 combat ready soldiers, while Piłsudski estimated Tukhachevsky's forces at 200,000–220,000. In 1920, the Red Army personnel numbered 402,000 on the Soviet Western Front and 355,000 on the Southwestern Front in Galicia, according to Davies. Grigori F. Krivosheev gives 382,071 personnel for the Western Front and 282,507 for the Southwestern Front between July and August. After the reorganization of the Western Rifle Division in mid-1919, there were no separate Polish units within the Red Army. Within both the Western and the Southwestern Fronts, besides Russian units, there had been separate Ukrainian, Latvian, and German–Hungarian units. In addition, many communists of various nationalities, for example the Chinese, fought in integrated units. The Lithuanian Army supported the Soviet forces to some degree. Among the commanders leading the Red Army offensive were Semyon Budyonny, Leon Trotsky, Sergey Kamenev, Mikhail Tukhachevsky (the new commander of the Western Front), Alexander Yegorov (the new commander of the Southwestern Front), and Hayk Bzhishkyan. #### Logistics and plans Logistics were very bad for both armies and were supported by whatever equipment was left over from World War I or could be captured. The Polish Army, for example, used guns made in five countries and rifles manufactured in six, each of which used different ammunition. The Soviets had at their disposal many military depots that were left by the German armies after their withdrawal in 1918–1919, and modern French armaments that were captured in great numbers from the White Russians and the Allied expeditionary forces during the Russian Civil War. Still, they suffered a shortage of arms, as both the Red Army and the Polish forces were grossly underequipped by Western standards. However, the Red Army had at its disposal an extensive arsenal as well as fully functional armament industry concentrated in Tula, both inherited from tsarist Russia. In Poland, there were no firearm factories and everything, including rifles and ammunition, had to be imported. Gradual progress in the area of military manufacturing had been made and after the war there were in Poland 140 industrial establishments producing military items. The Polish–Soviet War was fought not by trench warfare but by maneuverable formations. The total front was 1500 km (over 900 mi) long and was manned by relatively small amounts of troops. Around the time of the Battle of Warsaw and afterwards, the Soviets suffered from overly long transportation lines and had been unable to supply their forces in a timely manner. By early 1920, the Red Army had been very successful against the White movement. In January 1920, the Soviets began concentrating forces on the Polish northern front, along the Berezina River. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George ordered the Baltic Sea blockade of Soviet Russia lifted. Estonia signed with Russia the Treaty of Tartu on 3 February, recognizing the Bolshevik government. European arms merchants proceeded with supplying the Soviets with items needed by the military, for which the Russian government paid with gold and valuables taken from the imperial stock and confiscated from individuals. From early 1920, both the Polish and Soviet sides had prepared for decisive confrontations. However, Lenin and Trotsky had not yet been able to dispose of all the White forces, including especially the army of Pyotr Wrangel, threatening them from the south. Piłsudski, unconstrained by such limitations, was able to attack first. Convinced that the Whites were no longer a threat to Poland, he resolved to take care of the remaining enemy, the Bolsheviks. The plan for the Kiev Expedition was to beat the Red Army on Poland's southern flank and to install the pro-Polish Petliura government in Ukraine. Victor Sebestyen, author of a 2017 biography of Lenin, wrote: "The newly independent Poles started the war. With England and France's backing, they invaded Ukraine in spring 1920." Some Allied leaders had not supported Poland, including former British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who called the Kiev Expedition "a purely aggressive adventure, a wanton enterprise". Sebestyen characterized Piłsudski as a "Polish nationalist, not a socialist". #### Kiev Offensive On 17 April 1920, the Polish General Staff ordered the armed forces to assume attack positions. The Red Army, which had been regrouping since 10 March, was not fully ready for combat. The main goal of the military operation was to create a Ukrainian state, formally independent but under Polish patronage, which would separate Poland from Russia. On 25 April, the southern group of Polish armies under Piłsudski's command commenced an offensive in the direction of Kiev. The Polish forces were assisted by thousands of Ukrainian soldiers under Petliura, who represented the Ukrainian People's Republic. Alexander Yegorov, commander of the Russian Southwestern Front, had at his disposal the 12th and 14th Armies. They faced the invading force, but were small (15,000 battle-ready soldiers), weak, poorly equipped, and had been distracted by peasant rebellions in Russia. Yegorov's armies had been gradually reinforced since the Soviets had found out of the Polish war preparations. On 26 April, in his "Call to the People of Ukraine", Piłsudski told his intended audience that "the Polish Army would only stay as long as necessary until a legal Ukrainian government took control over its own territory". However, although many Ukrainians were anti-communist, many were anti-Polish and resented the Polish advance. The well-equipped and highly mobile Polish 3rd Army under Edward Rydz-Śmigły quickly overpowered the Red Army in Ukraine. The Soviet 12th and 14th Armies had for the most part declined to engage in combat and suffered limited losses; they withdrew or were pushed past the Dnieper River. On 7 May, the combined Polish–Ukrainian forces, led by Rydz-Śmigły, encountered only token resistance as they entered Kiev, mostly abandoned by the Soviet military. The Soviets proceeded with their first counteroffensive using the Western Front forces. Following the order of Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Tukhachevsky launched an offensive on the Belarusian front before the (planned by the Polish command) arrival of Polish troops from the Ukrainian front. On 14 May, his forces attacked the somewhat weaker Polish armies there and penetrated the Polish-held areas (territories between the Daugava and the Berezina Rivers) to the depth of 100 km. After two Polish divisions arrived from Ukraine and the new Reserve Army was assembled, Stanisław Szeptycki, Kazimierz Sosnkowski and Leonard Skierski led a Polish counteroffensive from 28 May. The result was the Polish recovery of the bulk of the lost territory. From 8 June, the front had stabilised near the Avuta River and remained inactive until July. This Polish thrust into Ukraine was met with Red Army counterattacks from 29 May. By that time, Yegorov's Southwestern Front had been considerably reinforced and he initiated an assault maneuver in the Kiev area. Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army (*Konarmia*) conducted repeated attacks and broke the Polish–Ukrainian front on 5 June. The Soviets deployed mobile cavalry units to disrupt the Polish rearguard and target communications and logistics. By 10 June, the Polish armies were in retreat along the entire front. Following Piłsudski's order, General Rydz-Śmigły, with the Polish and Ukrainian troops under his command, abandoned Kiev (the city was not being attacked) to the Red Army. #### Soviet victories On 29 April 1920, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Communist Party of Russia appealed for volunteers for the war with Poland, to defend the Russian republic against a Polish usurpation. The first units of the volunteer army departed Moscow and headed for the front on 6 May. On 9 May, the Soviet newspaper *Pravda* printed an article "Go West!" (Russian: На Запад!): "Through the corpse of White Poland lies the way to the World Inferno. On bayonets, we will carry happiness and peace to working humanity". On 30 May 1920 General Aleksei Brusilov, the last tsarist commander-in-chief, published in *Pravda* an appeal "To all former officers, wherever they may be", encouraging them to forgive past grievances and join the Red Army. Brusilov considered it a patriotic duty of all Russian officers to enlist with the Bolshevik government, which he thought to be defending Russia against foreign invaders. Lenin understood the importance of the appeal to Russian nationalism. The Soviet Russia's counteroffensive was indeed boosted by Brusilov's involvement: 14,000 officers and over 100,000 soldiers of lower ranks enlisted in or returned to the Red Army; thousands of civilian volunteers contributed to the war effort as well. The 3rd Army and other Polish formations avoided destruction in the course of their long retreat from the Kiev frontier, but remained tied down in western Ukraine. They could not support the Polish northern front and reinforce, as planned by Piłsudski, the defences at the Avuta River. Poland's 320 km (200 mi) long northern front was manned by a thin line of 120,000 troops, backed by some 460 artillery pieces, with no strategic reserves. This approach to holding ground harked back to the World War I practice of establishing a fortified line of defense. The Polish–Soviet front, however, bore little resemblance to that war's conditions, as it was weakly manned, supported with inadequate artillery, and had almost no fortifications. Such arrangement allowed the Soviets to attain numerical superiority at strategically crucial locations. Against the Polish line, the Red Army gathered its Western Front led by the young General Mikhail Tukhachevsky. Its numbers exceeded 108,000 infantry and 11,000 cavalry, supported by 722 artillery pieces and 2,913 machine guns. According to Chwalba, Tukhachevsky's 3rd, 4th, 15th, and 16th Armies had a total of 270,000 soldiers and a 3:1 advantage over the Poles in the area of the Western Front's attack. A stronger and better prepared Soviet second northern offensive was launched on 4 July along the Smolensk–Brest axis and crossed the Avuta and the Berezina Rivers. Important role was played by the 3rd Cavalry Corps, known as the "assault army" and led by Hayk Bzhishkyan. On the first day of fighting, the Polish first and second lines of defense were overpowered and on 5 July the Polish forces commenced a full and quick retreat along the entire front. The combat strength of the First Polish Army was reduced by 46% during the first week of fighting. The retreat soon turned into a chaotic and disorganized flight. On 9 July, Lithuania's talks with the Soviets commenced. The Lithuanians launched a series of attacks against the Poles and disorganized the planned relocation of Polish forces. Polish troops withdrew from Minsk on 11 July. Along the line of old German trenches and fortifications from World War I, only Lida was defended for two days. Bzhishkyan's units together with Lithuanian forces captured Vilnius on 14 July. To the south, in eastern Galicia, Budyonny's cavalry approached Brody, Lwów and Zamość. It had become clear to the Poles that the Soviet objectives were not limited to countering the effects of the Kiev Expedition but that Poland's independent existence was at stake. The Soviet armies moved toward the west at a remarkable speed. Carrying out a bold maneuver, Bzhishkyan took Grodno on 19 July; the strategically important and easy to defend Osowiec Fortress was captured by Bzhishkyan's 3rd Cavalry Corps on 27 July. Białystok fell on 28 July and Brest on 29 July. A Polish counteroffensive Piłsudski aimed for was thwarted by the unexpected fall of Brest. The Polish high command attempted to defend the Bug River line, reached by the Russians on 30 July, but the quick loss of the Brest Fortress forced a cancellation of Piłsudski's plans. After crossing the Narew River on 2 August, the Western Front was only about 100 km (62 mi) from Warsaw. By that time, however, Polish resistance intensified. The shortened front facilitated greater concentrations of Polish troops involved in defensive operations; they were being constantly reinforced due to the closeness of Polish population centers and the influx of volunteers. Polish supply lines had become short, while the opposite was true regarding the enemy logistics. As General Sosnkowski was able to generate and energize 170,000 new Polish soldiers within a few weeks, Tukhachevsky noted that instead of quickly concluding their mission as expected, his forced encountered determined resistance. The Southwestern Front pushed the Polish forces out of most of Ukraine. Stalin thwarted Sergey Kamenev's orders and directed the formations under Budyonny's command to close on Zamość and Lwów, the largest city in eastern Galicia and garrison of the Polish 6th Army. The protracted Battle of Lwów began in July 1920. Stalin's action was detrimental to the situation of the forces of Tukhachevsky in the north, since Tukhachevsky needed relief from Budyonny near Warsaw, where in August decisive battles were fought. Instead of performing a concentric attack on Warsaw, the two Soviet fronts were getting further apart. Piłsudski used the resulting void to launch his counteroffensive on 16 August, during the Battle of Warsaw. Fighting the Battle of Brody and Berestechko (29 July–3 August), the Polish forces attempted to stop Budyonny's advance on Lwów, but the effort was terminated by Piłsudski, who mustered two divisions to take part in the approaching struggle for the Polish capital. On 1 August 1920, Polish and Soviet delegations met at Baranavichy and exchanged notes, but their armistice talks produced no results. #### Diplomatic front The Western Allies were critical of Polish politics and unhappy with Poland's refusal to cooperate with the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, but they supported the Polish forces fighting the Red Army nevertheless, shipping to Poland armaments, extending credits and supporting the country politically. France was especially disappointed, but also particularly interested in defeating the Bolsheviks, so Poland was a natural ally in this respect. British politicians represented a gamut of opinions on the Polish–Russian issue, but many were highly critical of Polish policies and actions. In January 1920, the United States Secretary of War Newton D. Baker accused Poland of conducting imperial politics at the expense of Russia. In early spring 1920 the Allies, irritated by the Polish conduct, considered the idea of transferring the lands east of the Bug River to Allied control, under auspices of the League of Nations. In autumn 1919, the British government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George agreed to provide arms for Poland. On 17 May 1920, following the Polish takeover of Kiev, the cabinet spokesman asserted in the House of Commons that "no assistance has been or is being given to the Polish government". The initial success of the Kiev Expedition caused enormous euphoria in Poland and Piłsudski's leading role was recognized by most politicians. However, with the tide turning against Poland, Piłsudski's political power weakened, and that of his opponents, including Roman Dmowski, rose. The government of Leopold Skulski, Piłsudski's ally, resigned in early June. After protracted bickering, an extra-parliamentary government of Władysław Grabski was appointed on 23 June 1920. The Western Allies were worried by the progress of the Bolshevik armies but blamed Poland for the situation. The conduct of Polish leaders was adventurous in their opinion and amounted to foolishly playing with fire. It could lead to the destruction of the work of the Paris Peace Conference. Western societies wanted peace and good relations with Russia. As the Soviet armies advanced, the Soviet leadership's confidence soared. In a telegram, Lenin exclaimed, "We must direct all our attention to preparing and strengthening the Western Front. A new slogan must be announced: Prepare for war against Poland". The Soviet communist theorist Nikolai Bukharin, writing for the newspaper *Pravda*, wished for the resources to carry the campaign beyond Warsaw, "right up to London and Paris". According to General Tukhachevsky's exhortation, "Over the corpse of White Poland lies the path to world conflagration ... On to ... Warsaw! Forward!" As the victory seemed more certain to them, Stalin and Trotsky engaged in political intrigues and argued about the direction of main Soviet offensive. At the height of the Polish–Soviet conflict, Jews were subjected to antisemitic violence by Polish forces, who considered them a potential threat and often accused of supporting the Bolsheviks. The perpetrators of the pogroms that took place were motivated by *Żydokomuna* accusations. During the Battle of Warsaw, the Polish authorities interned Jewish soldiers and volunteers and sent them to an internment camp. To counter the immediate Soviet threat, national resources were urgently mobilized in Poland and competing political factions declared unity. On 1 July, the Council of Defense of the State was appointed. On 6 July Piłsudski was outvoted in the council, which resulted in the trip of Prime Minister Grabski to the Spa Conference in Belgium made to request Allied assistance for Poland and their mediation in setting up peace negotiations with Soviet Russia. The Allied representatives made a number of demands as conditions for their involvement. On 10 July, Grabski signed an agreement containing several terms as required by the Allies: Polish forces would withdraw to the border intended to delineate Poland's eastern ethnographic frontier and published by the Allies on 8 December 1919; Poland would participate in a subsequent peace conference; and the questions of sovereignty over Vilnius, Eastern Galicia, Cieszyn Silesia and Danzig would be left up to the Allies. Promises of possible Allied help in mediating the Polish–Soviet conflict were made in exchange. On 11 July 1920, the British Foreign Secretary George Curzon sent a telegram to Georgy Chicherin. It requested the Soviets to halt their offensive at what had since become known as the Curzon Line and to accept it as a temporary border with Poland (along the Bug and San Rivers) until a permanent border could be established in negotiations. Talks in London with Poland and the Baltic states were proposed. In case of a Soviet refusal, the British threatened to assist Poland with unspecified measures. Roman Dmowski's reaction was that Poland's "defeat was greater than the Poles had realized". In the Soviet response issued on 17 July, Chicherin rejected the British mediation and declared willingness to negotiate only directly with Poland. Both the British and the French reacted with more definitive promises of help with military equipment for Poland. The Second Congress of the Communist International deliberated in Moscow between 19 July and 7 August 1920. Lenin spoke of the increasingly favorable odds for the accomplishment of the World Proletarian Revolution, which would lead to the World Soviet Republic; the delegates eagerly followed daily reports from the front. The congress issued an appeal to workers in all countries, asking them to forestall their governments' efforts to aid "White" Poland. Piłsudski lost another vote at the Defense Council and on 22 July the government dispatched a delegation to Moscow to ask for armistice talks. The Soviets claimed interest in peace negotiations only, the subject the Polish delegation was not authorized to discuss. Sponsored by the Soviets, the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee (Polrewkom) was formed on 23 July to organise the administration of Polish territories captured by the Red Army. The committee was led by Julian Marchlewski; Feliks Dzierżyński and Józef Unszlicht were among its members. They found little support in Soviet-controlled Poland. On 30 July in Białystok, the Polrewkom decreed the end of the Polish "gentry–bourgeoisie" government. At Polrewkom's Białystok rally on 2 August, its representatives were greeted on behalf of Soviet Russia, the Bolshevik party and the Red Army by Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The Galician Revolutionary Committee (Galrewkom) was established already on 8 July. On 24 July, the all-party Polish Government of National Defense under Wincenty Witos and Ignacy Daszyński was established. It eagerly adopted a radical program of land reform meant to counter Bolshevik propaganda (the scope of the promised reform was greatly reduced once the Soviet threat had receded). The government attempted to conduct peace negotiations with Soviet Russia; a new Polish delegation tried to cross the front and establish contact with the Soviets from 5 August. On 9 August, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski became Minister of Military Affairs. Piłsudski was severely criticized by politicians ranging from Dmowski to Witos. His military competence and judgement were questioned and he displayed signs of mental instability. However, a majority of members of the Council of National Defense, which was asked by Piłsudski to rule on his fitness to lead the military, quickly expressed their "full confidence". Dmowski, disappointed, resigned his membership in the council and left Warsaw. Poland suffered from sabotage and delays in deliveries of war supplies when Czechoslovak and German workers refused to transit such materials to Poland. After 24 July in Gdańsk, given the Germany-instigated strike of seaport workers, the British official and Allied representative Reginald Tower, having consulted the British government, used his soldiers to unload commodities heading for Poland. On 6 August, the British Labour Party printed in a pamphlet that British workers would not take part in the war as Poland's allies. In 1920 London dockworkers refused to allow a ship bound for Poland until the weapons were off-loaded. The Trades Union Congress, the Parliamentary Labour Party, and the National Executive Committee also all threatened a general strike if the British Armed Forces directly intervened in Poland. The French Section of the Workers' International declared in its newspaper *L'Humanité*: "Not a man, not a sou, not a shell for the reactionary and capitalist Poland. Long live the Russian Revolution! Long live the Workers' International!". Germany, Austria and Belgium banned transit of materials destined for Poland through their territories. On 6 August the Polish government issued an "Appeal to the World", which disputed the charges of Polish imperialism and stressed Poland's belief in self-determination and the dangers of a Bolshevik invasion of Europe. Hungary offered to send a 30,000 cavalry corps to Poland's aid, but President Tomáš Masaryk and Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia were opposed to assisting Poland and the Czechoslovak government refused to allow them through. On 9 August 1920, Czechoslovakia declared neutrality regarding the Polish–Soviet War. Significant amounts of military and other badly needed supplies from Hungary did arrive in Poland. The leading Polish commander Tadeusz Rozwadowski spoke of the Hungarians in September 1920: "You were the only nation that really wanted to help us". The Soviets presented their armistice conditions to the Allies on 8 August in Britain. Sergey Kamenev issued assurances of Soviet recognition of Poland's independence and right to self-determination, but the conditions he presented amounted to demands for surrender of the Polish state. Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the British House of Commons approved the Soviet demands as just and reasonable and the British ambassador in Warsaw presented the United Kingdom's categorical advice on that matter to Foreign Minister Eustachy Sapieha. On 14 August, the Polish delegation finally went to Tukhachevsky's headquarters in Minsk for the official peace talks. Severe conditions for peace were presented to them by Georgy Chicherin on 17 August. Decisive battles were already taking place on the outskirts of Warsaw. Most foreign deputations and Allied missions had left the Polish capital and went to Poznań. In summer 1919, Lithuania had been engaged in territorial disputes and armed skirmishes with Poland over the city of Vilnius and the areas around Sejny and Suwałki. Piłsudski's attempt to take control of Lithuania by engineering a coup in August 1919 contributed to worsening of the relations. The Soviet and Lithuanian governments signed on 12 July 1920 the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty; it recognised Vilnius and extended territories as parts of a proposed Greater Lithuania. The treaty contained a secret clause that allowed Soviet forces unrestricted movement in Lithuania during any Soviet war with Poland, which led to questions regarding Lithuanian neutrality during the ongoing Polish–Soviet War. The Lithuanians also provided the Soviets with logistic support. Following the treaty, the Red Army occupied Vilnius; the Soviets returned the city to Lithuanian control just before it was recaptured by Polish forces in late August. The Soviets had also encouraged their own communist government, the Litbel, and planned a Soviet-sponsored Lithuanian regime when they win the war with Poland. The Soviet–Lithuanian Treaty was a Soviet diplomatic victory and Polish defeat; it had, as predicted by the Russian diplomat Adolph Joffe, a destabilizing effect on Poland's internal politics. The French Military Mission to Poland of four hundred members arrived in 1919. It consisted mostly of French officers but included also a few British advisers led by Adrian Carton de Wiart. In summer 1920, there were one thousand officers and soldiers in the mission, under General Paul Prosper Henrys. Members of the French Mission, through the training programs they conducted and frontline involvement, contributed to battle readiness of Polish forces. The French officers included Captain Charles de Gaulle. During the Polish–Soviet War he won the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military decoration. In France, de Gaulle had enlisted in General Józef Haller's "Blue Army". The army's transit to Poland in 1919 was facilitated by France. Blue Army troops were mostly of Polish origin but included also international volunteers who had been under French command during World War I. In 1920, France was reluctant to aid Poland in Poland's war with Soviet Russia. Only after the Soviet armistice conditions were presented on 8 August, France declared, through its representative in Warsaw, the intention to support Poland morally, politically and materially in its fight for independence. On 25 July 1920, the expanded Interallied Mission to Poland arrived in Warsaw. Led by the British diplomat Edgar Vincent, it included the French diplomat Jean Jules Jusserand and Maxime Weygand, chief of staff to Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the supreme commander of the victorious Entente. The Allied politicians expected to assume control over Poland's foreign affairs and military policies, with Weygand becoming top military commander in the war. It was not allowed and General Weygand accepted an advisory position. The dispatch of the Allied mission to Warsaw was a proof that the West had not given up on Poland and gave the Poles a reason to believe that not all was lost. The mission members made a significant contribution to the war effort. However, the crucial Battle of Warsaw was fought and won primarily by the Poles. Many in the West erroneously believed that it was the timely arrival of the Allies that had saved Poland; Weygand occupied the central role in the myth that was created. As Polish–French cooperation continued, French weaponry, including infantry armament, artillery and Renault FT tanks, were shipped to Poland to reinforce its military. On 21 February 1921, France and Poland agreed to a formal military alliance. During the Soviet–Polish negotiations, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid particular attention to keeping the Allies informed of their course and making them feel co-responsible for the outcome. The Soviet emphasis had gradually shifted from promoting world revolution to dismantling the Treaty of Versailles system, which, in Lenin's words, was the treaty of the "triumphant world imperialism". Lenin made remarks to that effect during the 9th Conference of the Russian Communist Party RKP(b), convened on 22–25 September 1920. He repeatedly referred to the Soviet military defeat, for which he indirectly held himself largely responsible. Trotsky and Stalin blamed each other for the war's outcome. Stalin sharply rebutted Lenin's accusations regarding Stalin's judgement ahead of the Battle of Warsaw. As Lenin saw it, the conquest of Warsaw, not very important in itself, would have allowed the Soviets to demolish the Versailles European order. #### Before the battle According to the plan of the commander-in-chief of the Red Army Sergey Kamenev as of 20 July 1920, two Soviet fronts, Western and Southwestern, were going to execute a concentric attack on Warsaw. However, after consulting Tukhachevsky, the Western Front commander, Kamenev concluded that the Western Front alone could manage the occupation of Warsaw. Tukhachevsky's intention was to destroy the Polish armies in the region of Warsaw. His plan was to have one of his armies attack the Polish capital from the east, while three other were to force their way across the Vistula further north, between Modlin and Toruń. Parts of this formation were going to be used to outflank Warsaw from the west. He issued orders to this effect on 8 August. It had soon become apparent to Tukhachevsky that his designs were not producing the desired result. The Southwestern Front was given the task of attacking Lwów. Accordingly (and in agreement with his own previously expressed views) Stalin, member of the Revolutionary Council of the Southwestern Front, directed Budyonny to unleash an assault on Lwów, aimed at taking the city (Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army and other Southwestern Front forces were originally supposed to head north in the direction of Brest, to execute, together with Tukhachevsky's armies, an assault on Warsaw). Budyonny's forces fought in the vicinity of Lwów until 19 August. In the meantime, already on 11 August, Kamenev ordered the 1st Cavalry Army and the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front to proceed in the northwestern direction toward the Western Front area to fight there under Tukhachevsky's command. Kamenev repeated his order on 13 August, but Budyonny, following Stalin's directives, refused to obey. On 13 August, Tukhachevsky in vain pleaded with Kamenev to expedite the redirecting of both Southwestern armies to his area of combat. Such circumstances led to a Soviet disadvantage as the crucial Battle of Warsaw was about to unfold. Leon Trotsky interpreted Stalin's actions as insubordination, but the historian Richard Pipes asserts that Stalin "almost certainly acted on Lenin's orders" in not moving the forces toward Warsaw. According to Stalin's biographer Duraczyński, Stalin, despite his devotion to Lenin, displayed a great deal of initiative and boldness. Unlike other Soviet officials, including Lenin, he had not become euphoric about the Soviet victories. However, he insisted on the exceptional importance of the activities of the Southwestern Front, which turned out to be costly for the Soviets. Stalin may have been motivated by the letter Lenin wrote to him on 23 July. Regarding the defeat of the Polish armies as already practically accomplished, the Soviet leader suggested a redirection of main Soviet efforts toward the south-west, into Romania, Hungary, Austria, and ultimately Italy. Stalin agreed and he saw the conquest of Lwów on the way as fitting well with the overall scheme. Piłsudski had his counteroffensive plan figured by 6 August. He resolved to reinforce the Warsaw and Modlin region, tie-up the Soviet assault forces there, and then use the divisions taken from the front and others in a risky maneuver of attacking the rear of Tukhachevsky's forces from the Wieprz River area. The Soviets found a copy of Piłsudski's order, but Tukhachevsky thought it to be a hoax. In the final parade Piłsudski received before the attack, about half of his worn out and undersupplied soldiers marched barefoot. #### Battle of Warsaw In August 1919, Polish military intelligence first decrypted the Red Army's radio messages. From the spring of 1920, the Polish high command had been aware of current Soviet moves and plans, which may have had decisively influenced the outcome of the war. On 8 August 1920, Tukhachevsky ordered some of the Soviet forces to cross the Vistula River in the area of Toruń and Płock. The 4th Army and the formations under Hayk Bzhishkyan's command were supposed to take Warsaw from the west, while the main attack came from the east. On 19 August, after intense fighting, the Soviets were repelled from Płock and Włocławek. Bzhishkyan's corps came close to crossing the Vistula, but ended up retreating toward East Prussia. Of the four Soviet armies attacking from the east, none had been able to force its way across the river. On 10 August, Polish Chief of staff Tadeusz Rozwadowski, who co-authored the offensive concept, ordered a two-pronged attack, from the Wkra and the Wieprz Rivers. Piłsudski, still harshly criticized, submitted a letter of resignation as commander-in-chief to Prime Minister Witos on 12 August. Witos refused to consider the resignation and kept the matter to himself. On 12 August, Tukhachevsky's 16th and 3rd Armies commenced their assault on Warsaw from the east. The Polish 1st Army under General Franciszek Latinik retreated at first, but having received reinforcements stopped the enemy at the Battle of Radzymin and on 15 August initiated offensive actions of its own. The pitched Battle of Ossów, fought on 13–14 August at a nearby location, became the first clear Polish victory in the Warsaw area. The Polish 5th Army, under General Władysław Sikorski, counterattacked on 14 August from the area of the Modlin Fortress and crossed the Wkra River. It faced the combined forces of the Soviet 3rd and 15th Armies, which were numerically and materially superior. The attack split the Soviet front into two parts. The Soviet advance toward Warsaw and Modlin was halted and had soon turned into a retreat, which contributed to the success of the drive by the main Polish formation coming from the Wieprz River area under Piłsudski's command. By 16 August, the Polish counteroffensive had been joined by Piłsudski's group coming from the Wieprz, south-east of Warsaw. The weak Mozyr Group, which was supposed to protect the link between the Soviet fronts, was destroyed. The Poles continued their northward offensive and reached the rear of Tukhachevsky's forces. The Soviet armies were unable to communicate; Tukhachevsky and Kamenev became disoriented and issued orders not relevant to the situation. A rapid pursuit of the Russians followed and continued to the Prussian border and to the Neman River. Of the four armies of the Western Front, two disintegrated; the 4th Army with a cavalry corps crossed into East Prussia, where they were interned. Tukhachevsky, at his headquarters in Minsk, on 18 August belatedly ordered the remnants of his forces to regroup. He hoped to straighten the front line, halt the Polish attack and regain the initiative, but it was too late and on 19 August he directed his armies to retreat over the entire front. In order to reorganize the Polish forces ahead of new operations, the chase after the retreating Russians was stopped on 25 August. A large portion of the defeated Soviet troops had been taken prisoner (over 50,000) or interned in Prussia (45,000). Twelve of the twenty two Soviet divisions survived. Edward Rydz-Śmigły's formations manned the new frontline, which ran from Brest to Grodno. The victory allowed the Poles to regain the initiative and undertake further military offensive. The outcome of the struggle for the Polish capital saddened the leadership in Moscow, as well as communists and their sympathizers all over the world. Clara Zetkin spoke of the flower of revolution having been frozen. To diminish Piłsudski's military achievement and his role in the saving of Warsaw, at the instigation of his Polish detractors, the Battle of Warsaw had been referred to as the "Miracle on the Vistula", and the phrase has since remained in Catholic and popular use in Poland. The "miracle" was attributed to the Virgin Mary. According to Piłsudski and his people, on the other hand, the miracle was performed solely by the marshal. After the May Coup of 1926, the possibly indispensable contributions of Sikorski or Rozwadowski would never be mentioned in school textbooks or official accounts. The myth of the great marshal was propagated and became dominant through the Sanation politics of remembrance. In the West, it was mostly Maxime Weygand who had been assigned a *veni, vidi, vici* kind of role, even though Weygand himself had honestly denied having such an impact. #### Conclusion of military campaigns The progress of the Soviet forces on the southern front in Ukraine was slower than in the north. The losses suffered by Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army at the Battle of Brody and Berestechko delayed its advance on Lwów. On 16 August, the army got going and soon reported being 15 km from the center of the city. On 17 August, at the Battle of Zadwórze, a Polish battalion sacrificed itself to stop Budyonny. On 20 August, Budyonny's cavalry belatedly terminated its attacks in the Lwów area in order to come to the aid of Soviet forces retreating from Warsaw. 1st Army units moved on Zamość on 29 August but the town was successfully defended by Polish and Ukrainian troops. On 31 August, the much reduced 1st Cavalry Army was defeated by Polish cavalry under Colonel Juliusz Rómmel at the Battle of Komarów near Hrubieszów. It was the largest battle of Polish cavalry since 1831. The remains of Budyonny's army retreated towards Volodymyr on 6 September and on 29 September were withdrawn from the Polish front. Heading east into Volhynia, the Polish 3rd Army under Władysław Sikorski crossed the Bug River and on 13 September took Kovel. The Polish 6th Army under Józef Haller, together with the Ukrainian People's Army, launched their offensive from eastern Galicia. By the end of September, the front reached the Pinsk–Sarny–Khmelnytskyi–Yampil line. In October, Juliusz Rómmel's cavalry corps arrived at Korosten, Ukraine. The immediate Soviet threat having been repelled, the Council of National Defense voted to continue the Polish offensive. By 15 September, forces were assembled for the "Niemen operation". At that time, the Polish armies had an advantage over the Soviet Western Front in manpower (209,000 to 145,000 soldiers) and armaments. Mikhail Tukhachevsky established from 26 August a new frontline, running from the Polish–Lithuanian border area in the north to Polesia, centered on the Neman and Svislach Rivers line. The Soviet commander utilized a three-week lull in the fighting to reorganize and reinforce his battered forces, expected to be ready to attack by the end of September. The Poles struck already on 20 September and soon became engaged in the Battle of the Niemen River, the second greatest battle of the campaign. After heavy fighting, they secured Grodno on 26 September. Edward Rydz-Śmigły led from there an outflanking maneuver, as a result of which Lida was taken and the Red Army's rear destabilized. Polish frontal attacks followed, the Soviet units disintegrated and rapidly retreated. After the battle, the Soviet forces lost the ability to effectively resist and the Poles unleashed a continuous pursuit. The Polish units reached the Daugava River and in mid-October entered Minsk. In the south, Petliura's Ukrainian forces defeated the Bolshevik 14th Army and took control of the left bank of the Zbruch River on 18 September. In October, they moved east to the Yaruha–Sharhorod–Bar–Lityn line. They now numbered 23,000 soldiers and controlled territories immediately to the east of the Polish-controlled areas. They had planned an offensive in Ukraine for 11 November but were attacked by the Bolsheviks on 10 November. By 21 November, after several battles, they were driven into Polish-controlled territory. Peace negotiations and outcome of the war ----------------------------------------- Peace negotiations commenced in Minsk in mid-August 1920. Initially, the Soviets made harsh demands on the Polish side; their implementation would turn Poland into a Soviet-dependent state. After the Battle of Warsaw defeat, Adolph Joffe became chief Soviet negotiator and the original Soviet conditions for an armistice were withdrawn. The negotiations were moved to Riga on 21 September. As winter approached and there had not been a military resolution to the conflict (the Red Army, despite many defeats, had not been destroyed), both sides decided to stop fighting. The Polish Council of National Defense ruled, against the insistence of Piłsudski and his supporters, that Poland could not afford to continue fighting the war. "Poland must conclude a peace even without guarantees of its durability" – declared Foreign Minister Eustachy Sapieha. Limited continuation of the current offensive was allowed (until the armistice) to improve Poland's bargaining position. The Soviets, in addition to their battlefield losses, were pressured by events that necessitated the use of their military elsewhere, such as developments in the Turkish–Armenian War, Pyotr Wrangel's White Army still occupying the Crimea, or peasant rebellions in Russia. The Preliminary Treaty of Peace and Armistice Conditions was signed on 12 October and the armistice went into effect on 18 October. Ratifications were exchanged at Liepāja on 2 November. The peace treaty negotiations ensued and were concluded, between Poland on one side and Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Russia, and Soviet Belarus on the other, on 18 March 1921. The Peace of Riga, signed on that day, determined the Polish–Soviet border and divided the disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and the Soviet Union (soon to be officially established). The treaty also regulated various other aspects of Polish–Soviet relations. It complemented the Treaty of Versailles and laid foundations for the relatively peaceful coexistence in Eastern Europe that lasted less than two decades. The armistice preliminary stipulations required foreign allied forces to leave Poland. Signing the treaty with the Soviet republics, Poland had to rescind its recognition of Petliura's Ukrainian People's Republic and other Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian "White" governments and organizations; the allied military units of the three nationalities present in Poland were disbanded. The Ukrainian People's Army crossed the armistice line and fought the Red Army for a month. Its remnants returned into the Polish territory, where they were interned. The Peace of Riga was approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on 14 April 1921, by Polish Sejm on 15 April, and by the Central Executive Committee of Soviet Ukraine on 17 April. Until late summer 1939, the Soviet Union refrained from officially questioning the Riga treaty settlement, but it had been understood that the Soviet policy objective was to have it overturned. During the Polish–Soviet War, about 100,000 people were killed. A complicated problem of prisoners of war was left to be resolved. On both sides, great destruction and economic losses, as well as deep psychological trauma resulted. Piłsudski's goal of separating Ukraine from Russia was not accomplished and the compromise Polish–Soviet border attained indicated future instability. ### Russia Thousands of peasant disturbances and rebellions took place in Russia between 1917 and 1921. The Pitchfork uprising of February–March 1920 greatly distracted the Soviet leadership and negatively affected their military preparedness in Ukraine and Belarus before the Polish Kiev Expedition. Lenin considered the peasant resistance to grain requisitions and other privations of war communism more threatening to Soviet Russia than the White movement. The last and possibly the greatest of peasant uprisings was the Tambov Rebellion of 1920–1921. Acute food shortages reached also Moscow and Saint Petersburg and contributed to the outbreak of the Kronstadt rebellion in March 1921. Soviet Russia was unable to accomplish many of the political objectives of its war with Poland. Despite the support of Germany, it could not destroy the Versailles-imposed European system and the two powers had to wait for another opportunity to redress their grievances. The Polish delegation at the peace talks, led by Jan Dąbski, concentrated on an armistice line and the future border. For the Soviets, these were secondary concerns. The statehood status of the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet republics was of utmost importance and their recognition was the most fateful concession the Polish negotiators had made. The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement, signed on 16 March 1921, was the first of a series of such international treaties. It broke diplomatic isolation of Soviet Russia. The resulting influx of foreign arms and equipment contributed to the success of the offensive against the partisans in the Tambov province, executed by Mikhail Tukhachevsky and completed by July. The grain requisition practices were eventually replaced by the New Economic Policy, announced by Lenin on 23 March 1921. It represented a partial compromise with capitalism. On 16 April 1922, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo. Diplomatic relations were established and the Russian negotiators obtained favorable resolution of their financial concerns. After the Peace of Riga, Soviet Russia withdrew behind its *cordon sanitaire*. Its leaders abandoned in reality the cause of the international revolution. The result was the Stalinist "socialism in one country" pursuit. The Soviet Union entered a period of intensive industrialization, to eventually become the second greatest industrial power in the world. ### Poland Their losses during and after the Battle of Warsaw made the Soviets offer the Polish peace delegation substantial territorial concessions, including Minsk and other areas occupied by Polish forces. Polish resources were also exhausted and Polish public opinion wanted a settlement. Piłsudski and his camp were opposed to the peace process and wanted the warfare to continue to make a realization of the *Intermarium* concept possible. Fulfilment of Piłsudski's territorial and political ideas was precluded already on 11 September 1920, when the Defense Council voted on Poland's border expectations. Despite the positive outcome of the Battle of Warsaw, Piłsudski's political position remained weak and he was unable to prevent developments that meant ruin to his long-held vision of a grand Polish-led alliance. The negotiations were controlled by Roman Dmowski's National Democrats. The National Democrats wanted to directly incorporate into the Polish state the lands they found desirable. Polish parliament (Sejm) was controlled by Dmowski's allies, whose ideas on the nature of the Polish state and the arrangement of its borders had since permanently prevailed. Because of the failed Kiev Expedition, Piłsudski had lost his ability to act as the main player, to manipulate people and events in Polish politics. The consensus on his dominant role was gone. As a consequence, he was allowed to win the war, but the conditions of peace were determined already by his opponents. The National Democrats, led at the Riga talks by Stanisław Grabski, wanted only the territory they viewed as "ethnically or historically Polish" (had Polish-dominated cities) or, in their opinion, could be Polonised. In the east, Polish culture was weakly represented even in the cities, except for a few in the western part of the disputed territories, and Grabski refrained from seeking a border along the so-called Dmowski's Line, previously promoted by his movement. Despite the Red Army's defeat and the willingness of the chief Soviet negotiator, Adolph Joffe, to concede most of the areas occupied by Polish troops, the National Democratic politics allowed the Soviets to regain some of the territories acquired by the Polish armies during the campaign. The National Democrats worried that Poland would not be able to control overly extended territories, dominated by national minorities; Grabski wanted lands where Poles could predominate. Among the territories evacuated by the Polish Army were Minsk in the north and Kamianets-Podilskyi and other areas east of the Zbruch River in the south. The "Grabski Corridor", a strip of land inserted to separate Lithuania from Russia and connect Poland to Latvia, made Piłsudski's so-called Żeligowski's Mutiny and the Polish annexation of the Vilnius area possible. The National Democrats were also conscious of the weakening of their electoral position that would result from annexing more territories dominated by non-Polish ethnic groups. The failed federalist orientation was represented at Riga by Piłsudski's associate, Leon Wasilewski. In the long run, the National Democrats' scheme had not quite worked, because "the Riga settlement created a Poland which was too westerly to be a federation, but not westerly enough to remain a national state". Poland ended up with the largest total percentage of ethnic minorities of any unitary state in interwar Europe (only about two thirds of Polish citizens considered themselves ethnically Polish or of Polish nationality). Still, the refusal of the easternmost areas considered was beneficial to the National Democrats' electoral prospects. The resolution of the war had thus dealt a death blow to the *Intermarium* project. One consequence of the outcome of the Polish–Soviet War was that Poland's elites acquired an exaggerated perspective of the country's military capabilities. This point of view was not shared by Western observers, who stressed that Poland was able to defend itself only because of the financial, logistic and material support from the Allies. 99,000 Polish soldiers died or went missing and the country suffered enormous other losses and destruction. ### Ukraine The Peace of Riga partitioned Ukraine and gave a portion of its territory to Poland (eastern Galicia and most of Volhynia) and the other portion to the Soviets. The Ukrainian Soviet Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Republic were recognized by Poland. Historian Timothy Snyder writes: "That the Soviet Union established in 1922 included a Ukrainian SSR was the most important consequence of the attempts to establish an independent Ukrainian state in 1918–1920." The Treaty of Warsaw between Poland and the Directorate of Ukraine had been invalidated. The Riga treaty violated the spirit of Poland's prior alliance with the Ukrainian People's Republic. From the beginning of the talks, the Polish side *de facto* recognized the Ukrainian SSR and the armistice agreement stipulated termination of support for foreign forces allied against the other side. Members of the Ukrainian faction that accepted the alliance with Poland and fought within that alliance were now interned by the Polish authorities. The peace negotiations and their outcome were condemned and bitterly criticized by Ukrainian politicians and military leaders. As Polish democracy was "alien, unrepresentative, and eventually curtailed", great resentment had been generated in the remaining interwar years because of repressive policies of Polish governments towards Ukrainians living in post-Riga Poland. In the 1920s, the Soviet policy was to help create a modern Ukrainian culture. Ukrainian intellectuals, co-opted by the communist party, were encouraged to create in the Ukrainian language and the result was cultural revival and a period of great productivity. Children were educated and most books and newspapers were published in the native language. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was established. The liberal policies ended under Joseph Stalin's rule, when the new church was banned and the Ukrainian intelligentsia destroyed in massive purges. Given the circumstances, in the 1930s Poland's eastern Galicia had become the center of Ukrainian political and cultural activity. Despite the atrocities that took place in Soviet Ukraine, Poland was regarded by Ukrainian activists as the principal enemy. They felt disappointed by the failed alliance and the Riga betrayal, and were annoyed by daily domination of the Polish authorities and local Polish elites. Many perceived the Soviet Union primarily as the creator of a Ukrainian state, the Ukrainian SSR. ### Belarus On 11 July 1920, Soviet forces entered Minsk and on 1 August the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was officially established. Belarus, like Ukraine, was partitioned between Poland and the Soviet Union after the Peace of Riga. The policies of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic were determined by Moscow. Unlike in the cases of Lithuania and Ukraine, Piłsudski or his allies had not proposed a Belarusian state associated with Poland until the Riga talks, when they wanted to claim Minsk as capital of a Belarusian People's Republic in that role. Like the Ukrainian Petliura's forces, in Belarus the Volunteer Allied Army under General Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz attacked the Soviets after the armistice. Bułak-Bałachowicz's troops commenced their offensive on 5 November and after temporary successes had to retreat back into Polish-controlled territory on 28 November. The Belarusian soldiers were also interned by the Polish authorities. Belarusian activists regarded the Peace of Riga results as a tragic betrayal. Without Minsk, Polish Belarusians were reduced to being a mostly rural, marginalized group. To many of them, the Soviet republic to the east seemed an attractive alternative. In 1922, the Soviet Union was established as a formal federation of republics. Its policy called for an eventual extension of the Byelorussian SSR, to include the Belarusian lands under Polish administration. The Communist Party of Western Belorussia, established in Poland, was under Soviet control. The territory of the Byelorussian SSR was extended to the east in 1923, 1924 and 1926 by lands taken from the Russian Republic. In contrast to the repressive Polish policies, in the 1920s the Soviet Union supported Belarusian culture; several major national institutions and thousands of Belarusian schools had been established. However, the official Belarusian progress was mostly destroyed under Stalin in the 1930s. Belarusian activists held a Congress of Representatives in Prague in the fall of 1921, to discuss the Peace of Riga and its consequences for Belarus. Vera Maslovskaya was sent there as the delegate of the Białystok area, and she proposed a resolution to fight for the unification of Belarus. She sought independence of all Belarusian lands and denounced the partition. Though the convention did not adopt a proposal instituting armed conflict, it passed Maslovskaya's proposal, which led to immediate retaliation from the Polish authorities. They infiltrated the underground network fighting for Belarusian unification and arrested the participants. Maslovskaya was arrested in 1922 and tried in 1923, along with 45 other participants, mostly peasants. Among the arrested were also a sister and brother of Maslovskaya and several teachers and professionals. Maslovskaya accepted all responsibility for the underground organisation, but specifically stated that she was guilty of no crime, having acted only to protect the interests of Belarus against foreign occupiers, in a political and not military action. Unable to prove that the leaders had participated in armed rebellion, the court found them guilty of political crimes and sentenced to six years in prison. ### Lithuania Pressured by the Entente powers, Poland and Lithuania signed the Suwałki Agreement on 7 October 1920; the armistice line left Vilnius on the Lithuanian side of the border. However, Polish military activities, especially the so-called Żeligowski's Mutiny launched two days after the Suwałki Agreement, allowed Poland to capture the Vilnius Region, where a Polish-dominated Governance Committee of Central Lithuania was formed. On 8 January 1922, the Polish military enforced local legislative elections, but they were boycotted by Jews, Belarusians and Lithuanians. The resulting Vilnius assembly voted for the incorporation of "Central Lithuania" into Poland on 20 February 1922 and Polish Sejm approved the annexation on 24 March. The Western powers condemned the Polish actions but on 15 March 1923 the Conference of Ambassadors, convinced of the desirability of geographical separation of Lithuania from the Soviet Union, approved Poland's eastern borders, as already determined by the League of Nations in early February (the Soviet Union rejected the granting of Vilnius to Poland). Lithuania refused to comply; the events and the incorporation worsened Polish–Lithuanian relations for decades to come. According to Alfred E. Senn, even though Lithuania lost territory to Poland, it was only the Polish victory against the Soviets in the Polish–Soviet War that derailed the Soviet plans for westward expansion and gave Lithuania the period of interwar independence. ### Latvia Latvia's fighting with the Bolsheviks ended with the Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty on 11 August 1920. The Peace of Riga negotiations followed; it established a Polish-Latvian border in the area of Daugavpils. That same year Latvia passed a comprehensive land reform and in 1922 introduced a democratic constitution. The Warsaw Accord was signed by foreign ministers of Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland on 17 March 1922. However, the Treaty of Rapallo, signed on 16 April 1922, effectively placed the Baltic states in the German and Soviet spheres of influence. Prisoners, war crimes and other controversies --------------------------------------------- According to sources quoted by Chwalba, of the 80–85 thousand Soviet prisoners of war, 16–20 thousand died in Polish captivity. Of the 51 thousand Polish prisoners, 20 thousand died. The practice of disproportionate killing of Polish commissioned officers continued into World War II, when a series of executions known as the Katyn massacre took place. The war and its aftermath resulted in controversies, such as the situation of prisoners of war in Poland and in Soviet Russia and Lithuania, treatment of the civilian population, or the behaviour of some commanders, including Semyon Budyonny, Hayk Bzhishkyan, Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz, and Vadim Yakovlev. The reported pogroms of Jews by the Polish military caused the United States to send a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, to investigate the matter. Development of a military strategy ---------------------------------- The Polish–Soviet War influenced the Polish military doctrine; under Piłsudski's leadership, it emphasized the mobility of elite cavalry units. It also influenced Charles de Gaulle, who was an instructor in the Polish Army with a rank of major and fought in several of the battles, including the Battle of Warsaw. He and Władysław Sikorski correctly predicted, based on their experiences during the war, the importance of maneuver and mechanization in the next war. Although they had failed to convince their respective military establishments to heed those lessons during the interwar period, during World War II, they rose to the command of their respective armed forces in exile. Aftermath and legacy -------------------- Despite the final retreat of Soviet forces and the annihilation of three Soviet field armies, historians do not universally agree on the question of victory. Lenin spoke of a great military defeat suffered by Soviet Russia. Sebestyen wrote: "The Poles heavily defeated and embarrassed the Soviet state – one of Lenin's biggest setbacks." The conflict, however, is also viewed as military victory for Poland coupled with political defeat. In the peace treaty, Poland formally gave up its ambitions of helping build independent Ukraine and Belarus and recognized the two states as dependencies of Moscow. The countries envisioned by Piłsudski as members of Poland-led *Intermarium* federation had instead, under Lenin and Stalin, become incorporated into the Soviet Union. In the autumn of 1920, both combatants had realized that they could not win a decisive military victory. Internally, the newly reestablished Polish state had proved its viability, as an overwhelming majority of its people contributed to the defense of the country and turned out insensitive to Bolshevik appeals for joining the revolution. As for the main protagonists, neither one was able to accomplish his principal objective. For Piłsudski, it was to recreate in some form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. For Lenin, to cause the downfall of the capitalist edifice in Europe by facilitating revolutionary processes in key states of the West. Russian and Polish historians tend to assign victory to their respective countries. Outside assessments vary mostly between calling the result a Polish victory or inconclusive. The Poles claimed a successful defence of their state, but the Soviets claimed a repulse of the Polish invasion of Ukraine and Belarus, which they viewed as a part of the foreign intervention in the Russian Civil War. Some British and American military historians argue that the Soviet failure to destroy the Polish Army ended Soviet ambitions for international revolution. Andrzej Chwalba lists a number of ways in which the Polish military victory in reality turned out being a loss (the fundamental *status quo* – Poland's sovereign existence – had been preserved). The perception of Poland as the aggressor damaged the country's reputation. Historians and publicists, in the West as well as in the East, have presented the country's eastern policy in negative terms, as irresponsible and adventurous. In 1920 and its aftermath, likely hundreds of thousands of people died without any territorial or political gain for Poland. After signing the armistice with Poland in October 1920, the Soviets transferred troops toward Crimea and attacked the Isthmus of Perekop. Pyotr Wrangel's White Army was ultimately defeated there. By 14 November, 83,000 soldiers and civilians had been evacuated aboard French and Russian ships to Istanbul (the British government refused to provide any assistance), while 300,000 White collaborators were left behind. The Red Army then diverted its troops into the Tambov region of central Russia to crush an anti-Bolshevik peasant uprising. In September 1926, the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact was signed. The Soviets renewed their recognition of the Lithuanian claim to the Vilnius area. In 1939, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, Stalin gave Vilnius to Lithuania. In 1940, Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union as a Soviet republic. This arrangement, interrupted by the German occupation of Lithuania in 1941–44, had lasted until the restoration of Lithuanian independent state in 1990. Under the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, Vilnius became a city dominated by ethnic Lithuanians. After the Soviet invasion of Poland of September 1939, the partition of Belarus and Ukraine ended on Soviet terms. After Operation Barbarossa and occupation by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union returned in 1944 and the two Soviet republics permanently reclaimed what had been Polish "Kresy" from 1920 to 1939. Since the post-World War II adjustments, the borders of the republics had remained stable, except for the 1954 transfer of Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The Soviet republics' borders had been preserved as borders of independent Belarus and Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 1943, during the course of World War II, the subject of Poland's eastern borders was reopened and was discussed at the Tehran Conference. Winston Churchill argued in favour of the 1920 Curzon Line rather than the Peace of Riga borders, and an agreement among the Allies to that effect was reached at the Yalta Conference in 1945. The Western Allies, despite having alliance treaties with Poland and despite the Polish contribution to the war, left Poland within the Soviet sphere of influence. The Allies allowed Poland to be compensated for the territorial losses in the east with the bulk of the former eastern territories of Germany. The post-war arrangement imposed had become known to many Poles as the Western betrayal. From the end of World War II until 1989, the communists held power in Poland, and the Polish–Soviet War was omitted or minimised in Polish and other Soviet Bloc countries' history books, or was presented as a foreign intervention during the Russian Civil War. Polish Lieutenant Józef Kowalski was the last living veteran of the war. He was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta on his 110th birthday by President Lech Kaczyński of Poland. He died on 7 December 2013 aged 113. List of battles --------------- See also -------- * Cipher Bureau (Poland) * Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941 * Poland–Russia relations * Poland–Ukraine relations * Polish–Ukrainian War * Soviet invasion of Poland 1. ↑ Other names: * Polish: *Wojna polsko-bolszewicka, wojna polsko-sowiecka, wojna polsko-rosyjska 1919–1921, wojna polsko-radziecka* (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * Russian: Советско-польская война (*Sovetsko-polskaya voyna*, Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (*Polsky front*, Polish Front) 2. ↑ For example: 1) Cisek 1990 *Sąsiedzi wobec **wojny 1920 roku**. Wybór dokumentów.* 2) Szczepański 1995 ***Wojna 1920 roku** na Mazowszu i Podlasiu* 3) Sikorski 1991 *Nad Wisłą i Wkrą. Studium do polsko–radzieckiej **wojny 1920 roku*** ### Bibliography * Chwalba, Andrzej (2020). *Przegrane zwycięstwo. Wojna polsko-bolszewicka 1918–1920* [*The Lost Victory: Polish–Bolshevik War 1918–1920*] (in Polish). Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne. ISBN 978-83-8191-059-0. * Cisek, Janusz (1990). *Sąsiedzi wobec wojny 1920 roku. Wybór dokumentów* [*Neighbors Attitude Towards the War of 1920. A collection of documents.*] (in Polish). London: Polish Cultural Foundation Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85065-212-3. * Czubiński, Antoni (2012). *Historia Polski XX wieku* [*The history of 20th Century Poland*] (in Polish). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Nauka i Innowacje. ISBN 978-83-63795-01-6. * Davies, Norman Richard (2003) [1972]. *White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20* (New ed.). New York: Pimlico / Random House Inc. ISBN 978-0-7126-0694-3. * Duraczyński, Eugeniusz [in Polish] (2012). *Stalin. Twórca i dyktator supermocarstwa* [*Stalin: the creator and dictator of a superpower*] (in Polish). Pułtusk-Warszawa: Akademia Humanistyczna im. Aleksandra Gieysztora. ISBN 978-83-7549-150-0. * Sikorski, Władysław (1991) [1928]. *Nad Wisłą i Wkrą. Studium do polsko–radzieckiej wojny 1920 roku* [*At Vistula and Wkra: Study of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920)*] (in Polish) (latest ed.). Warsaw: Agencja Omnipress. ISBN 978-83-85028-15-4. * Szczepański, Janusz [in Polish] (1995). *Wojna 1920 na Mazowszu i Podlasiu* [*War of 1920 in Mazovia and Podolia)*] (in Polish). Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczna / Gryf. ISBN 978-83-86643-30-1. * Szcześniak, Andrzej Leszek (1989). *Wojna polsko-radziecka 1918-1920* [*Polish-Soviet War 1918–1920*] (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydaw. Ośrodka Dokumentacji i Studiów Społecznych. ISBN 83-7012-045-8. Further reading --------------- * Dąbrowski, Stanisław. "The Peace Treaty of Riga." *The Polish Review* (1960) 5#1: 3-34. Online * Babel', Isaak Emmanuilovich (2003). Babel, Nathalie; Constantine, Peter (eds.). *Red Cavalry* [*Конармия*]. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32423-5 – via Google Books. * Fiddick, Thomas C. "The 'Miracle of the Vistula': Soviet Policy versus Red Army Strategy", *The Journal of Modern History*, vol. 45, no. 4 (Dec. 1973), pp. 626–643. * Fiddick, Thomas C. *Russia's Retreat from Poland, 1920*, Macmillan Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0-333-51940-0 * Materski, Wojciech. "The Second Polish Republic in Soviet Foreign Policy (1918–1939)." *Polish Review* 45.3 (2000): 331–345. online * Ponichtera, Robert M. and David R. Stone, "The Russo-Polish War", *The Military History of the Soviet Union* New York, Palgrave, 2002, ISBN 978-0-312-29398-7. * Wandycz, Piotr, "General Weygand and the Battle of Warsaw", *Journal of Central European Affairs*, 1960. * Watt, Richard M., *Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918–1939*, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7818-0673-2. * Zamoyski, Adam. *0-00-722552-0 Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe*. HarperCollins, 2008. ISBN 978-0-00-722552-1 Historiography * Drobnicki, J. A. (1997). The Russo-Polish War, 1919-1920: A Bibliography of Materials in English. *The Polish Review*, 42(1), 95–104. * McCann, J. M. (1984). Beyond the Bug: Soviet Historiography of the Soviet-Polish War of 1920. *Soviet Studies*, 36 (4), 475–493. ### Non-English #### Polish * Czubiński, Antoni, *Walka o granice wschodnie Polski w latach 1918–1921* (*Fighting for eastern borders of Poland in 1918–1921*), Instytut Śląski w Opolu, Opole, 1993 * Drozdzowski, Marian Marek (ed.), *Międzynarodowe aspekty wojny polsko-bolszewickiej, 1919–1920. Antologia tekstów historycznych* (*International aspects of the Polish-Bolshevik War, 1919–1920. Anthology of historical texts.*), Instytut Historii PAN, 1996, ISBN 978-83-86417-21-6 * Golegiewski, Grzegorz, *Obrona Płocka przed bolszewikami, 18–19 sierpnia 1920 r.* (*Defence of Płock from the Bolsheviks, 18–19 August 1920*), NOVUM, 2004, ISBN 978-83-89416-43-8 * Kawalec, Tadeusz. *Historia IV-ej Dywizji Strzelców Generała Żeligowskiego w zarysie* (*History of 4th Rifleman Division of General Żeligowki in brief*), Gryf, 1993, OCLC 32178695. * Konieczny, Bronisław. *Moje życie w mundurze. Czasy narodzin i upadku II RP* (*My life in the uniform. Times of the birth and fall of the Second Polish Republic*), Księgarnia Akademicka, 2005 ISBN 978-83-7188-693-5 * Kopański, Tomasz Jan, *16 (39-a) Eskadra Wywiadowcza 1919–1920* (*16th (39th) Scouting Escadrille 1919–1920*), Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny, 1994, ISBN 978-83-901733-5-1 * Kukiel, Marian, *Moja wojaczka na Ukrainie. Wiosna 1920* (*My fighting in Ukraine. Spring 1920*), Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny, 1995, ISBN 978-83-85621-74-4 * Łukowski, Grzegorz. *Walka Rzeczpospolitej o kresy północno-wschodnie, 1918–1920. Polityka i dzialania militarne.* (*Rzeczpospolita's fight for the northeastern borderlands, 1918–1920. Politics and military actions.*), Wydawnictwo Naukowe Universytetu Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań, 1994, ISBN 978-83-232-0614-9 * Pruszyński, Mieczysław. *Dramat Piłsudskiego: Wojna 1920* (*The drama of Piłsudski: War of 1920*), Polska Oficyna Wydawnicza BGW, 1995, ISBN 978-83-7066-560-9 * Odziemkowski, Janusz. *Leksykon Wojny Polsko-Rosyjskiej 1919–1920* (*Lexicon of Polish-Russian War 1919–1920*), Rytm, 2004, ISBN 978-83-7399-096-8 * Rozstworowski, Stanisław (ed.), *Listy z wojny polsko-bolszewickiej* (*Letters from the Polish-Bolshevik War*), Adiutor, 1995, ISBN 978-83-86100-11-8 #### Russian * Meltyukhov, Mikhail (2001). *Советско-польские войны. Военно-политическое противостояние 1918–1939 гг* [*Soviet-Polish Wars. Political and Military standoff of 1918–1939)*] (in Russian). Moscow: Вече (Veche). ISBN 978-5-699-07637-6. Retrieved 29 October 2010.

Polish–Soviet War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War

The **Commonwealth Games** is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 (cancelled due to World War II), have successively run every four years since. The event was called the **British Empire Games** from 1930 to 1950, the **British Empire and Commonwealth Games** from 1954 to 1966, and **British Commonwealth Games** from 1970 to 1974. Athletes with a disability are included as full members of their national teams since 2002, making the Commonwealth Games the first fully inclusive international multi-sport event. In 2018, the Games became the first global multi-sport event to feature an equal number of men's and women's medal events and four years later they became the first global multi-sport event to have more events for women than men. Inspired by the Inter-Empire Championships, part of the 1911 Festival of Empire, Melville Marks Robinson founded the British Empire Games which was first held in Hamilton, Canada in 1930. As time progressed, the Games evolved, adding the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games for athletes with a disability (who were barred from competing from 1974 before being fully integrated by 1990) and the Commonwealth Youth Games for athletes aged 14 to 18. The event is overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which controls the sporting programme and selects host cities. The games movement consists of international sports federations (IFs), Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) and organising committees for each specific Commonwealth Games. Certain traditions, such as the hoisting of the Commonwealth Games flag and Queen's Baton Relay, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, are unique to the Games. Over 4,500 athletes competed at the latest Commonwealth Games in 25 sports and over 250 medal events, including Olympic and Paralympic sports and those popular in Commonwealth countries: bowls and squash. Usually, the first, second and third-place finishers in each event are awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. Although there are 56 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, there are 72 Commonwealth Games Associations. They are divided into 6 regions (Africa, Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Oceania) and each of them has a similar function to the National Olympic Committees in relation with their countries or territories. In some like India and South Africa, the CGA functions are assumed by their NOCs. One of the differences from other multisport events is that 15 CGAs participating in the Commonwealth Games do not send their delegations independently from the Olympic, Paralympic and other multisports competitions, as 13 are linked to the British Olympic Association, 1 is part of Australian Olympic Committee and another one is part of the New Zealand Olympic Committee as their Paralympic counterparts. They are: the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), the British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Saint Helena and Turks and Caicos Islands), the Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey), Niue and Norfolk Island send separate teams. It is expected that Gabon and Togo will send a team for the first time at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, as the two countries were admitted to the Commonwealth in June 2022 and they did not have time to organise their associations for the 2022 Games which was scheduled for the end of July. 20 cities in nine countries (counting England, Scotland and Wales separately) have hosted the games. Australia has hosted the Commonwealth Games five times (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006 and 2018 and will host the next edition in 2026), more than any other nation. Two cities have hosted Commonwealth Games more than once: Auckland (1950, 1990) and Edinburgh (1970, 1986). Only six nations have participated in every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Of these six, Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand have each won at least one gold medal in every Games. Australia has been the highest achieving team for thirteen editions of the Games, England for seven, and Canada for one. These three teams also top the all-time Commonwealth Games medal table in that order. The most recent Commonwealth Games, the 22nd, was held in Birmingham from 28 July to 8 August 2022. The next Commonwealth Games will be the first games in history held in a decentralized way, as they are scheduled to be hosted across four cities in the Australian state of Victoria from 17 to 29 March 2026. History ------- A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire was first proposed by John Astley Cooper in 1891, who wrote letters and articles for several periodicals suggesting a "Pan Brittanic, Pan Anglican Contest every four years as a means of increasing goodwill and understanding of the British Empire." John Astley Cooper Committees were formed in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to promote the idea and inspired Pierre de Coubertin to start the international Olympic Games movement. In 1911, an Inter-Empire Championship was held alongside the Festival of Empire, at The Crystal Palace in London to celebrate the coronation of George V, and were championed by The Earl of Plymouth and Lord Desborough. Teams from Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom competed in events for athletics, boxing, swimming and wrestling. Canada won the championships and was presented with a silver cup (gifted by Lord Lonsdale) which was 2 feet 6 inches (76 cm) high and weighed 340 ounces (9.6 kg). A correspondent of the *Auckland Star* criticised the Games, calling them a "grievous disappointment" that were "not worthy of the title of 'Empire Sports'". While planning for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Amateur Athletic Union of Canada executive J. Howard Crocker spoke with journalist Melville Marks Robinson of *The Hamilton Spectator*, about hosting an international sporting event in Canada. Robinson proposed and lobbied to host what became the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1930. Robinson then served as the manager of the Canadian track and field team for the 1930 British Empire Games. ### Editions #### British Empire Games The 1930 British Empire Games was the first of what later become known as the Commonwealth Games, and was held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from 16 to 23 August 1930 and opened by Lord Willingdon. Eleven countries: Australia, Bermuda, British Guyana, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales, sent a total of 400 athletes to compete in athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving and wrestling. The opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics took place at Civic Stadium. The cost of the Games were $97,973. Women competed in only the aquatic events. Canadian triple jumper Gordon Smallacombe won the first ever gold medal in the history of the Games. The 1934 British Empire Games was the second of what is now known as the Commonwealth Games, held in London, England. The host city was London, with the main venue at Wembley Park, although the track cycling events were in Manchester. The 1934 Games had originally been awarded to Johannesburg, but was given to London instead because of serious concerns about prejudice against Asian and black athletes in South Africa. The affiliation of Irish athletes at the 1934 Games representation remains unclear but there was no official Irish Free State team. Sixteen national teams took part, including new participants Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Southern Rhodesia and Trinidad and Tobago. The 1938 British Empire Games was the third British Empire Games, which was held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was timed to coincide with Sydney's sesqui-centenary (150 years since the foundation of British settlement in Australia). Held in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, the III Games opening ceremony took place at the famed Sydney Cricket Ground in front of 40,000 spectators. Fifteen nations participated down under at the Sydney Games involving a total of 464 athletes and 43 officials. Fiji and Ceylon made their debuts. Seven sports were featured in the Sydney Games – athletics, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving and wrestling. The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth edition and was held in Auckland, New Zealand after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The fourth games was originally awarded to Montreal, Canada and was to be held in 1942 but was cancelled due to the Second World War. The opening ceremony at Eden Park was attended by 40,000 spectators, while nearly 250,000 people attended the Auckland Games. Twelve countries sent a total of 590 athletes to Auckland. Malaya and Nigeria made their first appearances. #### British Empire and Commonwealth Games The fifth edition of the Games, the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was the first event since the name change from British Empire Games took effect in 1952, the same year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. The fifth edition of the Games placed Vancouver on a world stage and featured memorable sporting moments as well as outstanding entertainment, technical innovation and cultural events. The 'Miracle Mile', as it became known, saw both the gold medallist, Roger Bannister of England and silver medallist John Landy of Australia, run sub-four-minute races in an event that was televised live across the world for the first time. Northern Rhodesia and Pakistan made their debuts and both performed well, winning eight and six medals respectively. The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games was held in Cardiff, Wales. The sixth edition of the games marked the largest sporting event ever held in Wales and it was the smallest country ever to host a British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Cardiff had to wait 12 years longer than originally scheduled to become host of the Games, as the 1946 event was cancelled because of the Second World War. The Cardiff Games introduced the Queen's Baton Relay, which has been conducted as a prelude to every British Empire and Commonwealth Games ever since. Thirty-five nations sent a total of 1,122 athletes and 228 officials to the Cardiff Games and 23 countries and dependencies won medals, including for the first time, Singapore, Ghana, Kenya and the Isle of Man. In the run up to the Cardiff games, many leading sports stars including Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Hill and Don Revie were signatories in a letter to *The Times* on 17 July 1958 deploring the presence of white-only South African sports, opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'. The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games was held in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Thirty-five countries sent a total of 863 athletes and 178 officials to Perth. Jersey was among the medal winners for the first time, while British Honduras, Dominica, Papua and New Guinea and St Lucia all made their inaugural Games appearances. Aden also competed by special invitation. Sarawak, North Borneo and Malaya competed for the last time before taking part in 1966 under the Malaysian flag. In addition, Rhodesia and Nyasaland competed in the Games as an entity for the first and only time. The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games was held in Kingston, Jamaica. This was the first time that the Games had been held outside the so-called White Dominions. Thirty-four nations (including South Arabia) competed in the Kingston Games sending a total of 1,316 athletes and officials. #### British Commonwealth Games The 1970 British Commonwealth Games was held in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was the first time the name British Commonwealth Games was adopted, the first time metric units rather than imperial units were used in events, the first time the games were held in Scotland and also the first time that HM Queen Elizabeth II attended in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth. The 1974 British Commonwealth Games was held in Christchurch, New Zealand. The event was officially named *"the friendly games"*, and was also the first edition to feature a theme song. Following the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the tenth games at Christchurch were the first multi-sport event to place the safety of participants and spectators as its uppermost requirement. Security guards surrounded the athlete's village and there was an exceptionally high-profile police presence. Only 22 countries succeeded in winning medals from the total haul of 374 medals on offer, but first time winners included Western Samoa, Lesotho and Swaziland (since 2018 named Eswatini). The theme song for the 1974 British Commonwealth Games was called "Join Together". #### Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games was held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This event was the first to bear the current day name of the Commonwealth Games and also marked a new high as almost 1,500 athletes from 46 countries took part. They were boycotted by Nigeria in protest against New Zealand's sporting contacts with apartheid-era South Africa, as well as by Uganda in protest at alleged Canadian hostility towards the government of Idi Amin. The 1982 Commonwealth Games was held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Forty-six nations participated in the Brisbane Games with a new record total of 1,583 athletes and 571 officials. As hosts, Australia headed the medal table leading the way ahead of England, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand respectively. Zimbabwe made its first appearance at the Games, having earlier competed as Southern Rhodesia and as part of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The theme song for the 1982 Commonwealth Games was called "You're Here To Win". The 1986 Commonwealth Games was held in Edinburgh, Scotland and were the second Games to be held in Edinburgh. Participation at the 1986 Games was affected by a boycott by 32 African, Asian and Caribbean nations in protest at British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's refusal to condemn sporting contacts of apartheid era South Africa in 1985, but the Games rebounded and continued to grow thereafter. Twenty-six nations did attend the second Edinburgh Games and sent a total of 1,662 athletes and 461 officials. The theme song for the 1986 Commonwealth Games was called "Spirit Of Youth". The 1990 Commonwealth Games was held in Auckland, New Zealand. It was the fourteenth Commonwealth Games, the third to be hosted by New Zealand and Auckland's second. A new record of 55 nations participated in the second Auckland Games sending 2,826 athletes and officials. Pakistan returned to the Commonwealth in 1989 after withdrawing in 1972, and competed in the 1990 Games after an absence of twenty years. The theme song for the 1990 Commonwealth Games was called "This Is The Moment". The 1994 Commonwealth Games was held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. This event was the fourth to take place in Canada. The games marked South Africa's return to the Commonwealth Games following the apartheid era, and over 30 years since the country last competed in the Games in 1958. Namibia made its Commonwealth Games debut. It was also Hong Kong's last appearance at the games before the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China. Sixty-three nations sent 2,557 athletes and 914 officials. The theme song for the 1994 Commonwealth Games was called "Let Your Spirit Take Flight". The 1998 Commonwealth Games was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For the first time in its 68-year history, the Commonwealth Games was held in Asia. The event was also the first Games to feature team sports – an overwhelming success that added large numbers to both participant and TV audience numbers. A new record of 70 countries sent a total of 5,065 athletes and officials to the Kuala Lumpur Games. The top five countries in the medal standing were Australia, England, Canada, Malaysia and South Africa. Nauru also achieved an impressive haul of three gold medals. Cameroon, Mozambique, Kiribati and Tuvalu debuted. The theme song for the 1998 Commonwealth Games was called "Forever As One". #### During the 21st century The 2002 Commonwealth Games was held in Manchester, England. The event was hosted in England for the first time since 1934 and hosted to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth. In terms of sports and events, the 2002 event was until the 2010 edition the largest Commonwealth Games in history featuring 281 events across 17 sports. The final medal tally was led by Australia, followed by host England and Canada. The 2002 Commonwealth Games had set a new benchmark for hosting the Commonwealth Games and for cities wishing to bid for them with a heavy emphasis on legacy. The theme song for the 2002 Commonwealth Games was called "Where My Heart Will Take Me". The 2006 Commonwealth Games was held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The only difference between the 2006 games and the 2002 games was the absence of Zimbabwe, which withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations. For the first time in the history of the Games the Queen's Baton visited every single Commonwealth nation and territory taking part in the Games, a journey of 180,000 kilometres (110,000 mi). Over 4000 athletes took part in the sporting competitions. Again the Top 3 on the medal table is Australia, followed by England and Canada. The theme song for the 2006 Commonwealth Games was called "Together We Are One". The 2010 Commonwealth Games was held in Delhi, India. The Games cost $11 billion and is the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever. It was the first time that the Commonwealth Games was held in India, also the first time that a Commonwealth republic hosted the games and the second time it was held in Asia after Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998. A total of 6,081 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272 events. The final medal tally was led by Australia. The host nation India achieved its best performance ever in any sporting event, finishing second overall. Rwanda made its Games debut. The theme song for the 2010 Commonwealth Games was called "Live, Rise, Ascend, Win". The 2014 Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland with around 4,950 athletes from 71 different nations and territories competing in 18 different sports, outranking the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, capital city of Scotland. Usain Bolt competed in the 4×100 metres relay of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and set a Commonwealth Games record with his teammates. The Games received acclaim for their organisation, attendance, and the public enthusiasm of the people of Scotland, with the CGF chief executive Mike Hooper hailing them as "the standout games in the history of the movement". The 2018 Commonwealth Games was held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, the fifth time Australia hosted the Games. There were an equal number of events for men and women, the first time in history that a major multi-sport event had equality in terms of events. The 2022 Commonwealth Games was held in Birmingham, England. It was the third Commonwealth Games to be hosted in England following London 1934 and Manchester 2002. The 2022 Commonwealth Games coincided with the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II and the 10th anniversary of the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics, both staged in London. The 2022 Commonwealth Games was held for the last time under Queen Elizabeth II before her death on 8 September 2022. On 16 February 2022 it was announced that the 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held for a record sixth time in Australia, but for the first time they will be decentralised, as the state of Victoria signed as host city. The games will have 4 regional clusters mainly focused in Bendigo region and another 3 regional centres. The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be the first games to be held under the reign of King Charles III. It was also confirmed that the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for 2030 were likely to be awarded to Hamilton, Canada. The three nations to have hosted the Commonwealth Games the most times are Australia (5), Canada (4) and New Zealand (3). With the 2022 games, England increased its number to three and in 2026 Australia will have hosted six times. Six Games have taken place in the countries within the United Kingdom (Scotland (3) and Wales (1)), two in Asia (Malaysia (1) and India (1)) and one in the Caribbean (Jamaica (1)). ### Paraplegic Games The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were an international, multi-sport event involving athletes with a disability from the Commonwealth countries. The event was sometimes referred to as the Paraplegic Empire Games and British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. Athletes were generally those with spinal injuries or polio. The event was first held in 1962 and disestablished in 1974. The Games were held in the country hosting the Commonwealth Games for able-bodied athletes. The countries that had hosted the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were Australia, Jamaica, Scotland and New Zealand in 1962, 1966, 1970 and 1974. Six countries – Australia, England, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales — had been represented at all Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. Australia and England had been the top-ranking nation two times each: 1962, 1974 and 1966, 1970. #### Inclusion of EAD events Athletes with a disability were then first included the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia when this events was added to athletics and lawn bowls, As at 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, they were included as compulsory events, making them the first fully inclusive international multi-sport games. This meant that results were included in the medal count and the athletes are full members of each country delegation. During the 2007 General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) at Colombo, Sri Lanka, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and CGF signed a co-operative agreement to ensure a formal institutional relationship between the two bodies and secure the future participation of elite athletes with a disability (EAD) in future Commonwealth Games. Then, IPC President Philip Craven said during the General Assembly: > > "We look forward to working with CGF to develop the possibilities of athletes with a disability at the Commonwealth Games and within the Commonwealth. This partnership will help to galvanize Paralympic sports development in Commonwealth countries/territories and seek to create and promote greater opportunities in sport for athletes with a disability". > > > — IPC President Sir Philip Craven The co-operation agreement outlined the strong partnership between the IPC and the CGF. It recognised the IPC as the respective sport body and have the function to oversee the co-ordination and delivery of the Commonwealth Games EAD sports programme and committed both organisations to work together in supporting the growth of the Paralympic and Commonwealth Games Movements. #### Winter Games The Commonwealth Winter Games was a multi-sport event comprising winter sports, last held in 1966. Three editions of the Games have been staged. The Winter Games were designed as a counterbalance to the Commonwealth Games, which focuses on summer sports, to accompany the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games. The winter Games were founded by T.D. Richardson. The 1958 Commonwealth Winter Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland and was the inaugural games for the winter edition. The 1962 Games were also held in St. Moritz, complementing the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, and the 1966 event was held in St. Moritz as well, following which the idea was discontinued. #### Youth Games The Commonwealth Youth Games is an international multi-sport event organised by the Commonwealth Games Federation. The Games are held every four years with the current Commonwealth Games format. The Commonwealth Games Federation discussed the idea of a Millennium Commonwealth Youth Games in 1997. In 1998 the concept was agreed on for the purpose of providing a Commonwealth multi-sport event for young people born in the calendar year 1986 or later. The first version was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 10 to 14 August 2000. The age limitation of the athletes is 14 to 18. Commonwealth Games Federation ----------------------------- The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) is the international organisation responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and is the foremost authority in matters relating to the games. The Commonwealth House in London, England hosts the headquarters of CGF. The Commonwealth House also hosts the headquarters of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. The Commonwealth Games Movement is made of three major elements: * International Federations (IFs) are the governing bodies that supervise a sport at an international level. For example, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) is the international governing body for basketball. * Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) represent and regulate the Commonwealth Games Movement within each country and perform similar functions as the National Olympic Committees. For example, the Commonwealth Games England (CGE) is the CGA of England. There are currently 72 CGAs recognised by the CGF. * Organising Committees for the Commonwealth Games (OCCWGs) are temporary committees responsible for the organisation of each Commonwealth Games. OCCWGs are dissolved after each Games once the final report is delivered to the CGF. English is the official language of the Commonwealth. The other language used at each Commonwealth Games is the language of the host country (or languages, if a country has more than one official language apart from English). Every proclamation (such as the announcement of each country during the parade of nations in the opening ceremony) is spoken in these two (or more) languages. If the host country does this, it is their responsibility to choose the language{s) and their order. Queen's Baton Relay ------------------- The Queen's Baton Relay, is a relay around the world held prior to the beginning of the Commonwealth Games. The Baton carries a message from the Head of the Commonwealth. The Relay traditionally begins at Buckingham Palace in London as a part of the city's Commonwealth Day festivities. The Queen entrusts the baton to the first relay runner. At the Opening Ceremony of the Games, the final relay runner hands the baton back to the Queen or his representative, who reads the message aloud to officially open the Games. The Queen's Baton Relay is similar to the Olympic Torch Relay. The Relay was introduced at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales as the Queen's Baton Relay. Up until, and including, the 1994 Commonwealth Games, the Relay only went through England and the host nation. The Relay for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was the first to travel to other nations of the Commonwealth. The Queen's Baton Relay for the 2018 Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast, Australia, was the longest in Commonwealth Games history. Covering 230,000 km (150,000 miles) over 388 days, the Baton made its way through the six Commonwealth regions of Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Oceania. For the first time, the Queen's Baton was presented at the Commonwealth Youth Games during its sixth edition in 2017 which were held in Nassau, Bahamas. Ceremonies ---------- ### Opening Various elements frame the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. This ceremony takes place before the events have occurred. The ceremony typically starts with the hoisting of the host country's flag and a performance of its national anthem. The flag of the Commonwealth Games Federation, flag of the last hosting nation and the next hosting nation are also hosted during the opening ceremony. The host nation then presents artistic displays of music, singing, dance and theatre representative of its culture. The artistic presentations have grown in scale and complexity as successive hosts attempt to provide a ceremony that outlasts its predecessor's in terms of memorability. The opening ceremony of the Delhi Games reportedly cost $70 million, with much of the cost incurred in the artistic segment. After the artistic portion of the ceremony, the athletes parade into the stadium grouped by nation. The last hosting nation is traditionally the first nation to enter. Nations then enter the stadium alphabetical or continental wise with the host country's athletes being the last to enter. Speeches are given, formally opening the Games. Finally, the King's Baton is brought into the stadium and passed on until it reaches the final baton carrier, often a successful Commonwealth athlete from the host nation, who hands it over to the Head of the Commonwealth or his representative. ### Closing The closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games takes place after all sporting events have concluded. Flag-bearers from each participating country enter the stadium, followed by the athletes who enter together, without any national distinction. The president of the organising committee and the CGF president make their closing speeches and the Games are officially closed. The CGF president also speaks about the conduct of the games. The mayor of the city that organised the Games transfers the CGF flag to the president of the CGF, who then passes it on to the mayor of the city hosting the next Commonwealth Games. The next host nation then also briefly introduces itself with artistic displays of dance and theatre representative of its culture. Many great artists and singers had performed at the ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games. At the closing ceremony of every Commonwealth Games the CGF President makes an award and presents a trophy to one athlete who has competed with particular distinction and honour both in terms of athletic performance and overall contribution to his or her team. Athletes are nominated by their Commonwealth Games Association at the end of the final day of competition and the winner is selected by a panel comprising the CGF President and representatives from each of the six Commonwealth Regions. The ‘David Dixon Award’ as it is called was introduced in Manchester 2002, after the late David Dixon, former Honorary Secretary of the CGF, in honour of his monumental contribution to Commonwealth sport for many years. ### Medal presentation A medal ceremony is held after each event is concluded. The winner, second and third-place competitors or teams stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals. After the medals are given out by a CGF member, the national flags of the three medallists are raised while the national anthem of the gold medallist's country plays. Volunteering citizens of the host country also act as hosts during the medal ceremonies, as they aid the officials who present the medals and act as flag-bearers. ### Anthems "God Save the King" is an official or national anthem of multiple Commonwealth countries. As a result, and due to the countries of the United Kingdom competing individually, it is not played in some official events, medal ceremonies or before matches in team events. Anthems used at the Commonwealth Games which differ from a currently-eligible country's national or official anthem(s): | Country | Victory Anthem used at the Commonwealth Games | National Anthem(s)/Official Anthem(s) | | --- | --- | --- | |  Anguilla | "God Bless Anguilla" | "God Save the King" | |  Bermuda | "Hail to Bermuda" | |  British Virgin Islands | "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" | |  Cayman Islands | "Beloved Isle Cayman" | |  England | "Land of Hope and Glory" (until 2010)"Jerusalem" (since 2010) | *None*; "God Save the King" as part of the United Kingdom | |  Falkland Islands | "Song of the Falklands" | "God Save the King" | |  Gibraltar | "Gibraltar Anthem" | |  Guernsey | "Sarnia Cherie" | |  Jersey | "Island Home" | |  Montserrat | "Motherland" | |  New Zealand | "God Defend New Zealand" | "God Defend New Zealand" (since 1976)"God Save the King" | |  Niue | "Ko e Iki he Lagi (Lord in Heaven, Thou art merciful)" | "God Defend New Zealand" (since 1976)"God Save the King" | |  Norfolk Island | "Come Ye Blessed" | "Advance Australia Fair" | |  Northern Ireland | "Londonderry Air" | *None*; "God Save the King" as part of the United Kingdom | |  Saint Helena | "My Saint Helena Island" | "God Save the King" | |  Scotland | "Scotland the Brave" (until 2010)"O Flower of Scotland" (since 2010) | *None*; "God Save the King" as part of the United Kingdom | |  Turks and Caicos Islands | "This Land of Ours" | "God Save the King" | |  Wales | "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of my Fathers)" | "God Save the King" as part of the United Kingdom/"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of my Fathers)" | List of Commonwealth Games -------------------------- | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Commonwealth Games is located in North America1930**1930**1954**1954**1966**1966**1978**1978**1994**1994**class=notpageimage| Host cities of Commonwealth Games | Commonwealth Games is located in the United Kingdom1934**1934**1958**1958**1970, 1986**1970**, **1986**2002**2002**2014**2014**2022**2022**class=notpageimage| Host cities of Commonwealth Games (United Kingdom) | Commonwealth Games is located in Oceania1938**1938**1950, 1990**1950, 1990**1962**1962**1974**1974**1982**1982**2006, 2026**2006, 2026**2018**2018**class=notpageimage| Host cities of Commonwealth Games (Australia and New Zealand) | | | Year | Edition | Host city | Host Association | Opened by | Sports | Events | Teams | Start date | End date | Competitors | Top Association | Ref | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Inter-Empire Championships | | 1911 | – | London | United Kingdom United Kingdom | George V | 4 | 9 | 4 | 12 May | 1 June | Unknown |  Canada | **Note** The 1911 Inter-Empire Championships held in London (as part of a festival to celebrate the coronation of King George V) is seen as a precursor to the modern Commonwealth Games, but is not normally considered an official edition of the Games themselves. Also, the United Kingdom competed as one country, unlike the Commonwealth Games today when they compete as England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Canada topped the medal table by winning 4 events. ### Editions Overview of Commonwealth Games| Year | Edition | Host city | Host Association | Opened by | Sports | Events | Associations | Start date | End date | Competitors | Top Association | Ref | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1930 | I | Hamilton | Canada Canada | Viscount Willingdon | 6 | 59 | 11 | 16 Aug | 23 Aug | 400 |  England | | | | 1934 | II | London | England England | King George V | 6 | 68 | 16 | 4 Aug | 11 Aug | 500 |  England | | | 1938 | III | Sydney | Australia Australia | Lord Wakehurst | 7 | 71 | 15 | 5 Feb | 12 Feb | 464 |  Australia | | | 1942 | – | Montreal | Canada Canada | *Cancelled due to World War II* | | 1946 | – | Cardiff | Wales Wales | | 1950 | IV | Auckland | New Zealand New Zealand | Sir Bernard Freyberg | 9 | 88 | 12 | 4 Feb | 11 Feb | 590 |  Australia | | | 1954 | V | Vancouver | Canada Canada | Earl Alexander of Tunis | 9 | 91 | 24 | 30 Jul | 7 Aug | 662 |  England | | | 1958 | VI | Cardiff | Wales Wales | Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | 9 | 94 | 36 | 18 Jul | 26 Jul | 1122 |  England | | | 1962 | VII | Perth | Australia Australia | 9 | 104 | 35 | 22 Nov | 1 Dec | 863 |  Australia | | | 1966 | VIII | Kingston | Jamaica Jamaica | 9 | 110 | 34 | 4 Aug | 13 Aug | 1050 |  England | | | 1970 | IX | Edinburgh | Scotland Scotland | 9 | 121 | 42 | 16 Jul | 25 Jul | 1383 |  Australia | | | 1974 | X | Christchurch | New Zealand New Zealand | 9 | 121 | 38 | 24 Jan | 2 Feb | 1276 |  Australia | | | 1978 | XI | Edmonton | Canada Canada | Queen Elizabeth II | 10 | 128 | 46 | 3 Aug | 12 Aug | 1474 |  Canada | | | 1982 | XII | Brisbane | Australia Australia | Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | 10 | 142 | 46 | 30 Sep | 9 Oct | 1583 |  Australia | | | 1986 | XIII | Edinburgh | Scotland Scotland | Queen Elizabeth II | 10 | 163 | 26 | 24 Jul | 2 Aug | 1662 |  England | | | 1990 | XIV | Auckland | New Zealand New Zealand | Prince Edward | 10 | 204 | 55 | 24 Jan | 3 Feb | 2073 |  Australia | | | 1994 | XV | Victoria | Canada Canada | Queen Elizabeth II | 10 | 217 | 63 | 18 Aug | 28 Aug | 2557 |  Australia | | | 1998 | XVI | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia Malaysia | Tuanku Jaafar | 15 | 213 | 70 | 11 Sep | 21 Sep | 3633 |  Australia | | | 2002 | XVII | Manchester | England England | Queen Elizabeth II | 17 | 281 | 72 | 25 Jul | 4 Aug | 3679 |  Australia | | | 2006 | XVIII | Melbourne | Australia Australia | 16 | 245 | 71 | 15 Mar | 26 Mar | 4049 |  Australia | | | 2010 | XIX | Delhi | India India | Pratibha PatilCharles, Prince of Wales | 17 | 272 | 71 | 3 Oct | 14 Oct | 4352 |  Australia | | | 2014 | XX | Glasgow | Scotland Scotland | Queen Elizabeth II | 17 | 261 | 71 | 23 Jul | 3 Aug | 4947 |  England | | | 2018 | XXI | Gold Coast | Australia Australia | Charles, Prince of Wales | 19 | 275 | 71 | 4 Apr | 15 Apr | 4426 |  Australia | | | 2022 | XXII | Birmingham | England England | 20 | 280 | 72 | 28 Jul | 8 Aug | 5054 |  Australia | | | 2026 | XXIII | Victoria | Australia Australia | King Charles III (expected) | 21 | | 75 | 17 Mar | 29 Mar | | | | Medal table ----------- **\*Note : Nations in *italics* no longer participate at the Commonwealth Games.** *Updated after 2022 Commonwealth Games*. | Rank | CGA | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 |  Australia (AUS) | 1003 | 834 | 767 | 2604 | | 2 |  England (ENG) | 773 | 783 | 766 | 2322 | | 3 |  Canada (CAN) | 510 | 548 | 589 | 1647 | | 4 |  India (IND) | 203 | 190 | 171 | 564 | | 5 |  New Zealand (NZL) | 179 | 232 | 295 | 706 | | 6 |  South Africa (RSA) | 137 | 132 | 147 | 416 | | 7 |  Scotland (SCO) | 132 | 143 | 227 | 502 | | 8 |  Kenya (KEN) | 91 | 80 | 87 | 258 | | 9 |  Nigeria (NGR) | 82 | 84 | 105 | 271 | | 10 |  Wales (WAL) | 75 | 104 | 155 | 334 | | 11 |  Malaysia (MAS) | 66 | 73 | 89 | 228 | | 12 |  Jamaica (JAM) | 65 | 53 | 58 | 176 | | 13 |  Singapore (SGP) | 41 | 31 | 37 | 109 | | 14 |  Northern Ireland (NIR) | 37 | 46 | 59 | 142 | | 15 |  Pakistan (PAK) | 27 | 27 | 29 | 83 | | 16 |  Cyprus (CYP) | 25 | 16 | 23 | 64 | | 17 |  Uganda (UGA) | 19 | 16 | 25 | 60 | | 18 |  Ghana (GHA) | 15 | 20 | 28 | 63 | | 19 |  Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) | 13 | 23 | 26 | 62 | | 20 |  Bahamas (BAH) | 11 | 14 | 13 | 38 | | 21 |  Cameroon (CMR) | 11 | 12 | 17 | 40 | | 22 |  Nauru (NRU) | 10 | 11 | 10 | 31 | | 23 |  Samoa (SAM) | 6 | 12 | 11 | 29 | | 24 | *Zimbabwe (ZIM)* | 6 | 9 | 14 | 29 | | 25 |  Tanzania (TAN) | 6 | 7 | 11 | 24 | | 26 |  Zambia (ZAM) | 5 | 13 | 24 | 42 | | 27 |  Papua New Guinea (PNG) | 5 | 8 | 2 | 15 | | 28 |  Botswana (BOT) | 5 | 6 | 8 | 19 | | 29 |  Namibia (NAM) | 5 | 4 | 15 | 24 | | 30 | *Hong Kong (HKG)* | 5 | 2 | 10 | 17 | | 31 |  Sri Lanka (SRI) | 4 | 9 | 11 | 24 | | 32 |  Fiji (FIJ) | 4 | 7 | 12 | 23 | | 33 |  Guyana (GUY) | 4 | 6 | 6 | 16 | | 34 |  Barbados (BAR) | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 | | 35 |  Isle of Man (IOM) | 3 | 3 | 6 | 12 | | 36 |  Bermuda (BER) | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | | 37 |  Grenada (GRN) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | | 38 |  Mozambique (MOZ) | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 | | 39 |  Bangladesh (BAN) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | | 40 | *Malaysia (MAL) (Malaya)* | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | | 41 |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | | 42 |  British Virgin Islands (IVB) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | | 43 |  Mauritius (MRI) | 1 | 9 | 8 | 18 | | 44 |  Guernsey (GUE) | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | | 45 |  Saint Lucia (LCA) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | | 46 |  Lesotho (LES) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | | 47 |  Jersey (JER) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | | 48 |  Cayman Islands (CAY) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | | 49 |  Kiribati (KIR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |  Saint Kitts and Nevis (SKN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | 51 |  Seychelles (SEY) | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | | 52 | *Rhodesia and Nyasaland (FRN)* | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | | 53 |  Dominica (DMA) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | | 54 |  Malta (MLT) | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | | 55 |  Swaziland (SWZ) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | | 56 |  The Gambia (GAM) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | | 57 | *Ireland (IRE)* | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | | 58 |  Malawi (MAW) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |  Tonga (TON) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |  Vanuatu (VAN) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | | 61 |  Norfolk Island (NFI) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | | 62 |  Cook Islands (COK) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |  Niue (NIU) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |  Solomon Islands (SOL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Totals (64 entries) | 3610 | 3603 | 3927 | 11140 | * **^[a]** Totals for Ghana include all medals won as  Gold Coast (GCO) * **^[b]** Totals for Zimbabwe include all medals won as  Southern Rhodesia (SRH) * **^[c]** Totals for Zambia include all medals won as  Northern Rhodesia (NRH) * **^[d]** Totals for Sri Lanka include all medals won as  Ceylon (CEY) * **^[e]** Totals for Guyana include all medals won as  British Guiana (BGU) Commonwealth sports ------------------- There are a total of 23 sports (with three multi-disciplinary sports) and a ten seven para-sports which are approved by the Commonwealth Games Federation. Core sports must be included in each program. Several optional sports may be picked by the host nation, which may consist of some team sports such as basketball. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Archery | Core | 1982, 2010 | | Athletics | Core | 1930–present | | Para Athletics | Core | 1994, 2002–present | | Badminton | Core | 1966–present | | Basketball | | 2006, 2018 | | Basketball 3x3 | Core | 2022–present | | Boxing | Core | 1930–present | | Cricket | Core | 1998, 2022–present | | Cycling (Mountain Bike) | Core | 2002–2006, 2014–present | | Cycling (Para Track) | Core | 2014–present | | Cycling (Road) | Core | 1938–present | | Cycling (Track) | Core | 1934–present | | Diving | | 1930–present | | Hockey | Core | 1998–present | | Gymnastics (Artistic) | Core | 1978, 1990–present | | Gymnastics (Rhythmic) | Core | 1978, 1990–1998, 2006–2022 | | Judo | Core | 1990, 2002, 2014, 2022 | | Lawn bowls | Core | 1930–1962, 1970–present | | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Para lawn bowls | Core | 1994, 2002, 2014–present | | Netball (Women) | Core | 1998–present | | Powerlifting | Core | 2002–present | | Rugby sevens | Core | 1998–present | | Shooting | Optional | 1966, 1974–2018,2026 | | Squash | Core | 1998–present | | Swimming | Core | 1930–present | | Para swimming | Core | 2002–present | | Table tennis | Core | 2002–present | | Para table tennis | Optional | 2002–present | | Triathlon | Core | 2002–2006, 2014–present | | Volleyball (beach) | Optional | 2018–present | | Weightlifting | Core | 1950–present | | Wrestling (Freestyle) | Core | 1930–1986, 1994, 2002, 2010–2022 | | In 2015, the Commonwealth Games Federation agreed large changes to the programme which increased the number of core sports, whilst removing a number of optionals, those removed are listed below. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Canoeing | Optional | Never | | Rowing | Optional | 1930, 1938–1962,1986,2026 | | Sailing | Optional | Never | | Softball | Optional | Never | | Synchronised swimming | Optional | 1986–2006 | | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Taekwondo | Optional | Never | | Tennis | Optional | 2010 | | Ten-pin bowling | Optional | 1998 | | Wrestling (Greco-Roman) | Optional | 2010 | | Sports such as the following are sports which have been analyzed by the Commonwealth Games Federation but which are deemed to need expansion in areas such as participation levels within the Commonwealth both at a national (International Federation) and grassroots athletics level, Marketability, Television Rights, Equity, and Hosting Expenses, per Regulation 6 of the Commonwealth Games Constitution; host nations may not pick these sports for their program until the Federation's requirements are fulfilled. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Billiards | Recognised | Never | | Fencing | Recognised | 1950–1970 | | Association Football | Recognised | Never | | Golf | Recognised | 2026 | | Handball | Recognised | Never | | | | Sport | Type | Years | | --- | --- | --- | | Life saving | Recognised | Never | | Rugby league | Recognised | Never | | Volleyball (indoor) | Recognised | Never | | Water Polo | Recognised | 1950 | | | Participation ------------- Only six teams have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. Australia has been the highest scoring team for thirteen games, England for seven, and Canada for one. | Table of Team Participation by Commonwealth Games Edition | | --- | | Team | Edition | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI | XVII | XVIII | XIX | XX | XXI | | Year | 1930 | 1934 | 1938 | 1950 | 1954 | 1958 | 1962 | 1966 | 1970 | 1974 | 1978 | 1982 | 1986 | 1990 | 1994 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 | 2010 | 2014 | 2018 | | Host Flag | Canada | England | Australia | New Zealand | Canada | Wales | Australia | Jamaica | Scotland | New Zealand | Canada | Australia | Scotland | New Zealand | Canada | Malaysia | England | Australia | India | Scotland | Australia | | Host City | Hamilton | London | Sydney | Auckland | Vancouver | Cardiff | Perth | Kingston | Edinburgh | Christchurch | Edmonton | Brisbane | Edinburgh | Auckland | Victoria | Kuala Lumpur | Manchester | Melbourne | Delhi | Glasgow | Gold Coast | | Participation \\ Host nation | Canada | England | Australia | New Zealand | Canada | Wales | Australia | Jamaica | Scotland | New Zealand | Canada | Australia | Scotland | New Zealand | Canada | Malaysia | England | Australia | India | Scotland | Australia | | | |  Aden | 1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Anguilla | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Antigua and Barbuda | 1966–1970, 1978, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Australia | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Bahamas | 1954–1970, 1978–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Bangladesh | 1978, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Barbados | 1954–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Belize | 1978, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Bermuda | 1930–1938, 1954–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Botswana | 1974, 1982– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  British Guiana | 1930–1938, 1954–1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  British Honduras | 1962–1966 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  British Virgin Islands | 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Brunei Darussalam | 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Cameroon | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Canada | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Cayman Islands | 1978– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Ceylon | 1938–1950, 1958–1970 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Cook Islands | 1974–1978, 1986– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Cyprus | 1978–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Dominica | 1958–1962, 1970, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  England | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Falkland Islands | 1982– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Fiji | 1938, 1954–1986, 1998–2006, 2014– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Gambia | 1970–1982, 1990–2010, 2018– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Ghana | 1958–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Gibraltar | 1958– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Gold Coast | 1954 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Grenada | 1970–1982, 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Guernsey | 1970– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Guyana | 1966–1970, 1978–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Hong Kong | 1934, 1954–1962, 1970–1994 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  India | 1934–1938, 1954–1958, 1966–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ireland | 1930 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Isle of Man | 1958– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Jamaica | 1934, 1954–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Jersey | 1958– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Kenya | 1954–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Kiribati | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Lesotho | 1974– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Malawi | 1970– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Malaya | 1950, 1958–1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Malaysia | 1966–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Maldives | 1986–2014, 2022– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Malta | 1958–1962, 1970, 1982– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Mauritius | 1958, 1966–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Montserrat | 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Mozambique | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Namibia | 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Nauru | 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Newfoundland | 1930–1934 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  New Zealand | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Nigeria | 1950–1958, 1966–1974, 1982, 1990–1994, 2002– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Niue | 2002– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Norfolk Island | 1986– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | North Borneo | 1958–1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Northern Ireland | 1934–1938, 1954– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Northern Rhodesia | 1954–1958 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Pakistan | 1954–1970, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Papua New Guinea | 1962–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Rhodesia and Nyasaland | 1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Rwanda | 2010– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla | 1978 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Saint Helena | 1982, 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Saint Kitts and Nevis | 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Saint Lucia | 1962, 1970, 1978, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 1958, 1966–1978, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Samoa | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sarawak | 1958–1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Scotland | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Seychelles | 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Sierra Leone | 1958, 1966–1970, 1978, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Singapore | 1958– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Solomon Islands | 1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  South Africa | 1930–1958, 1994– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  South Arabia | 1966 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Southern Rhodesia | 1934–1958 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Sri Lanka | 1974–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Swaziland | 1970–2018 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Tanganyika | 1962 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Tanzania | 1966–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Tonga | 1974, 1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Trinidad and Tobago | 1934–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Turks and Caicos Islands | 1978, 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Tuvalu | 1998– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Uganda | 1954–1974, 1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Vanuatu | 1982– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Wales | 1930– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Western Samoa | 1974–1994 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Zambia | 1970–1982, 1990– | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Zimbabwe | 1982, 1990–2002 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Legend | |   Participated   Withdrew for political reason   Not eligible to participate   To be determined | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Nation | Years of participation | | --- | --- | |  Aden | 1962 | |  Anguilla | 1998– | |  Australasia | 1911 | |  Antigua and Barbuda | 1966–1970, 1978, 1994– | |  Australia | 1930– | |  Bahamas | 1954–1970, 1978–1982, 1990– | |  Bangladesh | 1978, 1990– | |  Barbados | 1954–1982, 1990– | |  Belize | 1978, 1994– | |  Bermuda | 1930–1938, 1954–1982, 1990– | |  Botswana | 1974, 1982– | |  British Guiana | 1930–1938, 1954–1962 | |  British Honduras | 1962–1966 | |  British Virgin Islands | 1990– | |  Brunei Darussalam | 1990– | |  Cameroon | 1998– | |  Canada | 1911, 1930– | |  Cayman Islands | 1978– | |  Ceylon | 1938–1950, 1958–1970 | |  Cook Islands | 1974–1978, 1986– | |  Cyprus | 1978–1982, 1990– | |  Dominica | 1958–1962, 1970, 1994– | |  England | 1930– | |  Falkland Islands | 1982– | |  Fiji | 1938, 1954–1986, 1998–2006, 2014– | |  Gambia | 1970–1982, 1990–2010, 2018– | |  Ghana | 1958–1982, 1990– | |  Gibraltar | 1958– | |  Gold Coast | 1954 | |  Grenada | 1970–1982, 1998– | |  Guernsey | 1970– | |  Guyana | 1966–1970, 1978–1982, 1990– | |  Hong Kong | 1934, 1954–1962, 1970–1994 | |  India | 1934–1938, 1954–1958, 1966–1982, 1990– | | Ireland | 1930 | |  Irish Free State | 1934 | |  Isle of Man | 1958– | |  Jamaica | 1934, 1954–1982, 1990– | |  Jersey | 1958– | |  Kenya | 1954–1982, 1990– | |  Kiribati | 1998– | |  Lesotho | 1974– | |  Malawi | 1970– | |  Malaya | 1950, 1958–1962 | |  Malaysia | 1966–1982, 1990– | |  Maldives | 1986–2014, 2020– | |  Malta | 1958–1962, 1970, 1982– | | | Nation | Years of participation | | --- | --- | |  Mauritius | 1958–1982, 1990– | |  Montserrat | 1994– | |  Mozambique | 1998– | |  Namibia | 1994– | |  Nauru | 1990– | |  Newfoundland | 1930–1934 | |  New Zealand | 1930– | |  Nigeria | 1950–1958, 1966–1974, 1982, 1990–1994, 2002– | |  Niue | 2002– | |  Norfolk Island | 1986– | | North Borneo | 1958–1962 | |  Northern Ireland | 1934–1938, 1954– | |  Northern Rhodesia | 1954–1958 | |  Pakistan | 1954–1970, 1990– | |  Papua New Guinea | 1962–1982, 1990– | |  Rhodesia and Nyasaland | 1962 | |  Rwanda | 2010– | |  Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla | 1978 | |  Saint Helena | 1982, 1998– | |  Saint Kitts and Nevis | 1990– | |  Saint Lucia | 1962, 1970, 1978, 1994– | |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 1958, 1966–1978, 1994– | |  Samoa | 1998– | | Sarawak | 1958–1962 | |  Scotland | 1930– | |  Seychelles | 1990– | |  Sierra Leone | 1958, 1966–1970, 1978, 1990– | |  Singapore | 1958– | |  Solomon Islands | 1982, 1990– | |  South Africa | 1911–1958, 1994– | |  South Arabia | 1966 | |  Southern Rhodesia | 1934–1958 | |  Sri Lanka | 1974–1982, 1990– | |  Swaziland | 1970–2018 | |  Tanganyika | 1962 | |  Tanzania | 1966–1982, 1990– | |  Tonga | 1974, 1982, 1990– | |  Trinidad and Tobago | 1934–1982, 1990– | |  Turks and Caicos Islands | 1978, 1998– | |  Tuvalu | 2002– | |  Uganda | 1954–1974, 1982, 1990– | |  United Kingdom | 1911 | |  Vanuatu | 1982– | |  Wales | 1930– | |  Western Samoa | 1974–1994 | |  Zambia | 1970–1982, 1990– | |  Zimbabwe | 1982, 1990–2002 | | ### Commonwealth nations yet to send teams Very few Commonwealth dependencies and nations have yet to take part: * Gabon and Togo, the most recent members to join the Commonwealth in 2022 have not as of that date instigated Commonwealth Games federations in their nation. It is expected both nations will make their debut in 2026. * Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand was expected to take part the for the first time at the 2010 Games in Delhi but did not do so. * Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, former dependencies of Saint Helena and current parts of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, have never formed their own teams independent from the Saint Helena team. * Other states, territories, and territorial autonomies with native populations within the Commonwealth that may be eligible include Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (territories of Australia), Nevis (a federal entity of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis), Rodrigues (Outer Islands of Mauritius), and Zanzibar (a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania). * Cornwall, represented by the Cornwall Commonwealth Games Association (CCGA), sent a bid for participation in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in 2004. However, their application was rejected by the CGF, who stated that the constitutional status of Cornwall was not an issue that should be resolved through this medium. * The British Indian Ocean Territory currently has no permanent population although there is a sizeable population who were *born* in the BIOT but currently live in Mauritius and the United Kingdom and so would be eligible to compete on birth criteria. * Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has made applications to the CGF to send teams. * It is also conceivable that any future members of the Commonwealth such as applicants (for example South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen) may participate in future games. The Colony of Aden and Federation of South Arabia, precursors to modern Yemen, participated before in 1962 and in 1966. Sudan was an Anglo-Egyptian protectorate until independence in 1956. * The Pitcairn Islands' tiny population (currently 50 to 60 people) would appear to prevent this British overseas territory from competing. * The lack of a permanent population would seem to prevent the British overseas territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory, the New Zealand territory of Ross Dependency and the Australian external territories of Australian Antarctic Territory, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands and Heard Island and McDonald Islands from competing. Controversies ------------- ### Host city contract The 1934 British Empire Games, originally awarded in 1930 to Johannesburg, were moved to London after South Africa's pre-apartheid government refused to allow participants of colour. The 2022 Commonwealth Games were originally awarded to Durban on 2 September 2015, at the CGF General Assembly in Auckland. It was reported in February 2017 that Durban may be unable to host the games due to financial constraints. On 13 March 2017, the CGF stripped Durban of their rights to host and reopened the bidding process for the 2022 games. Many cities from Australia, Canada, England and Malaysia expressed interest to host the games. However, the CGF received only one official bid and that was from Birmingham, England. On 21 December 2017, Birmingham was awarded for the 2022 Games as Durban's replacement host. ### Boycotts Much like the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games have also experienced boycotts: Nigeria boycotted the 1978 Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in protest of New Zealand's sporting contacts with apartheid-era South Africa. Uganda also stayed away, in protest of alleged Canadian hostility towards the government of Idi Amin. During the 1986 Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh, a majority of the Commonwealth nations staged a boycott, so that the Games appeared to be a whites-only event. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries—largely African, Asian and Caribbean states—stayed away because of the Thatcher government's policy of keeping Britain's sporting links with apartheid South Africa in preference to participating in the general sporting boycott of that country. Consequently, Edinburgh 1986 witnessed the lowest number of athletes since Auckland 1950. The boycotting nations were Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Belize, Cyprus, Dominica, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Bermuda was a particularly late withdrawal, as its athletes appeared in the opening ceremony and in the opening day of competition before the Bermuda Olympic Association decided to formally withdraw. Financial implications ---------------------- The estimated cost of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi were US$11 billion, according to *Business Today* magazine. The initial total budget estimated by the Indian Olympic Association in 2003 was US$250 million. In 2010, however, the official total budget soon escalated to an estimated US$1.8 billion, a figure which excluded non-sports-related infrastructure development. Until today, the 2010 Commonwealth Games are reportedly the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever. An analysis conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games found that each dollar spent by governments on operating costs, games venues and athletes’ villages generated US$2 for the host city or state economies, with an average of more than 18,000 jobs generated by each of the events. Additionally, all four cities enjoyed long-term improvements to transport or other infrastructure through hosting the Games, while some also benefited from the revival of struggling precincts. Notable competitors ------------------- Lawn bowler Willie Wood from Scotland was the first competitor to have competed in seven Commonwealth Games, from 1974 to 2002, a record equalled in 2014 by Isle of Man cyclist Andrew Roche. They have both been surpassed by David Calvert of Northern Ireland who in 2018 attended his 11th games. Sitiveni Rabuka was a Prime Minister of Fiji. Beforehand he represented Fiji in shot put, hammer throw, discus and the decathlon at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games held in Christchurch, New Zealand. Greg Yelavich, a sports shooter from New Zealand, has won 12 medals in seven games from 1986 to 2010. Lawn bowler Robert Weale has represented Wales in 8 Commonwealth Games, 1986–2014, winning 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. Nauruan weightlifter Marcus Stephen won twelve medals at the Games between 1990 and 2002, of which seven gold, and was elected President of Nauru in 2007. His performance has helped place Nauru (the smallest independent state in the Commonwealth, at 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi) and with a population of fewer than 9,400 in 2011) in twenty-second place on the all-time Commonwealth Games medal table. Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe has won 10 Commonwealth Games gold medals and 1 silver medal. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, he won 4 gold medals. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he won 6 gold medals and 1 silver medal. Chad le Clos, South Africa's most decorated swimmer, has won 18 medals from four Commonwealth Games (2010, 2014, 2018 & 2022), seven of which are gold. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he won two gold medals, one silver medal, and four bronze medals. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, he won three golds, a silver and a bronze. English actor Jason Statham took part as a diver in the 1990 Commonwealth Games. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Australian singer Cody Simpson won a gold medal as a swimmer at the men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay. See also -------- * African Games * Asian Games * Commonwealth Youth Games * European Games * Jeux de la Francophonie * Lusophony Games * Maccabiah Games * Olympic Games * Pacific Games * Pan American Games * Paralympic Games * Youth Olympic Games * World Games * Commonwealth Mountain and Ultradistance Running Championships * List of Commonwealth Games venues * List of stamps depicting the Commonwealth Games * List of Commonwealth Games mascots Further reading --------------- * Phillips, Bob. *Honour of Empire, Glory of Sport: the history of athletics at the Commonwealth Games.* Manchester: Parrswood Press, 2000. ISBN 9781903158098.

Commonwealth Games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Games

**Research** is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to controlling sources of bias and error. These activities are characterized by accounting and controlling for biases. A research project may be an expansion on past work in the field. To test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects or the project as a whole. The primary purposes of basic research (as opposed to applied research) are documentation, discovery, interpretation, and the research and development (R&D) of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities and sciences. There are several forms of research: scientific, humanities, artistic, economic, social, business, marketing, practitioner research, life, technological, etc. The scientific study of research practices is known as meta-research. A **researcher** is a person engaged in conducting research, possibly recognized as an occupation by a formal job title. In order to be social researcher or social scientist, one should have enormous knowledge of subject related to social science that they are specialized in. Similarly, in order to be natural science researcher, the person should have knowledge on field related to natural science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Zoology and so on). Etymology --------- The word *research* is derived from the Middle French "*recherche*", which means "to go about seeking", the term itself being derived from the Old French term "*recerchier*" a compound word from "re-" + "cerchier", or "sercher", meaning 'search'. The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1577. Definitions ----------- Research has been defined in a number of different ways, and while there are similarities, there does not appear to be a single, all-encompassing definition that is embraced by all who engage in it. Research in simplest terms is searching for knowledge and searching for truth. In a formal sense, it is a systematic study of a problem attacked by a deliberately chosen strategy which starts with choosing an approach to preparing a blueprint (design) and acting upon it in terms of designing research hypotheses, choosing methods and techniques, selecting or developing data collection tools, processing the data, interpretation and ends with presenting solution/s of the problem. Another definition of research is given by John W. Creswell, who states that "research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue". It consists of three steps: pose a question, collect data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines research in more detail as "studious inquiry or examination; *especially*: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws" Forms of research ----------------- ### Original research **Original research**, also called **primary research**, is research that is not exclusively based on a summary, review, or synthesis of earlier publications on the subject of research. This material is of a primary-source character. The purpose of the original research is to produce new knowledge, rather than to present the existing knowledge in a new form (e.g., summarized or classified). Original research can be in various forms, depending on the discipline it pertains to. In experimental work, it typically involves direct or indirect observation of the researched subject(s), e.g., in the laboratory or in the field, documents the methodology, results, and conclusions of an experiment or set of experiments, or offers a novel interpretation of previous results. In analytical work, there are typically some new (for example) mathematical results produced, or a new way of approaching an existing problem. In some subjects which do not typically carry out experimentation or analysis of this kind, the originality is in the particular way existing understanding is changed or re-interpreted based on the outcome of the work of the researcher. The degree of originality of the research is among major criteria for articles to be published in academic journals and usually established by means of peer review. Graduate students are commonly required to perform original research as part of a dissertation. ### Scientific research **Scientific research** is a systematic way of gathering data and harnessing curiosity. This research provides scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature and the properties of the world. It makes practical applications possible. Scientific research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organizations and by private groups, including many companies. Scientific research can be subdivided into different classifications according to their academic and application disciplines. Scientific research is a widely used criterion for judging the standing of an academic institution, but some argue that such is an inaccurate assessment of the institution, because the quality of research does not tell about the quality of teaching (these do not necessarily correlate). Generally, research is understood to follow a certain structural process. Though step order may vary depending on the subject matter and researcher, the following steps are usually part of most formal research, both basic and applied: 1. Observations and formation of the topic: Consists of the subject area of one's interest and following that subject area to conduct subject-related research. The subject area should not be randomly chosen since it requires reading a vast amount of literature on the topic to determine the gap in the literature the researcher intends to narrow. A keen interest in the chosen subject area is advisable. The research will have to be justified by linking its importance to already existing knowledge about the topic. 2. Hypothesis: A testable prediction which designates the relationship between two or more variables. 3. Conceptual definition: Description of a concept by relating it to other concepts. 4. Operational definition: Details in regards to defining the variables and how they will be measured/assessed in the study. 5. Gathering of data: Consists of identifying a population and selecting samples, gathering information from or about these samples by using specific research instruments. The instruments used for data collection must be valid and reliable. 6. Analysis of data: Involves breaking down the individual pieces of data to draw conclusions about it. 7. Data Interpretation: This can be represented through tables, figures, and pictures, and then described in words. 8. Test, revising of hypothesis 9. Conclusion, reiteration if necessary A common misconception is that a hypothesis will be proven (see, rather, null hypothesis). Generally, a hypothesis is used to make predictions that can be tested by observing the outcome of an experiment. If the outcome is inconsistent with the hypothesis, then the hypothesis is rejected (see falsifiability). However, if the outcome is consistent with the hypothesis, the experiment is said to support the hypothesis. This careful language is used because researchers recognize that alternative hypotheses may also be consistent with the observations. In this sense, a hypothesis can never be proven, but rather only supported by surviving rounds of scientific testing and, eventually, becoming widely thought of as true. A useful hypothesis allows prediction and within the accuracy of observation of the time, the prediction will be verified. As the accuracy of observation improves with time, the hypothesis may no longer provide an accurate prediction. In this case, a new hypothesis will arise to challenge the old, and to the extent that the new hypothesis makes more accurate predictions than the old, the new will supplant it. Researchers can also use a null hypothesis, which states no relationship or difference between the independent or dependent variables. ### Research in the humanities **Research in the humanities** involves different methods such as for example hermeneutics and semiotics. Humanities scholars usually do not search for the ultimate correct answer to a question, but instead, explore the issues and details that surround it. Context is always important, and context can be social, historical, political, cultural, or ethnic. An example of research in the humanities is historical research, which is embodied in historical method. Historians use primary sources and other evidence to systematically investigate a topic, and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. Other studies aim to merely examine the occurrence of behaviours in societies and communities, without particularly looking for reasons or motivations to explain these. These studies may be qualitative or quantitative, and can use a variety of approaches, such as queer theory or feminist theory. ### Artistic research **Artistic research**, also seen as 'practice-based research', can take form when creative works are considered both the research and the object of research itself. It is the debatable body of thought which offers an alternative to purely scientific methods in research in its search for knowledge and truth. The controversial trend of artistic teaching becoming more academics-oriented is leading to artistic research being accepted as the primary mode of enquiry in art as in the case of other disciplines. One of the characteristics of artistic research is that it must accept subjectivity as opposed to the classical scientific methods. As such, it is similar to the social sciences in using qualitative research and intersubjectivity as tools to apply measurement and critical analysis. Artistic research has been defined by the School of Dance and Circus (Dans och Cirkushögskolan, DOCH), Stockholm in the following manner – "Artistic research is to investigate and test with the purpose of gaining knowledge within and for our artistic disciplines. It is based on artistic practices, methods, and criticality. Through presented documentation, the insights gained shall be placed in a context." Artistic research aims to enhance knowledge and understanding with presentation of the arts. A simpler understanding by Julian Klein defines artistic research as any kind of research employing the artistic mode of perception. For a survey of the central problematics of today's artistic research, see Giaco Schiesser. According to artist Hakan Topal, in artistic research, "perhaps more so than other disciplines, intuition is utilized as a method to identify a wide range of new and unexpected productive modalities". Most writers, whether of fiction or non-fiction books, also have to do research to support their creative work. This may be factual, historical, or background research. Background research could include, for example, geographical or procedural research. The Society for Artistic Research (SAR) publishes the triannual *Journal for Artistic Research* (*JAR*), an international, online, open access, and peer-reviewed journal for the identification, publication, and dissemination of artistic research and its methodologies, from all arts disciplines and it runs the *Research Catalogue* (RC), a searchable, documentary database of artistic research, to which anyone can contribute. Patricia Leavy addresses eight arts-based research (ABR) genres: narrative inquiry, fiction-based research, poetry, music, dance, theatre, film, and visual art. In 2016, the European League of Institutes of the Arts launched *The Florence Principles' on the Doctorate in the Arts*. The Florence Principles relating to the Salzburg Principles and the Salzburg Recommendations of the European University Association name seven points of attention to specify the Doctorate / PhD in the Arts compared to a scientific doctorate / PhD. The Florence Principles have been endorsed and are supported also by AEC, CILECT, CUMULUS and SAR. ### Historical research The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use historical sources and other evidence to research and then to write history. There are various history guidelines that are commonly used by historians in their work, under the headings of external criticism, internal criticism, and synthesis. This includes lower criticism and sensual criticism. Though items may vary depending on the subject matter and researcher, the following concepts are part of most formal historical research: * Identification of origin date * Evidence of localization * Recognition of authorship * Analysis of data * Identification of integrity * Attribution of credibility ### Documentary research Steps in conducting research ---------------------------- Research is often conducted using the hourglass model structure of research. The hourglass model starts with a broad spectrum for research, focusing in on the required information through the method of the project (like the neck of the hourglass), then expands the research in the form of discussion and results. The major steps in conducting research are: * Identification of research problem * Literature review * Specifying the purpose of research * Determining specific research questions * Specification of a conceptual framework, sometimes including a set of hypotheses * Choice of a methodology (for data collection) * Data collection * Verifying data * Analyzing and interpreting the data * Reporting and evaluating research * Communicating the research findings and, possibly, recommendations The steps generally represent the overall process; however, they should be viewed as an ever-changing iterative process rather than a fixed set of steps. Most research begins with a general statement of the problem, or rather, the purpose for engaging in the study. The literature review identifies flaws or holes in previous research which provides justification for the study. Often, a literature review is conducted in a given subject area before a research question is identified. A gap in the current literature, as identified by a researcher, then engenders a research question. The research question may be parallel to the hypothesis. The hypothesis is the supposition to be tested. The researcher(s) collects data to test the hypothesis. The researcher(s) then analyzes and interprets the data via a variety of statistical methods, engaging in what is known as empirical research. The results of the data analysis in rejecting or failing to reject the null hypothesis are then reported and evaluated. At the end, the researcher may discuss avenues for further research. However, some researchers advocate for the reverse approach: starting with articulating findings and discussion of them, moving "up" to identification of a research problem that emerges in the findings and literature review. The reverse approach is justified by the transactional nature of the research endeavor where research inquiry, research questions, research method, relevant research literature, and so on are not fully known until the findings have fully emerged and been interpreted. Rudolph Rummel says, "... no researcher should accept any one or two tests as definitive. It is only when a range of tests are consistent over many kinds of data, researchers, and methods can one have confidence in the results." Plato in Meno talks about an inherent difficulty, if not a paradox, of doing research that can be paraphrased in the following way, "If you know what you're searching for, why do you search for it?! [i.e., you have already found it] If you don't know what you're searching for, what are you searching for?!" Research methods ---------------- The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge or deepen understanding of a topic or issue. This process takes three main forms (although, as previously discussed, the boundaries between them may be obscure): * Exploratory research, which helps to identify and define a problem or question. * Constructive research, which tests theories and proposes solutions to a problem or question. * Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence. There are two major types of empirical research design: qualitative research and quantitative research. Researchers choose qualitative or quantitative methods according to the nature of the research topic they want to investigate and the research questions they aim to answer: Qualitative research Qualitative research refers to much more subjective non- quantitative, use different methods of collecting data, analyzing data, interpreting data for meanings, definitions, characteristics, symbols metaphors of things.Qualitative research further classified into following types: **Ethnography:** This research mainly focus on culture of group of people which includes share attributes, language, practices, structure, value, norms and material things, evaluate human lifestyle. Ethno: people, Grapho: to write, this disciple may include ethnic groups, ethno genesis, composition, resettlement and social welfare characteristics. **Phenomenology**: It is very powerful strategy for demonstrating methodology to health professions education as well as best suited for exploring challenging problems in health professions educations. Quantitative research This involves systematic empirical investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships, by asking a narrow question and collecting numerical data to analyze it utilizing statistical methods. The quantitative research designs are experimental, correlational, and survey (or descriptive). Statistics derived from quantitative research can be used to establish the existence of associative or causal relationships between variables. Quantitative research is linked with the philosophical and theoretical stance of positivism. The quantitative data collection methods rely on random sampling and structured data collection instruments that fit diverse experiences into predetermined response categories. These methods produce results that can be summarized, compared, and generalized to larger populations if the data are collected using proper sampling and data collection strategies. Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses derived from theory or being able to estimate the size of a phenomenon of interest. If the research question is about people, participants may be randomly assigned to different treatments (this is the only way that a quantitative study can be considered a true experiment). If this is not feasible, the researcher may collect data on participant and situational characteristics to statistically control for their influence on the dependent, or outcome, variable. If the intent is to generalize from the research participants to a larger population, the researcher will employ probability sampling to select participants. In either qualitative or quantitative research, the researcher(s) may collect primary or secondary data. Primary data is data collected specifically for the research, such as through interviews or questionnaires. Secondary data is data that already exists, such as census data, which can be re-used for the research. It is good ethical research practice to use secondary data wherever possible. Mixed-method research, i.e. research that includes qualitative and quantitative elements, using both primary and secondary data, is becoming more common. This method has benefits that using one method alone cannot offer. For example, a researcher may choose to conduct a qualitative study and follow it up with a quantitative study to gain additional insights. Big data has brought big impacts on research methods so that now many researchers do not put much effort into data collection; furthermore, methods to analyze easily available huge amounts of data have also been developed. Types of Research Method 1. Observatory Research Method 2. Correlation Research Method Non-empirical research Non-empirical (theoretical) research is an approach that involves the development of theory as opposed to using observation and experimentation. As such, non-empirical research seeks solutions to problems using existing knowledge as its source. This, however, does not mean that new ideas and innovations cannot be found within the pool of existing and established knowledge. Non-empirical research is not an absolute alternative to empirical research because they may be used together to strengthen a research approach. Neither one is less effective than the other since they have their particular purpose in science. Typically empirical research produces observations that need to be explained; then theoretical research tries to explain them, and in so doing generates empirically testable hypotheses; these hypotheses are then tested empirically, giving more observations that may need further explanation; and so on. See Scientific method. A simple example of a non-empirical task is the prototyping of a new drug using a differentiated application of existing knowledge; another is the development of a business process in the form of a flow chart and texts where all the ingredients are from established knowledge. Much of cosmological research is theoretical in nature. Mathematics research does not rely on externally available data; rather, it seeks to prove theorems about mathematical objects. Research ethics --------------- **Research ethics** is concerned with the moral issues that arise during or as a result of research activities, as well as the conduct of individual researchers, and the implications for research communities. Historically, scandals such as Nazi human experimentation and the Tuskegee syphilis experiment led to the realisation that clear measures are needed for the ethical governance of research to ensure that people, animals and environments are not unduly harmed by scientific inquiry. The management of research ethics is inconsistent across countries and there is no universally accepted approach to how it should be addressed. Research ethics committees (Institutional review board in the US) have emerged as one governance mechanism to ensure research is conducted responsibly. When making moral judgments, we may be guided by different values. Philosophers commonly distinguish between approaches like deontology, consequentialism, Confucianism, virtue ethics, and Ubuntu ethics, to list a few. Regardless of approach, the application of ethical theory to specific contexts is known as applied ethics, and research ethics can be viewed as a subfield of applied ethics because ethical theory is applied in real-world research scenarios. Ethical issues may arise in the design and implementation of research involving human experimentation or animal experimentation. There may also be consequences for the environment, for society or for future generations that need to be considered. Research ethics is most developed as a concept in medical research, with typically cited codes being the 1947 Nuremberg Code, the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, and the 1978 Belmont Report. Informed consent is a key concept in research ethics thanks to these codes. Research in other fields such as social sciences, information technology, biotechnology, or engineering may generate different types of ethical concerns to those in medical research. In countries such as Canada, mandatory research ethics training is required for students, professors and others who work in research, whilst the US has legislated on how institutional review boards operate since the 1974 National Research Act. Research ethics is commonly distinguished from the promotion of academic or research integrity, which includes issues such as scientific misconduct (e.g. fraud, fabrication of data or plagiarism). Because of the close interaction with integrity, increasingly research ethics is included as part of the broader field of responsible conduct of research (RCR in North America) or Responsible Research and Innovation in Europe, and with government agencies such as the United States Office of Research Integrity or the Canadian Interagency Advisory Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research promoting or requiring interdisciplinary training for researchers. Problems in research -------------------- ### Meta-research Meta-research is the study of research through the use of research methods. Also known as "research on research", it aims to reduce waste and increase the quality of research in all fields. Meta-research concerns itself with the detection of bias, methodological flaws, and other errors and inefficiencies. Among the finding of meta-research is a low rates of reproducibility across a large number of fields. This widespread difficulty in reproducing research has been termed the "replication crisis." ### Methods of research In many disciplines, Western methods of conducting research are predominant. Researchers are overwhelmingly taught Western methods of data collection and study. The increasing participation of indigenous peoples as researchers has brought increased attention to the scientific lacuna in culturally sensitive methods of data collection. Western methods of data collection may not be the most accurate or relevant for research on non-Western societies. For example, "Hua Oranga" was created as a criterion for psychological evaluation in Māori populations, and is based on dimensions of mental health important to the Māori people – "taha wairua (the spiritual dimension), taha hinengaro (the mental dimension), taha tinana (the physical dimension), and taha whanau (the family dimension)". ### Bias Research is often biased in the languages that are preferred (linguicism) and the geographic locations where research occurs. Periphery scholars face the challenges of exclusion and linguicism in research and academic publication. As the great majority of mainstream academic journals are written in English, multilingual periphery scholars often must translate their work to be accepted to elite Western-dominated journals. Multilingual scholars' influences from their native communicative styles can be assumed to be incompetence instead of difference. For comparative politics, Western countries are over-represented in single-country studies, with heavy emphasis on Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Since 2000, Latin American countries have become more popular in single-country studies. In contrast, countries in Oceania and the Caribbean are the focus of very few studies. Patterns of geographic bias also show a relationship with linguicism: countries whose official languages are French or Arabic are far less likely to be the focus of single-country studies than countries with different official languages. Within Africa, English-speaking countries are more represented than other countries. ### Generalizability Generalization is the process of more broadly applying the valid results of one study. Studies with a narrow scope can result in a lack of generalizability, meaning that the results may not be applicable to other populations or regions. In comparative politics, this can result from using a single-country study, rather than a study design that uses data from multiple countries. Despite the issue of generalizability, single-country studies have risen in prevalence since the late 2000s. ### Publication peer review Peer review is a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Usually, the peer review process involves experts in the same field who are consulted by editors to give a review of the scholarly works produced by a colleague of theirs from an unbiased and impartial point of view, and this is usually done free of charge. The tradition of peer reviews being done for free has however brought many pitfalls which are also indicative of why most peer reviewers decline many invitations to review. It was observed that publications from periphery countries rarely rise to the same elite status as those of North America and Europe, because limitations on the availability of resources including high-quality paper and sophisticated image-rendering software and printing tools render these publications less able to satisfy standards currently carrying formal or informal authority in the publishing industry. These limitations in turn result in the under-representation of scholars from periphery nations among the set of publications holding prestige status relative to the quantity and quality of those scholars' research efforts, and this under-representation in turn results in disproportionately reduced acceptance of the results of their efforts as contributions to the body of knowledge available worldwide. ### Influence of the open-access movement The open access movement assumes that all information generally deemed useful should be free and belongs to a "public domain", that of "humanity". This idea gained prevalence as a result of Western colonial history and ignores alternative conceptions of knowledge circulation. For instance, most indigenous communities consider that access to certain information proper to the group should be determined by relationships. There is alleged to be a double standard in the Western knowledge system. On the one hand, "digital right management" used to restrict access to personal information on social networking platforms is celebrated as a protection of privacy, while simultaneously when similar functions are used by cultural groups (i.e. indigenous communities) this is denounced as "access control" and reprehended as censorship. ### Future perspectives Even though Western dominance seems to be prominent in research, some scholars, such as Simon Marginson, argue for "the need [for] a plural university world". Marginson argues that the East Asian Confucian model could take over the Western model. This could be due to changes in funding for research both in the East and the West. Focused on emphasizing educational achievement, East Asian cultures, mainly in China and South Korea, have encouraged the increase of funding for research expansion. In contrast, in the Western academic world, notably in the United Kingdom as well as in some state governments in the United States, funding cuts for university research have occurred, which some [*who?*] say may lead to the future decline of Western dominance in research. ### Neo-colonial approaches Neo-colonial research or neo-colonial science, frequently described as helicopter research, parachute science or research, parasitic research, or safari study, is when researchers from wealthier countries go to a developing country, collect information, travel back to their country, analyze the data and samples, and publish the results with no or little involvement of local researchers. A 2003 study by the Hungarian academy of sciences found that 70% of articles in a random sample of publications about least-developed countries did not include a local research co-author. Frequently, during this kind of research, the local colleagues might be used to provide logistics support as fixers but are not engaged for their expertise or given credit for their participation in the research. Scientific publications resulting from parachute science frequently only contribute to the career of the scientists from rich countries, thus limiting the development of local science capacity (such as funded research centers) and the careers of local scientists. This form of "colonial" science has reverberations of 19th century scientific practices of treating non-Western participants as "others" in order to advance colonialism—and critics call for the end of these extractivist practices in order to decolonize knowledge. This kind of research approach reduces the quality of research because international researchers may not ask the right questions or draw connections to local issues. The result of this approach is that local communities are unable to leverage the research to their own advantage. Ultimately, especially for fields dealing with global issues like conservation biology which rely on local communities to implement solutions, neo-colonial science prevents institutionalization of the findings in local communities in order to address issues being studied by scientists. Professionalisation ------------------- In several national and private academic systems, the professionalisation of research has resulted in formal job titles. ### In Russia In present-day Russia, and some other countries of the former Soviet Union, the term *researcher* (Russian: Научный сотрудник, *nauchny sotrudnik*) has been used both as a generic term for a person who has been carrying out scientific research, and as a job position within the frameworks of the Academy of Sciences, universities, and in other research-oriented establishments. The following ranks are known: * Junior Researcher (Junior Research Associate) * Researcher (Research Associate) * Senior Researcher (Senior Research Associate) * Leading Researcher (Leading Research Associate) * Chief Researcher (Chief Research Associate) Publishing ---------- Academic publishing is a system that is necessary for academic scholars to peer review the work and make it available for a wider audience. The system varies widely by field and is also always changing, if often slowly. Most academic work is published in journal article or book form. There is also a large body of research that exists in either a thesis or dissertation form. These forms of research can be found in databases explicitly for theses and dissertations. In publishing, STM publishing is an abbreviation for academic publications in science, technology, and medicine. Most established academic fields have their own scientific journals and other outlets for publication, though many academic journals are somewhat interdisciplinary, and publish work from several distinct fields or subfields. The kinds of publications that are accepted as contributions of knowledge or research vary greatly between fields, from the print to the electronic format. A study suggests that researchers should not give great consideration to findings that are not replicated frequently. It has also been suggested that all published studies should be subjected to some measure for assessing the validity or reliability of its procedures to prevent the publication of unproven findings. Business models are different in the electronic environment. Since about the early 1990s, licensing of electronic resources, particularly journals, has been very common. Presently, a major trend, particularly with respect to scholarly journals, is open access. There are two main forms of open access: open access publishing, in which the articles or the whole journal is freely available from the time of publication, and self-archiving, where the author makes a copy of their own work freely available on the web. Research funding ---------------- Most funding for scientific research comes from three major sources: corporate research and development departments; private foundations; and government research councils such as the National Institutes of Health in the US and the Medical Research Council in the UK. These are managed primarily through universities and in some cases through military contractors. Many senior researchers (such as group leaders) spend a significant amount of their time applying for grants for research funds. These grants are necessary not only for researchers to carry out their research but also as a source of merit. The Social Psychology Network provides a comprehensive list of U.S. Government and private foundation funding sources. See also -------- * Advertising research * European Charter for Researchers * Funding bias * Internet research * Laboratory * List of countries by research and development spending * List of words ending in *ology* * Market research * Marketing research * Open research * Operations research * Participatory action research * Psychological research methods * Research integrity * Research-intensive cluster * Research organization * Research proposal * Research university * Scholarly research * Secondary research * Social research * Society for Artistic Research * Timeline of the history of the scientific method * Undergraduate research Further reading --------------- * Groh, Arnold (2018). *Research Methods in Indigenous Contexts*. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-72774-5. * Cohen, N.; Arieli, T. (2011). "Field research in conflict environments: Methodological challenges and snowball sampling". *Journal of Peace Research*. **48** (4): 423–436. doi:10.1177/0022343311405698. S2CID 145328311. * Soeters, Joseph; Shields, Patricia and Rietjens, Sebastiaan. 2014. Handbook of Research Methods in Military Studies New York: Routledge. * Talja, Sanna and Pamela J. Mckenzie (2007). Editor's Introduction: Special Issue on Discursive Approaches to Information Seeking in Context, The University of Chicago Press.

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research

**Etruscan** (/ɪˈtrʌskən/ *ih-TRUSK-ən*) was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions that have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen purported loanwords. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with it mostly being referred to as one of the Tyrsenian languages, at times as an isolate and a number of other less well-known theories. The consensus among linguists and Etruscologists is that Etruscan was a Pre–Indo-European and Paleo-European language, closely related to the Raetic language that was spoken in the Alps, and to the Lemnian language, attested in a few inscriptions on Lemnos. Grammatically, the language is agglutinating, with nouns and verbs showing suffixed inflectional endings and some gradation of vowels. Nouns show five cases, singular and plural numbers, with a gender distinction between animate and inanimate in pronouns. Etruscan appears to have had a cross-linguistically common phonological system, with four phonemic vowels and an apparent contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops. The records of the language suggest that phonetic change took place over time, with the loss and then re-establishment of word-internal vowels, possibly due to the effect of Etruscan's word-initial stress. Etruscan religion influenced that of the Romans, and many of the few surviving Etruscan-language artifacts are of votive or religious significance. Etruscan was written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet; this alphabet was the source of the Latin alphabet, as well as other alphabets in Italy and probably beyond. The Etruscan language is also believed to be the source of certain important cultural words of Western Europe such as *military* and *person*, which do not have obvious Indo-European roots. History of Etruscan literacy ---------------------------- Etruscan literacy was widespread over the Mediterranean shores, as evidenced by about 13,000 inscriptions (dedications, epitaphs, etc.), most fairly short, but some of considerable length. They date from about 700 BC. The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors. Livy and Cicero were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under the generic Latin title *Etrusca Disciplina*. The *Libri Haruspicini* dealt with divination by reading entrails from a sacrificed animal, while the *Libri Fulgurales* expounded the art of divination by observing lightning. A third set, the *Libri Rituales*, might have provided a key to Etruscan civilization: its wider scope embraced Etruscan standards of social and political life, as well as ritual practices. According to the 4th-century Latin writer Maurus Servius Honoratus, a fourth set of Etruscan books existed; dealing with animal gods, but it is unlikely that any scholar living in that era could have read Etruscan. However, only one book (as opposed to inscription), the *Liber Linteus*, survived, and only because the linen on which it was written was used as mummy wrappings. In 30 BC, Livy noted that Etruscan was once widely taught to Roman boys, but had since become replaced by the teaching of only Greek, while Varro noted that works of theatre had once been composed in Etruscan. ### Demise The date of extinction for Etruscan is held by scholarship to have been either in the late first century BC, or the early first century AD. Freeman's analysis of inscriptional evidence would appear to imply that Etruscan was still flourishing in the 2nd century BC, still alive in the first century BC, and surviving in at least one location in the beginning of the first century AD; however, the replacement of Etruscan by Latin likely occurred earlier in southern regions closer to Rome. In southern Etruria, the first Etruscan site to be Latinized was Veii, when it was destroyed and repopulated by Romans in 396 BC. Caere (Cerveteri), another southern Etruscan town on the coast 45 kilometers from Rome, appears to have shifted to Latin in the late 2nd century BC. In Tarquinia and Vulci, Latin inscriptions coexisted with Etruscan inscriptions in wall paintings and grave markers for centuries, from the 3rd century BC until the early 1st century BC, after which Etruscan is replaced by the exclusive use of Latin. In northern Etruria, Etruscan inscriptions continue after they disappear in southern Etruria. At Clusium (Chiusi), tomb markings show mixed Latin and Etruscan in the first half of the 1st century BC, with cases where two subsequent generations are inscribed in Latin and then the third, youngest generation, surprisingly, is transcribed in Etruscan. At Perugia, monolingual monumental inscriptions in Etruscan are still seen in the first half of the 1st century BC, while the period of bilingual inscriptions appears to have stretched from the 3rd century to the late 1st century BC. The isolated last bilinguals are found at three northern sites. Inscriptions in Arezzo include one dated to 40 BC followed by two with slightly later dates, while in Volterra there is one dated to just after 40 BC and a final one dated to 10–20 AD; coins with written Etruscan near Saena have also been dated to 15 BC. Freeman notes that in rural areas the language may have survived a bit longer, and that a survival into the late 1st century AD and beyond "cannot wholly be dismissed", especially given the revelation of Oscan writing in Pompeii's walls. Despite the apparent extinction of Etruscan, it appears that Etruscan religious rites continued much later, continuing to use the Etruscan names of deities and possibly with some liturgical usage of the language. In late Republican and early Augustan times, various Latin sources including Cicero noted the esteemed reputation of Etruscan soothsayers. An episode where lightning struck an inscription with the name Caesar, turning it into Aesar, was interpreted to have been a premonition of the deification of Caesar because of the resemblance to Etruscan *aisar*, meaning 'gods', although this indicates knowledge of a single word and not the language. Centuries later and long after Etruscan is thought to have died out, Ammianus Marcellinus reports that Julian the Apostate, the last pagan Emperor, apparently had Etruscan soothsayers accompany him on his military campaigns with books on war, lightning and celestial events, but the language of these books is unknown. According to Zosimus, when Rome was faced with destruction by Alaric in 408 AD, the protection of nearby Etruscan towns was attributed to Etruscan pagan priests who claimed to have summoned a raging thunderstorm, and they offered their services "in the ancestral manner" to Rome as well, but the devout Christians of Rome refused the offer, preferring death to help by pagans. Freeman notes that these events may indicate that a limited theological knowledge of Etruscan may have survived among the priestly caste much longer. One 19th-century writer argued in 1892 that Etruscan deities retained an influence on early modern Tuscan folklore. Around 180, the Latin author Aulus Gellius mentions Etruscan alongside the Gaulish language in an anecdote. Freeman notes that although Gaulish was clearly still alive during Gellius' time, his testimony may not indicate that Etruscan was still alive because the phrase could indicate a meaning of the sort of "it's all Greek (incomprehensible) to me". At the time of its extinction, only a few educated Romans with antiquarian interests, such as Marcus Terentius Varro, could read Etruscan. The Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC – AD 54) is considered to have possibly been able to read Etruscan, and authored a treatise on Etruscan history; a separate dedication made by Claudius implies a knowledge from "diverse Etruscan sources", but it is unclear if any were fluent speakers of Etruscan. Plautia Urgulanilla, the emperor's first wife, was Etruscan. Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as a few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages, among which are possibly *voltur* 'vulture', *tuba* 'trumpet', *vagina* 'sheath', *populus* 'people'. Geographic distribution ----------------------- Inscriptions have been found in northwest and west-central Italy, in the region that even now bears the name of the Etruscan civilization, Tuscany (from Latin *tuscī* 'Etruscans'), as well as in modern Latium north of Rome, in today's Umbria west of the Tiber, in the Po Valley to the north of Etruria, and in Campania. This range may indicate a maximum Italian homeland where the language was at one time spoken. Outside Italy, inscriptions have been found in Corsica, Gallia Narbonensis, Greece, the Balkans. But by far, the greatest concentration is in Italy. Classification -------------- ### Tyrsenian family hypothesis In 1998, Helmut Rix put forward the view that Etruscan is related to other extinct languages such as Raetic, spoken in ancient times in the eastern Alps, and Lemnian, to which other scholars added Camunic language, spoken in the Central Alps. Rix's Tyrsenian language family has gained widespread acceptance among scholars, being confirmed by Stefan Schumacher, Norbert Oettinger, Carlo De Simone, and Simona Marchesini. Common features between Etruscan, Raetic, and Lemnian have been found in morphology, phonology, and syntax, but only a few lexical correspondences are documented, at least partly due to the scant number of Raetic and Lemnian texts. On the other hand, the Tyrsenian family, or Common Tyrrhenic, is often considered to be Paleo-European and to predate the arrival of Indo-European languages in southern Europe. Several scholars believe that the Lemnian language could have arrived in the Aegean Sea during the Late Bronze Age, when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries from Sicily, Sardinia and various parts of the Italian peninsula. Scholars such as Norbert Oettinger, Michel Gras and Carlo De Simone think that Lemnian is the testimony of an Etruscan commercial settlement on the island that took place before 700 BC, not related to the Sea Peoples. #### Archeogenetic studies A 2021 archeogenetic analysis of Etruscan individuals, who lived between 800 BC and 1 BC, concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous and genetically similar to the Early Iron Age Latins, and that the Etruscan language, and therefore the other languages of the Tyrrhenian family, may be a surviving language of the ones that were widespread in Europe from at least the Neolithic period before the arrival of the Indo-European languages, as already argued by German geneticist Johannes Krause who concluded that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque, Paleo-Sardinian and Minoan) "developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution". The lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture and Iranian-related ancestry among the Etruscans, who genetically joined firmly to the European cluster, might also suggest that the presence of a handful of inscriptions found at Lemnos, in a language related to Etruscan and Raetic, "could represent population movements departing from the Italian peninsula". ### Superseded theories and fringe scholarship Over the centuries many hypotheses on the Etruscan language have been developed, most of which have not been accepted or have been considered highly speculative since they were published. The major consensus among scholars is that the Etruscan, and therefore all the languages of the Tyrrhenian family, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic, and may be a Pre–Indo-European and Paleo-European language. At present the major consensus is that Etruscan has only a kinship with the Raetic and Lemnian languages. #### Pre-Greek substrate hypothesis The idea of a relation between the language of the Minoan Linear A scripts was taken into consideration as the main hypothesis by Michael Ventris before he discovered that, in fact, the language behind the later Linear B script was Mycenean, a Greek dialect. It has been proposed to possibly be part of a wider Paleo-European "Aegean" language family, which would also include Minoan, Eteocretan (possibly descended from Minoan) and Eteocypriot. This has been proposed by Giulio Mauro Facchetti, a researcher who has dealt with both Etruscan and Minoan, and supported by S. Yatsemirsky, referring to some similarities between Etruscan and Lemnian on one hand, and Minoan and Eteocretan on the other. It has also been proposed that this language family is related to the pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, based upon place name analysis. The relationship between Etruscan and Minoan, and hypothetical unattested pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, is considered unfounded. #### Anatolian Indo-European family hypothesis Some have suggested that Tyrsenian languages may yet be distantly related to early Indo-European languages, such as those of the Anatolian branch. More recently, Robert S. P. Beekes argued in 2002 that the people later known as the Lydians and Etruscans had originally lived in northwest Anatolia, with a coastline to the Sea of Marmara, whence they were driven by the Phrygians *circa* 1200 BC, leaving a remnant known in antiquity as the Tyrsenoi. A segment of this people moved south-west to Lydia, becoming known as the Lydians, while others sailed away to take refuge in Italy, where they became known as Etruscans. This account draws on the well-known story by Herodotus (I, 94) of the Lydian origin of the Etruscans or Tyrrhenians, famously rejected by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (book I), partly on the authority of Xanthus, a Lydian historian, who had no knowledge of the story, and partly on what he judged to be the different languages, laws, and religions of the two peoples. In 2006, Frederik Woudhuizen went further on Herodotus' traces, suggesting that Etruscan belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European family, specifically to Luwian. Woudhuizen revived a conjecture to the effect that the Tyrsenians came from Anatolia, including Lydia, whence they were driven by the Cimmerians in the early Iron Age, 750–675 BC, leaving some colonists on Lemnos. He makes a number of comparisons of Etruscan to Luwian and asserts that Etruscan is modified Luwian. He accounts for the non-Luwian features as a Mysian influence: "deviations from Luwian [...] may plausibly be ascribed to the dialect of the indigenous population of Mysia." According to Woudhuizen, the Etruscans were initially colonizing the Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia. For historical, archaeological, genetic, and linguistic reasons, a relationship between Etruscan and the Indo-European Anatolian languages (Lydian or Luwian) and the idea that the Etruscans initially colonized the Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia, have not been accepted, just as the Lydian origin story reported by Herodotus is no longer considered reliable. #### Other theories The interest in Etruscan antiquities and the Etruscan language found its modern origin in a book by a Renaissance Dominican friar, Annio da Viterbo, a cabalist and orientalist now remembered mainly for literary forgeries. In 1498, Annio published his antiquarian miscellany titled *Antiquitatum variarum* (in 17 volumes) where he put together a theory in which both the Hebrew and Etruscan languages were said to originate from a single source, the "Aramaic" spoken by Noah and his descendants, founders of the Etruscan city Viterbo. The 19th century saw numerous attempts to reclassify Etruscan. Ideas of Semitic origins found supporters until this time. In 1858, the last attempt was made by Johann Gustav Stickel, Jena University in his *Das Etruskische durch Erklärung von Inschriften und Namen als semitische Sprache erwiesen*. A reviewer concluded that Stickel brought forward every possible argument which would speak for that hypothesis, but he proved the opposite of what he had attempted to do. In 1861, Robert Ellis proposed that Etruscan was related to Armenian. Exactly 100 years later, a relationship with Albanian was to be advanced by Zecharia Mayani, a theory regarded today as disproven and discredited. Several theories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries connected Etruscan to Uralic or even Altaic languages. In 1874, the British scholar Isaac Taylor brought up the idea of a genetic relationship between Etruscan and Hungarian, of which also Jules Martha would approve in his exhaustive study *La langue étrusque* (1913). In 1911, the French orientalist Baron Carra de Vaux suggested a connection between Etruscan and the Altaic languages. The Hungarian connection was revived by Mario Alinei, Emeritus Professor of Italian Languages at the University of Utrecht. Alinei's proposal has been rejected by Etruscan experts such as Giulio M. Facchetti, Finno-Ugric experts such as Angela Marcantonio, and by Hungarian historical linguists such as Bela Brogyanyi. Another proposal, pursued mainly by a few linguists from the former Soviet Union, suggested a relationship with Northeast Caucasian (or Nakh-Daghestanian) languages. None of these theories has been accepted nor enjoys consensus. Writing system -------------- ### Alphabet The Latin script owes its existence to the Etruscan alphabet, which was adapted for Latin in the form of the Old Italic script. The Etruscan alphabet employs a Euboean variant of the Greek alphabet using the letter digamma and was in all probability transmitted through Pithecusae and Cumae, two Euboean settlements in southern Italy. This system is ultimately derived from West Semitic scripts. The Etruscans recognized a 26-letter alphabet, which makes an early appearance incised for decoration on a small bucchero terracotta lidded vase in the shape of a cockerel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 650–600 BC. The full complement of 26 has been termed the model alphabet. The Etruscans did not use four letters of it, mainly because Etruscan did not have the voiced stops *b*, *d* and *g*; the *o* was also not used. They innovated one letter for *f* (𐌚). ### Text Writing was from right to left except in archaic inscriptions, which occasionally used boustrophedon. An example found at Cerveteri used left to right. In the earliest inscriptions, the words are continuous. From the 6th century BC, they are separated by a dot or a colon, which might also be used to separate syllables. Writing was phonetic; the letters represented the sounds and not conventional spellings. On the other hand, many inscriptions are highly abbreviated and often casually formed, so the identification of individual letters is sometimes difficult. Spelling might vary from city to city, probably reflecting differences of pronunciation. ### Complex consonant clusters Speech featured a heavy stress on the first syllable of a word, causing syncopation by weakening of the remaining vowels, which then were not represented in writing: *Alcsntre* for *Alexandros*, *Rasna* for *Rasena*. This speech habit is one explanation of the Etruscan "impossible" consonant clusters. Some of the consonants, especially resonants, however, may have been syllabic, accounting for some of the clusters (see below under Consonants). In other cases, the scribe sometimes inserted a vowel: Greek *Hēraklēs* became *Hercle* by syncopation and then was expanded to *Herecele*. Pallottino regarded this variation in vowels as "instability in the quality of vowels" and accounted for the second phase (e.g. *Herecele*) as "vowel harmony, i.e., of the assimilation of vowels in neighboring syllables". ### Phases The writing system had two historical phases: the archaic from the seventh to fifth centuries BC, which used the early Greek alphabet, and the later from the fourth to first centuries BC, which modified some of the letters. In the later period, syncopation increased. The alphabet went on in modified form after the language disappeared. In addition to being the source of the Roman and early Oscan and Umbrian alphabets, it has been suggested that it passed northward into Veneto and from there through Raetia into the Germanic lands, where it became the Elder Futhark alphabet, the oldest form of the runes. Corpus ------ The Etruscan corpus is edited in the *Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum* (CIE) and *Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae* (TLE). ### Bilingual text The Pyrgi Tablets are a bilingual text in Etruscan and Phoenician engraved on three gold leaves, one for the Phoenician and two for the Etruscan. The Etruscan language portion has 16 lines and 37 words. The date is roughly 500 BC. The tablets were found in 1964 by Massimo Pallottino during an excavation at the ancient Etruscan port of Pyrgi, now Santa Severa. The only new Etruscan word that could be extracted from close analysis of the tablets was the word for 'three', *ci*. ### Longer texts According to Rix and his collaborators, only two unified (though fragmentary) long texts are available in Etruscan: * The *Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis*, which was later used for mummy wrappings in Egypt. Roughly 1,200 words of readable (but not fully translatable) text, mainly repetitious prayers probably comprising a kind of religious calendar, yielded about 50 lexical items. * The *Tabula Capuana* (the inscribed tile from Capua) has about 300 readable words in 62 lines, dating to the fifth century BC. It again seems to be a religious calendar. Some additional longer texts are: * The lead foils of Punta della Vipera have about 40 legible words having to do with ritual formulae. It is dated to about 500 BC. * The Cippus Perusinus, a stone slab (cippus) found at Perugia, which probably functioned as a border marker, contains 46 lines and about 130 words. The cippus is assumed to be a text dedicating a legal contract between the Etruscan families of Velthina (from Perugia) and Afuna (from Chiusi), regarding the sharing or use of a property, including water rights, upon which there was a tomb belonging to the noble Velthinas. * The Piacenza Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver representing the sky, has the engraved names of the gods ruling different sections. * The Tabula Cortonensis, a bronze tablet from Cortona, is believed to record a legal contract between Cusu family and Petru Scevas and his wife concerning a real estate settlement of some sort, with about 200 words. Discovered in 1992, this new tablet contributed the word for 'lake', *tisś*, but not much else. * The Vicchio stele, found in the 21st season of excavation at the Etruscan Sanctuary at Poggio Colla, is believed to be connected with the cult of the goddess Uni, with about 120 letters. Only discovered in 2016, it is still in the process of being deciphered. As an example of difficulties in reading this badly damaged monument, here is Maggiani's attempt at a transliteration and translation of a bit from the beginning of the third block of text (III, 1-3): (vacat) tinaś: θ(?)anuri: unial(?)/ ẹ ṿ ị: zal / ame (akil??) "for Tinia in the xxxx of Uni/xxxx(objects) two / must (akil ?) be..." * The badly damaged Saint Marinella lead sheet contains traces of 80 words, only half of which can be completely read with certainty, many of which can also be found in the Liber Linteus. It was discovered during the during 1963-1964 excavations at a sanctuary near Saint Marinella near Pyrgi, now in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome. * The Lead Plaque of Magliano contains 73 words, including many names of deities. It seems to be a series of dedications to various gods and ancestors. ### Inscriptions on monuments The main material repository of Etruscan civilization, from the modern perspective, is its tombs, all other public and private buildings having been dismantled and the stone reused centuries ago. The tombs are the main source of Etruscan portables, provenance unknown, in collections throughout the world. Their incalculable value has created a brisk black market in Etruscan *objets d'art* – and equally brisk law enforcement effort, as it is illegal to remove any objects from Etruscan tombs without authorization from the Italian government. The magnitude of the task involved in cataloguing them means that the total number of tombs is unknown. They are of many types. Especially plentiful are the hypogeal or "underground" chambers or system of chambers cut into tuff and covered by a tumulus. The interior of these tombs represents a habitation of the living stocked with furniture and favorite objects. The walls may display painted murals, the predecessor of wallpaper. Tombs identified as Etruscan date from the Villanovan period to about 100 BC, when presumably the cemeteries were abandoned in favor of Roman ones. Some of the major cemeteries are as follows: * Caere or Cerveteri, a UNESCO site. Three complete necropoleis with streets and squares. Many hypogea are concealed beneath tumuli retained by walls; others are cut into cliffs. The Banditaccia necropolis contains more than 1,000 tumuli. Access is through a door. * Tarquinia, Tarquinii or Corneto, a UNESCO site: Approximately 6,000 graves dating from the Villanovan (ninth and eighth centuries BC) distributed in *necropoleis*, the main one being the Monterozzi hypogea of the sixth–fourth centuries BC. About 200 painted tombs display murals of various scenes with call-outs and descriptions in Etruscan. Elaborately carved sarcophagi of marble, alabaster, and nenfro include identificatory and achievemental inscriptions. The Tomb of Orcus at the Scatolini necropolis depicts scenes of the Spurinna family with call-outs. * Inner walls and doors of tombs and sarcophagi * Engraved steles (tombstones) * ossuaries ### Inscriptions on portable objects #### Votives *See* Votive gifts. One example of an early (pre-fifth century bce) votive inscription is on a bucchero oinochoe (wine vase): *ṃiṇi mulvaṇịce venalia ṡlarinaṡ. en mipi kapi ṃi(r) ṇuṇai* = “Venalia Ṡlarinaṡ gave me. Do not touch me (?), I (am) *nunai* (an offering?)." This seems to be a rare case from this early period of a female (Venalia) dedicating the votive. #### Specula A speculum is a circular or oval hand-mirror used predominantly by Etruscan women. *Speculum* is Latin; the Etruscan word is *malena* or *malstria*. Specula were cast in bronze as one piece or with a tang into which a wooden, bone, or ivory handle fitted. The reflecting surface was created by polishing the flat side. A higher percentage of tin in the mirror improved its ability to reflect. The other side was convex and featured intaglio or cameo scenes from mythology. The piece was generally ornate. About 2,300 specula are known from collections all over the world. As they were popular plunderables, the provenance of only a minority is known. An estimated time window is 530–100 BC. Most probably came from tombs. Many bear inscriptions naming the persons depicted in the scenes, so they are often called picture bilinguals. In 1979, Massimo Pallottino, then president of the *Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici* initiated the Committee of the *Corpus Speculorum Etruscanorum*, which resolved to publish all the specula and set editorial standards for doing so. Since then, the committee has grown, acquiring local committees and representatives from most institutions owning Etruscan mirror collections. Each collection is published in its own fascicle by diverse Etruscan scholars. #### Cistae A cista is a bronze container of circular, ovoid, or more rarely rectangular shape used by women for the storage of sundries. They are ornate, often with feet and lids to which figurines may be attached. The internal and external surfaces bear carefully crafted scenes usually from mythology, usually intaglio, or rarely part intaglio, part cameo. Cistae date from the Roman Republic of the fourth and third centuries BC in Etruscan contexts. They may bear various short inscriptions concerning the manufacturer or owner or subject matter. The writing may be Latin, Etruscan, or both. Excavations at Praeneste, an Etruscan city which became Roman, turned up about 118 cistae, one of which has been termed "the Praeneste cista" or "the Ficoroni cista" by art analysts, with special reference to the one manufactured by Novios Plutius and given by Dindia Macolnia to her daughter, as the archaic Latin inscription says. All of them are more accurately termed "the Praenestine cistae". #### Rings and ringstones Among the most plunderable portables from the Etruscan tombs of Etruria are the finely engraved gemstones set in patterned gold to form circular or ovoid pieces intended to go on finger rings. Around one centimeter in size, they are dated to the Etruscan apogee from the second half of the sixth to the first centuries BC. The two main theories of manufacture are native Etruscan and Greek. The materials are mainly dark red carnelian, with agate and sard entering usage from the third to the first centuries BC, along with purely gold finger rings with a hollow engraved bezel setting. The engravings, mainly cameo, but sometimes intaglio, depict scarabs at first and then scenes from Greek mythology, often with heroic personages called out in Etruscan. The gold setting of the bezel bears a border design, such as cabling. #### Coins Etruscan-minted coins can be dated between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. Use of the 'Chalcidian' standard, based on the silver unit of 5.8 grams, indicates that this custom, like the alphabet, came from Greece. Roman coinage later supplanted Etruscan, but the basic Roman coin, the *sesterce*, is believed to have been based on the 2.5-denomination Etruscan coin. Etruscan coins have turned up in caches or individually in tombs and in excavations seemingly at random, and concentrated, of course, in Etruria. Etruscan coins were in gold, silver, and bronze, the gold and silver usually having been struck on one side only. The coins often bore a denomination, sometimes a minting authority name, and a cameo motif. Gold denominations were in units of silver; silver, in units of bronze. Full or abbreviated names are mainly Pupluna (Populonia), Vatl or Veltuna (Vetulonia), Velathri (Volaterrae), Velzu or Velznani (Volsinii) and Cha for Chamars (Camars). Insignia are mainly heads of mythological characters or depictions of mythological beasts arranged in a symbolic motif: Apollo, Zeus, Culsans, Athena, Hermes, griffin, gorgon, male sphinx, hippocamp, bull, snake, eagle, or other creatures which had symbolic significance. ### Functional categories Wallace et alia include the following categories, based on the uses to which they were put, on their site: abecedaria (alphabets), artisans' texts, boundary markers, construction texts, dedications, didaskalia (instructional texts), funerary texts, legal texts, other/unclear texts, prohibitions, proprietary texts (indicating ownership), religious texts, tesserae hospitales (tokens that establish "the claim of the bearer to hospitality when travelling"). Phonology --------- In the tables below, conventional letters used for transliterating Etruscan are accompanied by likely pronunciation in IPA symbols within the square brackets, followed by examples of the early Etruscan alphabet which would have corresponded to these sounds. ### Vowels The Etruscan vowel system consisted of four distinct vowels. The vowels *o* and *u* appear to have not been phonetically distinguished based on the nature of the writing system, as only one symbol is used to cover both in loans from Greek (e.g. Greek κώθων *kōthōn* > Etruscan *qutun* 'pitcher'). Before the front vowels ⟨c⟩ is used, while ⟨k⟩ and ⟨q⟩ are used before respectively unrounded and rounded back vowels. Vowels| | Front | Back | | --- | --- | --- | | unrounded | rounded | | Close | i[i]I | | o[u]U | | Open | e[e]E | a[ɑ]A | | ### Consonants #### Table of consonants | | Bilabial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Nasal | m[m]M | n[n̪]N | | | | | Plosive | p[p]P | φ[pʰ]Φ | t, d[t̪]T D | θ[t̪ʰ]Θ | | c, k, q[k]C K Q | χ[kʰ] | | | Affricate | | z[t̪͡s̪]Z | | | | | Fricative | p²[ɸ]F | s[s̪]S | ś[ʃ]Ś Ś | | h[h]H | | Approximant | | l[l̪]L | i[j]I | f[w]V | | | Rhotic | | r[r̪]R | | | | Etruscan also might have had consonants ʧ and ʧʰ, as they might be represented in the writing by using two letters, like in the word *prumaθś* ('great-nephew' or 'great-grandson'). However, this theory is not widely accepted. #### Absence of voiced stops The Etruscan consonant system primarily distinguished between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. There were no voiced stops. When words from foreign languages were borrowed into Etruscan, voiced stops typically became unvoiced stops; one example is Greek *thriambos*, which became Etruscan *triumpus* and Latin *triumphus*. Such a lack of voiced stops is not particularly unusual; it is found e.g. in modern Icelandic, in Scottish Gaelic, and in most Chinese languages. Even in English, aspiration is often more important than voice in the distinction of fortis-lenis pairs. #### Syllabic theory Based on standard spellings by Etruscan scribes of words without vowels or with unlikely consonant clusters (e.g. *cl* 'of this (gen.)' and *lautn* 'freeman'), it is likely that /m n l r/ were sometimes syllabic sonorants (cf. English *litt**le***, *butto**n***). Thus *cl* /kl̩/ and *lautn* /ˈlɑwtn̩/. Rix postulates several syllabic consonants, namely /l, r, m, n/ and palatal /lʲ, rʲ, nʲ/ as well as a labiovelar spirant /xʷ/, and some scholars such as Mauro Cristofani also view the aspirates as palatal rather than aspirated but these views are not shared by most Etruscologists. Rix supports his theories by means of variant spellings such as *amφare**/**amφiare*, *larθal**/**larθial*, *aranθ**/**aranθiia*. Morphology ---------- Etruscan was an agglutinative language, varying the endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs with discrete endings for each function. It also had adverbs and conjunctions, whose endings did not vary. ### Nouns Etruscan substantives had five cases—nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and locative—and two numbers: singular and a plural. Not all five cases are attested for every word. Nouns merge the nominative and accusative; pronouns do not generally merge these. Gender appears in personal names (masculine and feminine) and in pronouns (animate and inanimate); otherwise, it is not marked. Unlike the Indo-European languages, Etruscan noun endings were more agglutinative, with some nouns bearing two or three agglutinated suffixes. For example, where Latin would have distinct nominative plural and dative plural endings, Etruscan would suffix the case ending to a plural marker: Latin nominative singular *fili-us*, 'son', plural *fili-i*, dative plural *fili-is*, but Etruscan *clan*, *clen-ar* and *clen-ar-aśi*. Moreover, Etruscan nouns could bear multiple suffixes from the case paradigm alone: that is, Etruscan exhibited *Suffixaufnahme*. Pallottino calls this phenomenon "morphological redetermination", which he defines as "the typical tendency ... to redetermine the syntactical function of the form by the superposition of suffixes." His example is *Uni-al-θi*, 'in the sanctuary of Juno', where *-al* is a genitive ending and *-θi* a locative. Steinbauer says of Etruscan, "there can be more than one marker ... to design a case, and ... the same marker can occur for more than one case." Nominative/accusative caseNo distinction is made between nominative and accusative of nouns. The nominative/accusative could act as the subject of transitive and intransitive verbs, but also as the object of transitive verbs, and it was also used to indicate duration of time (e.g., *ci avil* 'for three years'). Common nouns use the unmarked root. Names of males may end in *-e*: *Hercle* (Hercules), *Achle* (Achilles), *Tite* (Titus); of females, in *-i*, *-a*, or *-u*: *Uni* (Juno), *Menrva* (Minerva), or *Zipu*. Names of gods may end in *-s*: *Fufluns**,* *Tins*; or they may be the unmarked stem ending in a vowel or consonant: *Aplu* (Apollo), *Paχa* (Bacchus), or *Turan*. Genitive caseThe genitive case had two main functions in Etruscan: the usual meaning of possession (along with other forms of dependency such as family relations), and it could also mark the recipient (indirect object) in votive inscriptions. Pallottino defines two declensions based on whether the genitive ends in *-s/-ś* or *-l*. In the *-s* group are most noun stems ending in a vowel or a consonant: *fler**/**fler-ś**,* *ramtha**/**ramtha-ś*. In the second are names of females ending in *i* and names of males that end *s*, *th* or *n*: *ati**/**ati-al**,* *Laris**/**Laris-al**,* *Arnθ**/**Arnθ-al*. After *l* or *r* *-us* instead of *-s* appears: *Vel**/**Vel-us*. Otherwise, a vowel might be placed before the ending: *Arnθ-al* instead of *Arnθ-l*. According to Rex Wallace, "A few nouns could be inflected with both types of endings without any difference in meaning. Consider, for example, the genitives cilθσ 'fortress (?)' and cilθl. Why this should be the case is not clear." There is a patronymic ending: *-sa* or *-isa*, 'son of', but the ordinary genitive might serve that purpose. In the genitive case, morphological redetermination becomes elaborate. Given two male names, *Vel* and *Avle*, *Vel Avleś* means 'Vel son of Avle'. This expression in the genitive become *Vel-uś Avles-la*. Pallottino's example of a three-suffix form is *Arnθ-al-iśa-la*. Dative caseBesides the usual function as indirect object ('to/for'), this case could be used as the agent ('by') in passive clauses, and occasionally as a locative. The dative ending is *-si*: *Tita**/**Tita-si*. (Wallace uses the term 'pertinentive' for this case.) Locative caseThe locative ending is -θi: *Tarχna**/**Tarχna-l-θi*. Plural numberNouns semantically [+human] had the plural marking *-ar* : *clan*, 'son', as *clenar*, 'sons'. This shows both umlaut and an ending *-ar*. Plurals for cases other than nominative are made by agglutinating the case ending on *clenar*. Nouns semantically [-human] used the plural *-chve* or one of its variants: *-cva* or *-va*: *avil* 'year', *avil-χva* 'years'; *zusle* '*zusle* (pig?)‐offering', *zusle-va* '*zusle*‐offerings'. ### Pronouns Personal pronouns refer to persons; demonstrative pronouns point out English *this*, *that*, *there*. #### Personal The first-person personal pronoun has a nominative *mi* ('I') and an accusative *mini* ('me'). The third person has a personal form *an* ('he' or 'she') and an inanimate *in* ('it'). The second person is uncertain, but some, like the Bonfantes, have claimed a dative singular *une* ('to thee') and an accusative singular *un* ('thee'). #### Demonstrative The demonstratives, *ca* and *ta*, are used without distinction for 'that' or 'this'. The nominative–accusative singular forms are: *ica**,* *eca**,* *ca**,* *ita**,* *ta*; the plural: *cei**,* *tei*. There is a genitive singular: *cla**,* *tla**,* *cal* and plural *clal*. The accusative singular: *can**,* *cen**,* *cn**,* *ecn**,* *etan**,* *tn*; plural *cnl* 'these/those'. Locative singular: *calti, ceiθi, clθ(i), eclθi*; plural *caiti, ceiθi*. ### Adjectives Though uninflected for number, adjectives were inflected for case, agreeing with their noun: *mlaχ* 'good' versus genitive *mlakas* 'of (the) good...' Adjectives fall into a number of types formed from nouns with a suffix: * quality, -*u, -iu* or -*c*: *ais/ais-iu*, 'god/divine'; *zamaθi/zamθi-c*, 'gold/golden' * possession or reference, -*na, -ne, -ni:* *paχa/paχa-na*, 'Bacchus, Bacchic'; *laut/laut-ni*, 'family/familiar' (in the sense of servant) * collective, -*cva, -chva, -cve, -χve, -ia*: *sren/sren-cva*: 'figure/figured'; *etera/etera-ia*, 'slave/servile' ### Adverbs Adverbs are unmarked: *etnam*, 'again'; *θui*, 'now, here'; *θuni*, 'at first' (compare *θu* 'one'). Most Indo-European adverbs are formed from the oblique cases, which become unproductive and descend to fixed forms. Cases such as the ablative are therefore called adverbial. If there is any such widespread system in Etruscan, it is not obvious from the relatively few surviving adverbs. The negative adverb is *ei* (for examples, see below in Imperative moods) . ### Conjunctions The two enclitic coordinate conjunctions *‐ka/‐ca/‐c* 'and' and *-um/‐m* 'and, but' coordinated phrases and clauses, but phrases could also be coordinated without any conjunction (asyndetic). ### Verbs Verbs had an indicative mood, an imperative mood and others. Tenses were present and past. The past tense had an active voice and a passive voice. #### Present active Etruscan used a verbal root with a zero suffix or *-a* without distinction to number or person: *ar**,* *ar-a*, 'he, she, we, you, they make'. #### Past or preterite active Adding the suffix *-(a)ce'* to the verb root produces a third-person singular active, which has been called variously a "past", a "preterite", a "perfect." In contrast to Indo-European, this form is not marked for person. Examples: *tur* 'gives, dedicates' versus *tur-ce* 'gave, dedicated'; *sval* 'lives' versus *sval-ce* 'lived'. #### Past passive The third-person past passive is formed with -che: *mena/mena-ce/mena-che*, 'offers/offered/was offered'. #### Imperative mood The imperative was formed with the simple, uninflected root of the verb: *tur* 'dedicate!', *σ́uθ* 'put!', *trin* 'speak!' and *nunθen* 'invoke!'). The imperative *capi* 'take, steal' is found in so‐called anti‐theft inscriptions: *mi χuliχna cupe.s. .a.l.θ.r.nas .e.i minipi **c̣api**...* (Cm 2.13; fifth century BCE) 'I (am) the bowl of Cupe Althr̥na. Don’t **steal** me!' #### Other modals Verbs with the suffix *‐a* indicated the jussive mood, with the force of commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). *ein θui **ara** enan* 'No one **should put/make** (?) anything here (*θui*).' Verbs ending in *‐ri* referred to obligatory activities: *celi . huθiσ . zaθrumiσ . flerχva . neθunσl . **σucri . θezeric*** 'On September twenty six, victims must be **offered** (?) and **sacrificed** (?) to Nethuns.' #### Participles Verbs formed participles in a variety of ways, among the most frequently attested being *-u* in *lup-u* 'dead' from *lup-* 'die'. Participles could also be formed with *‐θ*. These referred to activities that were contemporaneous with that of the main verb: *trin‐θ* '(while) speaking', *nunθen‐θ* '(while) invoking', and *heχσ‐θ* '(while) pouring (?)'. ### Postpositions Typical of SOV agglutinative languages, Etruscan had postpositions rather than prepositions, each governing a specific case. Vocabulary ---------- ### Borrowings from Etruscan Only a few hundred words of the Etruscan vocabulary are understood with some certainty. The exact count depends on whether the different forms and the expressions are included. Below is a table of some of the words grouped by topic. Some words with corresponding Latin or other Indo-European forms are likely loanwords to or from Etruscan. For example, *neftś* 'nephew', is probably from Latin (Latin *nepōs**,* *nepōtis*; this is a cognate of German *Neffe*, Old Norse *nefi*). A number of words and names for which Etruscan origin has been proposed survive in Latin. At least one Etruscan word has an apparent Semitic/Aramaic origin: *talitha* 'girl', that could have been transmitted by Phoenicians or by the Greeks (Greek: ταλιθα). The word *pera* 'house' is a false cognate to the Coptic *per* 'house'. In addition to words believed to have been borrowed into Etruscan from Indo-European or elsewhere, there is a corpus of words such as *familia* which seem to have been borrowed into Latin from the older Etruscan civilization as a superstrate influence. Some of these words still have widespread currency in English and Latin-influenced languages. Other words believed to have a possible Etruscan origin include: arenafrom *arēna* 'arena' < *harēna*, 'arena, sand' < archaic *hasēna* < Sabine *fasēna*, unknown Etruscan word as the basis for *fas-* with Etruscan ending *-ēna*. beltfrom *balteus*, 'sword belt'; the sole connection between this word and Etruscan is a statement by Marcus Terentius Varro that it was of Etruscan origin. All else is speculation. marketfrom Latin *mercātus*, of obscure origin, perhaps Etruscan. militaryfrom Latin *mīles* 'soldier'; either from Etruscan or related to Greek *homilos*, 'assembled crowd' (compare *homily*). personfrom Middle English *persone*, from Old French *persone*, from Latin *persōna*, 'mask', probably from Etruscan *phersu*, 'mask'. satellitefrom Latin *satelles*, meaning 'bodyguard, attendant', perhaps from Etruscan *satnal*. Whatmough considers Latin *satteles* "as one of our securest Etruscan loans in Latin." ### Etruscan vocabulary #### Numerals Much debate has been carried out about a possible Indo-European origin of the Etruscan cardinals. In the words of Larissa Bonfante (1990), "What these numerals show, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is the non-Indo-European nature of the Etruscan language". Conversely, other scholars, including Francisco R. Adrados, Albert Carnoy, Marcello Durante, Vladimir Georgiev, Alessandro Morandi and Massimo Pittau, have proposed a close phonetic proximity of the first ten Etruscan numerals to the corresponding numerals in other Indo-European languages. The lower Etruscan numerals are (G. Bonfante 2002:96): 1. *θu* 2. *zal* 3. *ci* 4. *huθ* 5. *maχ* 6. *śa* 7. *semφ* 8. *cezp* 9. *nurφ* 10. *śar* It is unclear which of *semφ*, *cezp*, and *nurφ* are 7, 8 and 9. *Śar* may also mean 'twelve', with *halχ* for 'ten'. For higher numbers, it has been determined that *zaθrum* is 20, *cealχ/\*cialχ* 30, *\*huθalχ* 40, *muvalχ* 50, *šealχ* 60, and *semφalχ* and *cezpalχ* any two in the series 70–90. *Śran* is 100 (clearly *śar* 10, just as Proto-Indo-European \**dkemtm-* 100 is from \**dekm-* 10). Further, *θun-z, e-sl-z, ci-z(i)* mean 'once, twice, and thrice' respectively; *θun[š]na* and *\*kisna* 'first' and 'third'; *θunur, zelur* 'one by one', 'two by two'; and *zelarve-* and *śarve* are 'double' and 'quadruple'. #### Core vocabulary | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Etruscan | English | | --- | --- | | Family | | *apa* | father | | *apana* | paternal | | *papa, papacs* | grandfather | | *ati, ativu* | mother | | *ati nacna* | grandmother | | *puia* | wife | | *tusurθir* | married couple | | *clan, clenar (plural)* | son | | *papals, papacs* | of the grandfather, grandson | | *sec, sech* | daughter | | *ruva* | brother | | *neftś, nefś, nefiś* | nephew (Latin: *nepot-*) | | *prumaθ, prumaθś, prumats, prumts* | great-nephew or great-grandson | | *nene* | wetnurse | | *snenaθ, snenath* | maid, companion | | *hus-* | youth | | *husiur* | children | | *pava* | boy | | *taliθa* | girl or more likely a proper name (attested only once in a mirror, 400-350 BC from Vulci. Likely a proper name rendering of the accusative case of the Greek *talis*, Τάλις. Greek: *Talitha*, ταλιθα, Aramaic: *talitha*) | | *lautun, lautn* | gens, people (IE \**h₁lewdʰ-*, 'people') | | *lautni* | freedman (IE \**h₁léwdʰ-eros*, 'free', 'pertaining to the people') | | *lautniθa, lautnita* | freedwoman | | *etera, eteri* | foreigner, slave, client (Greek ἕτερος) | | Society | | *aesar* | god | | *Rasenna*, *Rasna* | Etruscans? | | *meχl Rasnal* | Etruria?, or equivalent to Latin *res publica* | | *pes* | land | | *tul* | stone | | *tular, tularu* | boundaries | | *tular rasnal* | public boundaries | | *tular spural* | city boundaries | | *vaχr* | contract | | *tudthi, tuθiu, tuθi, tuti* | state | | *tuθin, tuθina* | public | | *mech* | people | | *meχl, meθlum* | nation, league, district | | *spur, śpur* | *civitas*, *populus* | | *spureni, spurana* | civic | | *θruna* | sovereignty | | *lucair* | to rule | | *lauχum* | king, prince | | *lauχumna* | regal, palace | | *tenve, tenine,**tenu, tenθas* | hold office | | *zil, zilac, zilc,**zilaχ, zilath* | praetor | | *camthi* | unknown magistratesor magistracies | | *ceχase* | | *parniχ* | | *macstreve* | | *maru, marunu, marniu,**marunuχ, maruχva* | | *purθ, purθne* | | *tamera* | | *cepen, cipen* | priest | | *cepen tutin* | village priest? | | *cepen ceren* | tomb priest | | *cepen θaurχ* | tomb priest | | *cepen cilθ-cva* | priest of the citadel-s/hilltop-s | | *cepen cnticn-θ* | local priest? | | *cepen χuru* | arch-priest? | | | Etruscan | English | | --- | --- | | Time | | *tin-* | day; cf. *Tinia* | | *θesan* | morning, day; cf. *Thesan* | | *uslane* | at noon | | *tiur, tivr, tiu* | month, moon | | *avil* | year | | *ril* | at the age of | | *Velcitna* | March | | *c-Apre-* | April | | *Ampile* | May | | *Acale* | June | | *Hermi* | August or summer? | | *Celi* | September | | *Chosfer* | October | | *Masan, Masn* | unknown month | | Nature | | *anθa* | northwind, eagle (Latin: *aquila*) | | *arac* | sparrow-hawk, falcon (possibly Greek ἱέραξ) | | *arim* | monkey | | *capu* | falcon | | *falatu* | sky | | *hiuls* | screech-owl | | *leu* | lion (Latin: *leo*) | | *pulumχva* | stars | | *thamna* | horse | | *thevru* | bull (Latin: *taurus*) | | *tisś* | lake | | *tiu* | moon | | *θi* | water | | *usil* | sun (Latin: *sol*); Cf. Usil | | *vers-* | fire | | Vessels | | *aska* | Greek ἄσκος *áskos* 'wineskin' | | *aska eleivana* | olive oil flask | | *cape, capi* | container (perhaps Latin *capio* 'take' or *capis* 'one-handled bowl') | | *capra* | urn | | *cletram* | Umbrian *kletra*, a basin or basket | | *culiχna* | κύλιξ, a large wine-cup | | *cupe* | κύπη or Latin *cūpa*, English *cup* | | *leχtum* | λήκυθος, a small bottle | | *leχtumuza* | a small lechtum | | *patna* | πατάνη, a bowl | | *pruχ, pruχum* | πρόχоυς, a ewer | | *qutun, qutum* | κώθων, a vessel of Laconia | | *qutumuza* | small qutum | | *θafna* | chalice | | *θina, tina* | derived from *θi* 'water' | | Common verbs | | *acas* | to make (an offering...) | | *am-* | to be | | *ar* | to make sacred | | *ara* | to dedicate | | *cer-* | to make, construct | | *cesu* | to place, lay, deposit | | *lupu* | to die | | *mal-* | (over)see; reflect? | | *sval* | to live | | *trin-* | to say | | *trut* | officiate | | *tur-* | to give | | *zin* | to work, decorate | | *zivas* | to live | | *ziχ-* | to write, engrave | | Sample texts ------------ From Tabula Capuana: (/ indicates line break; text from Alessandro Morandi *Epigrafia Italica* Rome, 1982, p.40) **First section** probably for **March** (lines 1–7): *...vacil.../2ai savcnes satiriasa.../3...[nunθ?]eri θuθcu* *vacil śipir śuri leθamsul ci tartiria /4 cim cleva acasri halχ tei* *vacil iceu śuni savlasie...* *m/5uluri zile picasri savlasieis* *vacil lunaśie vaca iχnac fuli/6nuśnes* *vacil savcnes itna* *muluri zile picasri iane* *vacil l/7eθamsul scuvune marzac saca⋮* **Start of second section** for **April** (*apirase*)(starting on line 8): *iśvei tule ilucve apirase leθamsul ilucu cuiesχu perpri* *cipen apires /9 racvanies huθ zusle* *rithnai tul tei* *snuza in te hamaiθi civeis caθnis fan/10iri* *marza in te hamaiθi ital sacri utus ecunza iti alχu scuvse* *riθnai tu/11 l tei* *ci zusle acun siricima nunθeri* *eθ iśuma zuslevai apire nunθer/i...* See also -------- * Combinatorial method (linguistics) * *Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum* * Etruscan alphabet * Etruscan civilization * Etruscan documents + *Liber Linteus* – An Etruscan linen book that ended as mummy wraps in Egypt. + *Tabula Cortonensis* – An Etruscan inscription. + *Cippus perusinus* – An Etruscan inscription. + *Pyrgi Tablets* – Bilingual Etruscan-Phoenician golden leaves. * Etruscan mythology * Etruscan numerals * Lemnian language * List of English words of Etruscan origin * Raetic language * Helmut Rix * Tyrsenian languages Notes and references -------------------- Further reading --------------- * Carnoy, A. (1952). "La langue étrusque et ses origines". *L'Antiquité classique*. **21** (2): 289–331. doi:10.3406/antiq.1952.3451. External links -------------- ### General * Etruscan News Online, the Newsletter of the American Section of the Institute for Etruscan and Italic Studies. * Etruscan News back issues, Center for Ancient Studies at New York University. * Etruscology at Its Best, the website of Dr. Dieter H. Steinbauer, in English. Covers origins, vocabulary, grammar and place names. * Viteliu: The Languages of Ancient Italy at the Wayback Machine (archived December 7, 2002). * The Etruscan Language Archived 2012-02-11 at the Wayback Machine, the linguistlist.org site. Links to many other Etruscan language sites. * Materials for the Study of the Etruscan Language prepared by Murray Fowler and Richard George Wolfe. University of Wisconsin Press: 1965. ### Inscriptions * TM Texts Etruscan A list of all texts in Trismegistos. * ETP: Etruscan Texts Project A searchable database of Etruscan texts. * *Etruscan Inscriptions in the Royal Ontario Museum*, article by Rex Wallace displayed at the umass.edu site. ### Lexical items * Etruscan Vocabulary, a vocabulary organized by topic by Dieter H. Steinbauer, in English. * An Etruscan Vocabulary at the Wayback Machine (archived December 13, 2002). A short, one-page glossary with numerals as well. * "Etruscan–English Dictionary". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2007. . An extensive lexicon compiled from other lexicon sites. Links to the major Etruscan glossaries on the Internet are included. * Paleoglot: Online Etruscan-English dictionary; summary of Etruscan grammar. A searchable Etruscan-to-English dictionary applet and a summary of Etruscan grammar. ### Font * Etruscan font download site with unicode information * Etruscan and Early Italic Fonts by James F. Patterson

Etruscan language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_language

**Spearmint**, also known as **garden mint**, **common mint**, **lamb mint** and **mackerel mint**, is a species of mint, ***Mentha spicata*** (/ˈmɛnθə spaɪˈkeɪtə/, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is naturalized in many other temperate parts of the world, including northern and southern Africa, North America, and South America. It is used as a flavouring in food and herbal teas. The aromatic oil, called *oil of spearmint*, is also used as a flavoring and sometimes as a scent. The species and its subspecies have many synonyms, including *Mentha crispa*, *Mentha crispata,* and *Mentha viridis*. Description ----------- Spearmint is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is 30–100 cm (12–39 in) tall, with variably hairless to hairy stems and foliage, and a wide-spreading fleshy underground rhizome from which it grows. The leaves are 5–9 cm (2–3+1⁄2 in) long and 1.5–3 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) broad, with a serrated margin. The stem is square-shaped, a defining characteristic of the mint family of herbs. Spearmint produces flowers in slender spikes, each flower pink or white in colour, 2.5–3 mm (0.098–0.118 in) long and broad. Spearmint flowers in the summer (from July to September in the northern hemisphere), and has relatively large seeds, which measure 0.62–0.90 mm (0.024–0.035 in). The name ''spear'' mint derives from the pointed leaf tips. *Mentha spicata* varies considerably in leaf blade dimensions, the prominence of leaf veins, and pubescence. Taxonomy -------- *Mentha spicata* was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The epithet *spicata* means 'bearing a spike'. The species has two accepted subspecies, each of which has acquired a large number of synonyms: * *Mentha spicata* subsp. *condensata* (Briq.) Greuter & Burdet – eastern Mediterranean, from Italy to Egypt * *Mentha spicata* subsp. *spicata* – distribution as for the species as a whole ### Origin The plant is a allopolyploid species (2*n* = 48), which could be a result of hybridization and chromosome doubling. *Mentha longifolia* and *Mentha suaveolens* (2*n* = 24) are likely to be the contributing diploid species. ### Hybrids *Mentha spicata* hybridizes with other *Mentha* species, forming hybrids such as: * *Mentha* × *piperita* (hybrid with *Mentha aquatica*), black peppermint, hairy peppermint * *Mentha* × *gracilis* (hybrid with *Mentha arvensis*), Scotch spearmint * *Mentha* × *villosa* (hybrid with *Mentha suaveolens*) ### Varieties and Cultivars There are several commonly available varieties and cultivars of *Mentha spicata*: * *M. spicata* var. *crispa* (syn. *M. spicata* 'Crispa') - with very crinkled leaves. * *M. spicata* var. *crispa* 'Moroccan' - with crinkled leaves and white flowers. * *M. spicata* 'Tashkent' - with slightly crinkled leaves. * *M. spicata* 'Spanish' - with mauve-pink flowers. History and domestication ------------------------- Mention of spearmint dates back to at least the 1st century AD, with references from naturalist Pliny and mentions in the Bible. Further records show descriptions of mint in ancient mythology. Findings of early versions of toothpaste using mint in the 14th century suggest widespread domestication by this point. It was introduced into England by the Romans by the 5th century, and the "Father of British Botany", of the surname Turner, mentions mint as being good for the stomach. John Gerard's *Herbal* (1597) states that: "It is good against watering eyes and all manner of break outs on the head and sores. "It is applied with salt to the biting of mad dogs," and that "They lay it on the stinging of wasps and bees with good success." He also mentions that "the smell rejoices the heart of man", for which reason they used to strew it in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, where feasts and banquets are made." Spearmint is documented as being an important cash crop in Connecticut during the period of the American Revolution, at which time mint tea was noted as being a popular drink due to it not being taxed. Ecology ------- Spearmint can readily adapt to grow in various types of soil. Spearmint tends to thrive with plenty of organic material in full sun to part shade. The plant is also known to be found in moist habitats such as swamps or creeks, where the soil is sand or clay. Spearmint ideally thrives in soils that are deep, well-drained, moist, rich in nutrients and organic matter, and have a crumbly texture. The pH range should be between 6.0 and 7.5. ### Diseases and pests #### Fungal diseases Fungal diseases are common diseases in spearmint. Two main diseases are rust and leaf spot. *Puccinia menthae* is a fungus that causes the disease called "rust". Rust affects the leaves of spearmint by producing pustules inducing the leaves to fall off. Leaf spot is a fungal disease that occurs when *Alternaria alernata* is present on the spearmint leaves. The infection looks like circular dark spot on the top side of the leaf. Other fungi that cause disease in spearmint are *Rhizoctonia solani*, *Verticillium dahliae*, *Phoma strasseri*, and *Erysiphe cischoracearum*. #### Nematode diseases Some nematode diseases in spearmint include root knot and root lesions. Nematode species that cause root knots in this plant are various *Meloidogyne* species. The other nematode species are *Pratylenchus* which cause root lesions. #### Viral and phytoplasmal diseases Spearmint can be infected by tobacco ringspot virus. This virus can lead to stunted plant growth and deformation of the leaves in this plant. In China, spearmint have been seen with mosaic symptoms and deformed leaves. This is an indication that the plant can also be infected by the viruses, cucumber mosaic and tomato aspermy. Cultivation and harvest ----------------------- Spearmint grows well in nearly all temperate climates. Gardeners often grow it in pots or planters due to its invasive, spreading rhizomes. Spearmint leaves can be used fresh, dried, or frozen. The leaves lose their aromatic appeal after the plant flowers. It can be dried by cutting just before, or right (at peak) as the flowers open, about one-half to three-quarters the way down the stalk (leaving smaller shoots room to grow). Some dispute exists as to what drying method works best; some prefer different materials (such as plastic or cloth) and different lighting conditions (such as darkness or sunlight). The leaves can also be preserved in salt, sugar, sugar syrup, alcohol, or oil. Oil uses -------- Spearmint is used for its aromatic oil, called oil of spearmint. The most abundant compound in spearmint oil is *R*-(–)-carvone, which gives spearmint its distinctive smell. Spearmint oil also contains significant amounts of limonene, dihydrocarvone, and 1,8-cineol. Unlike oil of peppermint, oil of spearmint contains minimal amounts of menthol and menthone. It is used as a flavouring for toothpaste and confectionery, and is sometimes added to shampoos and soaps. ### Traditional medicine Spearmint has been used in traditional medicine. ### Insecticide and pesticide Spearmint essential oil has had success as a larvicide against mosquitoes. Using spearmint as a larvicide would be a greener alternative to synthetic insecticides due to their toxicity and negative effect to the environment. Used as a fumigant, spearmint essential oil is an effective insecticide against adult moths. Antimicrobial research ---------------------- Spearmint has been used for its supposed antimicrobial activity, which may be related to carvone. Its in vitro antibacterial activity has been compared to that of amoxicillin, penicillin, and streptomycin. Spearmint oil is found to have higher activity against gram-positive bacteria compared to gram-negative bacteria in vitro, which may be due to differing sensitivities to oils. Beverages --------- Spearmint leaves are infused in water to make spearmint tea. Spearmint is an ingredient of Maghrebi mint tea. Grown in the mountainous regions of Morocco, this variety of mint possesses a clear, pungent, but mild aroma. Spearmint is an ingredient in several mixed drinks, such as the mojito and mint julep. Sweet tea, iced and flavoured with spearmint, is a summer tradition in the Southern United States. Gallery ------- * Plant in flowerPlant in flower * FlowersFlowers * White flowering whorls of a spearmint plant.White flowering whorls of a spearmint plant. *

Spearmint

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearmint

The **Soviet Union**, officially the **Union of Soviet Socialist Republics** (**USSR**), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk (Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi) and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, which saw the Bolsheviks overthrow the Russian Provisional Government that formed earlier that year following the February Revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, marking the end of the Russian Empire. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin, established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR), the world's first constitutionally guaranteed socialist state. Persisting internal tensions escalated into the brutal Russian Civil War. As the war progressed in the Bolsheviks' favor, the RSFSR began to incorporate land conquered from the war into nominally independent states, which were unified into the Soviet Union in December 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power. Stalin inaugurated a period of rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth, but also contributed to a famine in 1930–1933 that killed millions. The forced labour camp system of the Gulag was also expanded in this period. Stalin conducted the Great Purge to remove his actual and perceived opponents. After the outbreak of World War II, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The combined Soviet civilian and military casualty count—estimated to be around 20 million people—accounted for the majority of losses of Allied forces. In the aftermath of World War II, the territory occupied by the Red Army formed various Soviet satellite states. The beginning of the Cold War saw the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union confront the Western Bloc of the United States, with the latter grouping becoming largely united in 1949 under NATO and the former grouping becoming largely united in 1955 under the Warsaw Pact. As the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states by 1955, the pact has been long considered "superfluous", and because of the rushed way in which it was conceived, NATO officials labeled it a "cardboard castle". There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, its own member state, in August 1968 (with the participation of all pact nations except Albania and Romania), which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from the pact less than one month later. Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period known as de-Stalinization occurred under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviets took an early lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite, the first human spaceflight, and the first probe to land on another planet (Venus). In the 1970s, there was a brief *détente* in the Soviet Union's relationship with the United States, but tensions resumed following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform the country through his policies of *glasnost* and *perestroika*. In 1989, during the closing stages of the Cold War, various countries of the Warsaw Pact overthrew their Marxist–Leninist regimes, which was accompanied by the outbreak of strong nationalist and separatist movements across the entire Soviet Union. In 1991, Gorbachev initiated a national referendum—boycotted by the Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova—that resulted in the majority of participating citizens voting in favour of preserving the country as a renewed federation. In August 1991, hardline members of the Communist Party staged a coup d'état against Gorbachev; the attempt failed, with Boris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the unrest, and the Communist Party was subsequently banned. The Russian Federation became the Soviet Union's successor state, while all of the other republics emerged from the USSR's collapse as fully independent post-Soviet states. The Soviet Union produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations. It had the world's second-largest economy, and the Soviet Armed Forces comprised the largest standing military in the world. An NPT-designated state, it possessed the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. It was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Before the dissolution, the country had maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military and economic strengths and scientific research. Etymology --------- The word *soviet* is derived from the Russian word *sovet* (Russian: совет), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice', ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of \**vět-iti* ('to inform'), related to Slavic *věst* ('news'), English *wise*, the root in *ad-vis-or* (which came to English through French), or the Dutch *weten* ('to know'; compare *wetenschap* meaning 'science'). The word *sovietnik* means 'councillor'. Some organizations in Russian history were called *council* (Russian: совет). In the Russian Empire, the State Council, which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers. The Soviets as workers' councils first appeared during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the February Revolution of 1917, workers' and soldiers' Soviets emerged throughout the country, and shared power with the Russian Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, demanded that all power be transferred to the Soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers. After the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the Soviets, Lenin proclaimed the formation of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR). During the Georgian Affair of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national Soviet republics to form a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии, tr. *Sojuz Sovjetskih Respublik Evropy i Azii*). Joseph Stalin initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as *socialist soviet* and did not change to the other order until 1936. In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word *council* or *conciliar* in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian *soviet* and never in others, e.g. Ukrainian SSR. СССР (in the Latin alphabet: *SSSR*) is the abbreviation of the Russian language cognate of USSR, as written in Cyrillic letters. The Soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this, the most common Russian initialization is Союз ССР (transliteration: *Soyuz SSR*) which, after compensating for grammatical differences, essentially translates to *Union of SSRs* in English. In addition, the Russian short form name Советский Союз (transliteration: *Sovjetskij Sojuz*, which literally means *Soviet Union*) is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the Great Patriotic War at the latest, abbreviating the Russian name of the Soviet Union as СС (in the same way as, for example, *United States* is abbreviated into *US*) has been a complete taboo, the reason being that СС as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is instead associated with the infamous *Schutzstaffel* of Nazi Germany, just as *SS* is in English. One apparent exception was the Russian abbreviation the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, КПСС (*KPSS*). In English language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. In other European languages, the locally translated short forms and abbreviations are usually used such as *Union soviétique* and *URSS* in French, or *Sowjetunion* and *UdSSR* in German. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it was commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as Russia. Technically, Russia itself was only one republic within the larger union—albeit by far the largest, most powerful and most highly developed of the 15 republics. Nevertheless, according to historian Matthew White, it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was "window dressing" for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were almost always called "Russians", not "Soviets", since "everyone knew who really ran the show". History ------- ### Revolution and foundation (1917–1927) Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the 1825 Decembrist revolt. Although serfdom was abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavourable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but Emperor Nicholas II resisted attempts to move from absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities. A spontaneous popular demonstration in Petrograd on 8 March 1917, demanding peace and bread, culminated in the February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II and the imperial government. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I. At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as 'Soviets', sprang up across the country, and the most influential of them, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, shared power with the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for communist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets, adopting the slogan of "All Power to the Soviets" and urging the overthrow of the Provisional Government. On 7 November 1917, Bolshevik Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, arresting the Provisional Government leaders and Lenin declared that all power was now transferred to the Soviets. This event would later be officially known in Soviet bibliographies as the "Great October Socialist Revolution". The bloody Red Terror was initiated to shut down all opposition, both perceived and real. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the separate peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It included foreign intervention, the murder of the former Emperor and his family, and the famine of 1921–1922, which killed about five million people. In March 1921, during a related war against Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former Empire, although their success was limited. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine, Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army. Additionally, forced requisition of food by the Soviet government led to substantial resistance, of which the most notable was the Tambov Rebellion, ultimately put down by the Red Army. The Civil War had a devastating impact on the economy. A black market emerged in Russia, despite the threat of martial law against profiteering. The ruble collapsed, with barter increasingly replacing money as a medium of exchange and, by 1921, heavy industry output had fallen to 20% of 1913 levels. 90% of wages were paid with goods rather than money. 70% of locomotives were in need of repair, and food requisitioning, combined with the effects of seven years of war and a severe drought, contributed to a famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths. Coal production decreased from 27.5 million tons (1913) to 7 million tons (1920), while overall factory production also declined from 10,000 million roubles to 1,000 million roubles. According to the noted historian David Christian, the grain harvest was also slashed from 80.1 million tons (1913) to 46.5 million tons (1920). ### Treaty on the Creation of the USSR On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the first Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations, Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky and Alexander Chervyakov, on 30 December 1922. The formal proclamation was made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. An intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of Russia. The plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was fulfilled by 1931. After the economic policy of 'War communism' during the Russian Civil War, as a prelude to fully developing socialism in the country, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s, and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax. From its creation, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The stated purpose was to prevent the return of capitalist exploitation, and that the principles of democratic centralism would be the most effective in representing the people's will in a practical manner. The debate over the future of the economy provided the background for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a 'troika' consisting of Grigory Zinoviev of the Ukrainian SSR, Lev Kamenev of the Russian SFSR, and Joseph Stalin of the Transcaucasian SFSR. On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the United Kingdom. The same year, a Soviet Constitution was approved, legitimizing the December 1922 union. According to Archie Brown the constitution was never an accurate guide to political reality in the USSR. For example the fact that the Party played the leading role in making and enforcing policy was not mentioned in it until 1977. The USSR was a federative entity of many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities. However, the term 'Soviet Russia' – formally applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republic – was often applied to the entire country by non-Soviet writers due to its domination by the Russian SFSR. ### Stalin era (1927–1953) On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmaneuvering his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the country and, by the end of the 1920s, established a totalitarian rule. In October 1927, Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile. In 1928, Stalin introduced the first five-year plan for building a socialist economy. In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. In agriculture, rather than adhering to the 'lead by example' policy advocated by Lenin, forced collectivization of farms was implemented all over the country. Famines ensued as a result, causing deaths estimated at three to seven million; surviving kulaks (wealthy or middle-class peasants) were persecuted, and many were sent to Gulags to do forced labor. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Despite the turmoil of the mid-to-late 1930s, the country developed a robust industrial economy in the years preceding World War II. Closer cooperation between the USSR and the West developed in the early 1930s. From 1932 to 1934, the country participated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established when in November, the newly elected President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, chose to recognize Stalin's Communist government formally and negotiated a new trade agreement between the two countries. In September 1934, the country joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new constitution that was praised by supporters around the world as the most democratic constitution imaginable, though there was some skepticism. American historian J. Arch Getty concludes: "Many who lauded Stalin's Soviet Union as the most democratic country on earth lived to regret their words. After all, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was adopted on the eve of the Great Terror of the late 1930s; the "thoroughly democratic" elections to the first Supreme Soviet permitted only uncontested candidates and took place at the height of the savage violence in 1937. The civil rights, personal freedoms, and democratic forms promised in the Stalin constitution were trampled almost immediately and remained dead letters until long after Stalin's death." Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the detainment or execution of many 'Old Bolsheviks' who had participated in the October Revolution. According to declassified Soviet archives, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people in 1937 and 1938, of whom 681,692 were shot. Over those two years, there were an average of over one thousand executions a day. In 1939, after attempts to form a military alliance with Britain and France against Germany failed, the Soviet Union made a dramatic shift towards Nazi Germany. Almost a year after Britain and France had concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the Soviet Union made agreements with Germany as well, both militarily and economically during extensive talks. Unlike the case of Britain and France, the Soviet Union's agreement with Germany, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (signed on 23 August 1939), included a secret protocol that paved the way for the Soviet invasion of Eastern European states and occupation of their territories. The pact made possible the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. On 1 September, Germany invaded Poland and on the 17th the Soviet Union invaded Poland as well. On 6 October, Poland fell and part of the Soviet occupation zone was then handed over to Germany. On 10 October, the Soviet Union and Lithuania signed an agreement whereby the Soviet Union transferred Polish sovereignty over the Vilna region to Lithuania, and on 28 October the boundary between the Soviet occupation zone and the new territory of Lithuania was officially demarcated. On 1 November, the Soviet Union annexed Western Ukraine, followed by Western Belarus on the 2nd. In late November, unable to coerce the Republic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad, Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland. On 14 December 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. In the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes with the Empire of Japan in 1938 and 1939. However, in April 1941, the USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with Japan, which the Soviets would unilaterally break in 1945, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state. The pact ensured Japan would not enter the war against the USSR on the side of Germany later. #### World War II Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 starting what is known in Russia and some other post-Soviet states as the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army stopped the seemingly invincible German Army at the Battle of Moscow. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, dealt a severe blow to Germany from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point in the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front. Harry Hopkins, a close foreign policy advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, spoke on 10 August 1943 of the USSR's decisive role in the war, saying that "While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German divisions." Up to 34 million soldiers served in the Red Army during World War II, 8 million of which were non-Slavic minorities. The USSR suffered greatly in the war, losing around 20 million people (modern Russian sources put the number at 26.6 million). This includes 8,7 million military deaths. The majority of the losses were ethnic Russians, followed by ethnic Ukrainians. Approximately 2.8 million Soviet POWs died of starvation, mistreatment, or executions in just eight months of 1941–42. More than 2 million people were killed in Belarus during the three years of German occupation, almost a quarter of the region's population, including around 550,000 Jews in the Holocaust in Belarus. During the war, the country together with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four Allied powers, and later became the Four Policemen that formed the basis of the United Nations Security Council. It emerged as a superpower in the post-war period. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the USSR had official relations with practically every country by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the country became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which gave it the right to veto any of its resolutions. The USSR, in fulfillment of its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta Conference, broke the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 which Japan had been honoring despite their alliance with Germany, and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on 9 August 1945. This conflict ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially in Germany. The wartime rapes were followed by decades of silence. According to historian Antony Beevor, whose books were banned in 2015 from some Russian schools and colleges, NKVD (Soviet secret police) files have revealed that the leadership knew what was happening, but did little to stop it. It was often rear echelon units who committed the rapes. According to professor Oleg Rzheshevsky, "4,148 Red Army officers and many privates were punished for committing atrocities". The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million. The Soviet Union was greatly assisted in its wartime effort by the United States via Lend Lease. In total, the U.S. deliveries to the USSR through Lend-Lease amounted to $11 billion in materials: over 400,000 jeeps and trucks; 12,000 armored vehicles (including 7,000 tanks, about 1,386 of which were M3 Lees and 4,102 M4 Shermans); 11,400 aircraft (of which 4,719 were Bell P-39 Airacobras, 3,414 were Douglas A-20 Havocs and 2,397 were Bell P-63 Kingcobras) and 1.75 million tons of food. As Soviet soldiers were bearing the brunt of the war, Roosevelt's advisor Harry Hopkins felt that American aid to the Soviets would hasten the war's conclusion. Roughly 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR, 94% coming from the US. For comparison, a total of 22 million tons landed in Europe to supply American forces from January 1942 to May 1945. It has been estimated that American deliveries to the USSR through the Persian Corridor alone were sufficient, by US Army standards, to maintain sixty combat divisions in the line. #### Cold War During the immediate post-war period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. It took effective control over most of the countries of Eastern Europe (except Yugoslavia and later Albania), turning them into satellite states. The USSR bound its satellite states in a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, and an economic organization, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or Comecon, a counterpart to the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1949 to 1991. Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Warsaw Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away. The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan." Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious Chinese Communist Party, and its influence grew elsewhere in the world. Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two sides clashed indirectly in proxy wars. ### De-Stalinization and Khrushchev Thaw (1953–1964) Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials initially opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly through a troika headed by Georgy Malenkov. This did not last, however, and Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Joseph Stalin and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization. Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a critically vital buffer zone for the forward defence of its western borders, in case of another major invasion such as the German invasion of 1941. For this reason, the USSR sought to cement its control of the region by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and subservient to its leadership. As a result, Soviet military forces were used to suppress an anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956. In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the Soviet rapprochement with the West, and what Mao Zedong perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism, led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement, with the governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China. During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR continued to realize scientific and technological exploits in the Space Race, rivaling the United States: launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2. Khrushchev initiated 'The Thaw', a complex shift in political, cultural and economic life in the country. This included some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies with more emphasis on commodity goods, allowing a dramatic rise in living standards while maintaining high levels of economic growth. Censorship was relaxed as well. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. In 1962, he precipitated a crisis with the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. An agreement was made with the United States to remove nuclear missiles from both Cuba and Turkey, concluding the crisis. This event caused Khrushchev much embarrassment and loss of prestige, resulting in his removal from power in 1964. ### Era of Stagnation (1964–1985) Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet leader. In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring reforms. In the aftermath, Brezhnev justified the invasion and previous military interventions, as well as any potential military interventions in the future, by introducing the Brezhnev Doctrine, which proclaimed any threat to Soviet rule in a Warsaw Pact state as a threat to all Warsaw Pact states, therefore justifying military intervention. Brezhnev presided throughout *détente* with the West that resulted in treaties on armament control (SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up Soviet military might. In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. The prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of 'standstill', with an ageing and ossified top political leadership. This period is also known as the Era of Stagnation, a period of adverse economic, political, and social effects in the country, which began during the rule of Brezhnev and continued under his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. In late 1979, the Soviet Union's military intervened in the ongoing civil war in neighboring Afghanistan, effectively ending a détente with the West. ### Perestroika and Glasnost reforms (1985–1991) Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in *Beyond Oil* that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's hard currency reserves. Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. In addition to the failing economy, the prolonged war in Afghanistan led to increased public dissatisfaction with the Communist regime. Also, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 added motive force to Gorbachev's reforms. He made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called *perestroika*. His policy of *glasnost* freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the USSR abandoned its war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the following year, Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet satellite states, which paved the way for the Revolutions of 1989. In particular, the standstill of the Soviet Union at the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989 then set a peaceful chain reaction in motion, at the end of which the Eastern Bloc collapsed. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East and West Germany pursuing re-unification, the Iron Curtain between the West and Soviet-occupied regions came down. At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring sovereignty over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution. On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum. Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the 'War of Laws'. In 1989, the Russian SFSR convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of Sąjūdis in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990, citing the illegality of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. Soviet forces attempted to halt the secession by crushing popular demonstrations in Lithuania (Bloody Sunday) and Latvia (The Barricades), as a result of which numerous civilians were killed or wounded. However, these actions only bolstered international support for the secessionists. A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union in the form of a new federation. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Russian president Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in July 1991. ### Dissolution and aftermath The remaining 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. However, by December all except Russia and Kazakhstan had formally declared independence. During this time, Yeltsin took over what remained of the Soviet government, including the Moscow Kremlin. The final blow was struck on 1 December when Ukraine, the second-most powerful republic, voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine's secession ended any realistic chance of the country staying together even on a limited scale. On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the accords. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin. That night, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolour was raised in its place. The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body, voted both itself and the country out of existence. This is generally recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state, and the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Army initially remained under overall CIS command but was soon absorbed into the different military forces of the newly independent states. The few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased to function by the end of 1991. Following the dissolution, Russia was internationally recognized as the USSR's legal successor on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed Soviet overseas properties as its own. Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics. Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations, and is widely viewed as the USSR's successor state. Ukraine has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the USSR and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was codified in Articles 7 and 8 of its 1991 law On Legal Succession of Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against Russia in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the USSR. In summing up the international ramifications of these events, Vladislav Zubok stated: 'The collapse of the Soviet empire was an event of epochal geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic significance.' Before the dissolution, the country had maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades after World War II through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic strength and scientific research, especially in space technology and weaponry. #### Post-Soviet states The analysis of the succession of states for the 15 post-Soviet states is complex. The Russian Federation is widely seen as the legal *continuator* state and is for most purposes the heir to the Soviet Union. It retained ownership of all former Soviet embassy properties, inheriting the full Soviet nuclear arsenal, and also inherited the Soviet Union's UN membership, with its permanent seat on the Security Council. Of the two other co-founding states of the USSR at the time of the dissolution, Ukraine was the only one that had passed laws, similar to Russia, claiming it is a state-successor of both the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. Soviet treaties laid groundwork for Ukraine's future foreign agreements as well as leading to the country agreeing to undertake 16.37% of debts of the Soviet Union for which it was going to receive its share of the USSR's foreign property. Russia's position as the 'only continuation of the USSR' that became widely accepted in the West, as well as constant pressure from the Western countries, allowed Russia to inherit Soviet state property abroad and conceal information about it. Due to that Ukraine never ratified 'zero option' agreement that Russian Federation had signed with other former Soviet republics, as it denied disclosing of information about Soviet Gold Reserves and its Diamond Fund. The dispute over former Soviet property and assets between the two former republics is still ongoing: > The conflict is unsolvable. We can continue to poke Kiev handouts in the calculation of 'solve the problem', only it won't be solved. Going to a trial is also pointless: for a number of European countries this is a political issue, and they will make a decision clearly in whose favor. What to do in this situation is an open question. Search for non-trivial solutions. But we must remember that in 2014, with the filing of the then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, litigation with Russia resumed in 32 countries. > > — Sergei Markov Similar situation occurred with restitution of cultural property. Although on 14 February 1992 Russia and other former Soviet republics signed agreement 'On the return of cultural and historic property to the origin states' in Minsk, it was halted by the Russian State Duma that eventually passed 'Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation' which made restitution currently impossible, effectively barring the return of looted cultural heritage by Soviet troops during the Second World War to its original owners. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania consider themselves as revivals of the three independent countries that existed prior to their occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. They maintain that the process by which they were incorporated into the Soviet Union violated both international law and their own law, and that in 1990–1991 they were reasserting an independence that still legally existed. Nearly all of the post-Soviet states suffered deep and prolonged recessions after shock therapy, with poverty increasing more than tenfold. In a 2001 study by the economist Steven Rosefielde, he calculated that there were 3.4 million premature deaths in Russia from 1990 to 1998, which he partly blames on the "shock therapy" that came with the Washington Consensus. There are additionally six states that claim independence from the other internationally recognized post-Soviet states but possess limited international recognition: Abkhazia, Artsakh, Donetsk, Luhansk, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The Chechen separatist movement of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Gagauz separatist movement of the Gagauz Republic and the Talysh separatist movement of the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic lack any international recognition. Geography --------- With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country, a status that is retained by the Russian Federation. Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America. Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains. The USSR, like Russia, had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1+1⁄2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. The country bordered Afghanistan, the People's Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The Bering Strait separated the USSR from the United States. The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake Baikal, the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia. Government and politics ----------------------- There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country. ### Communist Party At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the *de facto* highest office in the Soviet Union. Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941). They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above. The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership, but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations. However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party, nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned. ### Government The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history, at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget. The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee) to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court, the Procurator General and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary. The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge, but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure, culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ### Separation of power and reform The constitution, which was promulgated in 1924, 1936 and 1977, did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin and Stalin, as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal, itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee. All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party. Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers. In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government, now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself. Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR. ### Judicial system The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to "establish the truth". ### Human rights Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labor unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The freedom of movement within and especially outside the country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property. The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law. According to Soviet legal theory, "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted *against* the individual". The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights. Therefore, the Soviet legal system regarded law as an arm of politics and courts as agencies of the government. Extensive extra-judicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies. The Soviet government in practice significantly curbed the rule of law, civil liberties, protection of law, freedom of movement and guarantees of property, which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky. According to Vladimir Lenin, the purpose of socialist courts was "not to eliminate terror ... but to substantiate it and legitimize it in principle". The Soviet Union signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973, but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by the Communist authorities. ### Foreign relations During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. * Comintern (1919–1943), or Communist International, was an international communist organization based in the Kremlin that advocated world communism. The Comintern intended to 'struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state'. It was abolished as a conciliatory measure toward Britain and the United States. * Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, *Sovet Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi*, СЭВ, SEV) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under Soviet control that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with several communist states elsewhere in the world. Moscow was concerned about the Marshall Plan, and Comecon was meant to prevent countries in the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the Americans and Southeast Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC), * The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence alliance formed in 1955 among the USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Comecon, the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO. Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away. * The Cominform (1947–1956), informally the Communist Information Bureau and officially the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, was the first official agency of the international Marxist-Leninist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943. Its role was to coordinate actions between Marxist-Leninist parties under Soviet direction. Stalin used it to order Western European communist parties to abandon their exclusively parliamentarian line and instead concentrate on politically impeding the operations of the Marshall Plan, the U.S. program of rebuilding Europe after the war and developing its economy. It also coordinated international aid to Marxist-Leninist insurgents during the Greek Civil War in 1947–1949. It expelled Yugoslavia in 1948 after Josip Broz Tito insisted on an independent program. Its newspaper, *For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!*, promoted Stalin's positions. The Cominform's concentration on Europe meant a deemphasis on world revolution in Soviet foreign policy. By enunciating a uniform ideology, it allowed the constituent parties to focus on personalities rather than issues. #### Early policies (1919–1939) The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions. During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help. By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR. Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and *de facto* diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924. All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labor unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet *fascist* was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labor, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety. The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain. Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. #### World War II (1939–1945) Up until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the interwar period. Despite the increasing build-up of Germany's war machine and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path. However, after Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the United Kingdom, Vyacheslav Molotov dropped his post war border demands. #### Cold War (1945–1991) The **Cold War** was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which began following World War II in 1945. The term *cold war* is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race. ### Administrative divisions Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs), all four being the founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status. In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia, and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by the Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation. After the Soviet invasion of Finland, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below). While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians. The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'. | Republic | Map of the Union Republics between 1956 and 1991 | | --- | --- | | 1 |  Russian SFSR | | | 2 |  Ukrainian SSR | | 3 |  Byelorussian SSR | | 4 |  Uzbek SSR | | 5 |  Kazakh SSR | | 6 |  Georgian SSR | | 7 |  Azerbaijan SSR | | 8 |  Lithuanian SSR | | 9 |  Moldavian SSR | | 10 |  Latvian SSR | | 11 |  Kirghiz SSR | | 12 |  Tajik SSR | | 13 |  Armenian SSR | | 14 |  Turkmen SSR | | 15 |  Estonian SSR | Military -------- Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of the Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Internal Troops. The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth). The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis, under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov, it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989, there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on a fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers. In the post-war period, the Soviet Army was directly involved in several military operations abroad. These included the suppression of the uprising in East Germany (1953), Hungarian revolution (1956) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). The Soviet Union also participated in the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. In the Soviet Union, general conscription applied, meaning all able-bodied males aged 18 and older were drafted in the armed forces. Economy ------- The Soviet Union adopted a command economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of war communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive or forced requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade. The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population. After the severe economic collapse, Lenin replaced war communism by the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private ownership of small businesses. The economy steadily recovered as a result. After a long debate among the members of the Politburo about the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s. The primary motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalist world. As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II. The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction. By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period until the creation of Comecon, only a tiny share of domestic products was traded internationally. After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on foreign trade. Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s. During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. A portion of Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the Soviet-aligned states. The Soviet Union's military budget in the 1970s was gigantic, forming 40–60% of the entire federal budget and accounting to 15% of the USSR's GDP (13% in the 1980s). From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-year plans. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to *ad hoc* intervention by superiors. All critical economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were usually denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) were widespread. A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defence were prioritized over consumer goods. Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices. A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965. Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely, by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West. However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, steadily declined much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock (the rate of capital increase was only surpassed by Japan). Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries). A 1986 study published in the *American Journal of Public Health* claimed that, citing World Bank data, the Soviet model provided a better quality of life and human development than market economies at the same level of economic development in most cases. According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth could have been faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity of capital. Steven Rosefielde states that the standard of living declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of *perestroika*. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution. For most of the period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP (PPP) was the second-largest in the world, and third during the second half of the 1980s, although on a per-capita basis, it was behind that of First World countries. Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth. In 1990, the country had a Human Development Index of 0.920, placing it in the 'high' category of human development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and the 25th in the world of 130 countries. ### Energy The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s, both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower,[*clarification needed*] only 2.6%. David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse. The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5% during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.[*clarification needed*] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World. In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas. Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported. In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency. At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia. ### Science and technology The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy, however, the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the responsibility of the military. Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks, research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, the Soviets awarded 40% of chemistry PhDs to women, compared to only 5% in the United States. By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as Energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry, biology, and computers when compared to the First World. The Soviet government opposed and persecuted geneticists in favour of Lysenkoism, a pseudoscience rejected by the scientific community in the Soviet Union and abroad but supported by Stalin's inner circles. Implemented in the USSR and China, it resulted in reduced crop yields and is widely believed to have contributed to the Great Chinese Famine. The Soviet Union also had more scientists and engineers, relative to the world population, than any other major country due to the strong levels of state support for scientific developments by the 1980s. Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner that was radically different from what the US was using. In the case of the US, economic prioritization was being used for indigenous research and development as the means to acquire science and technology in both the private and public sectors. In contrast, the USSR was offensively and defensively maneuvering in the acquisition and use of the worldwide technology, to increase the competitive advantage that they acquired from the technology while preventing the US from acquiring a competitive advantage. However, technology-based planning was executed in a centralized, government-centric manner that greatly hindered its flexibility. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform. ### Space program At the end of the 1950s, the USSR constructed the first satellite—Sputnik 1, which marked the beginning of the Space Race—a competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability with the United States. This was followed by other successful satellites, most notably Sputnik 5, where test dogs were sent to space. On 12 April 1961, the USSR launched Vostok 1, which carried Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human to ever be launched into space and complete a space journey. At that time, the first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but in the end personal disputes between designers and management prevented this. As for Lunar space program, the USSR only had a program on automated spacecraft launches with no crewed spacecraft used, passing on the 'Moon Race' part of Space Race, which was decidedly won by the Americans. The public's reaction to American astronauts' Moon-landing in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it. In the 1970s, specific proposals for the design of the space shuttle began to emerge, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed the program until the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another shuttle, *Ptichka*, eventually ended up under prolonged construction, as the shuttle project was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world. In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union managed to build the *Mir* orbital station. It was built on the construction of *Salyut* stations and its only role was civilian-grade research tasks. Mir was the only orbital station in operation from 1986 to 1998. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American ones. However, the station deteriorated rapidly after a fire on board, so in 2001 it was decided to bring it into the atmosphere where it burned down. ### Transport Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise. The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World. Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world; it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet government budget. The street network and automotive industry remained underdeveloped, and dirt roads were common outside major cities. Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones. Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction. The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport. Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still[*when?*] riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services. The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world. Demographics ------------ Excess deaths throughout World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the famine of 1921–1922 that was triggered by Lenin's war communism policies) amounted to a combined total of 18 million, some 10 million in the 1930s, and more than 20 million in 1941–1945. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued. According to Catherine Merridale, '... reasonable estimate would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period somewhere around 60 million.' The birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The mortality rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well—from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanization and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics. Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility. The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country. An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again. The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services. The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality data resumed, and researchers could delve into the real causes. ### Women and fertility Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in 1932), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms. However, without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children. The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a pronatalist era that lasted for decades. By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote. After heavy casualties in World War I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio. This contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time. ### Education Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system. Literate people were automatically hired as teachers. For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education. In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man. Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training. The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of a general antisemitic policy, an unofficial Jewish quota was applied[*when?*] in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations. The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary. According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US. ### Nationalities and ethnic groups The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population of the country was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%). Overall, in 1989 the ethnic demography of the country showed that 69.8% was East Slavic, 17.5% was Turkic, 1.6% were Armenians, 1.6% were Balts, 1.5% were Finnic, 1.5% were Tajik, 1.4% were Georgian, 1.2% were Moldovan and 4.1% were of other various ethnic groups. All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen by the child's parents. If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians. Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, who were all East Slavic and Orthodox, shared close cultural, ethnic, and religious ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.[*neutrality is disputed*] Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny or Andrei Gromyko. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian 'diaspora' in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million. * Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941 * Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970 ### Health In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice". The Soviet health care system was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Under the Semashko model, health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision. Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of rubles were squandered. After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic in itself was seen by some that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States. Life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union. #### Dentistry Soviet dental technology and dental health were considered notoriously bad. In 1991, the average 35-year-old had 12 to 14 cavities, fillings or missing teeth. Toothpaste was often not available, and toothbrushes did not conform to standards of modern dentistry. ### Language Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems. The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other. When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain 'official language' status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a second language. There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. These languages were then assimilated into another language, mostly Russian. During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy. As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian *de facto* functioned as an official language, as the 'language of interethnic communication' (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the *de jure* status as the official national language in 1990. ### Religion Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens. Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR. Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans). Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions. The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes. In Soviet law, the 'freedom to hold religious services' was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism. In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact used a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups. The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that 'the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately.' Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study. Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed; the majority of them were demolished or re-purposed for state needs with little concern for their historic and cultural value. More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone. Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in Russia fell from 29,584 to less than 500 (1.7%). The Soviet Union was officially a secular state, but a 'government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism' was conducted under the doctrine of state atheism. The government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools. In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign. Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. While persecution accelerated following Stalin's rise to power, a revival of Orthodoxy was fostered by the government during World War II and the Soviet authorities sought to control the Russian Orthodox Church rather than liquidate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I. Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s. Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s. The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths. Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views. During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97. The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade. Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era. Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as 'active religious believers.' Legacy ------ The legacy of the USSR remains a controversial topic. The socio-economic nature of communist states such as the USSR, especially under Stalin, has also been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of bureaucratic collectivism, state capitalism, state socialism, or a totally unique mode of production. The USSR implemented a broad range of policies over a long period of time, with a large amount of conflicting policies being implemented by different leaders. Some have a positive view of it whilst others are critical towards the country, calling it a repressive oligarchy. The opinions on the USSR are complex and have changed over time, with different generations having different views on the matter as well as on Soviet policies corresponding to separate time periods during its history. Western academicians published various analyses of the post-Soviet states' development, claiming that the dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social conditions in these countries, including a rapid increase in poverty, crime, corruption, unemployment, homelessness, rates of disease, infant mortality and domestic violence, as well as demographic losses, income inequality and the rise of an oligarchical class, along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income. Between 1988 and 1989 and 1993–1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former Soviet republics. According to Western analysis, the economic shocks that accompanied wholesale privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality, Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994, and in the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, annual polling by the Levada Center has shown that over 50% of Russia's population regretted this event, with the only exception to this being in the year 2012 when support for the Soviet Union dipped below 50 percent. A 2018 poll showed that 66% of Russians regretted the fall of the Soviet Union, setting a 15-year record, and the majority of these regretting opinions came from people older than 55. In 2020, polls conducted by the Levada Center found that 75% of Russians agreed that the Soviet era was the greatest era in their country's history. According to the New Russia Barometer (NRB) polls by the Centre for the Study of Public Policy, 50% of Russian respondents reported a positive impression of the Soviet Union in 1991. This increased to about 75% of NRB respondents in 2000, dropping slightly to 71% in 2009. Throughout the 2000s, an average of 32% of NRB respondents supported the restoration of the Soviet Union. In a 2021 poll, a record 70% of Russians indicated they had a mostly/very favourable view of Joseph Stalin. In Armenia, 12% of respondents said the USSR collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In Kyrgyzstan, 16% of respondents said the collapse of the USSR did good, while 61% said it did harm. In a 2018 Rating Sociological Group poll, 47% of Ukrainian respondents had a positive opinion of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, while viewing Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev very negatively. A 2021 poll conducted by the Levada Center found that 49% of Russians prefer the USSR's political system, while 18% prefer the current political system and 16% would prefer a Western democracy. A further 62% of people polled preferred the Soviet system of central planning, while 24% prefer a market-based system. According to the Levada Center's polls, the primary reasons cited for Soviet nostalgia are the advantages of the shared economic union between the Soviet republics, including perceived financial stability. This was referenced by up to 53% of respondents in 2016. At least 43% also lamented the loss of the Soviet Union's global political superpower status. About 31% cited the loss of social trust and capital. The remainder of the respondents cited a mix of reasons ranging from practical travel difficulties to a sense of national displacement. The 1941–1945 period of World War II is still known in Russia as the 'Great Patriotic War'. The war became a topic of great importance in cinema, literature, history lessons at school, the mass media, and the arts. As a result of the massive losses suffered by the military and civilians during the conflict, Victory Day celebrated on 9 May is still one of the most important and emotional dates in Russia. Catherine Wanner asserts that Victory Day commemorations are a vehicle for Soviet nostalgia, as they "kept alive a mythology of Soviet grandeur, of solidarity among the *Sovietskii narod*, and of a sense of self as citizen of a superpower state". Russian Victory Day parades are organized annually in most cities, with the central military parade taking place in Moscow (just as during the Soviet times). Additionally, the recently-introduced Immortal Regiment on May 9 sees millions of Russians carry the portraits of their relatives who fought in the war. Russia also retains other Soviet holidays, such as the Defender of the Fatherland Day (February 23), International Women's Day (March 8), and International Workers' Day. ### In the former Soviet republics In some post-Soviet republics, there is a more negative view of the USSR, although there is no unanimity on the matter. In large part due to the Holodomor, ethnic Ukrainians have a negative view of the Soviet Union. Russian-speaking Ukrainians of Ukraine's southern and eastern regions have a more positive view of the USSR. In some countries with internal conflict, there is also nostalgia for the USSR, especially for refugees of the post-Soviet conflicts who have been forced to flee their homes and have been displaced. This nostalgia is less an admiration for the country or its policies than it is a longing to return to their homes. The many Russian enclaves in the former USSR republics such as Transnistria have in a general a positive remembrance of it. ### By the political left The left's view of the USSR is complex. While some leftists regard the USSR as an example of state capitalism or that it was an oligarchical state, other leftists admire Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution. Council communists generally view the USSR as failing to create class consciousness, turning into a corrupt state in which the elite controlled society. Many anti-Stalinist leftists such as anarchists are extremely critical of Soviet authoritarianism and repression. Much of the criticism it receives is centered around massacres in the Soviet Union, the centralized hierarchy present in the USSR and mass political repression as well as violence towards government critics and political dissidents such as other leftists. Critics also point towards its failure to implement any substantial worker cooperatives or implementing worker liberation, as well as corruption and the Soviet authoritarian nature. Anarchists are also critical of the country, labeling the Soviet system as *red fascism*. Factors contributing to the anarchist animosity towards the USSR included the Soviet destruction of the Makhnovist movement after an initial alliance, the suppression of the anarchist Kronstadt rebellion, and the defeat of the rival anarchist factions by the Soviet-supported Communist faction during the Spanish Civil War. Maoists also have a mixed opinion on the USSR, viewing it negatively during the Sino-Soviet Split and denouncing it as revisionist and reverted to capitalism. The Chinese government in 1963 articulated its criticism of the USSR's system and promoted China's ideological line as an alternative. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) released a press statement titled "We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of great power chauvinism and hegemonism". Noam Chomsky called the collapse of the Soviet Union "a small victory for socialism, not only because of the fall of one of the most anti-socialist states in the world, where working people had fewer rights than in the West, but also because it freed the term 'socialism' from the burden of being associated in the propaganda systems of East and West with Soviet tyranny — for the East, in order to benefit from the aura of authentic socialism, for the West, in order to demonize the concept." Culture ------- The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who was shot for alleged conspiracy against the Bolshevik regime, and Yevgeny Zamyatin. The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period. During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed. Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as *samizdat*, developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular music like jazz in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR. In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of *perestroika* and *glasnost* significantly expanded freedom of expression throughout the country in the media and the press. Sport ----- In summer of 1923 in Moscow was established the Proletarian Sports Society "Dynamo" as a sports organization of Soviet secret police Cheka. Founded on 20 July 1924 in Moscow, *Sovetsky Sport* was the first sports newspaper of the Soviet Union. On 13 July 1925 the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a statement "About the party's tasks in sphere of physical culture". In the statement was determined the role of physical culture in Soviet society and the party's tasks in political leadership of physical culture movement in the country. The Soviet Olympic Committee formed on 21 April 1951, and the IOC recognized the new body in its 45th session. In the same year, when the Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the USSR officially joined the Olympic Movement. The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes. The Soviet Union was the biggest rival to the United States at the Summer Olympics, winning six of its nine appearances at the games and also topping the medal tally at the Winter Olympics six times. The Soviet Union's Olympics success has been attributed to its large investment in sports to demonstrate its superpower image and political influence on a global stage. The Soviet Union national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament in which they competed. Soviet Olympic team was notorious for skirting the edge of amateur rules. All Soviet athletes held some nominal jobs, but were in fact state-sponsored and trained full-time. According to many experts, that gave the Soviet Union a huge advantage over the United States and other Western countries, whose athletes were students or real amateurs. Indeed, the Soviet Union monopolized the top place in the medal standings after 1968, and, until its collapse, placed second only once, in the 1984 Winter games, after another Eastern bloc nation, the GDR. Amateur rules were relaxed only in the late 1980s and were almost completely abolished in the 1990s, after the fall of the USSR. According to British journalist Andrew Jennings, a KGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to undermine doping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts". On the topic of the 1980 Summer Olympics, a 1989 Australian study said "There is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner, who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might as well have been called the Chemists' Games." A member of the IOC Medical Commission, Manfred Donike, privately ran additional tests with a new technique for identifying abnormal levels of testosterone by measuring its ratio to epitestosterone in urine. Twenty percent of the specimens he tested, including those from sixteen gold medalists, would have resulted in disciplinary proceedings had the tests been official. The results of Donike's unofficial tests later convinced the IOC to add his new technique to their testing protocols. The first documented case of 'blood doping' occurred at the 1980 Summer Olympics when a runner[*who?*] was transfused with two pints of blood before winning medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m. Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping program prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Geography --------- The Soviet Union covered an area of over 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), and was the world's largest country, a status that is retained by its successor state, Russia. It covered a sixth of Earth's land surface, and its size was comparable to the continent of North America. Its western part in Europe accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across eleven time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains. The Soviet Union, similarly to modern Russia, had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1+1⁄2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. The country bordered (from 1945 to 1991): Norway, Finland, the Baltic Sea, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, the Caspian Sea, Afghanistan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. The Bering Strait separated the country from the United States, while the La Pérouse Strait separated it from Japan. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajik SSR, at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). It also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake Baikal in Russia, the world's largest and deepest freshwater lake. ### Environment The Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant. Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses have scattered relatively far. 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer were reported after the incident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). However, the long-term effects of the accident are unknown. Another major accident is the Kyshtym disaster. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was discovered that the environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted. The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with clear problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel. It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns. In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19, K-8, a K-129, K-27, K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets. See also -------- * Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–1991) + Occupation of the Baltic states * Cold War * Warsaw Pact * North Atlantic Treaty Organization * Communism * Eastern Bloc * Nostalgia for the Soviet Union * Ideocracy * Index of Soviet Union–related articles * Religion in the Soviet Union * Korenizatsiya * Sovietization * Russification * Neo-Sovietism * Soviet patriotism * Russian Empire * Orphans in the Soviet Union * Post-Soviet states * Soviet Empire * Second Cold War * Stalinism * Neo-Stalinism Further reading --------------- ### Surveys * *A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former)* Archived 24 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Library of Congress Country Studies, 1991. * Brown, Archie, et al., eds.: *The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union* (Cambridge University Press, 1982). * Fitzpatrick, Sheila (2007). "Revisionism in Soviet History". *History and Theory*. **46** (4): 77–91. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2303.2007.00429.x. JSTOR 4502285. historiographical essay that covers the scholarship of the three major schools, totalitarianism, revisionism, and post-revisionism. * Gilbert, Martin. *Routledge Atlas of Russian History* (4th ed. 2007) excerpt and text search. * Gorodetsky, Gabriel, ed. *Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1991: A Retrospective* (2014). * Grant, Ted. *Russia, from Revolution to Counter-Revolution*, London, Well Red Publications, 1997. * Hosking, Geoffrey. *The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within* (2nd ed. Harvard UP 1992) 570 pp. * Howe, G. Melvyn: *The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey* 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983). * Kort, Michael. *The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath* (7th ed. 2010) 502 pp. * McCauley, Martin. *The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union* (2007), 522 pages. * Moss, Walter G. *A History of Russia*. Vol. 2: Since 1855. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2005. * Nove, Alec. *An Economic History of the USSR, 1917–1991*. (3rd ed. 1993) online free to borrow. * Pipes, Richard. *Communism: A History* (2003). * Pons, Silvio, and Stephen A. Smith, eds. *The Cambridge History of Communism (Volume 1): World Revolution and Socialism in One Country, 1917–1941* (2017) excerpt Archived 16 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine + Naimark, Norman Silvio Pons and Sophie Quinn-Judge, eds. *The Cambridge History of Communism (Volume 2): The Socialist Camp and World Power, 1941–1960s* (2017) excerpt Archived 18 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine + Fürst, Juliane, Silvio Pons and Mark Selden, eds. *The Cambridge History of Communism (Volume 3): Endgames?.Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present* (2017) excerpt Archived 31 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine * Service, Robert. *A History of Twentieth-Century Russia* (2nd ed. 1999). ### Lenin and Leninism * Clark, Ronald W. *Lenin* (1988). 570 pp. * Debo, Richard K. *Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921* (1992). * Marples, David R. *Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917–1921* (2000) 156pp. short survey. * Pipes, Richard. *A Concise History of the Russian Revolution* (1996) excerpt and text search, by a leading conservative. * Pipes, Richard. *Russia under the Bolshevik Regime.* (1994). 608 pp. * Service, Robert. *Lenin: A Biography* (2002), 561pp; standard scholarly biography; a short version of his 3 vol detailed biography. * Volkogonov, Dmitri. *Lenin: Life and Legacy* (1994). 600 pp. ### Stalin and Stalinism * Daniels, R. V., ed. *The Stalin Revolution* (1965). * Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. *Stalin: A New History,* (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by scholars excerpt and text search. * De Jonge, Alex. *Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union* (1986). * Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. *Stalinism: New Directions,* (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) online edition. * Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "Impact of the Opening of Soviet Archives on Western Scholarship on Soviet Social History." *Russian Review* 74#3 (2015): 377–400; historiography. * Hoffmann, David L. ed. *Stalinism: The Essential Readings,* (2002) essays by 12 scholars. * Laqueur, Walter. *Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations* (1990). * Kershaw, Ian, and Moshe Lewin. *Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison* (2004) excerpt and text search. * Kotkin, Stephen (2014). *Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928*. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9944-0. 976 pp.; First volume of a trilogy. + Kotkin, Stephen (2017). *Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941*. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59420-380-0.; 1184 pp.; Second volume of a trilogy. * Lee, Stephen J. *Stalin and the Soviet Union* (1999) online edition. * Lewis, Jonathan. *Stalin: A Time for Judgement* (1990). * McNeal, Robert H. *Stalin: Man and Ruler* (1988). * Martens, Ludo. *Another view of Stalin* (1994), a highly favorable view from a Maoist historian. * Service, Robert. *Stalin: A Biography* (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography. * Trotsky, Leon. *Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence*, (1967), an interpretation by Stalin's worst enemy. * Tucker, Robert C. *Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929* (1973); *Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929–1941* (1990) online edition with Service, a standard biography; at ACLS e-books. ### World War II * Barber, John, and Mark Harrison. *The Soviet Home Front: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II,* Longman, 1991. * Bellamy, Chris. *Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War* (2008), 880pp excerpt and text search. * Berkhoff, Karel C. *Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule.* Harvard U. Press, 2004. 448 pp. * Berkhoff, Karel C. *Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II* (2012) excerpt and text search covers both propaganda and reality of homefront conditions. * Braithwaite, Rodric. *Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War* (2006). * Broekmeyer, Marius. *Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945.* 2004. 315 pp. * Dallin, Alexander. *Odessa, 1941–1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory under Foreign Rule.* Portland: Int. Specialized Book Service, 1998. 296 pp. * Kucherenko, Olga. *Little Soldiers: How Soviet Children Went to War, 1941–1945* (2011) excerpt and text search. * Overy, Richard. *The road to war* (4th ed. 1999), covers 1930s; pp 245–300. * Overy, Richard. *Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945* (1998) excerpt and text search. * Roberts, Geoffrey. *Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953* (2006). * Schofield, Carey, ed. *Russian at War, 1941–1945*. (Vendome Press, 1987). 256 pp., a photo-history, with connecting texts. ISBN 978-0-86565-077-0. * Seaton, Albert. *Stalin as Military Commander,* (1998) online edition. * Thurston, Robert W., and Bernd Bonwetsch, eds. *The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union* (2000). * Uldricks, Teddy J. "War, Politics and Memory: Russian Historians Reevaluate the Origins of World War II," *History and Memory* 21#2 (2009), pp. 60–82 online, historiography. * Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; Pyrozhkov, Serhii (2002). "A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s". *Population Studies*. **56** (3): 249–264. doi:10.1080/00324720215934. JSTOR 3092980. PMID 12553326. S2CID 21128795. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2019. Reports life expectancy at birth fell to a level as low as ten years for females and seven for males in 1933 and plateaued around 25 for females and 15 for males in the period 1941–1944. ### Cold War * Brzezinski, Zbigniew. *The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century* (1989). * Edmonds, Robin. *Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years* (1983). * Goncharov, Sergei, John Lewis and Litai Xue, *Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao and the Korean War* (1993) excerpt and text search. * Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. *Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953* (2004) online edition. * Holloway, David. *Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956* (1996) excerpt and text search. * Mastny, Vojtech. *Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism, 1941–1945* (1979). * Mastny, Vojtech. *The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years* (1998) excerpt and text search; online complete edition. * Matlock, Jack. *Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended* (2005). * Nation, R. Craig. *Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917–1991* (1992). * Sivachev, Nikolai and Nikolai Yakolev, *Russia and the United States* (1979), by Soviet historians. * Taubman, William. *Khrushchev: The Man and His Era* (2004), Pulitzer Prize; excerpt and text search. * Taubman, William. *Stalin's American Policy: From Entente to Detente to Cold War* (1983). * Taubman, William. *Gorbachev: His Life and Times* (2017). * Tint, Herbert. *French Foreign Policy since the Second World War* (1972) online free to borrow 1945–1971. * Ulam, Adam B. *Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1973*, 2nd ed. (1974). * Wilson, James Graham. *The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's Adaptability, Reagan's Engagement, and the End of the Cold War* (2014). * Zubok, Vladislav M. *Inside the Kremlin's Cold War* (1996) 20% excerpt and online search. * Zubok, Vladislav M. *A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev* (2007). ### Collapse * Beschloss, Michael, and Strobe Talbott. *At the Highest Levels:The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War* (1993). * Bialer, Seweryn and Michael Mandelbaum, eds. *Gorbachev's Russia and American Foreign Policy* (1988). * Carrère d'Encausse, Hélène. *Decline of an Empire: the Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt*. First English language ed. New York: Newsweek Books (1979). 304 p. *N.B*.: Trans. of the author's *L'Empire éclaté*. ISBN 0-88225-280-1. * Garthoff, Raymond. *The Great Transition: American–Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War* (1994), detailed narrative. * Grachev, A. S. *Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War* (2008) excerpt and text search. * Hogan, Michael ed. *The End of the Cold War. Its Meaning and Implications* (1992) articles from *Diplomatic History*. * Roger Keeran and Thomas Keeny. *Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union*, International Publishers Co Inc., US 2004. * Kotkin, Stephen. *Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000* (2008) excerpt and text search. * Matlock, Jack. *Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union* (1995). * Ostrovsky Alexander. Кто поставил Горбачёва? Archived 13 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine (2010). ("Who brought Gorbachev to power?") – М.: "Алгоритм-Эксмо". ISBN 978-5-699-40627-2 ("Проект "Распад СССР: Тайные пружины власти" – М. "Алгоритм", 2016. Переиздание книги "Кто поставил Горбачёва?") ("Project" Collapse of the USSR: Secret Springs of Power ". Reissue of the book «Who brought Gorbachev to power?» – М.: «Алгоритм», 2016). * Ostrovsky Alexander. Глупость или измена? Расследование гибели СССР. (2011). ("Foolishness or treason? Investigation into the death of the USSR") М.: "Крымский мост". ISBN 978-5-89747-068-6. * Pons, S., Romero, F., *Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War: Issues, Interpretations, Periodizations*, (2005) ISBN 0-7146-5695-X. * Remnick, David. *Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire*, (1994), ISBN 0-679-75125-4. * Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. *Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals*, trans. and annotated by Alexis Klimoff. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. *N.B*.: Also discusses the other national constituents of the USSR. ISBN 0-374-17342-7. * Zubok, Vladislav M. (2021). *Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union*. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-25730-4. ### Social and economic history * Bailes, Kendall E. *Technology and society under Lenin and Stalin: origins of the Soviet technical intelligentsia, 1917–1941* (1978). * Bailes, Kendall E. "The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to the Soviet Union, 1917–1941." *Comparative Studies in Society and History* 23.3 (1981): 421–448. * Brooks, Jeffrey. "Public and private values in the Soviet press, 1921–1928." *Slavic Review* 48.1 (1989): 16–35. * Caroli, Dorena. "'And all our classes turned into a flower garden again'–science education in Soviet schools in the 1920s and 1930s: the case of biology from Darwinism to Lysenkoism." *History of Education* 48.1 (2019): 77–98. * Dobson, Miriam. "The Social History of Post-War Soviet Life" *Historical Journal* 55.2 (2012): 563–569. Online Archived 24 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine * Dowlah, Alex F., et al. *The life and times of soviet socialism* (Greenwood, 1997), Emphasis on economic policies. Online. * Engel, Barbara, et al. *A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History* (1998), Primary sources; Online. * Fitzpatrick, Sheila. *Everyday Stalinism: ordinary life in extraordinary times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s* (Oxford UP, 2000). Online. * Graham, Loren R. *Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A short history* (Cambridge UP, 1993). * Hanson, Philip. *The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR 1945–1991* (2014). * Heinzen, James W. *Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural Russia, 1917–1929* (2004). * Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky. *Women, Work, and Family in the Soviet Union* (1982) Online. * Link, Stefan J. *Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order* (2020) excerpt Archived 14 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine * Lutz, Wolfgang et al. *Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union before 1991* (1994) online. * Mironov, Boris N. "The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries". *History of Education Quarterly* 31#2 (1991), pp. 229–252. [www.jstor.org/stable/368437 Online]. * Nove, Alec. *Soviet economic system* (1986). * Weiner, Douglas R. "Struggle over the Soviet future: Science education versus vocationalism during the 1920s." *Russian Review* 65.1 (2006): 72–97. ### Nationalities * Katz, Zev, ed.: *Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities* (New York: Free Press, 1975). * Nahaylo, Bohdan and Victor Swoboda. *Soviet Disunion: A History of the nationalities Nationalities problem in the USSR* (1990) excerpt. * Rashid, Ahmed. *The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism?* (2017). * Smith, Graham, ed. *The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union* (2nd ed. 1995). ### Specialty studies * Armstrong, John A. *The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1934 to the Present.* New York: Random House, 1961. * Moore, Jr., Barrington. *Soviet politics: the dilemma of power.* Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950. * Rizzi, Bruno: *The Bureaucratization of the World: The First English edition of the Underground Marxist Classic That Analyzed Class Exploitation in the USSR*, New York: Free Press, 1985. * Schapiro, Leonard B. *The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917–1922.* Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966. * Smolkin, Victoria/ *A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism* (Princeton UP, 2018) online reviews Archived 24 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine

Soviet Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union

An **army**, **ground force** or **land force** is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by possessing an army aviation component. Within a national military force, the word army may also mean a field army. In some countries, such as France and China, the term "army", especially in its plural form "armies", has the broader meaning of armed forces as a whole, while retaining the colloquial sense of land forces. To differentiate the colloquial army from the formal concept of military force, the term is qualified, for example in France the land force is called *Armée de terre*, meaning **Land Army**, and the air and space force is called *Armée de l'Air et de l’Espace*, meaning **Air and Space Army**. The naval force, although not using the term "army", is also included in the broad sense of the term "armies" — thus the French Navy is an integral component of the collective French Armies (French Armed Forces) under the Ministry of the Armies. A similar pattern is seen in China, with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) being the overall military, the land force being the PLA Ground Force, and so forth for the PLA Air Force, the PLA Navy, and other branches. By convention, irregular military is understood in contrast to regular armies which grew slowly from personal bodyguards or elite militia. Regular in this case refers to standardized doctrines, uniforms, organizations, etc. Regular military can also refer to full-time status (standing army), versus reserve or part-time personnel. Other distinctions may separate statutory forces (established under laws such as the National Defence Act), from de facto "non-statutory" forces such as some guerrilla and revolutionary armies. Armies may also be expeditionary (designed for overseas or international deployment) or fencible (designed for – or restricted to – homeland defence). Structure --------- Armies are always divided into various specialties, according to the mission, role, and training of individual units, and sometimes individual soldiers within a unit. Some of the groupings common to all armies include the following: * Infantry * Armoured corps * Artillery corps * Signal corps * Special forces * Commandos * Airborne forces * Military police * Medical corps History ------- ### India India's armies were among the first in the world. In the first recorded battle, the Battle of the Ten Kings, a Hindu Aryan king named Sudas defeated an alliance of ten kings and their supportive chieftains. During the Iron Age, the Maurya and Nanda Empires had the largest armies in the world, the peak being approximately over 600,000 Infantry, 30,000 Cavalry, 8,000 War-Chariots and 9,000 War Elephants not including tributary state allies. In the Gupta age, large armies of longbowmen were recruited to fight off invading horse archer armies. Elephants, pikemen and cavalry were other featured troops. In Rajput times, the main piece of equipment was iron or chain-mail armor, a round shield, either a curved blade or a straight sword, a chakra disc, and a katar dagger. ### China The states of China raised armies for at least 1000 years before the Spring and Autumn Annals. By the Warring States period, the crossbow had been perfected enough to become a military secret, with bronze bolts that could pierce any armor. Thus any political power of a state rested on the armies and their organization. China underwent political consolidation of the states of Han (韓), Wei (魏), Chu (楚), Yan (燕), Zhao (趙) and Qi (齊), until by 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇帝), the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, attained absolute power. This first emperor of China could command the creation of a Terracotta Army to guard his tomb in the city of Xi'an (西安), as well as a realignment of the Great Wall of China to strengthen his empire against insurrection, invasion and incursion. Sun Tzu's *The Art of War* remains one of China's Seven Military Classics, even though it is two thousand years old. Since no political figure could exist without an army, measures were taken to ensure only the most capable leaders could control the armies. Civil bureaucracies (士大夫) arose to control the productive power of the states, and their military power. ### Sparta The Spartan Army was one of the earliest known professional armies. Boys were sent to a barracks at the age of seven or eight to train for becoming a soldier. At the age of thirty, they were released from the barracks and allowed to marry and have a family. After that, men devoted their lives to war until their retirement at the age of 60. The Spartan Army was largely composed of hoplites, equipped with arms and armor nearly identical to each other. Each hoplite bore the Spartan emblem and a scarlet uniform. The main pieces of this armor were a round shield, a spear and a helmet. ### Ancient Rome The Roman Army had its origins in the citizen army of the Republic, which was staffed by citizens serving mandatory duty for Rome. Reforms turned the army into a professional organization which was still largely filled by citizens, but these citizens served continuously for 25 years before being discharged. The Romans were also noted for making use of auxiliary troops, non-Romans who served with the legions and filled roles that the traditional Roman military could not fill effectively, such as light skirmish troops and heavy cavalry. After their service in the army they were made citizens of Rome and then their children were citizens also. They were also given land and money to settle in Rome. In the Late Roman Empire, these auxiliary troops, along with foreign mercenaries, became the core of the Roman Army; moreover, by the time of the Late Roman Empire tribes such as the Visigoths were paid to serve as mercenaries. ### Medieval Europe In the earliest Middle Ages it was the obligation of every aristocrat to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers, and infantry. This decentralized system was necessary due to the social order of the time, but could lead to motley forces with variable training, equipment and abilities. The more resources the noble had access to, the better his troops would be. Initially, the words "knight" and "noble" were used interchangeably as there was not generally a distinction between them. While the nobility did fight upon horseback, they were also supported by lower class citizens – and mercenaries and criminals – whose only purpose was participating in warfare because, most often than not, they held brief employment during their lord's engagement. As the Middle Ages progressed and feudalism developed in a legitimate social and economic system, knights started to develop into their own class with a minor caveat: they were still in debt to their lord. No longer primarily driven by economic need, the newly established vassal class were, instead, driven by fealty and chivalry. As central governments grew in power, a return to the citizen armies of the classical period also began, as central levies of the peasantry began to be the central recruiting tool. England was one of the most centralized states in the Middle Ages, and the armies that fought in the Hundred Years' War were, predominantly, composed of paid professionals. In theory, every Englishman had an obligation to serve for forty days. Forty days was not long enough for a campaign, especially one on the continent. Thus the scutage was introduced, whereby most Englishmen paid to escape their service and this money was used to create a permanent army. However, almost all high medieval armies in Europe were composed of a great deal of paid core troops, and there was a large mercenary market in Europe from at least the early 12th century. As the Middle Ages progressed in Italy, Italian cities began to rely mostly on mercenaries to do their fighting rather than the militias that had dominated the early and high medieval period in this region. These would be groups of career soldiers who would be paid a set rate. Mercenaries tended to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces, but in Italy they came to dominate the armies of the city states. This made them considerably less reliable than a standing army. Mercenary-on-mercenary warfare in Italy also led to relatively bloodless campaigns which relied as much on maneuver as on battles. In 1439 the French legislature, known as the Estates General (French: *états généraux*), passed laws that restricted military recruitment and training to the king alone. There was a new tax to be raised known as the *taille* that was to provide funding for a new Royal army. The mercenary companies were given a choice of either joining the Royal army as *compagnies d'ordonnance* on a permanent basis, or being hunted down and destroyed if they refused. France gained a total standing army of around 6,000 men, which was sent out to gradually eliminate the remaining mercenaries who insisted on operating on their own. The new standing army had a more disciplined and professional approach to warfare than its predecessors. The reforms of the 1440s, eventually led to the French victory at Castillon in 1453, and the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War. By 1450 the companies were divided into the field army, known as the *grande ordonnance* and the garrison force known as the *petite ordonnance*. ### Early modern First nation states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire mercenaries to serve in their armies during wartime. Such mercenaries typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments. The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia. As late as the 1650s, most troops were mercenaries. However, after the 17th century, most states invested in better disciplined and more politically reliable permanent troops. For a time mercenaries became important as trainers and administrators, but soon these tasks were also taken by the state. The massive size of these armies required a large supporting force of administrators. The newly centralized states were forced to set up vast organized bureaucracies to manage these armies, which some historians argue is the basis of the modern bureaucratic state. The combination of increased taxes and increased centralization of government functions caused a series of revolts across Europe such as the Fronde in France and the English Civil War. In many countries, the resolution of this conflict was the rise of absolute monarchy. Only in England and the Netherlands did representative government evolve as an alternative. From the late 17th century, states learned how to finance wars through long term low interest loans from national banking institutions. The first state to master this process was the Dutch Republic. This transformation in the armies of Europe had great social impact. The defense of the state now rested on the commoners, not on the aristocrats. However, aristocrats continued to monopolize the officer corps of almost all early modern armies, including their high command. Moreover, popular revolts almost always failed unless they had the support and patronage of the noble or gentry classes. The new armies, because of their vast expense, were also dependent on taxation and the commercial classes who also began to demand a greater role in society. The great commercial powers of the Dutch and English matched much larger states in military might. As any man could be quickly trained in the use of a musket, it became far easier to form massive armies. The inaccuracy of the weapons necessitated large groups of massed soldiers. This led to a rapid swelling of the size of armies. For the first time huge masses of the population could enter combat, rather than just the highly skilled professionals. It has been argued that the drawing of men from across the nation into an organized corps helped breed national unity and patriotism, and during this period the modern notion of the nation state was born. However, this would only become apparent after the French Revolutionary Wars. At this time, the *levée en masse* and conscription would become the defining paradigm of modern warfare. Before then, however, most national armies were in fact composed of many nationalities. In Spain armies were recruited from all the Spanish European territories including Spain, Italy, Wallonia (Walloon Guards) and Germany. The French recruited some soldiers from Germany, Switzerland as well as from Piedmont. Britain recruited Hessian and Hanovrian troops until the late 18th century. Irish Catholics made careers for themselves in the armies of many Catholic European states. Prior to the English Civil War in England, the monarch maintained a personal bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, or "gentlemen pensioners", and a few locally raised companies to garrison important places such as Berwick on Tweed or Portsmouth (or Calais before it was recaptured by France in 1558). Troops for foreign expeditions were raised upon an *ad hoc* basis. Noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scottish and English Armies would remain two separate organizations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707. The small force was represented by only a few regiments. After the American Revolutionary War the Continental Army was quickly disbanded as part of the Americans' distrust of standing armies, and irregular state militias became the sole ground army of the United States, with the exception of one battery of artillery guarding West Point's arsenal. Then First American Regiment was established in 1784. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was soon realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The first of these, the Legion of the United States, was established in 1791. Until 1733 the common soldiers of Prussian Army consisted largely of peasantry recruited or impressed from Brandenburg–Prussia, leading many to flee to neighboring countries. To halt this trend, Frederick William I divided Prussia into regimental cantons. Every youth was required to serve as a soldier in these recruitment districts for three months each year; this met agrarian needs and added extra troops to bolster the regular ranks. Russian tsars before Peter I of Russia maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps (streltsy in Russian) that were highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the armed forces were augmented by peasants. Peter I introduced a modern regular army built on German model, but with a new aspect: officers not necessarily from nobility, as talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included a noble title at the attainment of an officer's rank. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers. The term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years. In 1834 it was reduced to 20 years plus 5 years in reserve and in 1855 to 12 years plus 3 years of reserve.[*chronology citation needed*] The first Ottoman standing army were Janissaries. They replaced forces that mostly comprised tribal warriors (*ghazis*) whose loyalty and morale could not always be trusted. The first Janissary units were formed from prisoners of war and slaves, probably as a result of the sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's booty in kind rather than cash. From the 1380s onwards, their ranks were filled under the *devşirme* system, where feudal dues were paid by service to the sultan. The "recruits" were mostly Christian youths, reminiscent of mamluks. China organized the Manchu people into the Eight Banner system in the early 17th century. Defected Ming armies formed the Green Standard Army. These troops enlisted voluntarily and for long terms of service. ### Late modern Conscription allowed the French Republic to form the *Grande Armée*, what Napoleon Bonaparte called "the nation in arms", which successfully battled European professional armies. Conscription, particularly when the conscripts are being sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies. In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, make mass conscription unlikely in the foreseeable future. Russia, as well as many other nations, retains mainly a conscript army. There is also a very rare *citizen army* as used in Switzerland (see Military of Switzerland). Field army ---------- A particular army can be named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general. For example, the First United States Army and the Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g. First Army), whereas lower formations use figures (e.g. 1st Division). Armies (as well as army groups and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Force, "Armies" could vary in size, but were subordinate to an Army Group-sized "front" in wartime. In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district. Viktor Suvorov's *Inside the Soviet Army* describes how Cold War era Soviet military districts were actually composed of a front headquarters and a military district headquarters co-located for administration and deception ('maskirovika') reasons. ### Formations In many countries, especially in Europe or North America, armies are often subdivided as follows: | | | | --- | --- | | | **field army**: A field army is composed of a headquarters, army troops, a variable number of corps, typically between three and four, and a variable number of divisions, also between three and four. A battle is influenced at the Field Army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. Field armies are controlled by a general or lieutenant general. | | | **Corps**: A corps usually consists of two or more divisions and is commanded by a lieutenant general. | | | **Division**: Each division is commanded by a major general, and usually holds three brigades including infantry, artillery, engineers and communications units in addition to logistics (supply and service) support to sustain independent action. Except for the divisions operating in the mountains, divisions have at least one armored unit, some have even more depending upon their functionality. The basic building block of all ground force combat formations is the infantry division. | | | **Brigade**: A brigade is under the command of a brigadier or brigadier general and sometimes is commanded by a colonel. It typically comprises three or more battalions of different units depending on its functionality. An independent brigade would be one that primarily consists of an artillery unit, an infantry unit, an armour unit and logistics to support its actions. Such a brigade is not part of any division and is under direct command of a corps. | | | **Battalion**: Each battalion is commanded by a colonel or sometimes by lieutenant colonel who commands roughly 500 to 750 soldiers. This number varies depending on the functionality of the regiment. A battalion comprises 3–5 companies (3 rifle companies, a fire support company and headquarters company) or its functional equivalent such as batteries (artillery) or squadrons (armour and cavalry), each under the command of a major. The company can be divided into platoons, each of which can again be divided into sections or squads. (Terminology is nationality and even unit specific.) | See also -------- * Lists of armies * List of armies by country * List of numbered armies * List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel * Military organization * Paramilitary

Army

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army

**Canaan** (/ˈkeɪnən/; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – *KNʿN*; Hebrew: כְּנַעַן – *Kənáʿan*, in pausa כְּנָעַן – *Kənāʿan*; Biblical Greek: Χαναάν – *Khanaan*; Arabic: كَنْعَانُ – *Kan‘ān*) was a Semitic-speaking civilization and region of the Southern Levant in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna Period (14th century BC) as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged or overlapped. Much of present-day knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo, En Esur, and Gezer. The name "Canaan" appears throughout the Bible as a geography associated with the "Promised Land". The demonym "Canaanites" serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled and nomadic-pastoral groups—throughout the regions of the southern Levant or Canaan. It is by far the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible. Biblical scholar Mark Smith, citing archaeological findings, suggests "that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature." The name "Canaanites" is attested, many centuries later, as the endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks from c. 500 BC as Phoenicians, and after the emigration of some Canaanite-speakers to Carthage (founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the Punics (as "Chanani") of North Africa during Late Antiquity. Etymology --------- The English term "Canaan" (pronounced /ˈkeɪnən/ since c. 1500, due to the Great Vowel Shift) comes from the Hebrew כנען‎ (*knʿn*), via the Koine Greek Χανααν *Khanaan* and the Latin *Canaan*. It appears as *Kinâḫna* (Akkadian: 𒆳𒆠𒈾𒄴𒈾, *KURki-na-aḫ-na*) in the Amarna letters (14th century BC) and several other ancient Egyptian texts. In Greek, it first occurs in the writings of Hecataeus as "*Khna*" (Χνᾶ). It is attested in Phoenician on coins from Berytus dated to the 2nd century BCE. The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root *knʿ*, "to be low, humble, subjugated". Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands", in contrast with Aram, which would then mean "highlands", whereas others have suggested it meant "the subjugated" as the name of Egypt's province in the Levant, and evolved into the proper name in a similar fashion to Provincia Nostra (the first Roman colony north of the Alps, which became Provence). An alternative suggestion, put forward by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser in 1936, derives the term from Hurrian *Kinaḫḫu*, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that "Canaan" and "Phoenicia" would be synonyms ("Land of Purple"). Tablets found in the Hurrian city of Nuzi in the early 20th century appear to use the term *"Kinaḫnu"* as a synonym for red or purple dye, laboriously produced by the Kassite rulers of Babylon from murex molluscs as early as 1600 BC, and on the Mediterranean coast by the Phoenicians from a byproduct of glassmaking. Purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have been named after their place of origin. The name 'Phoenicia' is connected with the Greek word for "purple", apparently referring to the same product, but it is difficult to state with certainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or vice versa. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far and wide and was associated by the Romans with nobility and royalty. However, according to Robert Drews, Speiser's proposal has generally been abandoned. Archaeology and history ----------------------- ### Overview There are several periodization systems for Canaan. One of them is the following. * Prior to 4500 BC (prehistory – Stone Age): hunter-gatherer societies slowly giving way to farming and herding societies * 4500–3500 BC (Chalcolithic): early metal-working and farming * 3500–2000 BC (Early Bronze): prior to written records in the area[*dubious – discuss*] * 2000–1550 BC (Middle Bronze): city-states[*dubious – discuss*] * 1550–1200 BC (Late Bronze): Egyptian hegemony * 1200–various dates by region (Iron Age) After the Iron Age the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic (related to Greece) and Roman. Canaanite culture developed *in situ* from multiple waves of migration merging with the earlier Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral Natufian and Harifian cultures with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the 6200 BC climatic crisis which led to the Neolithic Revolution/First Agricultural Revolution in the Levant. The majority of Canaan is covered by the Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests ecoregion. ### Chalcolithic (4500–3500) The first wave of migration, called Ghassulian culture, entered Canaan circa 4500 BC. This is the start of the Chalcolithic in Canaan. From their unknown homeland they brought an already complete craft tradition of metal work. They were expert coppersmiths; in fact, their work was the most advanced metal technology in the ancient world. Their work is similar to artifacts from the later Maykop culture, leading some scholars to believe they represent two branches of an original metalworking tradition. Their main copper mine was at Wadi Feynan. The copper was mined from the Cambrian Burj Dolomite Shale Unit in the form of the mineral malachite. All of the copper was smelted at sites in Beersheba culture. They produced violin-shaped figurines similar to those in Cycladic culture and at Bark in North Mesopotamia. Genetic analysis has shown that the Ghassulians belonged to Y-Halplogroup T1a1a. The end of the Chalcolithic period saw the rise of the urban settlement of 'En Esur on the southern Mediterranean coast. ### Early Bronze Age (3500–2000) By the Early Bronze Age other sites had developed, such as Ebla (where an East Semitic language, Eblaite, was spoken), which by c. 2300 BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamia-based Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great and Naram-Sin of Akkad (biblical Accad). Sumerian references to the *Mar.tu* ("tent dwellers", later *Amurru*, i.e. Amorite) country west of the Euphrates River date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of the Sumerian king, Enshakushanna of Uruk, and one tablet credits the early Sumerian king Lugal-Anne-Mundu with holding sway in the region, although this tablet is considered less credible because it was produced centuries later. Amorites at Hazor, Kadesh (Qadesh-on-the-Orontes), and elsewhere in Amurru (Syria) bordered Canaan in the north and northeast. (Ugarit may be included among these Amoritic entities.) The collapse of the Akkadian Empire in 2154 BC saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak ware (pottery), coming originally from the Zagros Mountains (in modern Iran) east of the Tigris. In addition, DNA analysis revealed that between 2500–1000 BC, populations from the Chalcolithic Zagros and Bronze Age Caucasus migrated to the Southern Levant. The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period. The major sites were 'En Esur and Meggido. These "proto-Canaanites" were in regular contact with the other peoples to their south such as Egypt, and to the north Asia Minor (Hurrians, Hattians, Hittites, Luwians) and Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria), a trend that continued through the Iron Age. The end of the period is marked by the abandonment of the cities and a return to lifestyles based on farming villages and semi-nomadic herding, although specialised craft production continued and trade routes remained open. Archaeologically, the Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit (at Ras Shamra in Syria) is considered quintessentially Canaanite, even though its Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite language group proper. A disputed reference to *Lord of ga-na-na* in the Semitic Ebla tablets (dated 2350 BC) from the archive of Tell Mardikh has been interpreted by some scholars to mention the deity Dagon by the title "Lord of Canaan" If correct, this would suggest that Eblaites were conscious of Canaan as an entity by 2500 BC. Jonathan Tubb states that the term *ga-na-na* "may provide a third-millennium reference to *Canaanite*", while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details. ### Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550) Urbanism returned and the region was divided among small city-states, the most important of which seems to have been Hazor. Many aspects of Canaanite material culture now reflected a Mesopotamian influence, and the entire region became more tightly integrated into a vast international trading network. As early as Naram-Sin of Akkad's reign (c. 2240 BC), *Amurru* was called one of the "four quarters" surrounding Akkad, along with Subartu/Assyria, Sumer, and Elam. Amorite dynasties also came to dominate in much of Mesopotamia, including in Larsa, Isin and founding the state of Babylon in 1894 BC. Later on, *Amurru* became the Assyrian/Akkadian term for the interior of south as well as for northerly Canaan. At this time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies, one centred upon Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, the second on the more northerly city of Kadesh on the Orontes River. An Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum founded Babylon as an independent city-state in 1894 BC. One Amorite king of Babylonia, Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC), founded the First Babylonian Empire, which lasted only as long as his lifetime. Upon his death the Amorites were driven from Assyria but remained masters of Babylonia until 1595 BC, when they were ejected by the Hittites. The semi-fictional *Story of Sinuhe* describes an Egyptian officer, Sinuhe, conducting military activities in the area of "Upper Retjenu" and "Fenekhu" during the reign of Senusret I (c. 1950 BC). The earliest *bona fide* Egyptian report of a campaign to "Mentu", "Retjenu" and "Sekmem" (Shechem) is the Sebek-khu Stele, dated to the reign of Senusret III (c. 1862 BC). A letter from Mut-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1809–1776 BC) of the Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750 BC) has been translated: "It is in Rahisum that the brigands (habbatum) and the Canaanites (Kinahnum) are situated". It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria. Additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Whether the term Kinahnum refers to people from a specific region or rather people of "foreign origin" has been disputed, such that Robert Drews states that the "first certain cuneiform reference" to Canaan is found on the Alalakh statue of King Idrimi (below). A reference to Ammiya being "in the land of Canaan" is found on the Statue of Idrimi (16th century BC) from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother's relatives to seek refuge in "the land of Canaan", where he prepared for an eventual attack to recover his city. The other references in the Alalakh texts are: West Asian visitors to Egypt (c. 1900 BC)A group of West Asian foreigners, possibly Canaanites, labelled as *Aamu* (*ꜥꜣmw*), with the leader labelled as a *Hyksos*, visiting the Egyptian official Khnumhotep II c. 1900 BC. Tomb of 12th dynasty official Khnumhotep II, at Beni Hasan. * AT 154 (unpublished) * AT 181: A list of 'Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan * AT 188: A list of Muskenu people with their origins. All are towns, except for three lands including Canaan * AT 48: A contract with a Canaanite hunter. Around 1650 BC, Canaanites invaded the eastern Nile delta, where, known as the Hyksos, they became the dominant power. In Egyptian inscriptions, *Amar* and *Amurru* (Amorites) are applied strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia, extending to the Orontes. Archaeological excavations of a number of sites, later identified as Canaanite, show that prosperity of the region reached its apogee during this Middle Bronze Age period, under the leadership of the city of Hazor, at least nominally tributary to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of Yamkhad and Qatna were hegemons of important confederacies, and it would appear that biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important coalition in the south. ### Late Bronze Age (1550–1200) In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies centered on Megiddo and Kadesh, before being fully brought into the Egyptian Empire and Hittite Empire. Later still, the Neo-Assyrian Empire assimilated the region. According to the Bible, the migrant ancient Semitic-speaking peoples who appear to have settled in the region included (among others) the Amorites, who had earlier controlled Babylonia. The Hebrew Bible mentions the *Amorites* in the *Table of Peoples* (Book of Genesis 10:16–18a). Evidently, the Amorites played a significant role in the early history of Canaan. In Book of Genesis 14:7 *f*., Book of Joshua 10:5 *f*., Book of Deuteronomy 1:19 *f*., 27, 44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while verses such as Book of Numbers 21:13, Book of Joshua 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., tell of two great Amorite kings residing at Heshbon and Ashteroth, east of the Jordan. Other passages, including Book of Genesis 15:16, 48:22, Book of Joshua 24:15, Book of Judges 1:34, regard the name *Amorite* as synonymous with "Canaanite". The name *Amorite* is, however, never used for the population on the coast. In the centuries preceding the appearance of the biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian pharaohs, although domination by the Egyptians remained sporadic, and not strong enough to prevent frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Other areas such as northern Canaan and northern Syria came to be ruled by the Assyrians during this period. Under Thutmose III (1479–1426 BC) and Amenhotep II (1427–1400 BC), the regular presence of the strong hand of the Egyptian ruler and his armies kept the Amorites and Canaanites sufficiently loyal. Nevertheless, Thutmose III reported a new and troubling element in the population. Habiru or (in Egyptian) 'Apiru, are reported for the first time. These seem to have been mercenaries, brigands, or outlaws, who may have at one time led a settled life, but with bad luck or due to the force of circumstances, contributed a rootless element to the population, prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor, king, or princeling would pay for their support. Although Habiru SA-GAZ (a Sumerian ideogram glossed as "brigand" in Akkadian), and sometimes *Habiri* (an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of the Sumerian king, Shulgi of Ur III, their appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a new state based in Asia Minor to the north of Assyria and based upon a Maryannu aristocracy of horse-drawn charioteers, associated with the Indo-Aryan rulers of the Hurrians, known as Mitanni. The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than an ethnic group. One analysis shows that the majority were Hurrian, although there were a number of Semites and even some Kassite and Luwian adventurers amongst their number. The reign of Amenhotep III, as a result, was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed[*by whom?*] that turbulent chiefs began to seek their opportunities, although as a rule they could not find them without the help of a neighbouring king. The boldest of the disaffected nobles was Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, who endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of Damascus. Akizzi, governor of Katna (Qatna?) (near Hamath), reported this to Amenhotep III, who seems to have sought to frustrate Aziru's attempts. In the reign of the next pharaoh, Akhenaten (reigned c. 1352 to c. 1335 BC) both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like Rib-Hadda, governor of Gubla (Gebal), by transferring their loyalty from the Egyptian crown to the Hittite Empire under Suppiluliuma I (reigned c. 1344–1322 BC). Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hat.ti) advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and when they became even more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amorites and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru, at first afraid of the Hittites, afterwards made a treaty with their king, and joining with the Hittites, attacked and conquered the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain did Rib-Hadda send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages. The Amarna letters tell of the Habiri in northern Syria. Etakkama wrote thus to the Pharaoh: > Behold, Namyawaza has surrendered all the cities of the king, my lord to the SA-GAZ in the land of Kadesh and in Ubi. But I will go, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will bring back the cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show myself subject to him; and I will expel the SA-GAZ. > > Similarly, Zimrida, king of Sidon (named 'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri." The king of Jerusalem, Abdi-Heba, reported to the Pharaoh: > If (Egyptian) troops come this year, lands and princes will remain to the king, my lord; but if troops come not, these lands and princes will not remain to the king, my lord. > > Abdi-heba's principal trouble arose from persons called Iilkili and the sons of Labaya, who are said to have entered into a treasonable league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless warrior found his death at the siege of Gina. All these princes, however, maligned each other in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protested their own innocence of traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom Etakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the Pharaoh, > Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my SA-GAZ, and my Suti ?9 are at the disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my lord, commands." > > Around the beginning of the New Kingdom period, Egypt exerted rule over much of the Levant. Rule remained strong during the Eighteenth Dynasty, but Egypt's rule became precarious during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Ramses II was able to maintain control over it in the stalemated battle against the Hittites at Kadesh in 1275 BC, but soon thereafter, the Hittites successfully took over the northern Levant (Syria and Amurru). Ramses II, obsessed with his own building projects while neglecting Asiatic contacts, allowed control over the region to continue dwindling. During the reign of his successor Merneptah, the Merneptah Stele was issued which claimed to have destroyed various sites in the southern Levant, including a people known as "Israel". However, archaeological findings show no destruction at any of the sites mentioned in the Merneptah Stele and so it is considered to be an exercise in propaganda, and the campaign most likely avoided the central highlands in the southern Levant. Egypt’s withdrawal from the southern Levant was a protracted process lasting some one hundred years beginning in the late 13th century BCE and ending close to the end of the 12th century BCE. The reason for the Egypt's withdrawal was most likely a product of the political turmoil in Egypt proper rather than the invasion by the Sea Peoples as there is little evidence that the Sea Peoples caused much destruction ca. 1200 BCE. Many Egyptian garrisons or sites with an “Egyptian governor’s residence” in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction including Dier el-Balah, Ashkelon, Tel Mor, Tell el-Far'ah (South), Tel Gerisa, Tell Jemmeh, Tel Masos, and Qubur el-Walaydah. Not all Egyptian sites in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction. The Egyptian garrison at Aphek was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century. The Egyptian gate complex uncovered at Jaffa was destroyed at the end of the 12th century between 1134-1115 based on C14 dates, while Beth-Shean was partially though not completely destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, in the mid-12th century. #### Amarna letters References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh Akhenaten c. 1350 BC. In these letters, some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC, are found, beside *Amar* and *Amurru* (Amorites), the two forms *Kinahhi* and *Kinahni*, corresponding to *Kena* and *Kena'an* respectively, and including Syria in its widest extent, as Eduard Meyer has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence. The known references are: * EA 8: Letter from Burna-Buriash II to Akhenaten, explaining that his merchants "were detained in Canaan for business matters", robbed and killed "in Hinnatuna of the land of Canaan" by the rulers of Acre and Shamhuna, and asks for compensation because "Canaan is your country" * EA 9: Letter from Burna-Buriash II to Tutankhamun, "all the Canaanites wrote to Kurigalzu saying 'come to the border of the country so we can revolt and be allied with you'" * EA 30: Letter from Tushratta: "To the kings of Canaan... Provide [my messenger] with safe entry into Egypt" * EA 109: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "Previously, on seeing a man from Egypt, the kings of Canaan fled before him, but now the sons of Abdi-Ashirta make men from Egypt prowl about like dogs" * EA 110: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "No ship of the army is to leave Canaan" * EA 131: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "If he does not send archers, they will take [Byblos] and all the other cities, and the lands of Canaan will not belong to the king. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters." * EA 137: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "If the king neglects Byblos, of all the cities of Canaan not one will be his" * EA 367: "Hani son (of) Mairēya, "chief of the stable" of the king in Canaan" * EA 162: Letter to Aziru: "You yourself know that the king does not want to go against all of Canaan when he rages" * EA 148: Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh: "[The king] has taken over the land of the king for the 'Apiru. May the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan" * EA 151: Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh: "The king, my lord wrote to me: 'write to me what you have heard from Canaan'." Abimilku describes in response what has happened in eastern Cilicia (Danuna), the northern coast of Syria (Ugarit), in Syria (Qadesh, Amurru, and Damascus) as well as in Sidon. #### Other Late Bronze Age mentions Text RS 20.182 from Ugarit is a copy of a letter of the king of Ugarit to Ramesses II concerning money paid by "the sons of the land of Ugarit" to the "foreman of the sons of the land of Canaan (*\*kn'ny*)" According to Jonathan Tubb, this suggests that the people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite. The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, of which one of the estates had three Ugaritans, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite. ##### Ashur tablets A Middle Assyrian letter during the reign of Shalmaneser I includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" of an Assyrian official. ##### Hattusa letters Four references are known from Hattusa: * An evocation to the Cedar Gods: Includes reference to Canaan alongside Sidon, Tyre and possibly Amurru * KBo XXVIII 1: Ramesses II letter to Hattusili III, in which Ramesses suggested he would meet "his brother" in Canaan and bring him to Egypt * KUB III 57 (also KUB III 37 + KBo I 17): Broken text which may refer to Canaan as an Egyptian sub-district * KBo I 15+19: Ramesses II letter to Hattusili III, describing Ramesses' visit to the "land of Canaan on his way to Kinza and Harita ### Bronze Age collapse Ann Killebrew has shown that cities such as Jerusalem were large and important walled settlements in the pre-Israelite Middle Bronze IIB and the Israelite Iron Age IIC period (c. 1800–1550 and c. 720–586 BC), but that during the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like Jerusalem were small and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns. Just after the Amarna period, a new problem arose which was to trouble the Egyptian control of southern Canaan (the rest of the region now being under Assyrian control). Pharaoh Horemhab campaigned against Shasu (Egyptian = "wanderers") living in nomadic pastoralist tribes, who had moved across the Jordan River to threaten Egyptian trade through Galilee and Jezreel. Seti I (c. 1290 BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu, Semitic-speaking nomads living just south and east of the Dead Sea, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to "*Ka-n-'-na*". After the near collapse of the Battle of Kadesh, Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into Moab and Ammon, where a permanent fortress garrison (called simply "Rameses") was established. Some believe the "Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews", and particularly the early Israelites of the period of the "judges", who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves. However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. Whether the term may also include other related ancient Semitic-speaking peoples such as the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites is uncertain. There is little evidence that any major city or settlement in the southern Levant was destroyed around 1200 BCE. At Lachish, The Fosse Temple III was ritually terminated while a house in Area S appears to have burned in a house fire as the most severe evidence of burning was next to two ovens while no other part of the city had evidence of burning. After this though the city was rebuilt in a grander fashion than before. For Megiddo, most parts of the city did not have any signs of damage and it is only possible that the palace in Area AA might have been destroyed though this is not certain. While the monumental structures at Hazor were indeed destroyed, this destruction was in the mid-13th century BCE long before the end of the Late Bronze Age began. However, many sites were not burned to the ground around 1200 BCE including: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tell es-Safi, Tel Batash, Tel Burna, Tel Dor, Tel Gerisa, Tell Jemmeh, Khirbet Rabud, Tel Zeror, and Tell Abu Hawam among others. Despite many theories which claim that trade relations broke down after 1200 BCE in the southern Levant, there is ample evidence that trade with other regions continued after the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. Archaeologist Jesse Millek has shown that while the common assuption is that trade in Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery ended around 1200 BCE, trade in Cypriot pottery actually largely came to an end at 1300, while for Mycenaean pottery, this trade ended at 1250 BCE, and destruction around 1200 BCE could not have affected either pattern of international trade since it ended before the end of the Late Bronze Age. He has also demonstrated that trade with Egypt continued after 1200 BCE. Archaeometallurgical studies performed by various teams have also shown that trade in tin, a non-local metal necessary to make bronze, did not stop or decrease after 1200 BCE, even though the closest source of the metal were modern Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, or perhaps even Cornwall, England. Lead from Sardinia was still being imported to the southern Levant after 1200 BCE during the early Iron Age. ### Iron Age By the Early Iron Age, the southern Levant came to be dominated by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, besides the Philistine city-states on the Mediterranean coast, and the kingdoms of Moab, Ammon, and Aram-Damascus east of the Jordan River, and Edom to the south. The northern Levant was divided into various petty kingdoms, the so-called Syro-Hittite states and the Phoenician city-states. The entire region (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and Aramean states, together with Israel, Philistia, and Samarra) was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and would remain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century BC. Emperor-kings such as Ashurnasirpal, Adad-nirari II, Sargon II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Esarhaddon, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal came to dominate Canaanite affairs. During the Twenty-fifth Dynasty the Egyptians made a failed attempt to regain a foothold in the region, but were vanquished by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, leading to an Assyrian conquest of Egypt. Between 616 and 605 BC the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed due to a series of bitter civil wars, followed by an attack by an alliance of Babylonians, Medes, and Persians and the Scythians. The Neo-Babylonian Empire inherited the western part of the empire, including all the lands in Canaan and Syria, together with Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. They successfully defeated the Egyptians and remained in the region in an attempt to regain a foothold in the Near East. The Neo-Babylonian Empire itself collapsed in 539 BC, and the region became a part of the Achaemenid Empire. It remained so until in 332 BC it was conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, later to fall to the Roman Empire in the late 2nd century BC, and then Byzantium, until the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7th century AD. ### Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic (1500–1000 BC) During the 2nd millennium BC, Ancient Egyptian texts use the term "Canaan" to refer to an Egyptian-ruled colony, whose boundaries generally corroborate the definition of Canaan found in the Hebrew Bible, bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north in the vicinity of Hamath in Syria, to the east by the Jordan Valley, and to the south by a line extended from the Dead Sea to around Gaza. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and Hebrew uses of the term are not identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of Qadesh in north west Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the entire Levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, Retjenu. Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes River, was known by the Egyptians as upper Retjenu. In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term Djahi was used to refer to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in *Ka-na-na*, just inside Asia. Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in Ancient Near Eastern sources relates almost exclusively to the period in which the region operated as a colony of the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th–11th centuries BC), with usage of the name almost disappearing following the Late Bronze Age collapse (c. 1206–1150 BC). The references suggest that during this period the term was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although scholars have disputed to what extent such references provide a coherent description of its location and boundaries, and regarding whether the inhabitants used the term to describe themselves. 16 references are known in Egyptian sources, from the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt onwards. * Amenhotep II inscriptions: Canaanites are included in a list of prisoners of war * Three topographical lists * Papyrus Anastasi I 27,1" refers to the route from Sile to Gaza "the [foreign countries] of the end of the land of Canaan" * Merneptah Stele * Papyrus Anastasi IIIA 5–6 and Papyrus Anastasi IV 16,4 refer to "Canaanite slaves from Hurru" * Papyrus Harris After the collapse of the Levant under the so-called "Peoples of the Sea" Ramesses III (c. 1194 BC) is said to have built a temple to the god Amen to receive tribute from the southern Levant. This was described as being built in *Pa-Canaan*, a geographical reference whose meaning is disputed, with suggestions that it may refer to the city of Gaza or to the entire Egyptian-occupied territory in the south west corner of the Near East. ### Greco-Roman historiography The Greek term *Phoenicia* is first attested in the first two works of Western literature, Homer's *Iliad* and *Odyssey*. It does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but occurs three times in the New Testament in the Book of Acts. In the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα, a name that Philo of Byblos subsequently adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". Quoting fragments attributed to Sanchuniathon, he relates that Byblos, Berytus and Tyre were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical Cronus, and credits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing. Coins of the city of Beirut / Laodicea bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are dated to the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164 BC) and his successors until 123 BC. Saint Augustine also mentions that one of the terms the seafaring Phoenicians called their homeland was "Canaan". Augustine also records that the rustic people of Hippo in North Africa retained the Punic self-designation *Chanani*. Since 'punic' in Latin also meant 'non-Roman', some scholars however argue that the language referred to as Punic in Augustine may have been Libyan. The Greeks also popularized the term *Palestine*, named after the Philistines or the Aegean Pelasgians, for roughly the region of Canaan, excluding Phoenicia, with Herodotus' first recorded use of *Palaistinê*, c. 480 BC. From 110 BC, the Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of the region, creating a Judean-Samaritan-Idumaean-Ituraean-Galilean alliance. The Judean (Jewish, see Ioudaioi) control over the wider area resulted in it also becoming known as Judaea, a term that had previously only referred to the smaller region of the Judean Mountains, the allotment of the Tribe of Judah and heartland of the former Kingdom of Judah. Between 73–63 BC, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BC, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. Around 130–135 AD, as a result of the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, the province of Iudaea was joined with Galilee to form new province of Syria Palaestina. There is circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change, although the precise date is not certain, and the interpretation of some scholars that the name change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea" is disputed. ### Later sources Padiiset's Statue is the last known Egyptian reference to Canaan, a small statuette labelled "Envoy of the Canaan and of Peleset, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy". The inscription is dated to 900–850 BC, more than 300 years after the preceding known inscription. During the period from c. 900–330 BC, the dominant Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Empire make no mention of Canaan. Canaanites ---------- The Canaanites were the inhabitants of ancient Canaan, a region that roughly corresponds to present-day Israel and the Palestinian Territories, western Jordan, southern and coastal Syria, Lebanon, and continued up to the southern border of Turkey. They are believed to have been one of the oldest civilizations in human history. ### History The Levant was inhabited by people who referred to the land as *ca-na-na-um* as early as the mid-third millennium BCE. The Akkadian word "*kinahhu*" referred to the purple-coloured wool, dyed from the Murex molluscs of the coast—which was a key export of the region. When the ancient Greeks later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated, as they referred to the Canaanites as *Phoenikes* (Phoenicians), which may derive from the Greek-language word "*phoenix*" (transl. "crimson" or "purple"), and also described the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The word "*phoenix*" was transcribed by the Romans to "*poenus*"; the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in Carthage were likewise referred to as *Punic*. Thus, while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronze Age pre-1200 BCE Levantine peoples as Canaanites, while their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are referred to as Phoenicians. More recently, the term "Canaanite" has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the Levantine interior that were not ruled by Aramean peoples, that is, that were ruled by a separate and closely-related ethnic group which included the Philistines and the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah. ### Culture According to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "Ammonites, Moabites, Israelites, and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites", "the same people who settled in farming villages in the region in the 8th millennium BCE." There is uncertainty about whether the name "Canaan" refers to a specific Semitic-speaking ethnic group wherever they live, the homeland of this ethnic group, a region under the control of this ethnic group, or perhaps any combination of the three. Canaanite civilization was a response to long periods of stable climate interrupted by short periods of climate change. During these periods, Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between the ancient civilizations of the Middle East—Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia), the Hittites, and Minoan Crete—to become city states of merchant princes along the coast, with small kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns and agrarian hinterland, was illustrated in Canaanite mythology by the struggle between the storm god, variously called Teshub (Hurrian) or Ba'al Hadad (Semitic Amorite/Aramean) and Ya'a, Yaw, or Yam, god of the sea and rivers. Early Canaanite civilization was characterized by small walled market towns, surrounded by peasant farmers growing a range of local horticultural products, along with commercial growing of olives, grapes for wine, and pistachios, surrounded by extensive grain cropping, predominantly wheat and barley. Harvest in early summer was a season when transhumance nomadism was practiced—shepherds staying with their flocks during the wet season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closer to water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of agriculture is found in the Gezer calendar and in the biblical cycle of the year. Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this mixed Mediterranean farming system; commercial production was replaced with subsistence agricultural foodstuffs; and transhumance pastoralism became a year-round nomadic pastoral activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north to the Euphrates, or south to the Egyptian delta with their flocks. Occasionally, tribal chieftains would emerge, raiding enemy settlements and rewarding loyal followers from the spoils or by tariffs levied on merchants. Should the cities band together and retaliate, a neighbouring state intervene or should the chieftain suffer a reversal of fortune, allies would fall away or intertribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that the Patriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms. During the periods of the collapse of Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia and the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Assyria and Babylonia, and the Late Bronze Age collapse, trade through the Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree Assyria, withdrew into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of the Philistine and Phoenician cities. As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron, Lachish, Jerusalem, Bethel, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel, Hazor, and Megiddo. Secondary Canaanite cities would develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade route from Eilath, Timna, Edom (Seir), Moab, Ammon, and thence to the Aramean states of Damascus and Palmyra. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and Tyrians in the case of Judah and Samaria, for the second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interior trade. Eventually, the prosperity of this trade would attract more powerful regional neighbours, such as Ancient Egypt, Assyria, the Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, and Romans, who would control the Canaanites politically, levying tribute, taxes, and tariffs. Often in such periods, thorough overgrazing would result in a climatic collapse and a repeat of the cycle (e.g., PPNB, Ghassulian, Uruk, and the Bronze Age cycles already mentioned). The fall of later Canaanite civilization occurred with the incorporation of the area into the Greco-Roman world (as Iudaea province), and after Byzantine times, into the Muslim Arab and proto-Muslim Umayyad Caliphate. Western Aramaic, one of the two lingua francas of Canaanite civilization, is still spoken in a number of small Syrian villages, whilst Phoenician Canaanite disappeared as a spoken language in about 100 CE. A separate Akkadian-infused Eastern Aramaic is still spoken by the existing Assyrians of Iraq, Iran, northeast Syria, and southeast Turkey. Tel Kabri contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE). The city, the most important of the cities in the Western Galilee during that period, had a palace at its center. Tel Kabri is the only Canaanite city that can be excavated in its entirety because after the city was abandoned, no other city was built over its remains. It is notable because the predominant extra-Canaanite cultural influence is Minoan; Minoan-style frescoes decorate the palace. ### Significant figures Figures mentioned in historiography or known through archaeology **Confirmed archaeologically** * Niqmaddu I of Ugarit (Known from a seal used by Ugaritan Kings) * Yaqarum I of Ugarit (Known from a seal used by Ugaritan Kings) * Ammittamru I of Ugarit (Amarna letters) * Niqmaddu II of Ugarit (Amarna letters) (1349–1315 BCE) * Arhalba of Ugarit (1315–1313 BCE) * Niqmepa of Ugarit (1313–1260 BCE) * Ammittamru II of Ugarit (1260–1235 BCE) * Ibiranu of Ugarit (1235–1220 BCE) * Ammurapi of Ugarit (1215–1185 BCE) * Aziru, ruler of Amurru (Amarna letters) * Labaya, lord of Shechem (Amarna letters) * Abdi-Heba, local chieftain of pre-Israelite Jerusalem (Jebus) (Amarna letters) * Šuwardata, king of the Canaanite city of Gath or 'mayor' of Qiltu (Amarna letters) **Rulers of Tyre** * Abibaal 990–978 BCE * Hiram I 978–944 BCE * Baal-Eser I (Balbazer I) 944–927 BCE * Abdastartus 927–918 BCE * Methusastartus 918–906 BCE * Astarymus 906–897 BCE * Phelles 897–896 BCE * Ithobaal I 896–863 BCE * Baal-Eser II (Balbazer II) 863–829 BCE * Mattan I 829–820 BCE * Pygmalion 820–774 BCE * Ithobaal II 750–739 BCE * Hiram II 739–730 BCE * Mattan II 730–729 BCE * Luli 729 694 BCE * Abd Melqart 694–680 BCE * Baal I 680–660 BCE Note:Tyre may have been under control of Assyria and/or Egypt for 70 years * Eshbaal III 591–573 BCE – *Carthage became independent of Tyre in 574 BCE* * Baal II 573–564 BCE (under Babylonian overlords) * Yakinbaal 564 BCE * Chelbes 564–563 BCE * Abbar 563–562 BCE * Mattan III and Ger Ashthari 562–556 BCE * Baal-Eser III 556–555 BCE * Mahar-Baal 555–551 BCE * Hiram III 551–532 BCE * Mattan III (under Persian control) * Boulomenus * Abdemon c. 420–411 BCE **Legends** * Cronos (Ilus), founder of Byblos according to Sanchuniathon * Makamaron, king of Canaan (Jubilees 46:6) **Characters in the Hebrew Bible** * Canaan, son of Ham (Gen. 10:6) * Sidon, firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15) * Heth, son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15) * Sihon, king of Amorites (Deut 1:4) * Og, king of Bashan (Deut 1:4) * Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem (Josh. 10:1) * Debir, king of Eglon (Josh. 10:3) * Jabin, name of two kings of Hazor (Josh. 11:1; Judges 5:6) ### Genetic studies A 2020 genetic analysis has found that the Bronze Age Canaanite population descended from earlier local Neolithic populations together with populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros Mountains and the Bronze Age Caucasus. According to the researchers, this mixture is probably the result of a continuing migration from the Zagros and/or Caucasus to the Levant between 2500–1000 BCE. The study has also shown that the Canaanite population contributed to most present-day Jewish groups and Levantine Arabic-speaking groups. These populations are consistent with having 50% or more of their ancestry from people related to groups who lived in the Bronze Age Levant and the Chalcolithic Zagros. These present-day groups also show ancestries that cannot be modeled by the available ancient DNA data, highlighting the importance of additional major genetic effects on the region since the Bronze Age. In Jewish and Christian scriptures ---------------------------------- ### Hebrew Bible Canaan and the Canaanites are mentioned some 160 times in the Hebrew Bible, mostly in the Torah and the books of Joshua and Judges. The biblical history has become increasingly problematic as the archaeological and textual evidence supports the idea that the early Israelites were in fact themselves Canaanites. While the Hebrew Bible distinguishes the Canaanites ethnically from the ancient Israelites, modern scholars Jonathan Tubb and Mark S. Smith have theorized—based on their archaeological and linguistic interpretations—that the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah represented a subset of Canaanite culture. In the Hebrew Bible an ancestor called Canaan first appears as one of Noah's grandsons. He appears during the narrative known as the curse of Ham, in which Canaan is cursed with perpetual slavery because his father Ham had "looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah. The expression "look upon" at times has sexual overtones in the Bible, as in Leviticus 20:11, "The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness..." As a result, interpreters have proposed a variety of possibilities as to what kind of transgression has been committed by Ham, including the possibility that maternal incest is implied. The passage in the Book of Genesis often called the Table of Nations presents the Canaanites as descendants of Canaan, (כְּנַעַן, *Knaan*). Genesis 10:15–19 states: > Canaan is the father of Sidon, his firstborn; and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered, and the borders of Canaan reached [across the Mediterranean coast] from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then [inland around the Jordan Valley ] toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. > > — Genesis 10:15–19 Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited the Mediterranean coastlands (Joshua 5:1), including Lebanon corresponding to Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11) and the Gaza Strip corresponding to Philistia (Zephaniah 2:5) and the Jordan Valley (Joshua 11:3, Numbers 13:29, Genesis 13:12). The Philistines, while an integral part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnic Canaanites, and were listed in the Table of Nations as descendants of Mizraim. The Arameans, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites and Edomites were also considered fellow descendants of Shem or Abraham, and distinct from generic Canaanites/Amorites. Heth, representing the Hittites, is a son of Canaan. The Horites, formerly of Mount Seir, were implied to be Canaanite (Hivite), although unusually there is no direct confirmation of this in the narrative. The Hurrians, based in Upper Mesopotamia, spoke the Hurrian language. #### Biblical borders In biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the Jordan River. The Canaanites were described as living "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan" (Book of Numbers 13:29) and "around Jordan" (Book of Joshua 22:9). John N. Oswalt notes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the Jordan and is distinguished from the area east of the Jordan." Oswalt then goes on to say that in Scripture, Canaan "takes on a theological character" as "the land which is God's gift" and "the place of abundance". The Book of Numbers, 34:2, includes the phrase "the land of Canaan as defined by its borders." The borders are then delineated in Numbers 34:3–12. The term "Canaanites" in biblical Hebrew is applied especially to the inhabitants of the lower regions, along the sea coast and on the shores of the Jordan River, as opposed to the inhabitants of the mountainous regions. #### Conquest of Canaan Yahweh promises the land of Canaan to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. and eventually delivers it to descendants of Abraham, the Israelites. The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan in the "Former Prophets" (*Nevi'im Rishonim*, נביאים ראשונים‎), viz. the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. These books give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of Moses and their entry into Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. The renaming of the Land of Canaan as the Land of Israel marks the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land. The Canaanites (Hebrew: כנענים‎, Modern: **Kna'anim**, Tiberian: **Kənaʻănîm**) are said to have been one of seven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out by the Israelites following the Exodus. Specifically, the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7:1). One of the 613 commandments prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the Girgashites, were to be left alive. (Deuteronomy 20:16). In 738 BC, the Neo-Assyrian empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel. In 586 BC, the Kingdom of Judah was annexed into the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The city of Jerusalem fell after a siege which lasted either eighteen or thirty months. By 586 BC, much of Judah was devastated, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population. ### New Testament "Canaan" (Ancient Greek: Χανάαν, romanized: *Khanáan*) is used only twice in the New Testament: both times in Acts of the Apostles when paraphrasing Old Testament stories. Additionally, the derivative *"Khananaia"* (Χαναναία, "Canaanite woman") is used in Matthew's version of the exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, while the Gospel of Mark uses the term *"Syrophoenician"* (Συροφοινίκισσα). ### Uses of the name By the Second Temple period (530 BC – 70 AD), "Canaanite" in the Hebrew language had come to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a general synonym for "merchant", as it is interpreted in, for example, Book of Job 40:30, or Book of Proverbs 31:24. The name "Canaanites" is attested as the endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks from c. 500 BC as Phoenicians, and following the emigration of Canaanite-speakers to Carthage (founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the Punics (*chanani*) of North Africa during Late Antiquity. This mirrors usage of the names Canaanites and Phoenicians in later books of the Hebrew Bible (such as at the end of the Book of Zechariah, where it is thought[*by whom?*] to refer to a class of merchants or to non-monotheistic worshippers in Israel or neighbouring Sidon and Tyre), as well as in its single independent usage in the New Testament (where it alternates with the term "Syrophoenician" in two parallel passages). The Septuagint (3rd and 2nd century BC) translates Canaan as "Phoenicia". Legacy ------ "Canaan" is used as a synonym of the Promised Land; for instance, it is used in this sense in the hymn "Canaan's Happy Shore", with the lines: "Oh, brothers, will you meet me, (3x)/On Canaan's happy shore," a hymn set to the tune later used in *The Battle Hymn of the Republic*. In the 1930s and 1940s, some Revisionist Zionist intellectuals in Mandatory Palestine founded the ideology of Canaanism, which sought to create a unique Hebrew identity, rooted in ancient Canaanite culture, rather than a Jewish one. See also -------- * Amarna letters–localities and their rulers * Archaeology of Israel * Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions * Canaanite gate of ancient Tell * Canaanite shift * Curse of Canaan * Names of the Levant * Proto-Canaanite alphabet * Knanaya * Ugarit * Yahwism General bibliography -------------------- * Bishop Moore, Megan; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). *Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History*. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6260-0. * Buck, Mary Ellen (2019). *The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts*. Cascade Books. p. 114. ISBN 9781532618048. * Coogan, Michael D. (1978). *Stories from Ancient Canaan*. Westminster Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3108-5. * This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cheyne, Thomas Kelly (1911). "Canaan, Canaanites". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 140–142. * Day, John (2002). *Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan*. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-6830-7. * Drews, Robert (1998). "Canaanites and Philistines". *Journal for the Study of the Old Testament*. **23** (81): 39–61. doi:10.1177/030908929802308104. S2CID 144074940. * Finkelstein, Israel (1996). "Towards a New Periodization and Nomenclature of the Archaeology of the Southern Levant". In Cooper, Jerrold S.; Schwartz, Glenn M. (eds.). *The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-First Century*. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-0-931464-96-6. * Golden, Jonathan M. (2009). *Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction*. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537985-3. * Killebrew, Ann E. (2005). *Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity*. SBL. ISBN 978-1-58983-097-4. * Lemche, Niels-Peter (1991). *The Canaanites and their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites*. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-567-45111-8. * Na'aman, Nadav (2005). *Canaan in the 2nd Millennium BCE*. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-113-9. * Noll, K.L. (2001). *Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction*. Continuum. ISBN 978-1-84127-318-1. * Smith, Mark S. (2002). *The Early History of God*. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-9004119437. * Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998). *Canaanites*. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8061-3108-5. The Canaanites and Their Land.

Canaan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan

**Yarn** is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. *Thread* is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses (referred to as "weights"). Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue. The term "yarn" has roots in several languages, including Middle English and Sanskrit, with yarn production dating back to the Stone Age. Yarn can be made from natural, synthetic, or a blend of fibers. Different fibers imbue the yarn with various properties, like durability or elasticity. The mechanical integrity of yarn is based on the frictional contacts between its composing fibers. Several types of yarn exist, each with unique properties and uses, and can be natural or dyed. Yarn for handcrafts is generally sold by weight, in sizes such as 25g, 50g, and 100g. The length of yarn in these weights can vary depending on the fiber's weight and strand's thickness. Yarn thickness is referred to as its weight, a standardization effort led by the Craft Yarn Council of America, ranging from 0 (finest) to 7 (thickest). Wraps per inch (WPI) is another measure of yarn weight, often used by weavers. Labels on yarn often contain gauge information, indicating the number of stitches and rows per inch or cm. In Europe, yarn weight is measured in tex or decitex units. Yarn can be wound in different ways, including hanks, skeins, donut balls, cakes, and cones. Hanks are looped bundles, often twisted or folded, while skeins are oblong-shaped balls of yarn. Etymology --------- The word "yarn" comes from Middle English, from the Old English *gearn*, akin to Old High German **garn**, "yarn", Dutch **garen**, Ancient Greek *χορδή*, "string", and Sanskrit *hira*, "band". History ------- The human production of yarn is known to have existed since the Stone Age and earlier prehistory, with ancient fiber materials developing from animal hides, to reeds, to early fabrics. Cotton, wool, and silk were the first materials for yarn, and textile trade contributed immensely to the ancient global economy. Materials --------- Yarn can be made from a number of natural or synthetic fibers, or a blend of natural and synthetic fibers. ### Natural fibers #### Cotton The most common plant fiber is cotton, which is typically spun into fine yarn for mechanical weaving or knitting into cloth. #### Silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by the larvae of the moth *Bombyx mori*. Silk production is thought to have begun in China and silk thread and cloth manufacture was well-established by the Shang dynasty (1600–1050 BCE). #### Linen Linen is another natural fiber with a long history of use for yarn and textiles. The linen fibers are derived from the flax plant. #### Other plant fibers Other plant fibers which can be spun include bamboo, hemp, maize, nettle, and soy fiber. #### Animal fibers The most commonly spun animal fiber is wool harvested from sheep. Due to modern breeding techniques which accelerate wool growth, shearing sheep is required to prevent pests and overheating. Other animal fibers used include alpaca, angora, mohair, llama, cashmere, and silk. More rarely, yarn may be spun from camel, yak, possum, musk ox, vicuña, cat, dog, wolf, rabbit, bison, or chinchilla hair, as well as turkey or ostrich feathers. Natural fibers such as these have the advantage of being slightly elastic and very breathable while trapping a great deal of air, making for some of the warmest fabrics. ### Synthetic fibers Some examples of synthetic fibers that are used as yarn are nylon, acrylic fiber, rayon, and polyester. Synthetic fibers are generally extruded in continuous strands of gel-state materials. These strands are drawn (stretched), annealed (hardened), and cured to obtain properties desirable for later processing. Synthetic fibers come in three basic forms: staple, tow, and filament. Staple is cut fibers, generally sold in lengths up to 120 mm. Tow is a continuous "rope" of fibers consisting of many filaments loosely joined side-to-side. Filament is a continuous strand consisting of anything from one filament to many. Synthetic fiber is most often measured in a weight per linear measurement basis, along with cut length. Denier and Dtex are the most common weight to length measures. Cut-length only applies to staple fiber. Filament extrusion is sometimes referred to as "spinning" but most people equate spinning with spun yarn production. ### Yarn from recycled materials **T-shirt yarn** is a yarn made from the same fabric as is used in T-shirts and other wearables. It is often made from the remainder fabric of clothing manufacture, and therefore is considered a recycled and green product. It can also be made at home out of used clothing. The resulting yarn can be used in knitted or crocheted items. ### Comparison of material properties In general, natural fibers tend to require more careful handling than synthetics because they can shrink, felt, stain, shed, fade, stretch, wrinkle, or be eaten by moths more readily, unless special treatments such as mercerization or super washing are performed to strengthen, fix color, or otherwise enhance the fiber's own properties. Some types of protein yarns (i.e., hair, silk, feathers) may feel irritating to some people, causing sensations of contact dermatitis, hives, wheezing reactions. These reactions are likely a sensitivity to thicker and coarser fiber diameter or fiber ends. In fact, contrary to popular belief, wool allergies are practically unknown. According to a study reviewing the evidence of wool as an allergen conducted by Acta Dermato-Venereologica, contemporary superfine or ultrafine Merino wool with their reduced fibre diameters do not provoke itch, are well tolerated and in fact benefit eczema management. Further studies suggest that known allergens applied during textile processing are minimally present in wool garments today given current industry practices and are unlikely to lead to allergic reactions. When natural hair-type fibers are burned, they tend to singe and have a smell of burnt hair; this is because many, as human hair, are protein-derived. Cotton and viscose (rayon) yarns burn as a wick. Synthetic yarns generally tend to melt though some synthetics are inherently flame-retardant. Noting how an unidentified fiber strand burns and smells can assist in determining if it is natural or synthetic, and what the fiber content is. Both synthetic and natural yarns can pill. Pilling is a function of fiber content, spinning method, twist, contiguous staple length, and fabric construction. Single ply yarns or using fibers like merino wool are known to pill more due to the fact that in the former, the single ply is not tight enough to securely retain all the fibers under abrasion, and the merino wool's short staple length allows the ends of the fibers to pop out of the twist more easily. Yarns combining synthetic and natural fibers inherit the properties of each parent, according to the proportional composition. Synthetics are added to lower cost, increase durability, add unusual color or visual effects, provide machine washability and stain resistance, reduce heat retention or lighten garment weight. Structure --------- ### Spun yarn Spun yarn is made by twisting staple fibres together to make a cohesive thread, or "single". Twisting fibres into yarn in the process called spinning can be dated back to the Upper Paleolithic, and yarn spinning was one of the first processes to be industrialized. Spun yarns are produced by placing a series of individual fibres or filaments together to form a continuous assembly of overlapping fibres, usually bound together by twist. Spun yarns may contain a single type of fibre, or be a blend of various types. Combining synthetic fibres (which can have high strength, lustre, and fire retardant qualities) with natural fibres (which have good water absorbency and skin comforting qualities) is very common. The most widely used blends are cotton-polyester and wool-acrylic fibre blends. Blends of different natural fibres are common too, especially with more expensive fibres such as alpaca, angora and cashmere. Yarn is selected for different textiles based on the characteristics of the yarn fibres, such as warmth (wool), light weight (cotton or rayon), durability (nylon is added to sock yarn, for example), or softness (cashmere, alpaca). Yarn is composed of twisted strands of fiber, which are known as plies when grouped together. These strands of yarn are twisted together (plied) in the opposite direction to make a thicker yarn. Depending on the direction of this final twist, the yarn will have either *s-twist* (the threads appear to go "up" to the left) or *z-twist* (to the right). For a single ply yarn, the direction of the final twist is the same as its original twist. The twist direction of yarn can affect the final properties of the fabric, and combined use of the two twist directions can nullify skewing in knitted fabric. The mechanical integrity of yarn is derived from frictional contacts between its composing fibers. The science behind this was first studied by Galileo. #### Carded and combed yarn Combed yarns are produced by adding another step of yarn spinning, namely combing, which aligns the fibres and removes the short fibres carried over from the previous step of carding. Combed yarn results in superior-quality fabrics. In comparison to carded yarns, this particular yarn is slightly more expensive, because the weaving is a long, consuming process. Combining separates small fibres from elongated fibres, in which this procedure makes the yarn softer and smoother. #### Hosiery yarn Hosiery yarns are used in the manufacturing of knitted fabrics. Since the knitted materials are more delicate than woven materials; hence hosiery yarns are made 'softer' with fewer twists per inch than their woven counterparts. Hosiery yarn comes from a separate spinning process, and is used with circular knitting machines to form fabric. #### Open-end yarn Open-end yarn is produced by open-end spinning without a spindle. The method of spinning is different from ring spinning. In open-end yarn, there is no roving frame stage. Sliver from the card goes into the rotor, is spun into yarn directly. Open-end yarn can be produced from shorter fibers. Open-end yarns are different from ring yarns. Open-end yarns are limited to coarser counts. #### Novelty yarn Novelty yarns or complex yarns are yarns with special (fancy) effects introduced during spinning or plying. One example is slub yarns, yarn with thick or thin sections alternating regularly or irregularly. In a similar manner, creating deliberate unevenness, additions or injections of neps or metallic or synthetic fibers (along with natural fibers) in spinning creates novelty yarns. ### Filament yarn Filament yarn consists of filament fibres (very long continuous fibres) either twisted together or only grouped together. Thicker monofilaments are typically used for industrial purposes rather than fabric production or decoration. Silk is a natural filament, and synthetic filament yarns are used to produce silk-like effects. #### Texturized yarn Texturized yarns are made by a process of air texturizing filament yarns (sometimes referred to as *taslanizing*), which combines multiple filament yarns into a yarn with some of the characteristics of spun yarns. They are synthetic continuous filaments that are modified to impart special texture and appearance. It was originally applied to synthetic fibers to reduce transparency, slipperiness and increase warmth, absorbency and makes the yarn more opaque. It was used to manufacture a variety of textile products: knitted underwear and outer wear, shape-retaining knitted suits, overcoats. They also were used in the production of artificial fur, carpets, blankets, etc. Colour ------ Yarn may be used undyed, or may be coloured with natural or artificial dyes. Most yarns have a single uniform hue, but there is also a wide selection of variegated yarns: * Heathered or tweed: yarn with flecks of different coloured fibre * Ombre: variegated yarn with light and dark shades of a single hue * Multicolored: variegated yarn with two or more distinct hues (a "parrot colourway" might have green, yellow and red) * Self-striping: yarn dyed with lengths of colour that will automatically create stripes in a knitted or crocheted object * Marled: yarn made from strands of different-coloured yarn twisted together, sometimes in closely related hues Weight ------ Yarn quantities for handcrafts are usually measured and sold by weight in ounces (oz) or grams (g). Common sizes include 25g, 50g, and 100g skeins. Some companies also primarily measure in ounces with common sizes being three-ounce, four-ounce, six-ounce, and eight-ounce skeins. Textile measurements are taken at a standard temperature and humidity, because fibers can absorb moisture from the air. The actual length of the yarn contained in a ball or skein can vary due to the inherent heaviness of the fibre and the thickness of the strand; for instance, a 50 g skein of lace weight mohair may contain several hundred metres, while a 50 g skein of bulky wool may contain only 60 metres. There are several thicknesses of craft yarn, referred to as weight. This is not to be confused with the measurement and weight listed above. The Craft Yarn Council of America is making an effort to promote a standardized industry system for measuring this, numbering the weights from 0 (finest) to 7 (thickest). Each weight can be described by a number and name. Size 0 yarn is called Lace, size 1 is Super Fine, size 2 is Fine, size 3 is Light, size 4 is Medium, size 5 is Bulky, size 6 is Super Bulky, and size 7 is Jumbo. Each weight also has several common, unregulated terms associated with it. However, this naming convention is more descriptive than precise; fibre artists disagree about where on the continuum each lies, and the precise relationships between the sizes. These terms include: fingering, sport, double-knit (or DK), worsted, aran (or heavy worsted), bulky, super-bulky, and roving. Another measurement of yarn weight, often used by weavers, is wraps per inch (WPI). The yarn is wrapped snugly around a ruler and the number of wraps that fit in an inch are counted. Labels on yarn for handicrafts often include information on gauge, which can also help determine yarn weight. Gauge, known in the UK as tension, is a measurement of how many stitches and rows are produced per inch or per cm on a specified size of knitting needle or crochet hook. The proposed standardization uses a four-by-four inch/ten-by-ten cm knitted stockinette or single crocheted square, with the resultant number of stitches across and rows high made by the suggested tools on the label to determine the gauge. In Europe, textile engineers often use the unit tex, which is the weight in grams of a kilometre of yarn, or decitex, which is a finer measurement corresponding to the weight in grams of 10 km of yarn. Many other units have been used over time by different industries. Yarn skeins ----------- There are many different ways in which yarn is wound, including hanks, skeins, donut balls, cakes, and cones. ### Hank A hank of yarn is a looped bundle of yarn, similar to how wire is typically sold. The yarn is usually tied in two places directly opposite each other to keep the loops together and to keep them from tangling. Hanks are a preferred method of fastening yarn for many yarn sellers and yarn-dyers due to its ability to more widely display the qualities of the fiber. It is often wound using a swift, a standing contraption that holds a yarn hank without obstruction and spins on a central axis to facilitate yarn ball winding There are two subtypes of hanks: twisted and folded. A twisted hank is a hank that has been twisted into a rope braid. A folded hank is a hank that has been folded in half and wrapped in a label for retail purposes. ### Skein Skeins are one of the most common types of yarn ball. Although skeins are technically described as yarn that has been wound into an oblong shape, the word "skein" is used generically to describe any ball of yarn. Many large-scale yarn retailers like Lion brand and parent companies like Yarnspirations sell their yarn in skeins. Unlike other types of yarn balls, a skein allows you to access both ends of the yarn. The yarn end in the inside of the skein is called a center pull. One major complaint of center pull bullet skeins is that the inside yarn end is not easily found, and often is pulled out of the skein in a jumble of tangled yarn called "yarn barf". There are two types of skeins: a pull skein, which is more rectangular in shape, and a bullet skein, which is rounder. Microscopic aspect of selected yarns ------------------------------------ Below are the images taken by a digital USB microscope. These show how the yarn looks in different kinds of clothes when magnified. * Woolen shawlWoolen shawl * Woolen shawl under microscopeWoolen shawl under microscope * Cloth pencil boxCloth pencil box * Cloth pencil box under microscopeCloth pencil box under microscope * JeansJeans * Jeans under microscopeJeans under microscope * SweatshirtSweatshirt * Sweatshirt under microscopeSweatshirt under microscope See also -------- * Crochet thread * Dye lot * Electrically conducting yarn * Embroidery thread * Microfiber * ISO 2 * List of novelty yarns * List of yarns for crochet and knitting * Thread (yarn) * Textile manufacturing * Yarn bombing * Yarn conditioning

Yarn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn

Tall buildings, such as skyscrapers, are intended here as enclosed structures with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least 340 metres (1,120 ft). Such definition excludes non-building structures, such as towers. History ------- Historically, the world's tallest man-made structure was the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which held the position for over 3800 years until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311. The Strasbourg Cathedral in France, completed in 1439, was the world's tallest building until 1874. The first skyscraper was pioneered in Chicago with the 138 ft (42.1 m) Home Insurance Building in 1885. The United States would remain the location of the world's tallest building throughout the 20th century until 1998, when the Petronas Towers were completed. Since then, two other buildings have gained the title: Taipei 101 in 2004 and Burj Khalifa in 2010. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia have experienced booms in skyscraper construction. Ranking criteria and alternatives --------------------------------- The international non-profit organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) was formed in 1969 and announces the title of "The World's Tallest Building" and sets the standards by which buildings are measured. It maintains a list of the 100 tallest completed buildings in the world. The organization currently ranks Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the tallest at 828 m (2,717 ft). However, the CTBUH only recognizes buildings that are complete, and some buildings included within the lists in this article are not considered finished by the CTBUH. In 1996, as a response to the dispute as to whether the Petronas Towers or the Sears Tower was taller, the council listed and ranked buildings in four categories: * height to structural or architectural top; * height to floor of highest occupied floor; * height to top of roof (removed as category in November 2009); and * height to top of any part of the building. All categories measure the building from the level of the lowest significant open-air pedestrian entrance. Spires are considered integral parts of the architectural design of buildings, changes to which would substantially change the appearance and design of the building, whereas antennas may be added or removed without such consequences. The Petronas Towers, with their spires, are thus ranked higher than the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) with its antennas, despite the Petronas Towers' lower roofs and lower highest point. Until 1996, the world's tallest building was defined by the height to the top of the tallest architectural element, including spires but not antennae. In 1930, this definitional argument led to a rivalry between the Bank of Manhattan Building and the Chrysler Building. The Bank of Manhattan Building (i.e. 40 Wall Street) employed only a short spire, was 282.5 m (927 ft) tall, and had a much higher top occupied floor (the second category in the 1996 criteria for tallest building). In contrast, the Chrysler Building employed a very large 38.1 m (125 ft) spire secretly assembled inside the building to claim the title of world's tallest building with a total height of 318.9 m (1,046 ft), although it had a lower top occupied floor and a shorter height when both buildings' spires were excluded. Upset by Chrysler's victory, Shreve & Lamb, the consulting architects of the Bank of Manhattan Building, wrote a newspaper article claiming that their building was actually the tallest, since it contained the world's highest usable floor, at 255 m (837 ft). They pointed out that the observation deck in the Bank of Manhattan Building was nearly 30 m (98 ft) above the top floor in the Chrysler Building, whose surpassing spire was strictly ornamental and inaccessible. The Burj Khalifa currently tops the list by some margin, regardless of which criterion is applied. Tallest buildings in the world ------------------------------ As of 21 June 2023, this list includes all 90 buildings (completed and architecturally topped out) which reach a height of 340 metres (1,120 ft) or more, as assessed by their highest architectural feature. The building is considered as architecturally topped out when it is under construction, structurally topped out, fully clad, and the highest finished architectural elements are in place. Of these buildings, almost half are in China. Six of the last seven buildings to have held the record as 'tallest building' are still found in the list, with the exception being the North Tower of the original World Trade Center at 417 metres (1,368 ft) after its destruction in the September 11 attacks of 2001. If the Twin Towers were never destroyed, and One World Trade Center was never built, the WTC towers would rank 35 and 36 on the list today. | | | | --- | --- | | **bold** | Denotes building that is or was once the tallest in the world | | Rank | Name | Image | Coordinates | City | Country | Height | Floors | Year | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | m | ft | | 1 | **Burj Khalifa** | | 25°11′50″N 55°16′27″E / 25.19722°N 55.27417°E / 25.19722; 55.27417 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 828 | 2,717 | 163 (+ 2 below ground) | 2010 | | | 2 | Merdeka 118 | | 3°8′30″N 101°42′2″E / 3.14167°N 101.70056°E / 3.14167; 101.70056 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 678.9 | 2,227 | 118 (+ 5 below ground) | 2023 | | | 3 | Shanghai Tower | | 31°14′7.8″N 121°30′3.6″E / 31.235500°N 121.501000°E / 31.235500; 121.501000 | Shanghai |  China | 632 | 2,073 | 128 (+ 5 below ground) | 2015 | | | 4 | Abraj Al-Bait Clock Tower | | 21°25′8″N 39°49′35″E / 21.41889°N 39.82639°E / 21.41889; 39.82639 | Mecca |  Saudi Arabia | 601 | 1,972 | 120 (+ 3 below ground) | 2012 | | | 5 | Ping An International Finance Centre | | 22°32′12″N 114°3′1″E / 22.53667°N 114.05028°E / 22.53667; 114.05028 | Shenzhen |  China | 599.1 | 1,966 | 115 (+ 5 below ground) | 2017 | | | 6 | Lotte World Tower | | 37°30′45″N 127°6′9″E / 37.51250°N 127.10250°E / 37.51250; 127.10250 | Seoul |  South Korea | 554.5 | 1,819 | 123 (+ 6 below ground) | 2017 | | | 7 | One World Trade Center | | 40°42′46.80″N 74°0′48.60″W / 40.7130000°N 74.0135000°W / 40.7130000; -74.0135000 | New York City |  United States | 541.3 | 1,776 | 94 (+ 5 below ground) | 2014 | | | 8 | Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre | | 23°7′13″N 113°19′14″E / 23.12028°N 113.32056°E / 23.12028; 113.32056 | Guangzhou |  China | 530 | 1,739 | 111 (+ 5 below ground) | 2016 | | | Tianjin CTF Finance Centre | | 39°1′16.97″N 117°41′54.46″E / 39.0213806°N 117.6984611°E / 39.0213806; 117.6984611 | Tianjin | 97 (+ 4 below ground) | 2019 | | | 10 | China Zun | | 39°54′41.44″N 116°27′36.83″E / 39.9115111°N 116.4602306°E / 39.9115111; 116.4602306 | Beijing | 527.7 | 1,731 | 109 (+ 8 below ground) | 2018 | | | 11 | **Taipei 101** | | 25°2′1″N 121°33′54″E / 25.03361°N 121.56500°E / 25.03361; 121.56500 | Taipei |  Taiwan | 508 | 1,667 | 101 (+ 5 below ground) | 2004 | | | 12 | Shanghai World Financial Center | | 31°14′12″N 121°30′10″E / 31.23667°N 121.50278°E / 31.23667; 121.50278 | Shanghai |  China | 492 | 1,614 | 101 (+ 3 below ground) | 2008 | | | 13 | International Commerce Centre | | 22°18′12.21″N 114°9′36.61″E / 22.3033917°N 114.1601694°E / 22.3033917; 114.1601694 | Hong Kong | 484 | 1,588 | 108 (+ 4 below ground) | 2010 | | | 14 | Wuhan Greenland Center | | 30°35′5″N 114°18′52″E / 30.58472°N 114.31444°E / 30.58472; 114.31444 | Wuhan | 475.6 | 1,560 | 101 (+ 6 below ground) | 2023 | | | 15 | Central Park Tower | | 40°45′58.8″N 73°58′51.4″W / 40.766333°N 73.980944°W / 40.766333; -73.980944 | New York City |  United States | 472.4 | 1,550 | 98 (+ 4 below ground) | 2021 | | | 16 | Lakhta Center | | 59°59′13.31″N 30°10′41.30″E / 59.9870306°N 30.1781389°E / 59.9870306; 30.1781389 | Saint Petersburg |  Russia | 462 | 1,516 | 87 (+ 3 below ground) | 2019 | | | 17 | Landmark 81 | | 10°47′42″N 106°43′19″E / 10.79500°N 106.72194°E / 10.79500; 106.72194 | Ho Chi Minh City |  Vietnam | 461.2 | 1,513 | 81 (+ 3 below ground) | 2018 | | | 18 | International Land-Sea Center | | 29°33′11.34″N 106°30′49.41″E / 29.5531500°N 106.5137250°E / 29.5531500; 106.5137250 | Chongqing |  China | 458.2 | 1,503 | 98 (+ 4 below ground) | 2024 | | | 19 | The Exchange 106 | | 3°8′30.84″N 101°43′7.50″E / 3.1419000°N 101.7187500°E / 3.1419000; 101.7187500 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 453.6 | 1,488 | 95 (+ 6 below ground) | 2019 | | | 20 | Changsha IFS Tower T1 | | 28°11′43.51″N 112°58′24.31″E / 28.1954194°N 112.9734194°E / 28.1954194; 112.9734194 | Changsha |  China | 452.1 | 1,483 | 94 (+ 5 below ground) | 2018 | | | 21 | **Petronas Tower 1** | | 3°9′27.3″N 101°42′41.1″E / 3.157583°N 101.711417°E / 3.157583; 101.711417 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 451.9 | 1,483 | 88 (+ 5 below ground) | 1998 | | | **Petronas Tower 2** | 3°9′29.6″N 101°42′43.7″E / 3.158222°N 101.712139°E / 3.158222; 101.712139 | | 23 | Zifeng Tower | | 32°3′44.9″N 118°46′41.0″E / 32.062472°N 118.778056°E / 32.062472; 118.778056 | Nanjing |  China | 450 | 1,476 | 89 (+ 5 below ground) | 2010 | | | Suzhou IFS | | 31°19′26.8″N 120°42′46.1″E / 31.324111°N 120.712806°E / 31.324111; 120.712806 | Suzhou | 95 (+ 5 below ground) | 2019 | | | 25 | Wuhan Center | | 30°35′47.94″N 114°14′22.81″E / 30.5966500°N 114.2396694°E / 30.5966500; 114.2396694 | Wuhan | 443.1 | 1,454 | 88 (+ 4 below ground) | 2019 | | | 26 | **Willis Tower** | | 41°52′43.00″N 87°38′8.99″W / 41.8786111°N 87.6358306°W / 41.8786111; -87.6358306 | Chicago |  United States | 442.1 | 1,450 | 108 (+ 3 below ground) | 1974 | | | 27 | KK100 | | 22°32′44.99″N 114°6′5.62″E / 22.5458306°N 114.1015611°E / 22.5458306; 114.1015611 | Shenzhen |  China | 441.8 | 1,449 | 98 (+ 4 below ground) | 2011 | | | 28 | Guangzhou International Finance Center | | 23°7′13.25″N 113°19′5.07″E / 23.1203472°N 113.3180750°E / 23.1203472; 113.3180750 | Guangzhou | 438.6 | 1,439 | 101 (+ 4 below ground) | 2010 | | | 29 | 111 West 57th Street | | 40°45′53.6″N 73°58′39.0″W / 40.764889°N 73.977500°W / 40.764889; -73.977500 | New York City |  United States | 435.3 | 1,428 | 84 (+ 2 below ground) | 2021 | | | 30 | One Vanderbilt | | 40°45′27″N 73°58′23″W / 40.75750°N 73.97306°W / 40.75750; -73.97306 | 427 | 1,401 | 62 (+ 4 below ground) | 2020 | | | 31 | 432 Park Avenue | | 40°45′42″N 73°58′19″W / 40.76167°N 73.97194°W / 40.76167; -73.97194 | 425.7 | 1,397 | 85 (+ 3 below ground) | 2015 | | | 32 | Marina 101 | | 25°5′20.33″N 55°8′55.07″E / 25.0889806°N 55.1486306°E / 25.0889806; 55.1486306 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 425 | 1,394 | 101 (+ 6 below ground) | 2017 | | | 33 | Trump International Hotel and Tower | | 41°53′20.76″N 87°37′36.02″W / 41.8891000°N 87.6266722°W / 41.8891000; -87.6266722 | Chicago |  United States | 423.2 | 1,388 | 98 (+ 2 below ground) | 2009 | | | 34 | Dongguan International Trade Center 1 | | 23°1′30″N 113°44′54″E / 23.02500°N 113.74833°E / 23.02500; 113.74833 | Dongguan |  China | 422.6 | 1,386 | 85 (+ 3 below ground) | 2021 | | | 35 | Jin Mao Tower | | 31°14′14″N 121°30′5″E / 31.23722°N 121.50139°E / 31.23722; 121.50139 | Shanghai | 420.5 | 1,380 | 88 (+ 3 below ground) | 1999 | | | 36 | Princess Tower | | 25°5′19.05″N 55°8′48.69″E / 25.0886250°N 55.1468583°E / 25.0886250; 55.1468583 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 413.4 | 1,356 | 101 (+ 6 below ground) | 2012 | | | 37 | Al Hamra Tower | | 29°22′43″N 47°59′34″E / 29.37861°N 47.99278°E / 29.37861; 47.99278 | Kuwait City |  Kuwait | 412.6 | 1,354 | 80 (+ 3 below ground) | 2011 | | | 38 | Two International Finance Centre | | 22°17′6″N 114°9′33″E / 22.28500°N 114.15917°E / 22.28500; 114.15917 | Hong Kong |  China | 412 | 1,352 | 88 (+ 6 below ground) | 2003 | | | 39 | Haeundae LCT The Sharp Landmark Tower | | 35°9′41″N 129°10′26″E / 35.16139°N 129.17389°E / 35.16139; 129.17389 | Busan |  South Korea | 411.6 | 1,350 | 101 (+ 5 below ground) | 2019 | | | 40 | Guangxi China Resources Tower | | 22°48′53.4″N 108°23′28.1″E / 22.814833°N 108.391139°E / 22.814833; 108.391139 | Nanning |  China | 402.7 | 1,321 | 86 (+ 3 below ground) | 2020 | | | 41 | Guiyang International Financial Center T1 | | 26°39′3.416″N 106°38′40.322″E / 26.65094889°N 106.64453389°E / 26.65094889; 106.64453389 | Guiyang | 401 | 1,316 | 79 (+ 5 below ground) | 2020 | | | 42 | China Resources Tower | | 22°31′3.94″N 113°56′29.76″E / 22.5177611°N 113.9416000°E / 22.5177611; 113.9416000 | Shenzhen | 392.5 | 1,288 | 68 (+ 5 below ground) | 2018 | | | 43 | 23 Marina | | 25°5′23.32″N 55°9′2.20″E / 25.0898111°N 55.1506111°E / 25.0898111; 55.1506111 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 392.4 | 1,287 | 88 (+ 4 below ground) | 2012 | | | 44 | CITIC Plaza | | 23°8′40″N 113°19′10″E / 23.14444°N 113.31944°E / 23.14444; 113.31944 | Guangzhou |  China | 390.2 | 1,280 | 80 (+ 2 below ground) | 1996 | | | 45 | Citymark Centre | | | Shenzhen | 388.3 | 1,274 | 70 (+ 7 below ground) | 2022 | | | 46 | Shum Yip Upperhills Tower 1 | | 22°33′31″N 114°3′58″E / 22.55861°N 114.06611°E / 22.55861; 114.06611 | 388.1 | 1,273 | 80 (+ 3 below ground) | 2020 | | | 47 | 30 Hudson Yards | | 40°45′31″N 73°59′55″W / 40.75861°N 73.99861°W / 40.75861; -73.99861 | New York City |  United States | 387.1 | 1,270 | 73 (+ 1 below ground) | 2019 | | | 48 | Public Investment Fund Tower | | 24°45′46″N 46°38′25″E / 24.76278°N 46.64028°E / 24.76278; 46.64028 | Riyadh |  Saudi Arabia | 385 | 1,263 | 72 (+ 4 below ground) | 2021 | | | 49 | Shun Hing Square | | 22°32′43″N 114°6′21″E / 22.54528°N 114.10583°E / 22.54528; 114.10583 | Shenzhen |  China | 384 | 1,260 | 69 (+ 3 below ground) | 1996 | | | 50 | Eton Place Dalian Tower 1 | | 38°55′3″N 121°37′28″E / 38.91750°N 121.62444°E / 38.91750; 121.62444 | Dalian | 383.2 | 1,257 | 80 (+ 4 below ground) | 2016 | | | 51 | Autograph Tower | | 6°11′55″S 106°49′20″E / 6.19861°S 106.82222°E / -6.19861; 106.82222 | Jakarta |  Indonesia | 382.9 | 1,256 | 75 (+ 6 below ground) | 2022 | | | 52 | Logan Century Center 1 | | 22°48′42.2″N 108°23′41.2″E / 22.811722°N 108.394778°E / 22.811722; 108.394778 | Nanning |  China | 381.3 | 1,251 | 82 (+ 4 below ground) | 2018 | | | 53 | Burj Mohammed bin Rashid | | 24°29′17″N 54°21′23″E / 24.48806°N 54.35639°E / 24.48806; 54.35639 | Abu Dhabi |  United Arab Emirates | 381.2 | 1,251 | 88 (+ 5 below ground) | 2014 | | | 54 | **Empire State Building** | | 40°44′54″N 73°59′7″W / 40.74833°N 73.98528°W / 40.74833; -73.98528 | New York City |  United States | 381 | 1,250 | 102 (+ 1 below ground) | 1931 | | | 55 | Elite Residence | | 25°5′22.42″N 55°8′52.40″E / 25.0895611°N 55.1478889°E / 25.0895611; 55.1478889 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 380.5 | 1,248 | 87 (+ 4 below ground) | 2012 | | | 56 | Riverview Plaza | | 30°36′38.8″N 114°18′12.9″E / 30.610778°N 114.303583°E / 30.610778; 114.303583 | Wuhan |  China | 376 | 1,234 | 73 (+ 3 below ground) | 2021 | | | 57 | Dabaihui Plaza | | 22°32′20″N 114°3′32″E / 22.53889°N 114.05889°E / 22.53889; 114.05889 | Shenzhen | 375.6 | 1,232 | 70 (+ 4 below ground) | 2021 | | | 58 | Central Plaza | | 22°16′48″N 114°10′25″E / 22.28000°N 114.17361°E / 22.28000; 114.17361 | Hong Kong | 373.9 | 1,227 | 78 (+ 3 below ground) | 1992 | | | 59 | Federation Tower (East Tower) | | 55°44′59.5″N 37°32′16.0″E / 55.749861°N 37.537778°E / 55.749861; 37.537778 | Moscow |  Russia | 373.7 | 1,226 | 93 (+ 4 below ground) | 2016 | | | 60 | Dalian International Trade Center | | 38°55′10.6″N 121°37′58.8″E / 38.919611°N 121.633000°E / 38.919611; 121.633000 | Dalian |  China | 370.2 | 1,215 | 86 (+ 7 below ground) | 2019 | | | 61 | Address Boulevard | | 25°12′3.28″N 55°16′34.43″E / 25.2009111°N 55.2762306°E / 25.2009111; 55.2762306 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 370 | 1,214 | 73 (+ 3 below ground) | 2017 | | | 62 | Haitian Center Tower 2 | | 36°3′23″N 120°21′53″E / 36.05639°N 120.36472°E / 36.05639; 120.36472 | Qingdao |  China | 368.9 | 1,210 | 73 (+ 6 below ground) | 2021 | | | 63 | Golden Eagle Tiandi Tower A | | 32°1′33.74″N 118°44′5.57″E / 32.0260389°N 118.7348806°E / 32.0260389; 118.7348806 | Nanjing | 368.1 | 1,208 | 77 (+ 4 below ground) | 2019 | | | 64 | Bank of China Tower | | 22°16′45″N 114°9′41″E / 22.27917°N 114.16139°E / 22.27917; 114.16139 | Hong Kong | 367 | 1,205 | 72 (+ 4 below ground) | 1990 | | | 65 | Bank of America Tower | | 40°45′19.01″N 73°59′3.01″W / 40.7552806°N 73.9841694°W / 40.7552806; -73.9841694 | New York City |  United States | 365.8 | 1,200 | 55 (+ 3 below ground) | 2009 | | | 66 | St. Regis Chicago | | 41°53′0″N 87°36′58″W / 41.88333°N 87.61611°W / 41.88333; -87.61611 | Chicago | 362.9 | 1,191 | 92 (+ 5 below ground) | 2020 | | | 67 | Almas Tower | | 25°4′7.79″N 55°8′28.07″E / 25.0688306°N 55.1411306°E / 25.0688306; 55.1411306 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 360 | 1,181 | 68 (+ 5 below ground) | 2008 | | | 68 | Hanking Center | | 22°32′44″N 113°56′4″E / 22.54556°N 113.93444°E / 22.54556; 113.93444 | Shenzhen |  China | 358.9 | 1,177 | 65 (+ 5 below ground) | 2018 | | | 69 | Greenland Group Suzhou Center | | 31°8′8.7″N 120°35′2.9″E / 31.135750°N 120.584139°E / 31.135750; 120.584139 | Suzhou | 358 | 1,175 | 77 (+ 3 below ground) | 2022 | | | 70 | Gevora Hotel | | 25°12′45.07″N 55°16′36.52″E / 25.2125194°N 55.2768111°E / 25.2125194; 55.2768111 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 356.3 | 1,169 | 75 (+ 2 below ground) | 2017 | | | 71 | Galaxy World Tower 1 | | 22°36′26.03″N 114°3′25.06″E / 22.6072306°N 114.0569611°E / 22.6072306; 114.0569611 | Shenzhen |  China | 356 | 1,168 | 71 (+ 5 below ground) | 2023 | | | Galaxy World Tower 2 | 22°36′26.6″N 114°3′20.9″E / 22.607389°N 114.055806°E / 22.607389; 114.055806 | | Il Primo Tower | | 25°11′46″N 55°16′19″E / 25.19611°N 55.27194°E / 25.19611; 55.27194 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 356 | 1,168 | 79 | 2022 | | | 73 | JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Tower 1 | | 25°11′9.6″N 55°15′30.4″E / 25.186000°N 55.258444°E / 25.186000; 55.258444 | 355.4 | 1,166 | 82 (+ 2 below ground) | 2012 | | | JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Tower 2 | 25°11′7.1″N 55°15′28.0″E / 25.185306°N 55.257778°E / 25.185306; 55.257778 | 2013 | | 75 | Emirates Office Tower | | 25°13′3″N 55°17′0″E / 25.21750°N 55.28333°E / 25.21750; 55.28333 | 354.6 | 1,163 | 54 | 2000 | | | 76 | Raffles City Chongqing T3N | | 29°34′5.6″N 106°35′1.5″E / 29.568222°N 106.583750°E / 29.568222; 106.583750 | Chongqing |  China | 354.5 | 1,163 | 79 (+ 3 below ground) | 2019 | | | Raffles City Chongqing T4N | 74 (+ 3 below ground) | | 77 | OKO – South Tower | | 55°44′57.7″N 37°32′2.7″E / 55.749361°N 37.534083°E / 55.749361; 37.534083 | Moscow |  Russia | 354.2 | 1,162 | 90 (+ 2 below ground) | 2015 | | | 78 | The Marina Torch | | 25°5′16.73″N 55°8′50.75″E / 25.0879806°N 55.1474306°E / 25.0879806; 55.1474306 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 352 | 1,155 | 86 (+ 4 below ground) | 2011 | | | 79 | Forum 66 Tower 1 | | 41°47′58″N 123°25′39″E / 41.79944°N 123.42750°E / 41.79944; 123.42750 | Shenyang |  China | 350.6 | 1,150 | 68 (+ 4 below ground) | 2015 | | | 80 | The Pinnacle | | 23°7′40.1″N 113°19′4.8″E / 23.127806°N 113.318000°E / 23.127806; 113.318000 | Guangzhou | 350.3 | 1,149 | 60 (+ 6 below ground) | 2012 | | | 81 | Xi'an Glory International Financial Center | | 34°11′40.92″N 108°52′40.30″E / 34.1947000°N 108.8778611°E / 34.1947000; 108.8778611 | Xi'an | 350 | 1,148 | 75 (+ 4 below ground) | 2021 | | | 82 | Spring City 66 | | | Kunming | 349 | 1,145 | 61 (+ 4 below ground) | 2020 | | | 83 | 85 Sky Tower | | | Kaoshiung |  Taiwan | 347.5 | 1,140 | 85 (+ 5 below ground) | 1997 | | | 84 | Aon Center | | | Chicago |  United States | 346.3 | 1,136 | 83 (+ 5 below ground) | 1973 | | | 85 | The Center | | | Hong Kong |  China | 346 | 1,135 | 73 (+ 3 below ground) | 1998 | | | 86 | Neva Tower 2 | | | Moscow |  Russia | 345 | 1,132 | 79 (+ 3 below ground) | 2020 | | | 87 | 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly John Hancock Center) | | | Chicago |  United States | 343.7 | 1,128 | 100 (+ 1 below ground) | 1969 | | | 88 | Shimao Global Financial Center | | | Changsha |  China | 343 | 1,125 | 74 (+ 4 below ground) | 2020 | | | 89 | Four Seasons Place Kuala Lumpur | | | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 342.5 | 1,124 | 75 (+ 4 below ground) | 2018 | | | 90 | ADNOC Headquarters | | | Abu Dhabi |  United Arab Emirates | 342 | 1,122 | 65 (+ 2 below ground) | 2015 | | | 91 | One Shenzhen Bay Tower 7 | | | Shenzhen |  China | 341.4 | 1,120 | 71 (+ 3 below ground) | 2018 | | List of tallest buildings is located in EarthBurj KhalifaBurj KhalifBurj KhalifaBurj KhalifMerdeka 118Merdeka 118Shanghai TowerShanghai Towerbraj Al BaitAbraj Al Baitbraj Al BaitAbraj Al Bait↖︎Ping An IFC↖︎Ping An IFCLotte World TowerLotte World TowerOne WTCOne WTCGuangzhou CTF FC↘︎Guangzhou CTF FC↘︎↙︎Tianjin CTF FC↙︎Tianjin CTF FCChina Zun →China Zun →Taipei 101Taipei 101class=notpageimage| Buildings taller than 500 m and their locations Alternative measurements ------------------------ ### Height to pinnacle (highest point) This measurement disregards distinctions between architectural and non-architectural extensions, and simply measures to the highest point, irrespective of material or function of the highest element. This measurement is useful for air traffic obstacle determinations, and is also a wholly objective measure. However, this measurement includes extensions that are easily added, removed, and modified from a building and are independent of the overall structure. This measurement only recently came into use, when the Petronas Towers passed the Sears Tower (now named Willis Tower) in height. The former was considered taller because its spires were considered architectural, while the latter's antennae were not. This led to the split of definitions, with the Sears Tower claiming the lead in this and the height-to-roof (now highest occupied floor) categories, and with the Petronas claiming the lead in the architectural height category. If the World Trade Center towers were still standing, the North (1,368 feet (417 m)) and South Towers (1,362 feet (415.1 m)) would fall between numbers 35 and 36 on the current list (it can be assumed the rebuilt One World Trade Center would have never been built). | | | | --- | --- | | † | Denotes building with pinnacle height higher than architectural | | Rank | Building | City | Country | Height | Floors | Built | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Burj Khalifa† | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 829.8 m | 2,722 ft | 163 | 2010 | | 2 | Merdeka 118† | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 680.1 m | 2,231 ft | 118 | 2022 | | 3 | Shanghai Tower | Shanghai |  China | 632 m | 2,073 ft | 128 | 2015 | | 4 | Abraj Al-Bait Towers | Mecca |  Saudi Arabia | 601 m | 1,971 ft | 120 | 2012 | | 5 | Ping An Finance Center | Shenzhen |  China | 599.1 m | 1,965 ft | 115 | 2016 | | 6 | Lotte World Tower† | Seoul |  South Korea | 555.7 m | 1,823 ft | 123 | 2016 | | 7 | One World Trade Center† | New York City |  United States | 546.2 m | 1,792 ft | 104 | 2014 | | 8 | Tianjin CTF Finance Centre† | Tianjin |  China | 530.4 m | 1,740 ft | 98 | 2019 | | 9 | Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre | Guangzhou |  China | 530 m | 1,739 ft | 111 | 2016 | | 10 | China Zun | Beijing |  China | 528 m | 1,732 ft | 108 | 2018 | | 11 | Willis Tower† | Chicago |  United States | 527 m | 1,729 ft | 108 | 1974 | | 12 | Taipei 101 | Taipei |  Taiwan | 508 m | 1,667 ft | 101 | 2004 | | 13 | Shanghai World Financial Center† | Shanghai |  China | 494.3 m | 1,622 ft | 101 | 2008 | | 14 | International Commerce Centre | Hong Kong |  China | 484 m | 1,588 ft | 118 | 2010 | | 15 | Wuhan Greenland Center | Wuhan |  China | 475.6 m | 1,560 ft | 97 | 2021 | | 16 | Central Park Tower | New York City |  United States | 472.4 m | 1,550 ft | 98 | 2020 | | 17 | Landmark 81† | Ho Chi Minh City |  Vietnam | 469.5 m | 1,540 ft | 81 | 2018 | | 18 | Lakhta Center | St. Petersburg |  Russia | 462 m | 1,516 ft | 86 | 2019 | | 19 | International Land-Sea Center | Chongqing |  China | 458.2 m | 1,503 ft | 98 | 2022 | | 20 | John Hancock Center† | Chicago |  United States | 456.9 m | 1,499 ft | 100 | 1969 | | 21 | The Exchange 106 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 453.6 m | 1,488 ft | 95 | 2019 | | 22 | Changsha IFS Tower T1 | Changsha |  China | 452.1 m | 1,483 ft | 94 | 2018 | | 23 | Petronas Tower 1 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 451.9 m | 1,483 ft | 88 | 1998 | | 23 | Petronas Tower 2 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 451.9 m | 1,483 ft | 88 | 1998 | | 25 | Zifeng Tower | Nanjing |  China | 450 m | 1,476 ft | 89 | 2010 | | 25 | Suzhou IFS | Suzhou |  China | 450 m | 1,476 ft | 98 | 2019 | | 27 | Empire State Building† | New York City |  United States | 443.2 m | 1,454 ft | 102 | 1931 | | 28 | Kingkey 100 | Shenzhen |  China | 441.8 m | 1,449 ft | 100 | 2011 | | 29 | Guangzhou International Finance Center | Guangzhou |  China | 438.6 m | 1,445 ft | 103 | 2009 | | 30 | Wuhan Center | Wuhan |  China | 438 m | 1,437 ft | 88 | 2019 | | 31 | 111 West 57th Street | New York City |  United States | 435.3 m | 1,428 ft | 82 | 2020 | | 32 | Dongguan International Trade Center 1 | Dongguan |  China | 426.9 m | 1,401 ft | 88 | 2020 | | 33 | One Vanderbilt | New York City |  United States | 427 m | 1,401 ft | 58 | 2020 | | 34 | 432 Park Avenue | New York City |  United States | 425.5 m | 1,396 ft | 85 | 2015 | | 35 | Marina 101 | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 425 m | 1,394 ft | 101 | 2017 | | 36 | Trump International Hotel and Tower | Chicago |  United States | 423.2 m | 1,388 ft | 96 | 2009 | | 37 | Jin Mao Tower | Shanghai |  China | 421 m | 1,381 ft | 88 | 1998 | | 38 | Princess Tower† | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 414 m | 1,358 ft | 101 | 2012 | | 39 | Al Hamra Tower | Kuwait City |  Kuwait | 412.6 m | 1,354 ft | 80 | 2010 | | 40 | Two International Finance Centre | Hong Kong |  China | 412 m | 1,352 ft | 88 | 2003 | | 41 | Haeundae LCT The Sharp Landmark Tower | Busan |  South Korea | 411.6 m | 1,350 ft | 101 | 2019 | | 42 | Guangxi China Resources Tower | Nanning |  China | 402.7 m | 1,321 ft | 85 | 2019 | | 43 | Guiyang Financial Center Tower 1 | Guiyang |  China | 401 m | 1,316 ft | 79 | 2021 | ### Height to occupied floor This height is measured to the highest occupiable floor within the building. | Rank | Building | City | Country | Height | Floors | Built | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Burj Khalifa | Dubai |  United Arab Emirates | 585.4 m (1,921 ft) | 163 | 2010 | | 2 | Shanghai Tower | Shanghai |  China | 583.4 m (1,914 ft) | 128 | 2015 | | 3 | Ping An Finance Center | Shenzhen |  China | 562.2 m (1,844 ft) | 115 | 2016 | | 4 | China Zun | Beijing |  China | 515.5 m (1,691 ft) | 108 | 2018 | | 5 | Merdeka 118 | Kuala Lumpur |  Malaysia | 502.8 m (1,650 ft) | 118 | 2023 | | 6 | Lotte World Tower | Seoul |  South Korea | 497.6 m (1,633 ft) | 123 | 2016 | | 7 | Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre | Guangzhou |  China | 495.5 m (1,626 ft) | 111 | 2016 | | 8 | Abraj Al-Bait Towers | Mecca |  Saudi Arabia | 494.4 m (1,622 ft) | 120 | 2012 | | 9 | Shanghai World Financial Center | Shanghai |  China | 474 m (1,555 ft) | 101 | 2008 | | 10 | International Commerce Centre | Hong Kong |  China | 468.8 m (1,538 ft) | 118 | 2010 | | 11 | Tianjin CTF Finance Centre | Tianjin |  China | 439.4 m (1,442 ft) | 97 | 2018 | | 12 | Taipei 101 | Taipei |  Taiwan | 438 m (1,437 ft) | 101 | 2004 | | 13 | Central Park Tower | New York City |  United States | 431.8 m (1,417 ft) | 98 | 2020 | | 14 | Changsha IFS Tower T1 | Changsha |  China | 431 m (1,414 ft) | 94 | 2017 | | 15 | International Land-Sea Center | Chongqing |  China | 429.8 m (1,410 ft) | 98 | 2022 | | 16 | KK100 | Shenzhen |  China | 427.1 m (1,401 ft) | 98 | 2011 | | 17 | Guangzhou International Finance Center | Guangzhou |  China | 415.1 m (1,362 ft) | 101 | 2010 | | 18 | Willis Tower | Chicago |  United States | 412.7 m (1,354 ft) | 108 | 1974 | Buildings under construction ---------------------------- This is a list of buildings taller than 350 m that are currently under construction. On-hold buildings whose construction was interrupted after it had reached a significantly advanced state are also listed. | Building | Planned architectural height | Floors | Planned completion | Country | City | Ref. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Jeddah Tower | 1,000 m (3,300 ft) | 167+ | ? |  Saudi Arabia | Jeddah | | | Goldin Finance 117 | 597 m (1,959 ft) | 117 |  ? |  China | Tianjin | | | The Line | 500 m (1,600 ft) |  ? |  ? |  Saudi Arabia | Neom | | | Greenland Jinmao International Financial Center | 499.8 m (1,640 ft) | 102 | 2025 |  China | Nanjing | | | Suzhou Zhongnan Center | 499.2 m (1,638 ft) | 103 | 2025 |  China | Suzhou | | | HeXi Yuzui Tower A | 498.8 m (1,636 ft) | 84 | 2025 |  China | Nanjing | | | Greenland Centre | 498 m (1,634 ft) | 108 | 2025 |  China | Xi'an | | | Fuyuan Zhongshan 108 IFC | 498 m (1,634 ft) | 101 | 2029 |  China | Zhongshan | | | Tianfu Center | 488.9 m (1,604 ft) | 95 | 2026 |  China | Chengdu | | | Chushang Building | 475 m (1,558 ft) | 111 | 2025 |  China | Wuhan | | | Wuhan CTF Centre | 475 m (1,558 ft) | 84 | 2026 |  China | Wuhan | | | Fosun Bund Center T1 | 470 m (1,540 ft) |  ? |  ? |  China | Wuhan | | | Suzhou Center North Tower | 470 m (1,540 ft) |  ? | 2024 |  China | Suzhou | | | Chengdu Greenland Tower | 468 m (1,535 ft) | 101 | 2024 |  China | Chengdu | | | Guohua Financial Center Tower 1 | 465 m (1,526 ft) | 79 |  ? |  China | Wuhan | | | Tianshan Gate of the World | 450 m (1,480 ft) | 106 | 2025 |  China | Shijiazhuang | | | China Resources Land Center | 450 m (1,480 ft) | 98 |  ? |  China | Dongguan | | | One Bangkok | 436.1 m (1,431 ft) | 92 | 2025 |  Thailand | Bangkok | | | Greenland Shandong International Financial Center | 428 m (1,404 ft) | 88 | 2023 |  China | Jinan | | | Greenland Center Tower 1 | 428 m (1,404 ft) | ? | ? | Kunming | | | Nanjing Financial City Tower 1 | 426 m (1,398 ft) | 88 | 2024 | Nanjing | | | JPMorgan Chase Building | 423 m (1,388 ft) | 63 | 2025 |  United States | New York City | | | Ningbo Center Tower 1 | 409 m (1,342 ft) | 80 | 2024 |  China | Ningbo | | | Dongfeng Plaza Landmark Tower | 407 m (1,335 ft) | 100 | 2024 |  China | Kunming | | | Wuhan Yangtze River Center Tower | 400 m (1,300 ft) | 82 | 2025 |  China | Wuhan | | | Mukaab | 400 m (1,300 ft) | ? | 2030 |  Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | | | Hangzhou West Railway Station Hub Tower 1 | 399.8 m (1,312 ft) | 83 |  ? |  China | Hangzhou | | | Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base Tower C-1 | 394 m (1,293 ft) | 78 | 2027 |  China | Shenzhen | | | Evergrande Center | 393.9 m (1,292 ft) | 71 | 2024 |  China | Shenzhen | | | Iconic Tower | 393.8 m (1,292 ft) | 77 | 2023 |  Egypt | Cairo | | | Haiyun Plaza Tower 1 | 390 m (1,280 ft) | 86 | 2024 |  China | Rizhao | | | Citymark Center | 388.3 m (1,274 ft) | 70 | 2022 |  China | Shenzhen | | | China Merchants Bank Headquarters Tower 1 | 387.4 m (1,271 ft) | 74 | ? |  China | Shenzhen | | | Tour F | 385.8 m (1,266 ft) | 64 | ? |  Ivory Coast | Abidjan | | | Icon Towers 1 | 384 m (1,260 ft) | 77 | 2029 |  Indonesia | Jakarta | | | Shekou Prince Bay Tower | 380 m (1,250 ft) | 70 |  ? |  China | Shenzhen | | | Shenzhen Luohu Friendship Trading Centre | 379.9 m (1,246 ft) | 83 | ? |  China | Shenzhen | | | Greenland Star City Light Tower | 379.9 m (1,246 ft) | 83 | 2025 |  China | Changsha | | | Guangdong Business Center | 375.5 m (1,232 ft) | 60 | 2024 |  China | Guangzhou | | | China Merchants Prince Bay Tower | 374 m (1,227 ft) | 59 | 2028 |  China | Shenzhen | | | Ping An IFC | 373 m (1,224 ft) |  ? |  ? |  China | Nanchang | | | Shanghai International Trade Center Tower 1 | 370 m (1,210 ft) | 67 | 2024 |  China | Shanghai | | | Lucheng Square | 369 m (1,211 ft) | 75 |  ? |  China | Wenzhou | | | Taipei Twin Tower 1 | 369 m (1,211 ft) | 74 | 2027 |  Taiwan | Taipei | | | Hengli Global Operations Headquarters Tower 1 | 369 m (1,211 ft) |  ? | 2024 |  China | Suzhou | | | Ciel Tower | 365.5 m (1,199 ft) | 81 | 2023 |  UAE | Dubai | | | Ping An Finance Center Tower 1 | 360 m (1,180 ft) | 74 | 2023 |  China | Jinan | | | Huiyun Center | 359.2 m (1,178 ft) | 80 | 2022 |  China | Shenzhen | | | Fosun Bund Center T2 | 356 m (1,168 ft) |  ? |  ? |  China | Wuhan | | | Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base Tower C-2 | 355.7 m (1,167 ft) | 68 | 2027 |  China | Shenzhen | | | Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Building | 352 m (1,155 ft) | 59 | ? |  Turkey | Istanbul | | | Guohong Center | 350 m (1,150 ft) | 71 | 2025 |  China | Wenzhou | | | Guowei ZY Plaza | 350 m (1,150 ft) | 62 |  ? |  China | Zhuhai | | | China Resources Huafu Tower | 350 m (1,150 ft) |  ? |  ? |  China | Shenzhen | | | Global Port Tower 1 | 350 m (1,150 ft) |  ? | 2024 |  China | Lanzhou | | | Global Port Tower 2 | 350 m (1,150 ft) |  ? | 2024 |  China | Lanzhou | | | Poly Liangxi Plaza | 350 m (1,150 ft) |  ? |  ? |  China | Foshan | | List by continent ----------------- The following list shows the tallest completed buildings located on each continent listed by greatest to least height (click on name of continent for continent-specific list): | Continent | Building | Height | Floor count | Completed | Country | City | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Asia | Burj Khalifa | 828 m (2,717 ft) | 163 | 2010 |  United Arab Emirates | Dubai | | North America | One World Trade Center | 541.3 m (1,776 ft) | 94 | 2014 |  United States | New York City | | Europe | Lakhta Center | 462 m (1,516 ft) | 86 | 2018 |  Russia | Saint Petersburg | | Africa | Iconic Tower | 393.8 m (1,292 ft) | 77 | 2023 |  Egypt | New Administrative Capital | | Oceania | Q1 | 323 m (1,060 ft) | 78 | 2005 |  Australia | Gold Coast | | South America | Gran Torre Santiago | 300 m (980 ft) | 64 | 2012 |  Chile | Santiago | | Antarctica | Long Duration Balloon (LDB) Payload Preparation Buildings | 15 m (49 ft) | 1 | 2005 | - | McMurdo Station | See also -------- * Dubai Creek Tower * List of tallest freestanding structures * List of tallest towers * History of the world's tallest buildings * Skyscraper Index * Vanity height

List of tallest buildings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings

***Vitis*** (**grapevine**) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture. Most cultivated *Vitis* varieties are wind-pollinated with hermaphroditic flowers containing both male and female reproductive structures, while wild species are dieceous. These flowers are grouped in bunches called inflorescences. In many species, such as *Vitis vinifera*, each successfully pollinated flower becomes a grape berry with the inflorescence turning into a cluster of grapes. While the flowers of the grapevines are usually very small, the berries are often large and brightly colored with sweet flavors that attract birds and other animals to disperse the seeds contained within the berries. Grapevines usually only produce fruit on shoots that came from buds that were developed during the previous growing season. In viticulture, this is one of the principles behind pruning the previous year's growth (or "One year old wood") that includes shoots that have turned hard and woody during the winter (after harvest in commercial viticulture). These vines will be pruned either into a cane which will support 8 to 15 buds or to a smaller spur which holds 2 to 3 buds. Description ----------- Flower buds are formed late in the growing season and overwinter for blooming in spring of the next year. They produce leaf-opposed cymes. *Vitis* is distinguished from other genera of Vitaceae by having petals which remain joined at the tip and detach from the base to fall together as a calyptra or 'cap'. The flowers are mostly bisexual, pentamerous, with a hypogynous disk. The calyx is greatly reduced or nonexistent in most species and the petals are joined together at the tip into one unit but separated at the base. The fruit is a berry, ovoid in shape and juicy, with a two-celled ovary each containing two ovules, thus normally producing four seeds per flower (or fewer by way of aborted embryos). Other parts of the vine include the tendrils which are leaf-opposed, branched in *Vitis vinifera*, and are used to support the climbing plant by twining onto surrounding structures such as branches or the trellising of a vine-training system. In the wild, all species of *Vitis* are normally dioecious, but under domestication, variants with perfect flowers appear to have been selected. The genus *Vitis* is divided into two subgenera, *Euvitis* Planch. have 38 chromosomes (n=19) with berries borne on clusters and *Muscadinia* Planch. 40 (n=20) with small clusters. Wild grapes can resemble the single-seeded *Menispermum canadense* (moonseed), which is toxic. Species ------- Most *Vitis* species are found mostly in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in North America and eastern Asia, exceptions being a few in the tropics and the wine grape *Vitis vinifera* which originated in southern Europe and southwestern Asia. Grape species occur in widely different geographical areas and show a great diversity of form. Their growth makes leaf collection challenging and polymorphic leaves make identification of species difficult. Mature grapevines can grow up to 48 centimetres (19 inches) in diameter at breast height and reach the upper canopy of trees more than 35 metres (115 feet) in height. Many species are sufficiently closely related to allow easy interbreeding and the resultant interspecific hybrids are invariably fertile and vigorous. Thus the concept of a species is less well defined and more likely represents the identification of different ecotypes of *Vitis* that have evolved in distinct geographical and environmental circumstances. The exact number of species is not certain, with more than 65 species in Asia in particular being poorly defined. Approximately 25 species are known in North America and just one, *V. vinifera* has Eurasian origins; some of the more notable include: 1. *Vitis aestivalis*, the summer grape, native to the Eastern United States, especially the Southeastern United States 2. *Vitis amurensis*, native to the Asian continent, including parts of Siberia and China 3. *Vitis arizonica*, The Arizona grape is native to Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Northern Mexico. 4. *Vitis berlandieri*, native to the southern North America, primarily Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas. Primarily known for good tolerance against soils with a high content of lime, which can cause chlorosis in many vines of American origin 5. *Vitis californica*, the California wild grape, or Northern California grape, or Pacific grape, is a wild grape species widespread across much of California as well as southwestern Oregon 6. *Vitis coignetiae*, the crimson glory vine, a species from East Asia grown as an ornamental plant for its crimson autumn foliage 7. *Vitis labrusca* L., the fox grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the Eastern United States and Canada. The Concord grape was derived by a cross with this species 8. *Vitis riparia*, the riverbank grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the entire Eastern United States and north to Quebec 9. *Vitis rotundifolia* (syn. *Muscadinia rotundifolia*), the muscadine, used for jams and wine. Native to the Southeastern United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico 10. *Vitis rupestris*, the rock grapevine, used for breeding of Phylloxera resistant rootstock. Native to the Southern United States 11. *Vitis vinifera*, the European grapevine. Native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia. 12. *Vitis vulpina*, the frost grape, native to the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and west to Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas Treated by some as a synonym of *V. riparia*. *Plants of the World Online* also includes: 1. *Vitis acerifolia* Raf. 2. *Vitis aestivalis* Michx. 3. *Vitis baihuashanensis* M.S.Kang & D.Z.Lu 4. *Vitis balansana* Planch. 5. *Vitis bashanica* P.C.He 6. *Vitis bellula* (Rehder) W.T.Wang 7. *Vitis betulifolia* Diels & Gilg 8. *Vitis biformis* Rose 9. *Vitis blancoi* Munson 10. *Vitis bloodworthiana* Comeaux 11. *Vitis bourgaeana* Planch. 12. *Vitis bryoniifolia* Bunge 13. *Vitis californica* Benth. 14. *Vitis × champinii* Planch. 15. *Vitis chunganensis* Hu 16. *Vitis chungii* F.P.Metcalf 17. *Vitis cinerea* (Engelm.) Millardet 18. *Vitis coignetiae* Pulliat ex Planch. 19. *Vitis davidi* (Rom.Caill.) Foëx 20. *Vitis × doaniana* Munson ex Viala 21. *Vitis erythrophylla* W.T.Wang 22. *Vitis fengqinensis* C.L.Li 23. *Vitis ficifolia* Bunge 24. *Vitis flavicosta* Mickel & Beitel 25. *Vitis flexuosa* Thunb. 26. *Vitis girdiana* Munson 27. *Vitis hancockii* Hance 28. *Vitis heyneana* Schult. 29. *Vitis hissarica* Vassilcz. 30. *Vitis hui* W.C.Cheng 31. *Vitis jaegeriana* Comeaux 32. *Vitis jinggangensis* W.T.Wang 33. *Vitis jinzhainensis* X.S.Shen 34. *Vitis kiusiana* Momiy. 35. *Vitis lanceolatifoliosa* C.L.Li 36. *Vitis longquanensis* P.L.Chiu 37. *Vitis luochengensis* W.T.Wang 38. *Vitis menghaiensis* C.L.Li 39. *Vitis mengziensis* C.L.Li 40. *Vitis metziana* Miq. 41. *Vitis monticola* Buckley 42. *Vitis mustangensis* Buckley 43. *Vitis nesbittiana* Comeaux 44. *Vitis × novae-angliae* Fernald 45. *Vitis novogranatensis* Moldenke 46. *Vitis nuristanica* Vassilcz. 47. *Vitis palmata* Vahl 48. *Vitis pedicellata* M.A.Lawson 49. *Vitis peninsularis* M.E.Jones 50. *Vitis piasezkii* Maxim. 51. *Vitis pilosonervia* F.P.Metcalf 52. *Vitis popenoei* J.L.Fennell 53. *Vitis pseudoreticulata* W.T.Wang 54. *Vitis qinlingensis* P.C.He 55. *Vitis retordii* Rom.Caill. ex Planch. 56. *Vitis romanetii* Rom.Caill. 57. *Vitis ruyuanensis* C.L.Li 58. *Vitis saccharifera* Makino 59. *Vitis shenxiensis* C.L.Li 60. *Vitis shuttleworthii* House 61. *Vitis silvestrii* Pamp. 62. *Vitis sinocinerea* W.T.Wang 63. *Vitis sinoternata* W.T.Wang 64. *Vitis tiliifolia* Humb. & Bonpl. ex Schult. 65. *Vitis tsoi* Merr. 66. *Vitis wenchowensis* C.Ling 67. *Vitis wenxianensis* W.T.Wang 68. *Vitis wilsoniae* H.J.Veitch 69. *Vitis wuhanensis* C.L.Li 70. *Vitis xunyangensis* P.C.He 71. *Vitis yunnanensis* C.L.Li 72. *Vitis zhejiang-adstricta* P.L.Chiu There are many cultivars of grapevines; most are cultivars of *V. vinifera*. One of them includes, Vitis 'Ornamental Grape'. Hybrid grapes also exist, and these are primarily crosses between *V. vinifera* and one or more of *V. labrusca*, *V. riparia* or *V. aestivalis*. Hybrids tend to be less susceptible to frost and disease (notably phylloxera), but wine from some hybrids may have a little of the characteristic "foxy" taste of *V. labrusca*. The Latin word *Vitis* is feminine, and therefore adjectival species names take feminine forms, such as *V. vinifera*. Ecology ------- Phylloxera is an American root aphid that devastated *V. vinifera* vineyards in Europe when accidentally introduced in the late 19th century. Attempts were made to breed in resistance from American species, but many winemakers and customers did not like the unusual flavour profile of the hybrid vines. However, *V. vinifera* grafts readily onto rootstocks of the American species and their hybrids with *V. vinifera*, and most commercial production of grapes now relies on such grafts. The black vine weevil is another root pest. Grapevines are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. Commercial distribution ----------------------- According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75,866 square kilometres of the world is dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit. A portion of grape production goes to producing grape juice to be used as a sweetener for fruits canned "with no added sugar" and "100% natural". The area dedicated to vineyards is increasing by about 2% per year. The following list of top wine-producers shows the corresponding areas dedicated to grapes (regardless of the grapes’ final destination): | Country | Area under vine (ha x103) | Grape production (metric ton x106) | | --- | --- | --- | | **World** | **7511** | **75.7** | |  Spain | 1021 | 6.0 | |  China | 830 | 12.6 | |  France | 786 | 6.3 | |  Italy | 682 | 8.2 | |  Turkey | 497 | 3.6 | |  United States | 419 | 7.0 | |  Argentina | 225 | 2.4 | |  Iran | 223 | 2.1 | |  Portugal | 217 | | |  Chile | 211 | 3.1 | |  Romania | 192 | | |  Australia | 149 | 1.7 | |  Moldova | 140 | | |  South Africa | 130 | 2.0 | |  India | 120 | 2.6 | |  Brazil | 85 | 1.5 | |  Bulgaria | 60 | | |  New Zealand | 39 | | Domestic cultivation -------------------- Grapevines are widely cultivated by gardeners, and numerous suppliers cater specifically for this trade. The plants are valued for their decorative foliage, often colouring brightly in autumn; their ability to clothe walls, pergolas and arches, thus providing shade; and their fruits, which may be eaten as dessert or provide the basis for homemade wines. Popular varieties include:- * Buckland Sweetwater' (white dessert) * 'Chardonnay' (white wine) * 'Foster's Seedling' (white dessert) * 'Muscat of Alexandria' (white dessert) * 'Müller-Thurgau' (white wine) * 'Phoenix' (white wine) * 'Pinot noir' (red wine) * 'Regent' (red wine) * 'Schiava Grossa' (red dessert) * 'Seyval blanc' (white wine) The following varieties have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:- * 'Boskoop Glory' (dessert/wine) * 'Brant' (black dessert) * 'Claret Cloak' or 'Frovit' (ornamental) * 'New York Muscat' (black dessert) * 'Purpurea' (ornamental) Uses ---- The fruit of several *Vitis* species are grown commercially for consumption as fresh grapes and for fermentation into wine. *Vitis vinifera* is the most important such species. The leaves of several species of grapevine are edible and are used in the production of dolmades and Vietnamese lot leaves. Culture ------- The grapevine (typically *Vitis vinifera*) has been used as a symbol since ancient times. In Greek mythology, Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was god of the vintage and, therefore, a grapevine with bunches of the fruit are among his attributes. His attendants at the Bacchanalian festivals hence had the vine as an attribute, together with the thyrsus, the latter often entwined with vine branches. For the same reason, the Greek wine cup (cantharos) is commonly decorated with the vine and grapes, wine being drunk as a libation to the god. The grapevine has a profound symbolic meaning in Jewish tradition and culture since antiquity. It is referenced 55 times in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), along with grapes and wine, which are also frequently mentioned (55 and 19, respectively). It is regarded as one of the Seven Species, and is employed several times in the Bible as a symbol of the Israelites as the chosen people. The grapevine has a prominent place in Jewish rituals: the wine was given a special blessing, "creator of the fruit of the vine", and the Kiddush blessing is recited over wine or grape juice on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. It is also employed in various parables and sayings in rabbinic literature. According to Josephus and the Mishnah, a golden vine was hung over the inner chamber of the Second Temple. The grapevine is featured on Hasmonean and Bar Kokhba revolt coinage, and as a decoration in mosaic floors of ancient synagogues. In Christian iconography, the vine also frequently appears. It is mentioned several times in the New Testament. We have the parable of the kingdom of heaven likened to the father starting to engage laborers for his vineyard. The vine is used as symbol of Jesus Christ based on his own statement, "I am the true vine (John 15:1)." In that sense, a vine is placed as sole symbol on the tomb of Constantia, the sister of Constantine the Great, and elsewhere. In Byzantine art, the vine and grapes figure in early mosaics, and on the throne of Maximianus of Ravenna it is used as a decoration. The vine and wheat ear have been frequently used as symbol of the blood and flesh of Christ, hence figuring as symbols (bread and wine) of the Eucharist and are found depicted on ostensories. Often the symbolic vine laden with grapes is found in ecclesiastical decorations with animals biting at the grapes. At times, the vine is used as symbol of temporal blessing. In Mandaeism, uthras (angels or celestial beings) are often described as personified grapevines (*gupna*). See also -------- * Vine staff * Annual growth cycle of grapevines * Old vine References ---------- ### Further reading * Francesco Emanuelli; Silvia Lorenzi; Lukasz Grzeskowiak; Valentina Catalano; Marco Stefanini; Michela Troggio; Sean Myles; José M. Martinez-Zapater; Eva Zyprian; Flavia M. Moreira & M. Stella Grando (2013). "Genetic diversity and population structure assessed by SSR and SNP markers in a large germplasm collection of grape". *BMC Plant Biology*. BioMed Central Ltd. **13**: 39. doi:10.1186/1471-2229-13-39. PMC 3610244. PMID 23497049. * Roberto Bacilieri; Thierry Lacombe; Loic Le Cunff; Manuel Di Vecchi Staraz; Valerie Laucou; Blaise Genna; Jean-Pierre Peros; Patrice This; Jean-Michel Boursiquot (2013). "Genetic structure in cultivated grapevines is linked to geography and human selection". *BMC Plant Biology*. BioMed Central Ltd. **13**: 25. doi:10.1186/1471-2229-13-25. PMC 3598926. PMID 23394135.

Vitis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis

39°N 83°E / 39°N 83°E / 39; 83 The **Tarim Basin** is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about 888,000 km2 (343,000 sq mi) and one of the largest basins in Northwest China. Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, or **Nanjiang** (Chinese: 南疆; pinyin: *Nánjiāng*; lit. 'Southern Xinjiang'), as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr (Traditional spelling: 六城 or آلتی شهر), which means 'six cities' in Uyghur. The region was also called *Little Bukhara* or *Little Bukharia*. Geography and relation to Xinjiang ---------------------------------- Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names, Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr), which Qing China unified into Xinjiang province in 1884. At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe-dwelling, nomadic Mongolic-speaking, Tibetan Buddhist Dzungars, while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis-dwelling, Turkic-speaking Uyghur Muslim farmers. They were governed separately until the creation of the province in 1884. ### Tarim Basin locations Tarim Basin is located in XinjiangKashgar**Kashgar**BachuBachuUchturpanUchturpanAksuAksuKuqaKuqaLuntaiLuntaiKorlaKorlaKarasharKarasharTurpanTurpanHamiHamiAnxiAnxiYangihissarYangihissarYarkand**Yarkand**KarghalikKarghalikKarakashKarakashHotan**Hotan**KeriyaKeriyaNiyaNiyaCharkilikCharkilikQiemoQiemoLoulanLoulanDunhuangDunhuangJade GateJade GateUrumqiUrumqiKuljaKuljaDzungarian GateDzungarian GateKaramayKaramayTachengTachengclass=notpageimage| Places in and near the Tarim Basin. The highlighted area is roughly 1800 km across. #### North side The Chinese called this the *Tien Shan Nan Lu* or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the *Bei Lu* north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south. The caravans met in Kashgar before crossing the mountains. Bachu or Miralbachi; Uchturpan north of the main road; Aksu on the large Aksu River; Kucha was once an important kingdom; Luntai; Korla, now a large town; Karashar near Bosten Lake; Turpan north of the Turpan Depression and south of the Bogda Shan; Hami; then southeast to Anxi and the Gansu Corridor. #### Center Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation. The Yarkand, Kashgar and Aksu Rivers join to form the Tarim River which runs along the north side of the basin. Formerly it continued to Loulan, but some time after 330 AD it turned southeast near Korla toward Charkilik, and Loulan was abandoned. The Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur, which occupied a shifting position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabled Jade Gate which the Chinese considered the gateway to the Western Regions. Beyond that was Dunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and then Anxi at the west end of the Gansu Corridor. #### South side Settlements include Kashgar; Yangi Hissar, famous for its knives; Yarkand, once larger than Kashgar; Karghalik (Yecheng), with a route to India; Karakash; Khotan, the main source of Chinese jade; eastward the land becomes more desolate; Keriya (Yutian); Niya (Minfeng); Qiemo (Cherchen); Charkilik (Ruoqiang). The modern road continues east to Tibet. There is currently no road east across the Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing through the Yangguan pass south of the Jade Gate. #### Roads and passes, rivers and caravan routes The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the north side of the basin to Kashgar and curves southeast to Khotan. ##### Roads The main road from eastern China reaches Urumchi and continues as highway 314 along the north side to Kashgar. Highway 315 follows the south side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north–south roads across the desert. 218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim, forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The Tarim Desert Highway, a major engineering achievement, crosses the center from Niya to Luntai. The new Highway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near Aksu. A road follows the Yarkant River from Yarkand to Baqu. East of the Korla-Charkilik road, travel continues to be very difficult. ##### Rivers Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being the Aksu. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through. Most dry up in the desert; only the Hotan River reaches the Tarim in good years. An exception is the Qiemo River which flows northeast into Lop Nor. Ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger. ##### Caravans and passes The original caravan route seems to have followed the south side. At the time of the Han dynasty conquest, it shifted to the center (Jade Gate-Loulan-Korla). When the Tarim changed course about 330 AD it shifted north to Hami. A minor route went north of the Tian Shan. When there was war on the Gansu Corridor trade entered the basin near Charkilik from the Qaidam Basin. The original route to India seems to have started near Yarkand and Kargilik, but it is now replaced by the Karakoram Highway south from Kashgar. To the west of Kashgar via the Irkeshtam border crossing is the Alay Valley, which was once the route to Persia. Northeast of Kashgar the Torugart pass leads to the Ferghana Valley. Near Uchturpan the Bedel Pass leads to Lake Issyk-Kul and the steppes. Somewhere near Aksu the difficult Muzart Pass led north to the Ili River basin (Kulja). Near Korla was the Iron Gate Pass and now the highway and railway north to Urumchi. From Turfan the easy Dabancheng pass leads to Urumchi. The route from Charkilik to the Qaidam Basin was of some importance when Tibet was an empire. North of the mountains is Dzungaria with its central Gurbantünggüt Desert, Urumchi the capital, and the Karamay oil fields. The Kulja territory is the upper basin of the Ili River and opens out onto the Kazakh Steppe with several roads east. The Dzungarian Gate was once a migration route and is now a road and rail crossing. Tacheng or Tarbaghatay is a crossroads and former trading post. Geology ------- The Tarim Basin is the result of an amalgamation between an ancient microcontinent and the growing Eurasian continent during the Carboniferous to Permian periods, a process which ended in the earliest Triassic with the closure of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean. At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resulting in the microcontinental crust being pushed under Tian Shan to the north, and Kunlun Shan to the south. A thick succession of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks occupy the central parts of the basin, locally exceeding thicknesses of 15 km (9 mi). The source rocks of oil and gas tend to be mostly Permian mudstones and, less often, Ordovician strata which experienced an intense and widespread early Hercynian karstification. The effect of this event are e.g. paleokarst reservoirs in the Tahe oil field. Below the level enriched with gas and oil is a complex Precambrian basement believed to be made up of the remnants of the original Tarim microplate, which accrued to the growing Eurasian continent in Carboniferous time. The snow on K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, flows into glaciers which move down the valleys to melt. The melted water forms rivers which flow down the mountains and into the Tarim Basin, never reaching the sea. Surrounded by desert, some rivers feed the oases where the water is used for irrigation while others flow to salt lakes and marshes. Lop Nur is a marshy, saline depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin. The Tarim River ends in Lop Nur. The Tarim Basin is believed to contain large potential reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Methane comprises over 70 percent of the natural gas reserve, with variable contents of ethane (<1% – c. 18%) and propane (<0.5% – c. 9%). China National Petroleum Corporation's comprehensive exploration of the Tarim basin between 1989 and 1995 led to the identification of 26 oil- and gas-bearing structures. These occur at deeper depths and in scattered deposits. Beijing aims to develop Xinjiang into China's new energy base for the long run, supplying one-fifth of the country's total oil supply by 2010, with an annual output of 35 million tonnes. On June 10, 2010, Baker Hughes announced an agreement to work with PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Co. to supply oilfield services, including both directional and vertical drilling systems, formation evaluation services, completion systems and artificial lift technology for wells drilled into foothills formations greater than 7,500 meters (24,600 feet) deep with pressures greater than 20,000 psi (1,400 bar) and bottomhole temperatures of approximately 160 °C (320 °F). Electrical submersible pumping (ESP) systems will be employed to dewater gas and condensate wells. PetroChina will fund any joint development. In 2015, Chinese researchers published the finding of a vast, carbon-rich underground sea beneath the basin. History ------- It is speculated that the Tarim Basin may be one of the last places in Asia to have become inhabited: It is surrounded by mountains and irrigation technologies might have been necessary. The Northern Silk Road on one route bypassed the Tarim Basin north of the Tian Shan mountains and traversed it on three oases-dependent routes: one north of the Taklamakan Desert, one south, and a middle one connecting both through the Lop Nor region. * The northern Tarim route ran from Kashgar via Aksu, Kucha, Korla, through the Iron Gate Pass, then Karasahr, Jiaohe, Turpan, Gaochang and Kumul to Anxi. * The southern Tarim route ran from Kashgar through Yarkant, Karghalik, Pishan, Khotan, Keriya, Niya, Qarqan, Qarkilik, Miran and Dunhuang to Anxi. * The middle Tarim route, the shortest of the four, connected Korla on the northern Tarim route through Loulan and across the Lop Nor region and Dunhuang on the southern Tarim route. The Lop Nor region became uninhabitable in the 4th century and the middle route has been deserted since the 6th century. ### Early periods In the early period, beginning around 2000 BC, there were six different cultural zones in the Tarim Basin, and bronze began to appear. One of these cultures in was the Xintala culture (c. 1700–1500 BC), near the site of Yanqi, also known as Karashar, to the north and east of the Tarim, at the Kaidu river. Structures made of mud bricks were found at Xintala, showing building techniques similar to those seen in early oasis sites in western Central Asia, as well as in Yanbulake. There were no burials in Xintala culture, and its settlements were small. Autosomal genetic evidencd suggests tha the earliest Tarim people arose from locals of primarily Ancient North Eurasian descent with significant Northeast Asian admixture. The Tarim mummies have been found in various locations in the eastern Tarim Basin such as Loulan, the Xiaohe Tomb complex, and Qäwrighul. These mummies have previously been suggested to be of Tocharian origin, but recent evidence suggests that the mummies belonged to a distinct population unrelated to later Indo-European pastoralists, such as Afanasievo. In the Iron Age, the Chawuhu culture (c. 1000–400 BC) flourished in the Yanqi (Karashar) oasis, and also reached the Alagou sites near the Turfan basin, and north to the region close to Urumqi. Earlier diggings in the southern Tarim Basin, in the 1990s, suggested that Yuansha (Djoumbulak Koum) in the Keriya river valley was the earliest fortified urban site, from around 400 BC, but new surveys and excavations between 2018 and 2020, showed that the site Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri), located in the northern Tarim Basin, is actually the earliest fortified urban settlement in the entire region, covering 6 hectares, and developed in four phases between c. 770 BC and 80 AD. Spouted jars were found at this site, similar to those of Chawuhu culture, and buckles and moulds with animal motifs resemble steppe traditions. The Sampul tapestry, a woolen wall hanging from Lop County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, showing a possibly Greek soldier from the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250–125 BC), with blue eyes, wielding a spear, and wearing what appears to be a *diadem* headband; depicted above him is a centaur, from Greek mythology, a common motif in Hellenistic artTwo Buddhist monks on a mural of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turpan, Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD; although Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired monk was a Tocharian, modern scholarship has identified similar Caucasian figures of the same cave temple (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century). Another people in the region besides these Tarim people were the Indo-Iranian Saka people, who spoke various Eastern Iranian Khotanese Scythian or Saka dialects. In the Achaemenid era Old Persian inscriptions found at Persepolis, dated to the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders of Sogdiana. Likewise, an inscription dated to the reign of Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BC) has them coupled with the Dahae people of Central Asia. The contemporary Greek historian Herodotus noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all Indo-Iranian Scythian peoples "Saka". They were known as the Sai (塞, sāi, *sək* in archaic Chinese) in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kazakhstan. In the Chinese *Book of Han*, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka. A people believed to be Saka has also been found in various locations in the Tarim Basin, for example in the Keriya region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200 km east of Khotan, with a tomb dated to as early as the 7th century BC. According to the Sima Qian's *Shiji*, the nomadic Indo-European Yuezhi originally lived between Tengri Tagh (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang in Gansu, China. However, the Yuezhi were assaulted and forced to flee from the Hexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu, who conquered the area in 177–176 BC (decades before the Han Chinese conquest and colonization of western tip of Gansu or the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions). In turn the Yuezi attacked and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where in the mid-2nd century BC the latter crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria, but also into the Fergana Valley where they settled in Dayuan, south towards northern India, and eastward as well, where they settled in some of the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin. Whereas the Yuezhi continued westward and conquered Daxia around 177–176 BC, the Sai (i.e. Saka), including some allied Tocharian peoples, fled south to the Pamirs before heading back east to settle in Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆, Karasahr) and Qiuci (龜茲, Kucha). The Saka are recorded as inhabiting Khotan by at least the 3rd century and also settled in nearby Shache (莎車), a town named after its Saka inhabitants (i.e. *saγlâ*). Although the ancient Chinese called Khotan *Yutian* (于闐), its more native Iranian names during the Han period were *Jusadanna* (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian *Gostan* and *Gostana*, the names of the town and region around it, respectively. ### Han dynasty Around 200 BCE, the Yuezhi were overrun by the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu then tried to invade the western region of China, but ultimately failed and lost control of the region to the Chinese. The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the 1st century under the leadership of General Ban Chao (32–102 CE), during the Han-Xiongnu War. The Chinese administered the Tarim Basin as the Protectorate of the Western Regions. The Tarim Basin was later under many foreign rulers, but ruled primarily by Turkic, Han, Tibetan, and Mongolic peoples. The powerful Kushans, who conquered the last vestiges of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, where they established a kingdom in Kashgar and competed for control of the area with nomads and Chinese forces. The **Yuezhi** or **Rouzhi** (Chinese: 月氏; pinyin: *Yuèzhī*; Wade–Giles: *Yüeh4-chih1*, [ɥê ʈʂɻ̩́]) were an ancient people first reported in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, in the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups: the **Greater Yuezhi** (*Dà Yuèzhī* 大月氏) and **Lesser Yuezhi** (*Xiǎo Yuèzhī* 小月氏). They introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Buddhism, playing a central role in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Eastern Asia. Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be the Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names. * The philosophical tract *Guanzi* (73, 78, 80 and 81) mentions nomadic pastoralists known as the *Yúzhī* 禺氏 (Old Chinese: \*ŋʷjo-kje) or *Niúzhī* 牛氏 (OC: \*ŋʷjə-kje), who supplied jade to the Chinese. (The *Guanzi* is now generally believed to have been compiled around 26 BC, based on older texts, including some from the Qi state era of the 11th to 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars no longer attribute its primary authorship to Guan Zhong, a Qi official in the 7th century BC.) The export of jade from the Tarim Basin, since at least the late 2nd millennium BC, is well-documented archaeologically. For example, hundreds of jade pieces found in the Tomb of Fu Hao (c. 1200 BC) originated from the Khotan area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin. According to the *Guanzi*, the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states. * The *Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven* (early 4th century BC) also mentions the *Yúzhī* 禺知 (OC: \*ŋʷjo-kje). * The *Yi Zhou Shu* (probably dating from the 4th to 1st century BC) makes separate references to the *Yúzhī* 禺氏 (OC: \*ŋʷjo-kje) and *Yuèdī* 月氐 (OC: \*ŋʷjat-tij). The latter may be a misspelling of the name *Yuèzhī* 月氏 (OC: \*ŋʷjat-kje) found in later texts, composed of characters meaning "moon" and "clan" respectively. ### Sui–Tang dynasties After the Han dynasty, the kingdoms of the Tarim Basin began to have strong cultural influences on China as a conduit between the cultures of India and Central Asia and China. Indian Buddhists had previously travelled to China during the Han dynasty, but the Buddhist monk Kumārajīva from Kucha, who visited China during the Six Dynasties period was particularly renowned. Music and dances from Kucha were also popular in the Sui and Tang periods. During the Tang dynasty, a series of military expeditions were conducted against the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, then vassals of the Western Turkic Khaganate. The campaigns against the oasis states began under Emperor Taizong with the annexation of Gaochang in 640. The nearby kingdom of Karasahr was captured by the Tang in 644 and the kingdom of Kucha was conquered in 649. The expansion into Central Asia continued under Taizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong, who dispatched an army in 657 led by Su Dingfang against the Western Turk qaghan Ashina Helu. Ashina was defeated and the khaganate was absorbed into the Tang empire. The Tarim Basin was administered through the Anxi Protectorate and the Four Garrisons of Anxi. Tang hegemony beyond the Pamir Mountains in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan ended with revolts by the Turks, but the Tang retained a military presence in Xinjiang. These holdings were later invaded by the Tibetan Empire to the south in 670. For the remainder of the Tang dynasty, the Tarim Basin alternated between Tang and Tibetan rule as they competed for control of Central Asia. ### Kingdom of Khotan As a consequence of the Han–Xiongnu War from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin region of Xinjiang in Northwest China, including the Saka-founded oasis city-state of Khotan and Kashgar, fell under Han Chinese influence, beginning with the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) of the Han dynasty. Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, people of Kashgar, the capital of the Shule Kingdom, spoke Saka, one of the Eastern Iranian languages. As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus, the contemporary Persians labelled all Scythians "Saka". Indeed, modern scholarly consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to the Pamir languages in northern India and Khotanese in Xinjiang, belongs to the Scythian languages. During China's Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), the region once again came under Chinese suzerainty with the campaigns of conquest by Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649). From the late 8th to 9th centuries, the region changed hands between the Chinese Tang Empire and the rival Tibetan Empire. By the early 11th century the region had fallen to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, which led to both the Turkification of the region and its conversion from Buddhism to Islam. Suggestive evidence of Khotan's early link to India are minted coins from Khotan dated to the 3rd century, bearing dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit in the Kharosthi script. Although Prakrit was the administrative language of nearby Shanshan, 3rd-century documents from that kingdom record the title *hinajha* (i.e. "generalissimo") for the king of Khotan, Vij'ida-simha, a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the Sanskrit title *senapati*, yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Saka *hīnāysa* attested in contemporary documents. This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given in Khotanese as *kṣuṇa*, "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power", according to the late Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick (d. 2001). He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of Iranian." Furthermore, he elaborated on the early name of Khotan: > The name of Khotan is attested in a number of spellings, of which the oldest form is *hvatana*, in texts of approximately the 7th to the 10th century AD, written in an Iranian language itself called *hvatana* by the writers. The same name is attested also in two closely related Iranian dialects, Sogdian and Tumshuq...Attempts have accordingly been made to explain it as Iranian, and this is of some importance historically. My own preference is for an explanation connecting it semantically with the name Saka, for the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan... > > In Northwest China, Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature, have been found, primarily in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). They largely predate the arrival of Islam to the region under the Turkic Kara-Khanids. Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language were found in Dunhuang dating mostly to the 10th century. ### Turkic influx After the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia, Uyghur people migrated to the Tarim Basin and mixed with the Tocharians and converted to their religion, and adopted their method of oasis agriculture. In the tenth century, the Karluks, Yagmas, Chigils and other Turkic tribes founded the Kara-Khanid Khanate in Semirechye, Western Tian Shan, and Kashgaria. ### Islamisation of the Tarim Basin The Karakhanids became the first Islamic Turkic dynasty in the tenth century when Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam in 966 while he controlled Kashgar. Satuq Bughra Khan and his son directed endeavors to preach Islam among the Turks and engage in conquests. Satok Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan was slain by the Buddhists during the war. Buddhism lost territory to the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan during the Karakhanid reign around Kashgar. The Tarim Basin became Islamicized over the next few centuries. #### Turkic-Islamic Kara-Khanid conquest of Iranic Saka Buddhist Khotan In the tenth century, the Buddhist Iranic Saka Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Karakhanid (Muslim) states. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan had a tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes. Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Karakhanid ruler Musa, a long war ensued between the Turkic Karakhanid and Buddhist Khotan which eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan around 1006. Accounts of the Muslim Karakhanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists are given in *Taẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams* written sometime in the period from 1700 to 1849 which told the story of four imams from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) who traveled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan, the Karakhanid leader. The "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and the four Imams, but the Imams were assassinated by the Buddhists prior to the last Muslim victory. After Yusuf Qadir Khan's conquest of new land in Altishahr towards the east, he adopted the title "King of the East and China". In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Islamic conquest of Khotan led to alarm in the east and Dunhuang's Cave 17, which contained Khotanese literary works, was closed shut possibly after its caretakers heard that Khotan's Buddhist buildings were razed by the Muslims, the Buddhist religion had suddenly ceased to exist in Khotan. The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded a short Turkic language poem about the conquest: | | | | --- | --- | | English translation: We came down on them like a flood, We went out among their cities, We tore down the idol-temples, We shat on the Buddha's head! | In Turkic: kälginläyü aqtïmïz kändlär üzä čïqtïmïz furxan ävin yïqtïmïz burxan üzä sïčtïmïz | #### Conversion of the Buddhist Uyghurs The Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan embraced Islam after conversion at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khizr Khwaja. Kara Del was a Mongolian ruled and Uighur populated Buddhist Kingdom. The Muslim Chagatai Khan Mansur invaded and used the sword to make the population convert to Islam. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" (Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area, in opposition to the current academic theory that it was their own ancestral legacy. ### Before Qing conquest The eastern regions of the Chagatai Khanate in the early 14th century had been inhabited by a number of Mongol nomadic tribes. These tribes resented the conversion of khan Tarmashirin to Islam and the move of the khan to the sedentary areas of Transoxiana. They were behind the revolt that ended in Tarmashirin's death. One of the khans that followed Tarmashirin, Changshi, favored the east and was non-Muslim. In the 1340s as a series of ephemeral khans struggled to hold power in Transoxiana, little attention was paid by the Chagatayids to the eastern regions. As a result, the eastern tribes there were virtually independent. The most powerful of the tribes, the Dughlats, controlled extensive territories in Moghulistan and the western Tarim Basin. In 1347 the Dughlats decided to appoint a khan of their own, and raised the Chagatayid Tughlugh Timur to the throne. In 1509 the Dughlats, vassal rulers of the Tarim basin, rebelled against the Moghulistan Khanate and broke away. Five years later Sultan Said Khan, a brother of the Khan of Moghulistan in Turfan, conquered the Dughlats but established his own Yarkent Khanate instead. By the early 17th century, the Naqshbandi Sufi Khojas, descendants of Muhammad, had replaced the Chagatayid Khans as rulers of the Tarim Basin. There was a struggle between two Khoja factions: the Afaqi (White Mountain) and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain). The Ishaqi defeated the Afaqi and the Afaq Khoja invited the 5th Dalai Lama (the leader of the Tibetans) to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The Dalai Lama then called on his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Dzungar Khanate to act on the invitation. The Dzungar Khanate conquered the Tarim Basin in 1678, during the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr, after which they set up Afaq Khoja as their puppet ruler. ### Qing dynasty Xinjiang did not exist as one unit until 1884 under Qing rule. It consisted of the two separate political entities of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Eastern Turkestan). Dzungharia or Ili was called Zhunbu 準部 (Dzungar region) Tianshan Beilu 天山北路 (Northern March), "Xinjiang" 新疆 (New Frontier), or "Kalmykia" (La Kalmouquie in French). It was formerly the area of the Dzungar (or Zunghar) Khanate 準噶爾汗國, the land of the Dzungar people. The Tarim Basin was known as "Tianshan Nanlu 天山南路 (southern March), Huibu 回部 (Muslim region), Huijiang 回疆 (Muslim frontier), Chinese Turkestan, Kashgaria, Little Bukharia, East Turkestan", and the traditional Uyghur name for it was Altishahr (Uyghur: التى شهر, romanized: *Altä-shähär*, *Алтә-шәһәр*). It was formerly the area of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate 東察合台汗國, land of the Uyghur people before being conquered by the Dzungars. Demographics ------------ The population of the Tarim Basin is estimated at approximately 5.5 million. ### People of the Tarim Basin According to census figures, the Tarim Basin is dominated by the Uyghurs. They form the majority population in cities such as Kashgar, Artush, and Hotan. There are however large pockets of Han Chinese in the region, such as Aksu and Korla. There are also smaller numbers of Hui and other ethnic groups, for example, the Tajiks who are concentrated at Tashkurgan in the Kashgar Prefecture, the Kyrgyz in Kizilsu, and the Mongols in Bayingolin. The language spoken by the earliest Tarim residents is unclear; however it is widely agreed upon that they would eventually be Indo-European speakers. The mummies have been described as being both "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid" and mixed-race individuals are also observed, and genetics analysis also indicate that the population was of mixed ancestry in the bronze and iron age periods. Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as physically Mongoloid, giving as an example the images in Bezeklik at Temple 9 of the Uyghur patrons, until they began to mix with the Tarim Basin's original Tocharian and eastern Iranian inhabitants. However, according to a genetic study of early Uyghur remains from the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia, Most Uyghur-period individuals exhibit a high but variable degree of west Eurasian ancestry The east–west admixture in the Uyghur Khaganate was said to have taken place around the year 500 AD. Archaeology ----------- Although archaeological findings are of interest in the Tarim Basin, the prime impetus for exploration was petroleum and natural gas. Recent research with help of GIS database have provided a fine-grained analysis of the ancient oasis of Niya on the Silk Road. This research led to significant findings; remains of hamlets with wattle and daub structures as well as farm land, orchards, vineyards, irrigation pools and bridges. The oasis at Niya preserves the ancient landscape. Here also have been found hundreds of 3rd and 4th century wooden accounting tablets at several settlements across the oasis. These texts are in the Kharosthi script native to today's Pakistan and Afghanistan. The texts are legal documents such as tax lists, and contracts containing detailed information pertaining to the administration of daily affairs. Additional excavations have unearthed tombs with mummies, tools, ceramic works, painted pottery and other artistic artifacts. Such diversity was encouraged by the cultural contacts resulting from this area's position on the Silk Road. Early Buddhist sculptures and murals excavated at Miran show artistic similarities to the traditions of Central Asia and North India and stylistic aspects of paintings found there suggest that Miran had a direct connection with the West, specifically Rome and its provinces. See also -------- * Flaming Mountains * Geography of China * Kara-Khanid Khanate * Kunlun Mountains * Silk Road transmission of Buddhism * Taklamakan Desert * Tarim mummies * Tocharians * Turpan water system References ---------- ### Sources * Baumer, Christoph. 2000. *Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin*. Bangkok: White Orchid Books. * Bellér-Hann, Ildikó (2008). *Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880–1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur*. Brill. ISBN 978-9004166752. * Grousset, Rene (1970), *Empire of the Steppes*, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0813513049 * Hill, John E. 2004. *The Peoples of the West from the Weilue* 魏略 *by Yu Huan* 魚豢*: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE.* Draft annotated English translation. * Hill, John E. (2009) *Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE*. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1. * Mallory, J.P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. *The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West*. Thames & Hudson. London. ISBN 0-500-05101-1. * Edme Mentelle; Malte Conrad Brun (dit Conrad) Malte-Brun; Pierre-Etienne Herbin de Halle (1804). *Géographie mathématique, physique & politique de toutes les parties du monde, Volume 12* (in French). H. Tardieu. Retrieved 10 March 2014. * Millward, James A. (1998). *Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864* (illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804729338. Retrieved 10 March 2014. * Stein, Aurel M. 1907. *Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan*, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. * Stein, Aurel M. 1921. *Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China*, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980. * Stein Aurel M. 1928. *Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran*, 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.

Tarim Basin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin

**Coccinellidae** (/ˌkɒksɪˈnɛlɪdiː/) is a widespread family of small beetles. They are commonly known as **ladybugs** in North America and **ladybirds** elsewhere in the English-speaking world; "lady" referring to mother Mary. Entomologists prefer the names **ladybird beetles** or **lady beetles** to avoid confusion with true bugs. The more than 6,000 described species have a global distribution and are found in a variety of habitats. They are oval beetles with a domed back and flat underside. They are sexually dimorphic; adult females are larger than males. Many of the species have conspicuous aposematic (warning) colours and patterns, such as red with black spots, that warn potential predators that they are distasteful. Most coccinellid species are carnivorous predators, preying on insects such as aphids and scale insects. They are also known to consume non-animal matter, including plants and fungi. They are promiscuous breeders, reproducing in spring and summer in temperate regions and during the wet season in tropical regions. Many species lay their eggs near colonies of prey, ensuring their larvae have an immediate food source. Like most insects, they develop from larva to pupa to adult. Temperate species hibernate and diapause during the winter; tropical species are dormant during the dry season. Coccinellids migrate between dormancy and breeding sites. Since they prey on agricultural pests, most coccinellids are considered beneficial insects. Several species have been introduced outside their range as biological control agents, with varying degrees of success. Some species are pests themselves and can infest people's homes, particularly in winter. Invasive species like *Harmonia axyridis* pose a threat to native ones. Other threats to coccinellids include climate change and habitat destruction. These insects have played roles in folklore, religion and poetry, and are particularly popular in nursery rhymes. Etymology --------- The name *Coccinellidae*, created by Pierre André Latreille in 1807, is derived from the Latin word *coccineus* meaning "scarlet". The common English name *ladybird* originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's birds". Mary (Our Lady) was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early art, and the seven spots of the species *Coccinella septempunctata* (the most common in Europe) were said to represent her seven joys and seven sorrows. In the United States, the name was popularly adapted to *ladybug*. Entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles to avoid confusion with true bugs. Names in some other countries may be similar; for example, in Germany they are known as *Marienkäfer* meaning Marybeetle or ladybeetle. Description ----------- Coccinellids range in size from 0.8 to 18 mm (0.03–0.7 in). Females tend to be larger than males. They are generally oval with domed backs and flattened undersides. They have large compound eyes and clubbed antennae with seven to eleven segments. The powerful mandibles (equivalent to jaws) typically have pairs of "teeth" which face each other. The coccinellid prothorax (front of thorax) is broad and convex, and can cover the back of the head. Being beetles, they have hardened, non-overlapping forewings, known as elytrons, which cover up the more fragile, hindwings when the insects are not in flight. Their legs are relatively short, with a tarsal formula of 4-4-4 or 3-3-3. The tarsus (end of leg) has two claws at the tip. As adults, these beetles differ from their closest relatives with the following morphological characteristics: * Five pairs of spiracles (holes) on the abdomen * A tentorium (internal supports inside the head) with separated branches at the front and no bridge * No line dividing the frons and clypeus (frontoclypeal suture) * Maxillary palps with non-needle-shaped tips, * Divided galea and lacinia (lobes at the end of the mouthparts) * Smaller molar (flattened) area of the mandible * Coxal cavities (holes where the leg articulates with the thorax) that open from the back in the front of the thorax and from the front in the middle of the thorax * Epimeron (corner plates) on the metathorax with parallel edges * Lines on the second abdominal sternum * Tube-shaped, siphon-like genitalia in the male Coccinellids are often distinctively coloured and patterned. The elytron may be light with dark spots or dark with light spots. Light areas are typically yellow, red, orange or brown, and the spots vary in size and shape and numbers. Some species have striped or checkered patterns. The pigment carotene creates the lighter colours, and melanins create darker colours. Other parts of the body also vary in colouration. These colour patterns typically serve as warning colouration, but some can act as camouflage, attract mates or even regulate heat. Several individual species may display polymorphism and even change colour between seasons. Coccinellid larvae are elongated with square heads. They are covered in hairs or setae, the abdominal segments in particular each having six divided into pairs, and one to three segmented antennae. Their colouration varies from grey, blue-grey, grey-brown or brown and spotted with white, yellow, red or orange. They tend to brighten as they get closer to adulthood. * Appearance of different species * A red ladybird*Coccinella septempunctata*, black spots on red * A yellow ladybird*Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata*, black spots on yellow * A brown ladybird*Vibidia duodecimguttata*, whitish spots on brown * A striped ladybird*Brumoides suturalis*, longitudinally striped * An unspotted ladybird*Rhyzobius chrysomeloides*, brown, unspotted Evolution --------- ### Fossil history Over 6,000 living species of Coccinellidae have been described. They are sparsely preserved in the fossil record. Although molecular clock estimates have placed their origin in the Cretaceous, the oldest fossils of the group are known from the Oise amber of France, dating to the Early Eocene (Ypresian) around 53 million years ago, which belong to the extant genera *Rhyzobius* and *Nephus*. The greatest number of fossils comes from the younger Eocene Baltic amber, including members of the extant genera *Serangium* and *Rhyzobius* as well as extinct genera belonging to the tribes Microweiseini (*Baltosidis*) and Sticholotidini (*Electrolotis*). ### Phylogeny The Coccinellidae are within the superfamily Coccinelloidea, which in turn is part of the infraorder Cucujiformia, a group containing most of the plant-eating beetles. The ladybirds form the majority of the species in the Coccinelloidea; many of the rest are fungus-feeding beetles or scavengers. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Cucujiformia | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Lymexyloidea Lymexylon navale | | | | | Tenebrionoidea Nephodinus metallescens | | | | | | | | Cleroidea Thaneroclerus buqueti | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Chrysomeloidea Chrysomela vigintipunctata | | | | | Curculionoidea Curculio nucum | | | | | | | | Cucujoidea Palaestes nicaraguae | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Coccinelloidea | | | | | --- | --- | | | Bothrideridae and allies Bothrideres bipunctatus | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Latridiidae Latridius porcatus | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Akalyptoischiidae Akalyptoischion | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Alexiidae Sphaerosoma pilosum | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Corylophidae and allies Arthrolips obscura | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Endomychidae Brachytrycherus bipunctatus.jpg | | | | | **Coccinellidae** Coccinella septempunctata | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Coccinellidae have historically been divided into up seven subfamilies (Chilocorinae, Coccidulinae, Coccinellinae, Epilachninae, Microweiseinae, Scymninae and Sticholotidinae) and 35 tribes based on morphology. However, genetics studies have called into question the monophyly (single ancestry) of most of these subfamilies. The monophyly of Coccinellinae has the most support. A 2021 genetic study sampling many species, identified three subfamilies, Microweiseinae (with three tribes), Coccinellinae (26 tribes) and a newly identified group, the Monocoryninae (one tribe). All three subfamilies were strongly supported, but the study noted that although the tribes are mostly monophyletic, their relationships are only weakly supported. The study suggests that the crown group appeared some 143 Mya in the Early Cretaceous, and that the group diversified rapidly during the Late Cretaceous, perhaps because the growth in diversity of angiosperm plants then encouraged the radiation of insects of the clade Sternorrhyncha such as aphids, on which ladybirds could feed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Coccinellidae** | | | | | --- | --- | | | Microweiseinae Serangium maculigerum | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Monocoryninae | | | | Coccinellinae | | | | | --- | --- | | | Stethorini Stethorus punctillum | | | | | | | | | --- | --- | | | Coccinellini | | | | | other tribes Epilachnini sp. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An earlier 2009 study concluded that consumption of scale insects is the most basal diet of Coccinellidae. Aphid-eating evolved three separate times and leaf-eating evolved twice, one of which evolved from a clade that contains both aphid-eating and pollen-eating. The fungi-eating also evolved from aphid-eating. Biology and ecology ------------------- ### Flight Coccinellids mostly fly during the day. Springy, cylindrical veins in the hindwings stiffen when in flight and bend when folding. Folding of the wings is further aided by creases in the membrane. These beetles may migrate long distances to hibernation and breeding sites, and areas with more food. They appear to be drawn to recognisable landmarks. The more crowded an area is, the more individuals leave, but will remain if there are enough prey species to feed on. "Trivial flights" refer to flying while foraging or when finding a place to lay eggs. One study of species in Britain found that coccinellids can fly as far as 120 km (75 mi). They flew at speeds of 30 km/h (19 mph) and could reach altitudes close to 1,100 m (3,600 ft). * Behaviour * Scale-like front wings, open*Coccinella transversalis*, elytra in the open position * Ladybird taking flightFull wings of a *Harmonia axyridis* taking flight ### Life cycle In temperate climates, coccinellids typically breed from late spring to early summer. In warmer temperate regions, reproduction may occur in spring, fall and winter; tropical species reproduce during the wet season. Mating is promiscuous. In some species, females appear to be selective in their partners, preferring males of a certain size and colour. Males produce sperm packets each with 14,000 sperm, and insert three of them into the female, even though she can only hold 18,000 sperm. This is likely a form of sperm competition. Like other insects, coccinellids develop from egg, to larva, to pupa and finally adult. Eggs tend to be bright yellow, and the females lay them close together, standing upright and near where they can access food. The number of eggs in a cluster can vary depending on the species; it is typically in the double digits but some species can lay over a thousand eggs in their lifetime. After hatching, the larvae will began eating, including the other eggs in their clutch. Certain species lay extra infertile trophic eggs with the fertile eggs, providing a backup food source for the larvae when they hatch. The ratio of infertile to fertile eggs increases with scarcity of food at the time of egg laying. Larvae typically have four instar stages with three moults between them. The larva eventually transitions into a pupa; which involves the development of a hunch, the fusion of the legs to the body, and the attachment of the posterior to the surface. Pupae may be uncovered, partially covered or fully covered by larval skin depending on the species. The pupa is mostly immobile, but the head can move in response to irritation. When the adult emerges, it has its hindwings, while the elytron starts out softer and lighter in colour, with no patterns. The length of each development stage varies based on climate and between species. For *Adalia bipunctata*, eggs hatch after four to eight days, the larva stage lasts around three weeks and the pupa lasts seven to ten days. Adult coccinellids develop much of their final colouration within hours, but may not fully darken for weeks or months. The lifespan of an adult reaches up to a year. In temperate areas, coccinellids may hibernate or enter diapause during the winter. Individuals during this period gather in clumps, large or small depending on the species. Overwintering insects can be found both in lowland areas, aggregating under dead vegetation, and at the tops of hills, hibernating under rocks and on grass tussocks. In areas with particularly hot summers, the insects experience summer dormancy or aestivation; in the tropics, coccinellids enter dormancy during the dry season. * Life cycle * Ladybirds matingAdults mating * Ladybird eggsEggs (match for scale) * Ladybird larvaLarva * Ladybird pupaPupa ### Trophic roles Coccinellids act both as predators, prey and parasitic hosts in food webs. The majority of coccinellids are carnivorous and predatory; typically preying on Sternorrhyncha insects like aphids, scale insects, whiteflies, psyllids and adelgids. Some species feed on the larvae of moths and other beetles, as well as mites. Since much of their prey are agricultural pests, coccinellids are considered to be beneficial insects. A 2009 metastudy by Hodek and Honěk found that aphid-eaters were around 68 percent of species that live in temperate areas but only 20 percent of species worldwide. Around 36 percent of total species mostly feed on scale insects. Larvae and adults eat the same foods, unlike in other insect groups. Ladybird species vary in dietary specificity. An example of a specialist species are those of the genus *Stethorus*, which feed on spider mites. Aphid-eaters tend to be generalist; they have a high voracity and can multiply quickly in response to outbreaks, and switch to other prey when the ephemeral aphids become scarce. Predators of scale insects tend to be less voracious and are slower breeders and developers; matching their prey. Under pressure from coccinellid predation, aphid species have evolved to become more toxic, forcing coccinellids to develop immunities. In addition, ants will protect aphids, and coccinellid eggs laid near aphids are disposed of. Cannibalism has been recorded in several species; which includes larvae eating eggs or other larvae, and adults feeding on individuals of any life stage. Some coccinellids are mostly non-predatory, such as some species in the genera *Epilachna* and *Henosepilachna*. The majority of predatory species may also supplement their diet with other sources of food. Non-animal matter consumed include leaves, pollen, nectar, sap, fungi, and honeydew. Coccinellids of any lifestage are preyed on by predators such as birds, spiders, ants and lacewings. They are also hosts for parasites, including some flies, ticks, mites, hymenopterans and nematodes, and pathogens, including bacteria, fungi and protozoa. *Wolbachia* bacteria infects eggs and kills male zygotes. * Diet * Ladybird eating a leaf*Henosepilachna guttatopustulata*, an herbivore, feeding on a potato leaf * Ladybird eating an aphidYellow-shouldered ladybird, *Apolinus lividigaster* eating an aphid * Ladybird larva eating another ladybird larva*Harmonia axyridis* larva cannibalism ### Defense The bright warning colouration of many coccinellids discourage potential predators, warning of their toxicity. A 2015 study of five ladybird species found that their colouration honestly signalled their toxicity, implying the warning is genuine. Species with more contrast with the background environment tended to be more toxic. Coccinellid haemolymph (blood) contains toxic alkaloids, polyazamacrolides and polyamines, as well as foul-smelling pyrazines. Coccinellids can produce at least 50 types of alkaloids. When disturbed, ladybirds further defend themselves with reflex bleeding, exuding drops from their tibio-femoral (knee) joints, effectively presenting predators with a sample of their toxic and bitter body fluid. Predator-deterring poisons are particularly important for the immobile pupa. Access to food can affect the concentration of both pigments and toxins. As an anti-predator defense, spiders of the genus *Eresus*, known as ladybird spiders, have evolved to replicate the patterns of coccinellids. This is a form of Batesian mimicry, as the spiders lack the chemicals. Distribution and status ----------------------- Coccinellidae are found on every continent expect Antarctica. Asian and African species are less studied than others. Coccinellids can be found in a variety of habitats, both on the ground and in the trees. They may specialise using certain plants. Some species can live in extreme environments such as high mountains, arid deserts and cold regions. Several of the most famous species have wide ranges, but others are more endemic and possibly threatened. Threats to coccinellids include climate change, agriculture, urbanisation, and invasive species. Coccinellid biodiversity will likely be affected by the rising of both average temperatures and heat fluctuations. Climate change may lead to smaller larvae, as well as increase energy and metabolic needs and interspecific predation. Agriculture and urbanisation threatens these insects though habitat destruction and homogenisation and the use of pesticides. Invasive threats include other coccinellids, particularly *C. septempunctata* in North America and *H. axyridis* globally. These invaders outcompete the native species as well as eat their eggs. As of 2022, the IUCN Red List does not list the conservation status for any coccinellid, though there is an IUCN SSC Ladybird Specialist Group. Conservationists have suggested several measures for protecting the insects including citizen science and education programs, habitat preservation and restorations, prevention of the spread of invasive species and a global monitoring program. Relationship to humans ---------------------- ### Biological control Coccinellids have been valued in biological pest control, as they prey on agricultural pests such as aphids and scale insects. Their importance in controlling pests was noted as far back as 1814 in England. Their efficiency can vary: sometimes they have a relatively small effect on aphid populations; at others they cause significant seasonal declines. Several species have been introduced to areas outside their native range; the first being *Novius cardinalis*. The larva of the species was introduced to California in 1887 from Australia, to protect citrus trees from cottony cushion scale. The project was markedly successful, making it "a textbook example of the great potential of classical biological control as a tactic for suppressing invasive pests." The beetle was then used in 29 countries, again with success; reasons for this include its high prey specificity, short generation time, efficient discovery of host patches, and larval development completed on a single host insect. There have been many further attempts to use ladybird species against pests, with varying degrees of success. Scale insect-eating coccinellids have been more successfully used than aphid predators. Out of 155 deliberate introductions meant to control aphids by the year 2000, only one was deemed to be "substantially successful". This is due to aphid-eating species being fast-breeding, generalist and voracious, and thus difficult to control. ### As pests Coccinellids can also act as pests. *Harmonia axyridis* is native to east Asia, but has been introduced to the Americas, Europe and Africa. In North America, this species begins to appear indoors in the autumn when they leave their summer feeding sites to search out places to stay for winter. Typically, when temperatures warm to the mid-60s °F (around 18 °C) in the late afternoon they swarm onto or into buildings illuminated by the sun from nearby fields and forests. After an abnormally long period of hot, dry weather in the summer of 1976 in the UK, a marked increase in the aphid population was followed by a "plague" of the native *Coccinella septempunctata*; there were many reports of people being bitten as the supply of aphids dwindled. *H. axyridis*, *C. septempunctata* and *Hippodamia convergens* are the most common causes of ladybird taint in wine. As few as 1.3 to 1.5 coccinellids per 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of grapes can affect wine quality when they are present during the wine-making process. The Mexican bean beetle is an agricultural pest as it primarily feeds on plants, especially legumes, instead of insects. ### In culture Coccinellids have had important roles in culture and religion, being associated with luck, love, fertility and prophecy. "Ladybird" is affectionate term for someone, such as for a loved one. In European folklore, an insect acts as a matchmaker, crawling on a woman and then flying to their true love. Coccinellids have been said to predict the future, particularly weather conditions and how well the crops will grow. In Christianity, coccinellids have been seen as the literal gatekeepers of Heaven. A Swedish name for the insects, *Himmelska nycla*, means "Keys of Heaven". Jews have referred to insects as the "Cow of Moses our Teacher", and in some Indian religions they are known as "Indra's cowherd". The Cherokee have revered them as the "Great Beloved Woman"; this was used as a title for the highest ranking woman in the government, who would be painted in the colours and patterns of the insect during ceremonies. Coccinellids have been popularly featured in poems and nursery rhymes, the most famous being *Ladybird! Ladybird!*. This has come in several forms including: > Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, > > Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam, > > Except little Nan, who sits on her pan, > > Weaving gold laces as fast as she can. > > * Ladybird depictions for a nature trailCard cutout ladybirds for a children's nature trail * Historic ladybird illustrationLadybird flying over cyclamen, detail, by Maria Sibylla Merian, 1690s * Background painting and models used to illustrate a ladybird nursery rhymeDepiction of the *Ladybird! Ladybird!* rhyme in Hunter Valley Gardens, Australia

Coccinellidae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae

**Odoacer** (/ˌoʊdoʊˈeɪsər/ *OH-doh-AY-sər*; c. 433 – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled **Odovacer** or **Odovacar**, was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as well as Ancient Rome. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of the emperor in Constantinople, Zeno. Odoacer often used the Roman honorific patrician, granted by Zeno, but was referred to as a king (Latin: *rex*) or duke (Latin: *dux*) in many documents, so is not clear which was his actual charge. He himself used the title of king in the only surviving official document that emanated from his chancery, and it was also used by the consul Basilius. Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to distribute land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the later period of his reign. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he rarely intervened in the affairs of the Trinitarian state church of the Roman Empire. Likely of East Germanic descent, Odoacer was a military leader in Italy who led the revolt of Herulian, Rugian, and Scirian soldiers that deposed Romulus Augustulus on 4 September AD 476. Eleven-year-old Augustulus had been declared Western Roman Emperor by his father Orestes, the rebellious general of the army in Italy, less than a year before, but had been unable to gain allegiance or recognition beyond central Italy. With the backing of the Roman Senate, Odoacer thenceforth ruled Italy autonomously, paying lip service to the authority of Julius Nepos, the previous Western emperor, and Zeno, the emperor of the East. Upon Nepos's murder in 480 Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, to punish the murderers. He executed the conspirators, but within two years also conquered the region and incorporated it into his domain. When Illus, master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer's help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, Odoacer invaded Zeno's westernmost provinces. The emperor responded first by inciting the Rugii of present-day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488 Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugii in their own territory. Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great, who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome ally against another. Theodoric invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, forcing Odoacer to take refuge in Ravenna. The city surrendered on 5 March 493. Theodoric invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation, where instead of forging an alliance, Theodoric killed the unsuspecting king. Ethnicity --------- Except for the fact that he was not considered Roman, Odoacer's precise ethnic origins are not known. Some scholars believe his origins lie in the multi-ethnic empire of Attila. Most scholars consider him to be at least partly of Germanic descent, while others argue he was entirely Germanic. Early medieval sources such as Theophanes called him a Goth. Likewise, the 6th century chronicler Marcellinus Comes called him "king of the Goths" (*Odoacer rex Gothorum*). Jordanes associated him with several of the East Germanic tribes of the Middle Danube who had arrived there during the time of Attila's empire, including the Sciri, Heruli, and Rugii. Notability, in several passages he associated him with the Turcilingi, which is a people, or perhaps a dynasty, that is mentioned by no other historical source. Their affiliations are unclear but they may have been Gothic, Hunnic or even precursors of the Thuringii. While in one passage in his *Getica*, Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi (*Torcilingorum rex*) with Scirian and Heruli followers, in another passage (LVII.291), Jordanes mentions Italy during Odoacer's reign being under the tyranny of Turcilingi and Rogii. In his *Romana*, the same author defines Odoacer as a descendant of the Rugii (or of a person named Rogus, *Odoacer genere Rogus*) with Turcilingi, Scirian and Heruli followers. It has been pointed out that Attila had an uncle of the name Rogus and suggested that Odoacer may have been his descendant. In a fragment from a history of Priscus, reproduced by John of Antioch, Odoacer is described as a man of the Sciri, the son of Edeco, and brother of Hunuulf who killed Armatus in the eastern Roman empire. Much later, a memorial plate from 1521 found in the catacombe Chapel of St Maximus in Petersfriedhof—the burial site of St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg (Austria)—mentions Odoacer as King of "Rhutenes" or "Rhutenians" (Latin: *Rex Rhvtenorvm*), who invaded Noricum in 477. Due to its very late date of 1521 and several anachronistic elements, the content of that plate is considered nothing more than a legend. In spite of that, the plate has become a popular "source" for several theorists that try to connect Odoacer with ancient Celtic Ruthenes, and also with later Slavic Ruthenians. Historian Paul R. Magocsi argues such theories should be regarded as "inventive tales" of "creative" writers and nothing more. Many historians, such as medieval scholar Michael Frasetto, accept that Odoacer was of Scirian heritage. Scholars are still to some extent divided about the evidence for Odoacer's father being a Hun, and also about the identity of the Turcilingi. There is some doubt about whether the name has been reported correctly by Jordanes, and whether the Sciri were even Germanic. Historian Bruce Macbain notes that the "ancient sources exhibit considerable confusion over Odovacer's tribal affiliation", but in point of fact none of them calls Odoacer a Hun. Historian Penny MacGeorge argues that Odoacer was likely half-Scirian and half-Thuringian. Historian Patrick Amory explains that "Odoacer is called a Scirian, a Rugian, a Goth or a Thuringian in sources; his father is called a Hun, his mother a Scirian. Odoacer's father Edeco was associated first with the Huns under Attila, and then with a group called Sciri, an ethnographic name that appears intermittently in fifth-century sources." This line of reasoning is also picked up on by historian Erik Jensen, who avows that Odoacer was born to a Gothic mother and that his father Edeco was a Hun. ### Onomastic and other evidence The origin of the name Odoacer, which may give indications as to his tribal affiliation, is debated. One suggestion is that Odoacer is derived from the Germanic *\*Audawakraz* (Gothic *\*Audawakrs*), from *aud-* "wealth" and *wakr-* "vigilant" or, combined, "watcher of the wealth." This form finds a cognate in another Germanic language, the titular *Eadwacer* of the Old English poem *Wulf and Eadwacer* (where Old English renders the earlier Germanic sound *au-* as *ea-*). On the other hand, historians Robert L. Reynolds and Robert S. Lopez explored the possibility that the name Odoacer was not Germanic, making several arguments that his ethnic background might lie elsewhere. One of these is that his name, "Odoacer", for which they claimed an etymology in Germanic languages had not been convincingly found, could be a form of the Turkic "Ot-toghar" ("grass-born" or "fire-born"), or the shorter form "Ot-ghar" ("herder"). Reynolds and Lopez's thesis was criticized by Otto J. Maenschen-Helfen, who pointed out the speciousness of their etymological analysis, since names between Germans and Huns were being used reciprocally. Moreover, there is an often ignored fragment in the *Suda* that was almost certainly written by the well-informed contemporary, Malchus, who identified Odoacer as a Thuringian. Finally, a passage from Eugippius' *Life of Saint Severinus* indicated that Odoacer was so tall that he had to bend down to pass through the doorway, which Macbain consider another strong argument that he was unlikely to have been a Hun, since they were not known to be tall. Before Italy ------------ Possibly the earliest recorded incident involving Odoacer is from a fragment of a chronicle preserved in the *History of the Franks* of Gregory of Tours. Two different chapters of his work mention military leaders with Odoacer's name, using two different spellings and involving two different regions. * In the first mention, a confused or confusing report is given of a number of battles fought by King Childeric I of the Franks, Aegidius, Count Paul, and one "Adovacrius" (with an "a") who was leading a group of Saxons based at the mouth of the Loire. Though there is no consensus, some historians, such as Reynolds and Lopez, have suggested that this Adovacrius may be the same person as the future king of Italy. * In a second mention by Gregory of Tours, an Odovacrius (with an "o") made an alliance with the same Childeric, and together they fought the Alamanni, who had been causing problems in Italy. This Odoacer, with his connection to the region north of Italy, and his "o" spelling, is probably the future king of Italy, before he was king. The earliest supposed recorded event which is more certainly about Odoacer the future king, was shortly before he arrived in Italy. Eugippius, in his *Life of Saint Severinus*, records how a group of barbarians on their way to Italy had stopped to pay their respects to the holy man. Odoacer, at the time "a young man, of tall figure, clad in poor clothes", learned from Severinus that he would one day become famous. Despite the fact that Odoacer was an Arian Christian and Severinus was Catholic, the latter left a deep impression on him. When Odoacer took his leave, Severinus made one final comment which proved prophetic: "Go to Italy, go, now covered with mean hides; soon you will make rich gifts to many." Leader of the *foederati* ------------------------- By 470, Odoacer had become an officer in what remained of the Roman Army. Although Jordanes writes of Odoacer as invading Italy "as leader of the Sciri, the Heruli and allies of various races", modern writers describe him as being part of the Roman military establishment, based on John of Antioch's statement that Odoacer was on the side of Ricimer at the beginning of his battle with the emperor Anthemius in 472. In his capacity as a soldier suddenly pitted against Anthemius, since he had switched sides to join with Ricimer, Odoacer had "hastened the emperor's downfall." When Orestes was in 475 appointed *Magister militum* and patrician by the Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos, Odoacer became head of the Germanic *foederati* of Italy (the Scirian – Herulic *foederati*). Under the command of Orestes were significant contingents of Germanic peoples made up mostly of Rugii and Heruli tribesmen. Before the end of that year Orestes had rebelled and driven Nepos from Italy. Orestes then proclaimed his young son Romulus the new emperor as Romulus Augustus, called "Augustulus" (31 October). At this time, Odoacer was a soldier rising through the ranks. However, Nepos reorganized his court in Salona, Dalmatia and received homage and affirmation from the remaining fragments of the Western Empire beyond Italy and, most importantly, from Constantinople, which refused to accept Augustulus, Zeno having branded him and his father as traitors and usurpers. About this time the *foederati*, who had been quartered in Italy all of these years, had grown weary of this arrangement. In the words of J. B. Bury, "They desired to have roof-trees and lands of their own, and they petitioned Orestes to reward them for their services, by granting them lands and settling them permanently in Italy". Orestes refused their petition, and they turned to Odoacer to lead their revolt against Orestes. Orestes was killed at Placentia along with his brother Paulus outside Ravenna. The Germanic *foederati,* the Scirians and the Heruli, as well as a large segment of the Italic Roman army, then proclaimed Odoacer *rex* ("king") on 23 August 476. Odoacer then advanced to Ravenna and captured the city, compelling the young emperor Romulus to abdicate on 4 September. According to the *Anonymus Valesianus*, Odoacer was moved by Romulus's youth and his beauty to not only spare his life but give him a pension of 6,000 *solidi* and sent him to Campania to live with his relatives. Following Romulus Augustus's deposition, according to the historian Malchus, upon hearing of the accession of Zeno to the throne, the Senate in Rome sent an embassy to the Eastern Emperor and bestowed upon him the Western imperial insignia. The message was clear: the West no longer required a separate Emperor, for "one monarch sufficed [to rule] the world". In response, Zeno accepted their gifts and this essentially brought to end any puppet emperors in the West, with Nepos banished and Anthemius dead. The Eastern Emperor then conferred upon Odoacer the title of Patrician and granted him legal authority to govern Italy in the name of Rome, as *dux Italiae*. Zeno also suggested that Odoacer should receive Nepos back as Emperor in the West, "if he truly wished to act with justice." Although he accepted the title of Patrician and *Dux* from Zeno, Odoacer did not invite Julius Nepos to return to Rome, and the latter remained in Dalmatia until his death. Odoacer was careful to observe form, however, and made a pretence of acting on Nepos's authority, even issuing coins with both his image and that of Zeno. Following Nepos's murder in 480, who was killed while waiting in Dalmatia, Zeno became sole Emperor. Bury, however, disagrees that Odoacer's assumption of power marked the fall of the Western Roman Empire: > It stands out prominently as an important stage in the process of the dismemberment of the Empire. It belongs to the same catalogue of chronological dates which includes A.D. 418, when Honorius settled the Goths in Aquitaine, and A.D. 435, when Valentinian ceded African lands to the Vandals. In A.D. 476 the same principle of disintegration was first applied to Italy. The settlement of Odovacar's East Germans, with Zeno's acquiescence, began the process by which Italian soil was to pass into the hands of Ostrogoths and Lombards, Franks and Normans. And Odovacar's title of king emphasised the significance of the change. > > King of Italy ------------- In 476, Odoacer was proclaimed rex by his soldiers and *dux Italiae* by emperor Zeno, initiating a new era over Roman lands. According to Jordanes, at the beginning of his reign he "slew Count Bracila at Ravenna that he might inspire a fear of himself among the Romans." He took many military actions to strengthen his control over Italy and its neighboring areas. He achieved a solid diplomatic coup by inducing the Vandal king Gaiseric to cede Sicily to him. Noting that "Odovacar seized power in August of 476, Gaiseric died in January 477, and the sea usually became closed to navigation around the beginning of November", F.M. Clover dates this cession to September or October 476. When Julius Nepos was murdered by two of his retainers in his country house near Salona (9 May 480), Odoacer assumed the duty of pursuing and executing the assassins, and at the same time established his own rule in Dalmatia. As Bury points out, "It is highly important to observe that Odovacar established his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate, and this body seems to have given him their loyal support throughout his reign, so far as our meagre sources permit us to draw inferences." He regularly nominated members of the Senate to the Consulate and other prestigious offices: "Basilius, Decius, Venantius, and Manlius Boethius held the consulship and were either Prefects of Rome or Praetorian Prefects; Symmachus and Sividius were consuls and Prefects of Rome; another senator of old family, Cassiodorus, was appointed a minister of finance." A. H. M. Jones also notes that under Odoacer the Senate acquired "enhanced prestige and influence" in order to counter any desires for restoration of Imperial rule. As the most tangible example of this renewed prestige, for the first time since the mid-3rd century copper coins were issued with the legend *S(enatus) C(onsulto)*. Jones describes these coins as "fine big copper pieces", which were "a great improvement on the miserable little *nummi* hitherto current", and not only were they copied by the Vandals in Africa, but they formed the basis of the currency reform by Anastasius in the Eastern Empire. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, his relations with the Chalcedonian church hierarchy were remarkably good. As G.M. Cook notes in her introduction to Magnus Felix Ennodius' *Life of Saint Epiphanius*, he showed great esteem for Bishop Epiphanius: in response to the bishop's petition, Odoacer granted the inhabitants of Liguria a five-year immunity from taxes, and again granted his requests for relief from abuses by the praetorian prefect. The biography of Pope Felix III in the *Liber Pontificalis* openly states that the pontiff's tenure occurred during Odoacer's reign without any complaints about the king being registered. In 487/488, Odoacer led his army to victory against the Rugians in Noricum, taking their king Feletheus into captivity; when word that Feletheus' son, Fredericus, had returned to his people, Odoacer sent his brother Onoulphus with an army back to Noricum against him. Onoulphus found it necessary to evacuate the remaining Romans and resettled them in Italy. The remaining Rugians fled and took refuge with the Ostrogoths; the abandoned province was settled by the Lombards by 493. Fall and death -------------- As Odoacer's position improved, Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, increasingly saw him as a rival. Odoacer exchanged messages with Illus, who had been in open revolt against Zeno since 484. Switching allegiances, Zeno subsequently sought to destroy Odoacer and then promised Theodoric the Great and his Ostrogoths the Italian peninsula if they were to defeat and remove Odoacer. As both Herwig Wolfram and Peter Heather point out, Theodoric had his own reasons to agree to this offer: "Theodoric had enough experience to know (or at least suspect) that Zeno would not, in the long term, tolerate his independent power. When Theodoric rebelled in 485, we are told, he had in mind Zeno's treatment of Armatus. Armatus defected from Basilicus to Zeno in 476, and was made senior imperial general for life. Within a year, Zeno had him assassinated." In 489, Theodoric led the Ostrogoths across the Julian Alps and into Italy. On 28 August, Odoacer met him at the Isonzo, only to be defeated. He withdrew to Verona, reaching its outskirts on 27 September, where he immediately set up a fortified camp. Theodoric followed him and three days later defeated him again. While Odoacer took refuge in Ravenna, Theodoric continued across Italy to Mediolanum, where the majority of Odoacer's army, including his chief general Tufa, surrendered to the Ostrogothic king. Theodoric had no reason to doubt Tufa's loyalty and dispatched his new general to Ravenna with a band of elite soldiers. Herwig Wolfram observes, "[b]ut Tufa changed sides, the Gothic elite force entrusted to his command was destroyed, and Theodoric suffered his first serious defeat on Italian soil." Theodoric recoiled by seeking safety in Ticinum. Odoacer emerged from Ravenna and started to besiege his rival. While both were fully engaged, the Burgundians seized the opportunity to plunder and devastated Liguria. Many Romans were taken into captivity, and did not regain their freedom until Theodoric ransomed them three years later. The following summer, the Visigothic king Alaric II demonstrated what Wolfram calls "one of the rare displays of Gothic solidarity" and sent military aid to help his kinsman, forcing Odoacer to raise his siege. Theodoric emerged from Ticinum, and on 11 August 490, the armies of the two kings clashed on the Adda River. Odoacer again was defeated and forced back into Ravenna, where Theodoric besieged him. Ravenna proved to be invulnerable, surrounded by marshes and estuaries and easily supplied by small boats from its hinterlands, as Procopius later pointed out in his *History*. Further, Tufa remained at large in the strategic valley of the Adige near Trent, and received unexpected reinforcements when dissent amongst Theodoric's ranks led to sizable desertions. That same year, the Vandals took their turn to strike while both sides were fully engaged and invaded Sicily. While Theodoric was engaged with them, his ally Fredericus, king of the Rugians, began to oppress the inhabitants of Pavia, whom the latter's forces had been garrisoned to protect. Once Theodoric intervened in person in late August, 491, his punitive acts drove Fredericus to desert with his followers to Tufa. By this time, however, Odoacer appeared to have lost all hope of victory. A large-scale sortie he sent out of Ravenna on the night of 9/10 July 491 ended in failure, during which his commander-in-chief, Livilia, along with the best of his Herulian soldiers were killed. On 29 August 492, the Goths were about to assemble enough ships at Rimini to set up an effective blockade of Ravenna. Despite these decisive losses, the war dragged on until 25 February 493 when John, bishop of Ravenna, was able to negotiate a treaty between Theodoric and Odoacer to occupy Ravenna together and share joint rule. After a three-year siege, Theodoric entered the city on 5 March. Odoacer died ten days later, slain by Theodoric while they shared a meal. Theodoric had plotted to have a group of his followers kill him while the two kings were feasting together in the imperial palace of Honorius "Ad Laurentum" ("At the Laurel Grove"); when this plan went astray, Theodoric drew his sword and struck him on the collarbone. In response to Odoacer's dying question, "Where is God?" Theodoric cried, "This is what you did to my friends." Theodoric was said to have stood over the body of his dead rival and exclaimed, "The man has no bones in his body." Not only did Theodoric slay Odoacer, he thereafter had the betrayed king's loyal followers hunted down and killed as well, an event which left him as the master of Italy. Odoacer's wife Sunigilda was stoned to death, and his brother Onoulphus was killed by archers while seeking refuge in a church. Theodoric exiled Odoacer's son Thela to Gaul, but when he attempted to return to Italy Theodoric had him killed. Despite the tragic ending of his domain, followers, and family, Odoacer left an important legacy, in that, he had laid the foundations for a great kingdom in Italy for Theodoric to exploit. Later portrayals ---------------- * The Old High German *Hildebrandslied* mentions Odoacer (as *Otacher*) as the person who drove Hildebrand from his home. * The famous Old English poem 'Wulf and Eadwacer' has been thought to be a legendary retelling of part of Odoacer's story. * Odoacer is depicted in Valerio Massimo Manfredi's 2002 novel *The Last Legion*, and portrayed by Peter Mullan in its 2007 film adaptation. * The movie *476 A.D. Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries* about Romulus Augustus's deposition by Odoacer, the Chieftain of the Ostrogoths, and the End of the Roman Empire, was released in 2013, by Ivan Pavletić. See also -------- * Alaric I * Gaiseric * Germanic peoples * Barbarian invasions Sources ------- * Amory, Patrick (1997). *People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554*. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-51152-306-9. * Bernard, Jack F. (1970). *Up from Caesar: A Survey of the History of Italy from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Collapse of Fascism*. New York: Doubleday & Co. OCLC 806326076. * Bunson, Matthew (1995). *A Dictionary of the Roman Empire*. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19510-233-8. * Bury, J.B. (1923). *History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian*. Vol. I. New York: Macmillan. OCLC 963903029. * Bury, J.B. (1958). *History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian*. Vol. II. New York: Dover Publications Inc. OCLC 62206973. * Cameron, Alan (1988). "Flavius: a Nicety of Protocol". *Latomus*. **47** (1): 26–33. JSTOR 41540754. * Clover, Frank M. (1999). "A Game of Bluff: The Fate of Sicily after A.D. 476". *Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte*. **48** (1): 235–244. JSTOR 4436542. * Davis, Raymond (2001). *Book of the Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis)*. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-0-85323-545-3. * Delbrück, Hans (1990). *The Barbarian Invasions*. History of the Art of War. Vol. II. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80329-200-0. * Ennodius, Magnus Felix (1942). *The Life of Saint Epiphanius*. Translated, Edited, and Commentary by Genevieve Marie Cook. Washington DC: Catholic University Press. OCLC 883796942. * Elton, Hugh (2018). *The Roman Empire in Late Antiquity: A Political and Military History*. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10845-631-9. * Eugippius (1965). "Commemoratorium Severinus". *The Life of Saint Severin*. Translated by Ludwig Bieler. Washington DC: Catholic University Press. OCLC 422145289. * Frassetto, Michael (2003). *Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation*. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9. * Gibbon, Sir Edward (1998) [1789]. *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*. London: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-85326-499-3. * Goldsworthy, Adrian (2009). *How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower*. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30013-719-4. * Grant, Michael (1998). *From Rome to Byzantium: The Fifth Century AD*. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13516-672-4. * Gregory of Tours (1974). *The History of the Franks*. Translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14044-295-3. * Halsall, Guy (2007). *Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568*. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52143-543-7. * Heather, Peter (1996). *The Goths*. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-63120-932-4. * Heather, Peter (2005). *The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians*. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19515-954-7. * Heather, Peter (2013). *The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes & Imperial Pretenders*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936851-8. * Jensen, Erik (2018). *Barbarians in the Greek and Roman World*. Cambridge; Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62466-712-1. * Jones, A.H.M. (1964). "The Fall of the Western Empire and the Barbarian Kingdoms". *The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey*. Vol. I. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801832845. * Jordanes (1915). *The Gothic History of Jordanes*. Translated by Charles C. Mierow. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 463056290. * Kim, Hyun Jin (2013). *The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe*. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10700-906-6. * Lee, A.D. (2013). *From Rome to Byzantium AD 363 to 565: The Transformation of Ancient Rome*. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-74862-790-5. * Macbain, Bruce (1983). "Odovacer the Hun?". *Classical Philology*. **78** (1): 323–327. doi:10.1086/366807. JSTOR 269961. S2CID 162185151. * Magocsi, Paul R. (2015). *With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns*. Budapest-New York: Central European University Press. ISBN 9786155053467. * Martindale, J.R. (1980). "Odoacer". *Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire*. Vol. 2 (A.D. 395–527). London; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 791–793. ISBN 0-521-20159-4. * MacGeorge, Penny (2002). *Late Roman Warlords*. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925244-2. * Paul the Deacon (2003). *History of the Lombards*. Translated by William Dudley Foulke. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1079-4. * Prokopios (2014). *The Wars of Justinian*. Translated by H. B. Dewing. Indianapolis; Cambridge: Hackett Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62466-172-3. * Reynolds, Robert L.; Lopez, Robert S. (1946). "Odoacer: German or Hun?". *The American Historical Review*. **52** (1): 36–53. doi:10.1086/ahr/52.1.36. JSTOR 1845067. * Shiels, Ian (2022). "*Wulf and Eadwacer* Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer". *Anglia: Journal of English Philology*. **140** (3–4): 373–420. doi:10.1515/ang-2022-0056. S2CID 254294773. * Sotiroff, G. (1974). *The Assassination of Justinian's Personality*. Lynn Publishing. OCLC 906162550. * Thompson, E.A. (1982). *Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire*. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-08700-X. * Voyles, Joseph (1992). *Early Germanic Grammar: Pre-, Proto-, and Post-Germanic Languages*. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-728270-X. * Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). *Encyclopedia of European Peoples*. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0816049646. * Wolfram, Herwig (1988). *History of the Goths*. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05259-5. * Wolfram, Herwig (1997). *The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples*. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08511-6. * Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). *The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan* (PDF). Vol. IV. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISSN 0363-5570. Further reading --------------- * Gregory, Timothy E. (2005). *A History of Byzantium*. Malden, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-63123-513-2. | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Preceded byRomulus Augustusas Western Roman EmperorJulius Neposas Western Roman Emperor | **King of Italy** 476–493 | Succeeded byTheodoric the Great |

Odoacer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odoacer

**Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.** (Japanese: 日産自動車株式会社, Hepburn: *Nissan Jidōsha kabushiki gaisha*), often shortened to **Nissan**, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan and Infiniti brands, and formerly the Datsun brand, with in-house performance tuning products (including cars) labelled Nismo. The company traces back to the beginnings of the 20th century, with the Nissan *zaibatsu*, now called Nissan Group. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance (Mitsubishi joining in 2016), a partnership between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, with Renault of France. Renault holds a 43.4% voting stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. Following an agreement in January 2023, Renault is set to reduce its voting stake to 15%, making both manufacturers equal in voting rights. Since October 2016 Nissan holds a 34% controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors. In 2017, Nissan was the sixth largest automaker in the world, after Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, General Motors and Ford. In 2014, Nissan was the largest car manufacturer in North America. With a revenue of $75 billion in 2022, Nissan was the 9th largest automobile maker in the world, as well as being the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia and Mexico. As of April 2018[update], Nissan was the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, with global sales of more than 320,000 all-electric vehicles. The top-selling vehicle of the car-maker's fully-electric lineup is the Nissan LEAF, the No. 2 top-selling electric car globally, just behind the Tesla Model 3. History ------- ### Beginnings of Datsun brand name from 1914 Masujiro Hashimoto [ja] (橋本増治郎) founded the **Kwaishinsha (Kaishinsha) Motor Car Works** (快進社自働車工場, *Kwaishinsha jidōsha kōjō*, *A Good Company Automobile Manufacturer*) on 1 July 1911 in Azabu-Hiroo district of Tokyo. In 1914, the company produced its first car, called the DAT. The new car's model name was an acronym of the company's investors' surnames: * Kenjiro **D**en (**Den Kenjirō**) * Rokuro **A**oyama (**Aoyama Rokurō**) * Meitaro **T**akeuchi (**Takeuchi Meitarō**) It was renamed to **Kaishinsha Motorcar Co., Ltd.** in 1918, and again to **DAT Jidosha & Co., Ltd.** (DAT Motorcar Co.) in 1925. DAT Motors built trucks in addition to the DAT and Datsun passenger cars. The vast majority of its output were trucks, due to an almost non-existent consumer market for passenger cars at the time, and disaster recovery efforts as a result of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were produced for the military market. At the same time, **Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd.** (jitsuyo means practical use or utility) produced small trucks using parts, and materials imported from the United States. Commercial operations were placed on hold during Japan's participation in World War I, and the company contributed to the war effort. In 1926, the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd (*Jitsuyō Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha*) a.k.a. **Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo** (established 1919 as a Kubota subsidiary) to become **DAT Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.** (ダット自動車製造株式会社, *DAT Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha*) in Osaka until 1932. From 1923 to 1925, the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of Lila. In 1929, DAT Automobile Manufacturing Inc. merged with a separated part of the manufacturing business of IHI Corporation to become Automobile Industries Co., Ltd. [*clarification needed*] In 1931, DAT came out with a new smaller car, called the Datsun Type 11, the first "Datson", meaning "Son of DAT". Later in 1933, after Nissan Group *zaibatsu* took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" in Japanese, hence the name "Datsun" (ダットサン, *Dattosan*). In 1933, the company name was Nipponized to **Jidosha-Seizo Co., Ltd.** (*Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha*, "Automobile Manufacturing Share Company") and was moved to Yokohama. ### Nissan name first used in 1930s In 1928, Yoshisuke Aikawa (nickname: Gisuke/Guisuke Ayukawa) founded the holding company **Nihon Sangyo** (日本産業 Japan Industries or Nihon Industries). The name 'Nissan' originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation used on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for **Ni**hon **San**gyo. This company was Nissan "Zaibatsu" which included Tobata Casting and Hitachi. At this time Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but Aikawa did not enter automobile manufacturing until 1933. The zaibatsu eventually grew to include 74 firms and became the fourth-largest in Japan during World War II. In 1931, DAT Jidosha Seizo became affiliated with **Tobata Casting** and was merged into Tobata Casting in 1933. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissan's automobile manufacturing. ### Nissan Motor organized in 1934 In 1934, Aikawa separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he named **Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.** (日産自動車, *Nissan Jidōsha*). The shareholders of the new company; however, were not enthusiastic about the prospects of the automobile in Japan, so Aikawa bought out all the Tobata Casting shareholders (using capital from Nihon Industries) in June 1934. At this time, Nissan Motor effectively became owned by Nihon Sangyo and Hitachi. In 1935, the construction of its Yokohama plant was completed. 44 Datsuns were shipped to Asia, Central and South America. In 1935, the first car manufactured by an integrated assembly system rolled off the line at the Yokohama plant. Nissan built trucks, airplanes, and engines for the Imperial Japanese Army. In November 1937 Nissan moved its headquarters to Hsinking, the capital of Manchukuo. In December the company changed its name to Manchuria Heavy Industries Developing Co (MHID). In 1940, the first knockdown kits were shipped to Dowa Jidosha Kogyo (Dowa Automobile), one of MHID's companies, for assembly. In 1944, the head office was moved to Nihonbashi, Tokyo, and the company name was changed to Nissan Heavy Industries, Ltd., which the company kept through 1949. ### Nissan's early American connection DAT had inherited Kubota's chief designer, American engineer William R. Gorham. This, along with Aikawa's 1908 visit to Detroit, was to greatly affect Nissan's future. Although it had always been Aikawa's intention to use cutting-edge auto making technology from America, it was Gorham that carried out the plan. Most of the machinery and processes originally came from the United States. When Nissan started to assemble larger vehicles under the "Nissan" brand in 1937, much of the design plans and plant facilities were supplied by the Graham-Paige Company. Nissan also had a Graham license under which passenger cars, buses, and trucks were made. In his 1986 book *The Reckoning*, David Halberstam states "In terms of technology, Gorham was the founder of the Nissan Motor Company" and that "young Nissan engineers who had never met him spoke of him as a god and could describe in detail his years at the company and his many inventions." ### Austin Motor Company relations (1937–1960s) From 1934, Datsun began to build Austin 7s under license. This operation became the greatest success of Austin's overseas licensing of its Seven and marked the beginning of Datsun's international success. In 1952, Nissan entered into a legal agreement with Austin, for Nissan to assemble 2,000 Austins from imported partially assembled sets and sell them in Japan under the Austin trademark. The agreement called for Nissan to make all Austin parts locally within three years, a goal Nissan met. Nissan produced and marketed Austins for seven years. The agreement also gave Nissan the rights to use Austin patents, which Nissan used in developing its own engines for its Datsun line of cars. In 1953, British-built Austins were assembled and sold, but by 1955, the Austin A50 – completely built by Nissan and featuring a new 1489 cc engine — was on the market in Japan. Nissan produced 20,855 Austins from 1953 to 1959. Nissan leveraged the Austin patents to further develop its own modern engine designs beyond what Austin's A- and B-family designs offered. The apex of the Austin-derived engines was the new design A series engine in 1966. In 1967, Nissan introduced its new highly advanced four-cylinder overhead cam (OHC) Nissan L engine, which while similar to Mercedes-Benz OHC designs was a totally new engine designed by Nissan. This engine powered the new Datsun 510, which gained Nissan respect in the worldwide sedan market. Then, in 1969, Nissan introduced the Datsun 240Z sports car which used a six-cylinder variation of the L series engine, developed under Nissan Machinery (Nissan Koki Co., Ltd. 日産工機) in 1964, a former remnant of another auto manufacturer Kurogane. The 240Z was an immediate sensation and lifted Nissan to world-class status in the automobile market. ### 100 Day Strike of 1953 During the Korean War, Nissan was a major vehicle producer for the U.S. Army. After the Korean War ended, significant levels of anti-communist sentiment existed in Japan. The union that organized Nissan's workforce was strong and militant. Nissan was in financial difficulties, and when wage negotiations came, the company took a hard line. Workers were locked out, and several hundred were fired. The Japanese government and the U.S. occupation forces arrested several union leaders. The union ran out of strike funds and was defeated. A new labor union was formed, with Shioji Ichiro one of its leaders. Ichiro had studied at Harvard University on a U.S. government scholarship. He advanced an idea to trade wage cuts against saving 2,000 jobs. Ichiro's idea was made part of a new union contract that prioritized productivity. Between 1955 and 1973, Nissan "expanded rapidly on the basis of technical advances supported – and often suggested – by the union." Ichiro became president of the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions and "the most influential figure in the right wing of the Japanese labor movement." ### Merger with Prince Motor Company In 1966, Nissan merged with the Prince Motor Company, bringing more upmarket cars, including the Skyline and Gloria, into its selection. The Prince name was eventually abandoned, and successive Skylines and Glorias bore the Nissan name. "Prince" was used at the Japanese Nissan dealership "Nissan Prince Shop" until 1999, when "Nissan Red Stage" replaced it. Nissan Red Stage itself has been replaced as of 2007. The Skyline lives on as the G Series of Infiniti. ### Miss Fairlady To capitalize on the renewed investment during 1964 Summer Olympics, Nissan established the gallery on the second and third floors of the San-ai building, located in Ginza, Tokyo. To attract visitors, Nissan started using beautiful female showroom attendants where Nissan held a competition to choose five candidates as the first class of Nissan Miss Fairladys, modeled after "Datsun Demonstrators" from the 1930s who introduced cars. The Fairlady name was used as a link to the popular Broadway play *My Fair Lady* of the era. Miss Fairladys became the marketers of the Datsun Fairlady 1500. In April 2008, 14 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added, for a total of 45 Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants (22 in Ginza, 8 in Sapporo, 7 in Nagoya, 7 in Fukuoka). In April 2012, 7 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added, for a total of 48 Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants (26 in Ginza, 8 in Sapporo, 7 in Nagoya, 7 in Fukuoka). In April 2013, 6 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added to Ginza showroom, for a total of 27 48th Ginza Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants. ### Foreign expansion In the 1950s, Nissan decided to expand into worldwide markets. Nissan management realized their Datsun small car line would fill an unmet need in markets such as Australia and the world's largest car market, the United States. They first showed the Datsun Bluebird at the 1958 Los Angeles Auto Show. The company formed a U.S. subsidiary, Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A., in Gardena, California in 1960, headed by Yutaka Katayama. Nissan continued to improve its sedans with the latest technological advancements and chic Italianate styling in sporty cars such as the Datsun Fairlady roadsters, the race-winning 411 series, the Datsun 510 and the Datsun 240Z. By 1970, Nissan had become one of the world's largest exporters of automobiles. In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, consumers worldwide, especially in the lucrative U.S. market, began turning to high-quality small economy cars. To meet the growing demand for its new Nissan Sunny, the company built new factories in Mexico (Nissan Mexicana was established in the early-1960s and commenced manufacturing in 1966 at the Cuernavaca assembly facility, making it Nissan's first North American assembly plant), Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, United States (Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corporation USA was established in 1980) and South Africa. The "Chicken Tax" of 1964 placed a 25% tax on commercial vans imported to the United States. In response, Nissan, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. began building plants in the U.S. in the early-1980s. Nissan's initial assembly plant Smyrna assembly plant (which broke ground in 1980) at first built only trucks such as the 720 and Hardbody, but has since expanded to produce several car and SUV lines, including the Altima, Maxima, Rogue, Pathfinder, Infiniti QX60 and LEAF all-electric car. The addition of mass-market automobiles was in response to the 1981 Voluntary Export Restraints imposed by the U.S. Government. An engine plant in Decherd, Tennessee followed, most recently a second assembly plant was established in Canton, Mississippi. In 1970, Teocar was created, which was a Greek assembly plant created in cooperation with Theoharakis. It was situated in Volos, Greece and its geographical location was perfect as the city had a major port. The plant started production in 1980, assembling Datsun pick-up trucks and continuing with the Nissan Cherry and Sunny automobiles. Until May 1995 170,000 vehicles were made, mainly for Greece. By the early-1980s, Nissan (Datsun) had long been the best selling Japanese brand in Europe. In order to overcome export tariffs and delivery costs to its European customers, Nissan contemplated establishing a plant in Europe. Nissan tried to convert the Greek plant into one manufacturing cars for all European countries. However, due to issues with the Greek government not only did that not happen but the plant itself was closed. A joint venture with Italy's then state-owned Alfa Romeo was also entered in 1980, leading to Italian production of the Nissan Cherry and an Alfa-badged and motorized version, the Alfa Romeo Arna. After an extensive review, Nissan decided to go it alone instead. The City of Sunderland in the north east of England was chosen for its skilled workforce and its location near major ports. The plant was completed in 1986 as the subsidiary Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd. By 2007, it was producing 400,000 vehicles per year, landing it the title of the most productive plant in Europe. In 2001, Nissan established a manufacturing plant in Brazil. In 2005, Nissan added operations in India, through its subsidiary Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. With its global alliance partner, Renault, Nissan invested $990 million to set up a manufacturing facility in Chennai, catering to the Indian market as well as a base for exports of small cars to Europe. Nissan entered the Middle East market in 1957 when it sold its first car in Saudi Arabia. Nissan sold nearly 520,000 new vehicles in China in 2009 in a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor. To meet increased production targets, Dongfeng-Nissan expanded its production base in Guangzhou, which would become Nissan's largest factory around the globe in terms of production capacity. Nissan also has moved and expanded its Nissan Americas Inc. headquarters, moving from Los Angeles to Franklin, Tennessee in the Nashville area. ### Alliance with Renault In 1999, facing severe financial difficulties, Nissan entered an alliance with Renault of France. In June 2001, Renault executive Carlos Ghosn was named chief executive officer of Nissan. In May 2005, Ghosn was named president of Nissan's partner company Renault. He was appointed president and CEO of Renault on 6 May 2009. Under CEO Ghosn's "Nissan Revival Plan" (NRP), the company has rebounded in what many leading economists consider to be one of the most spectacular corporate turnarounds in history, catapulting Nissan to record profits and a dramatic revitalization of both its Nissan and Infiniti model line-ups. Ghosn has been recognized in Japan for the company's turnaround in the midst of an ailing Japanese economy. Ghosn and the Nissan turnaround were featured in Japanese manga and popular culture. His achievements in revitalizing Nissan were noted by the Japanese government, which awarded him the Japan Medal with Blue Ribbon in 2004. In February 2017, Ghosn announced he would step down as CEO of Nissan on 1 April 2017, while remaining chairman of the company. He was replaced as CEO by his then-deputy Hiroto Saikawa. On 19 November 2018, Ghosn was fired as chairman following his arrest for the alleged under-reporting of his income to Japanese financial authorities. After 108 days in detention, Ghosn was released on bail, but after 29 days he was again detained on new charges (4 April 2019). He had been due to hold a news conference, but instead, his lawyers released a video of Ghosn alleging this 2018-19 Nissan scandal is itself evidence of value destruction and Nissan corporate mismanagement. In September 2019, Saikawa resigned as CEO, following allegations of improper payments received by him. Yasuhiro Yamauchi was appointed as acting CEO. In October 2019, the company announced it had appointed Makoto Uchida as its next CEO. The appointment would be made "effective" by 1 January 2020 at the latest. On 1 December 2019, Uchida became CEO. In the United States, Nissan has been increasing its reliance on sales to daily-rental companies like Enterprise Rent-A-Car or Hertz. In 2016, Nissan's rental sales jumped 37% and in 2017 Nissan became the only major automaker to boost rental sales when the Detroit Three cut back less profitable deliveries to daily-rental companies, which traditionally are the biggest customers of domestic automakers. In late-July 2019, Nissan announced it would lay off 12,500 employees over the next 3 years, citing a 95% year on year net income fall. Hiroto Saikawa, CEO at the time, confirmed the majority of those cuts would be plant workers. In May 2020, Nissan announced that the company would cut production capacity by 20% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-2020, the company announced it would shut down factories in Indonesia and Spain, and would exit the South Korean car market. Nissan announced that the Infiniti brand will be pulled out from South Korea as well alongside the Nissan brand by December due to worsening business environment amidst the pandemic and the 2019 boycott of Japanese products in South Korea. Nissan announced that service centers will be managed to provide after-sales services such as vehicle quality assurance and parts management for eight years. In November 2020, Nissan announced a $421 million loss in the last quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the scandal concerning Ghosn. According to a spokesperson of Nissan North America, the company had suffered from a strategy of "volume at any cost", which has been attributed by analysts to Ghosn. In January 2023, Renault said it intends to transfer almost 30% of its controlling stake in Nissan to a French trust (pending approval by both companies), reducing its shares with voting rights to a minority 15% and, in doing so, making Nissan shares in Renault to gain voting rights. The shareholding and voting ratio of both companies is set to be fixed in the future. The agreement also includes Nissan investing in Ampere (a proposed Renault subsidiary for electric cars) and projects in various markets. In February 2023, both companies approved the going-ahead for the shareholding changes. Final details and regulatory clearances for the transaction are set to be completed by the first quarter of 2023 and it would be done by the fourth quarter. The companies also approved joint projects and Nissan's Ampere investment. Nissan technologies ------------------- In 1982, Nissan's first final assembly robots were installed in the Murayama plant, where the then-new March/Micra was assembled. In 1984, the Zama plant began to be robotized; this automation process then continued throughout Nissan's factories. Nissan electric vehicles have been produced intermittently since 1946. In 2010, the Nissan Leaf plug-in battery electric vehicle was introduced; it was the world's most sold plug-in electric car for nearly a decade. It was preceded by the Altra and the Hypermini. Until surpassed by Tesla, Nissan was the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, with global sales of more than 320,000 all-electric vehicles as of April 2018. In 2022, it was announced that Nissan was intending to create solid-state batteries for electric vehicles. Relationships with other car companies -------------------------------------- ### Ford Motor Company In Australia, between 1989 and 1992, Nissan Australia shared models with Ford Australia under a government-backed rationalisation scheme known as the Button Plan, with a version of the Nissan Pintara being sold as the Ford Corsair and a version of the Ford Falcon as the Nissan Ute. A variant of the Nissan Patrol was sold as the Ford Maverick during the 1988–94 model years. In North America, Nissan partnered with Ford from 1993 to 2002 to market the Ohio-built Mercury Villager and the Nissan Quest. The two minivans were virtually identical aside from cosmetic differences. In 2002, Nissan and Ford announced the discontinuation of the arrangement. In Europe, Nissan and Ford Europe partnered to produce the Nissan Terrano II and the badge-engineered Ford Maverick, a mid-size SUV produced at the Nissan Motor Ibérica S.A (NMISA) plant in Barcelona, Spain. The Maverick/Terrano II was a popular vehicle sold throughout Europe and Australasia. It was also sold in Japan as a captive import, with the Nissan model marketed as the Nissan Mistral. ### Volkswagen Nissan licensed the Volkswagen Santana. Production began in 1984, at Nissan's Zama, Kanagawa plant, and ended in May 1990. ### Alfa Romeo From 1983 to 1987, Nissan cooperated with Alfa Romeo to build the Arna. The goal was for Alfa to compete in the family hatchback market segment, and for Nissan to establish a foothold in the European market. After Alfa Romeo's takeover by Fiat, both the car and cooperation were discontinued. ### General Motors In Europe, General Motors (GM) and Nissan co-operated on the Nissan Primastar, a light commercial vehicle. The high roof version is built in the NMISA plant in Barcelona, Spain; while the low roof version is built at Vauxhall Motors/Opel's Luton plant in Bedfordshire, UK. In 2013, GM announced its intentions to rebadge the Nissan NV200 commercial van as the 2015 model year Chevrolet City Express, to be introduced by the end of 2014. Holden, GM's Australian subsidiary, sold versions of the Nissan Pulsar as the Holden Astra between 1984 and 1989. ### LDV LDV Group sold a badge-engineered light commercial vehicle version of the Nissan Serena as the LDV Cub from 1996 to 2001. The Nissan equivalent was marketed as the Nissan Vanette Cargo. ### Alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi In 1999, facing severe financial difficulties, Nissan entered an alliance with Renault of France. Signed on 27 March 1999, the *Renault-Nissan Alliance* was the first of its kind involving a Japanese and French car manufacturer, each with its own distinct corporate culture and brand identity. Renault initially acquired a 36.8% stake in Nissan for $3.5 billion pending court approval and Nissan permanently vowed to buy into Renault when it was financially able. In 2001, after the company's turnaround from near-bankruptcy, Nissan acquired a 15% share of Renault, which in turn increased its stake in Nissan to 43.4%. The Renault-Nissan Alliance has evolved over the years to Renault holding 43.4% of Nissan shares, while Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares. The alliance itself is incorporated as the Renault-Nissan B.V., founded on 28 March 2002 under Dutch law. Renault-Nissan B.V. is equally owned by Renault and Nissan. On 7 April 2010, Daimler AG exchanged a 3.1% share of its holdings for 3.1% from both Nissan and Renault. This triple alliance allows for the increased sharing of technology and development costs, encouraging global cooperation and mutual development. On 12 December 2012, the Renault–Nissan Alliance formed a joint venture with Russian Technologies (Alliance Rostec Auto BV) with the aim of becoming the long-term controlling shareholder of AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest car company and owner of the country's biggest selling brand, Lada. The takeover was completed in June 2014, and the two companies of the Renault-Nissan Alliance took a combined 67.1% stake of Alliance Rostec, which in turn acquired a 74.5% of AvtoVAZ, thereby giving Renault and Nissan indirect control over the Russian manufacturer. Ghosn was appointed chairman of the board of AvtoVAZ on 27 June 2013. In September 2017, Nissan sold its AvtoVAZ stake to Renault for €45 million. Taken together, in 2013 the Renault–Nissan Alliance sold one in ten cars worldwide, and would be the world's fourth largest automaker with sales of 8,266,098 units. ### Other alliances and joint ventures * In 2003, Nissan and Dongfeng Motor Group formed a 50:50 joint venture with the name Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFL). The company calls itself "China's first automotive joint venture enterprise with a complete series of trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles," and "the largest joint-venture project of its scale." * On 7 April 2010, Daimler AG exchanged a 3.1% share of its holdings for 3.1% from both Nissan and Renault. This triple alliance allows for the increased sharing of technology and development costs, encouraging global cooperation and mutual development. * On 12 December 2012, the Renault–Nissan Alliance formed a joint venture with Russian Technologies (Alliance Rostec Auto BV) with the aim of becoming the long-term controlling shareholder of AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest car company and owner of the country's biggest selling brand, Lada. Carlos Ghosn was appointed chairman of the board of AvtoVAZ on 27 June 2013. Nissan exited the AvtoVAZ venture in September 2017. * Nissan is in an alliance with Ashok Leyland in India, producing light commercial vehicles. * Together with Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan develops mini cars which are produced at Mitsubishi's Mizushima plant in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan under the NMKV joint venture. In May 2016 Nissan bought a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors for an estimated US$2.3 billion. Branding and corporate identity ------------------------------- ### Brands *Nissan:* Nissan's volume models are sold worldwide under the Nissan brand. *Datsun:* Until 1983, Nissan automobiles in most export markets were sold under the Datsun brand. In 1984 the Datsun brand was phased out and the Nissan brand was phased in. All cars in 1984 had both the Datsun and Nissan branding on them and in 1985 the Datsun name was completely dropped. In July 2013, Nissan relaunched Datsun as a brand targeted at emerging markets. However, due to sluggish sales, Nissan ended sales of Datsun-badged vehicles in 2022. *Infiniti:* Since 1989, Nissan has sold its luxury models under the Infiniti brand. In 2012, Infiniti changed its headquarters to Hong Kong, where it is incorporated as Infiniti Global Limited. Its president is former BMW executive Roland Krueger. From 2014 to 2020, the Japanese-market Skyline (rebadged Infiniti Q50) and Fuga (rebadged Infiniti Q70) were sold with Infiniti emblem. *Nismo:* Nissan's in-house tuning shop is Nismo, short for "Nissan Motorsport International Limited." Nismo is being re-positioned as Nissan's performance brand. * Current logo of Nissan (since 2020)Current logo of Nissan (since 2020) * Nissan "Corporation" logo used from 2013 to 2020Nissan "Corporation" logo (2013–2020) * Nissan corporate wordmark (2001–2020)Nissan corporate wordmark (2001–2020) * Logo of Nissan (1983–2002)Logo of Nissan (1983–2002) * Logo of Nissan (2001–2020)Logo of Nissan (2001–2020) * The "classic" Datsun logo, based on the flag of Japan and Japan's nickname as the "Land of the Rising Sun"The "classic" Datsun logo, based on the flag of Japan and Japan's nickname as the "Land of the Rising Sun" * Infiniti logo (since 1989)Infiniti logo (since 1989) * Nismo logoNismo logo ### Corporate identity For many years, Nissan used a red wordmark for the company, and car "badges" for the "Nissan" and "Infiniti" brands. At Nissan's 2013 earnings press conference in Yokohama, Nissan unveiled "a new steel-blue logo that spells out—literally—the distinction between Nissan the company and Nissan the brand." Using a blue-gray color scheme, the new corporate logo did read NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY. Underneath were the "badge" logos for the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. Later in 2013, the Nissan "Company" logo changed to the Nissan "Corporation" logo. The latter was the logo used by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. up to early 2020. In July 2020, Nissan introduced new corporate and brand logos, as part of an image revamp tied to the Ariya launch. Products -------- ### Automotive products Nissan has produced an extensive range of mainstream cars and trucks, initially for domestic consumption but exported around the world since the 1950s. It also produced several memorable sports cars, including the Datsun Fairlady 1500, 1600 and 2000 Roadsters, the Z-car, an affordable sports car originally introduced in 1969; and the GT-R, a powerful all-wheel-drive sports coupe. In 1985, Nissan created a tuning division, *Nismo*, for competition and performance development of such cars. One of Nismo's latest models is the 370Z Nismo. Nissan also sells a range of kei cars, mainly as a joint venture with other Japanese manufacturers like Suzuki or Mitsubishi. Until 2013, Nissan rebadged kei cars built by other manufacturers. Beginning in 2013, Nissan and Mitsubishi shared the development of the Nissan DAYZ / Mitsubishi eK Wagon series. Nissan also has shared model development of Japanese domestic cars with other manufacturers, particularly Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki and Isuzu. In China, Nissan produces cars in association with the Dongfeng Motor Group including the 2006 Nissan Livina Geniss, the first in a range of a new worldwide family of medium-sized cars. In 2010, Nissan created another tuning division, *IPL*, this time for their premium/luxury brand Infiniti. In 2011, after Nissan released the Nissan NV-Series in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Nissan created a commercial sub-brand called *Nissan Commercial Vehicles* which focuses on commercial vans, pickup trucks, and fleet vehicles for the US, Canadian, and Mexican Markets. In 2013, Nissan launched the Qashqai SUV in South Africa, along with their new motorsport Qashqai Car Games.[*when?*] It is the same year when the Datsun brand was relaunched by Nissan after a 27-year hiatus. Nissan launched their **Nissan Intelligent Mobility** vision in 2016 by revealing the IDS Concept at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Most Nissan vehicles like the Dayz, Rogue and Leaf are equipped with Nissan Intelligent Mobility technology. In 2018, Nissan launched the sixth-generation Altima at the 2018 New York Auto Show. #### Japan As of 2007 in Japan, Nissan sells its products with internationally recognized "Nissan" signage, using a chrome circle with "Nissan" across the front. Previously, Nissan used two dealership names called "Nissan Blue Stage" (ja:日産・ブルーステージ, *Nissan Burū Sutēji*), "Nissan Red Stage" (ja:日産・レッドステージ, *Nissan Reddo Sutēji*), and "Nissan Red and Blue Stage" (ja:日産・レッド&ブルーステージ, *Nissan Reddo & Burū Sutēji*), established in 1999 after forming an alliance with Renault. Renault also exported cars to Japan and were available at "Nissan Red Stage" locations, and are still available at Nissan Japanese dealerships. Nissan Red Stage was the result of combining an older sales channel of dealerships under the names "Nissan Prince Store" (ja:日産・プリンス店, *Nissan Purinsu-ten*), established in 1966 after the merger of Prince Motors by Nissan, which sold the Nissan Skyline. "Nissan Satio Store" (日産・サティオ店, *Nissan Satio-ten*) sold cars developed from the Nissan Sunny at its introduction in 1966. The word "satio" is Latin, which means *ample* or *sufficient*. "Nissan Cherry Store" (日産・チェリー店, *Nissan Cherī-ten*) was briefly known previously as "Nissan Cony Store" when they assumed operations of a small *kei* manufacturer called Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd. (愛知機械工業) who manufactured the "Cony", "Guppy" and "Giant" brand of *kei* cars and trucks until 1970, when the network was renamed for the Nissan Cherry. Nissan Blue Stage was the result of combining older sales channels, called "Nissan Store" (ja:日産店, *Nissan Mise*) in 1955, then renamed "Nissan Bluebird Store" in 1966, selling Nissan's original post-war products called the Datsun Bluebird, Datsun Sports, Datsun Truck, Datsun Cablight, Datsun Cabstar, Nissan Junior and the Nissan Patrol. "Nissan Motor Store" (日産・モーター店, *Nissan Mōtā-ten*) was originally called "Nissan Cedric Store" when the Nissan Cedric was introduced in 1960, then renamed "Nissan Motor Store" in 1965 and offered luxury sedans like the Nissan President and the former Prince Motor Company developed Nissan Laurel. In 1970, Nissan also set up a separate sales chain which sold used cars including auctions, called Nissan U-Cars (ja:日産ユーズドカーセンター, *Nissan Yūzudo Kā Sentā*), which they still maintain. In the early days of Nissan's dealership network, Japanese consumers were directed towards specific Nissan stores for cars that were of a specific size and pricepoint. Over time as sales progressed and the Japanese automotive industry became more prolific, vehicles that were dedicated to particular stores were badge engineered, given different names, and shared within the existing networks thereby selling the same platforms at different locations. The networks allowed Nissan to better compete with the network established earlier by Toyota at Japanese locations. Starting in 1960, another sales distribution channel was established that sold diesel products for commercial use, called Nissan Diesel until the diesel division was sold in 2007 to Volvo AB. To encourage retail sales, Nissan passenger vehicles that were installed with diesel engines, like the Cedric, were available at Nissan Diesel locations. All cars sold at Nissan Blue Stage (1999–2005): Fairlady Z, Serena, Cedric, Liberty, Cefiro, Laurel, President, Bluebird, Presage, Presea, Terrano, Leopard, Avenir, Nissan Truck, Safari, Hypermini, Caravan, Murano All cars sold at Nissan Store (later Nissan Bluebird Store, Nissan Exhibition), Nissan Motor Store, (1955–1999): Liberta Villa, Bluebird, C80, Caball, Datsun Junior, Datsun Truck, Cabstar, Caravan, Civilian, Patrol, Datsun Sports, Leopard, Maxima, Fairlady Z, Gazelle, Terrano, Avenir, Cefiro, Laurel, Laurel Spirit, Prairie, Cedric, President All cars sold at Nissan Red Stage (1999–2005): X-Trail. Teana, Cima, Sylphy, Crew, Skyline, Civilian, Silvia, Tino, Gloria, Pulsar, Sunny, R'nessa, Rasheen, Bassara, Primera, Mistral, Stagea, ADvan, Cube, Largo, Vanette, Clipper, Homy, Elgrand, Safari, Wingroad, Atlas, Murano, Renault Twingo, Renault Symbol, Renault Clio, Renault Mégane, Renault Kangoo All cars sold at Nissan Prince Store, Nissan Satio Store, Nissan Cherry Store (1966–1999): Cima, Gloria, Skyline, Primera, Auster, Stanza, Violet, Pulsar, Pulsar EXA, NX, Langley, Volkswagen Santana, Volkswagen Passat, 180SX, Safari, Mistral, Elgrand, Homy, Bassara, Largo, Serena, Stagea, Wingroad, Expert, AD van, Vanette, Clipper, Atlas, Homer (cabover truck), Cherry, Sunny, Lucino, Cherry Vanette, Be-1, Pao, Figaro, S-Cargo Nissan has classified several vehicles as "premium" and select dealerships offer the "Nissan Premium Factory" catalog. Vehicles in this category are: Skyline, Fuga, Cima, Fairlady Z, Murano, and the Elgrand. ### Trucks #### Nissan Cabstar Nissan Cabstar (日産・キャブスター *Nissan Kyabusutā*) is the name used in Japan for two lines of pickup trucks and light commercial vehicles sold by Nissan and built by UD Nissan Diesel, a Volvo AB company and by Renault-Nissan Alliance for the European market. The name originated with the 1968 Datsun Cabstar, but this was gradually changed over to "Nissan" badging in the early 1980s. The lighter range (1-1.5 tons) replaced the earlier Cabstar and Homer, while the heavier Caball and Clipper were replaced by the 2–4 ton range Atlas (日産・アトラス *Nissan Atorasu*). The nameplate was first introduced in December 1981. The Cabstar is known also as the Nissan Cabstar, Renault Maxity and Samsung SV110 depending on the location. The range has been sold across the world. It shares its platform with the Nissan Caravan. #### Nissan Titan The Nissan Titan was introduced in 2004, as a full-size pickup truck produced for the North American market, the truck shares the stretched Nissan F-Alpha platform with the Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUVs. It was listed by Edmunds.com as the best full-size truck. The second-generation Titan was revealed at the 2015 North American International Auto Show as a 2016 model year vehicle. Japan The first Cabstar (A320) appeared in March 1968, as a replacement for the earlier Datsun Cablight. It is a cab-over engine truck and was available either as a truck, light van (glazed van), or as a "route van" (bus). It uses the 1189 cc Nissan D12 engine with 56 PS (41 kW). After some modifications and the new 1.3 liter J13 engine, with 67 PS (49 kW), in August 1970 the code became A321. The Cabstar underwent another facelift with an entirely new front clip in May 1973. The 1483 cc J15 engine became standard fitment at this time (PA321), with 77 PS (57 kW) at 5200 rpm. The Cabstar was placed just beneath the slightly bigger Homer range in Nissan's commercial vehicle lineup. It received a full makeover in January 1976, although the van models were not replaced. Second generation The F20 Nissan Homer, introduced in January 1976, was also sold as the Nissan Datsun Cabstar in Japan. Both ranges were sold with either a 1.5 (J15) or a 2.0 liter (H20) petrol inline-four or with the 2.2 liter SD22 diesel engine. The F20 received a desmogged engine range in September 1979 and with it a new chassis code, F21. Manufacturing of the heavier range (H40-series) Atlas began in December 1981, while the lighter series Atlas (F22) was introduced in February 1982 – this succeeded both the Homer and Cabstar ranges and the nameplate has not been used in the Japanese market since. Europe The Atlas F22 was sold in Europe as the Nissan Cabstar and proved a popular truck in the UK market due to its reliability and ability to carry weight. From 1990 the range widened and was sold as the Cabstar E. Actually (2015) the Cabstar is manufactured in the NSIO (Nissan Spanish Industrial Operations) Plant in Ávila, Spain under the brand name of NT400. ### Electric vehicles Nissan introduced its first battery electric vehicle, the Nissan Altra at the Los Angeles International Auto Show on 29 December 1997. Unveiled in 2009, the EV-11 prototype electric car was based on the Nissan Tiida (Versa in North America), with the conventional gasoline engine replaced with an all-electric drivetrain. In 2010, Nissan introduced the Nissan LEAF as the first mass-market, all-electric vehicle launched globally. As of March 2014[update], the Nissan Leaf was the world's best selling highway-capable all-electric car ever. Global sales totaled 100,000 Leafs by mid January 2014, representing a 45% market share of worldwide pure electric vehicles sold since 2010. Global Leaf sales passed the 200,000 unit milestone in December 2015, and the Leaf continued ranking as the all-time best selling all-electric car. Nissan's second all-electric vehicle, the Nissan e-NV200, was announced in November 2013. Series production at the Nissan Plan in Barcelona, Spain, began on 7 May 2014. The e-NV200 commercial van is based on the Nissan Leaf. Nissan plans to launch two additional battery electric vehicles by March 2017. In June 2016, Nissan announced it will introduce its first range extender car in Japan before March 2017. The series plug-in hybrid will use a new hybrid system, dubbed e-Power, which debuted with the Nissan Gripz concept crossover showcased at the September 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show. As of August 2016[update], Nissan electric vehicles were sold in 48 world markets. Nissan global electric vehicle sales passed 275,000 units in December 2016. In 2018 Nissan sold its battery unit AESC to Envision in order to focus on the production of vehicles. The second-generation Leaf was launched by Nissan in Japan in 2018. By December 2020, 10 years after its introduction, cumulative global deliveries had reached 500,000 Leaf cars. In 2023, Nissan announced its intent to produce electric vehicles with solid-state batteries by 2028. ### Autonomous cars In August 2013 Nissan announced its plans to launch several driverless cars by 2020. The company is building a dedicated autonomous driving proving ground in Japan, to be completed in 2014. Nissan installed its autonomous car technology in a Nissan Leaf all-electric car for demonstration purposes. The car was demonstrated at Nissan 360 test drive event held in California in August 2013. In September 2013, the Leaf fitted with the prototype Advanced Driver Assistance System was granted a license plate that allows it to drive on Japanese public roads. The testing car will be used by Nissan engineers to evaluate how its in-house autonomous driving software performs in the real world. Time spent on public roads will help refine the car's software for fully automated driving. The autonomous Leaf was demonstrated on public roads for the first time at a media event held in Japan in November 2013. The Leaf drove on the Sagami Expressway in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo. Nissan vice chairman Toshiyuki Shiga and the prefecture's governor, Yuji Kuroiwa, rode in the car during the test. ### Non-automotive products Nissan has also had a number of ventures outside the automotive industry, most notably the Tu–Ka mobile phone service (est. 1994), which was sold to DDI and Japan Telecom (both now merged into KDDI) in 1999. Nissan offers a subscription-based telematics service in select vehicles to drivers in Japan, called CarWings. Nissan also owns Nissan Marine, a joint venture with Tohatsu Corp that produces motors for smaller boats and other maritime equipment. Nissan also built solid rocket motors for orbital launch vehicles such as the Lambda 4S and M-V. The aerospace and defense division of Nissan was sold to IHI Corporation in 2000. Marketing activities -------------------- Nismo is the motorsports division of Nissan, founded in 1984. Nismo cars have participated in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, Super GT, IMSA GT Championship, World Sportscar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, British Touring Car Championship, Supercars Championship and Blancpain GT Series. Also, they were featured at the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004. Nissan sponsored the Los Angeles Open golf tournament from 1987 to 2007. Beginning in 2015, Nissan became the naming rights sponsor for Nissan Stadium, the home of the Tennessee Titans and Tennessee State University football teams in Nashville. Nissan also became the official sponsor of the Heisman Trophy and UEFA Champions League. Since 2019, Nissan has been the naming rights sponsor for Nissan Arena, the home of the Brisbane Bullets basketball team and Queensland Firebirds netball team in Brisbane, Australia. Global sales figures -------------------- Top 10 Nissan vehicle sales by country, 2018| Rank | Location | Vehiclesales | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 |  China | 1,563,986 | | 2 |  United States | 1,493,877 | | 3 |  Japan | 615,966 | | 4 |  Mexico | 314,123 | | 5 |  Canada | 149,117 | | 6 |  United Kingdom | 116,914 | | 7 |  Russia | 106,138 | | 8 |  Brazil | 97,512 | | 9 |  Spain | 72,943 | | 10 |  Thailand | 72,394 | Sales by calendar year| Year | Global sales | | --- | --- | | 2010 | 4,080,588 | | 2011 | 4,669,981 | | 2012 | 4,940,181 | | 2013 | 5,102,979 | | 2014 | 5,310,064 | | 2015 | 5,421,804 | | 2016 | 5,559,902 | | 2017 | 5,816,278 | | 2018 | 5,653,683 | | 2019 | 5,176,189 | | 2020 | 4,029,166 | | 2021 | 4,065,014 | | 2022 | 3,225,549 | Research and development ------------------------ Nissan's central research is inside the Oppama Plant site, Yokosuka, which began its operation in 1961, at the former site of Imperial Japanese Navy's Airborne Squadron base. In 1982, Nissan's technical centers in Suginami, Tokyo and Tsurumi, Yokohama were combined into one: Nissan Technical Center (NTC) in Atsugi, Kanagawa, at the foot of Mount Ōyama of the Tanzawa Mountains. At its 30th anniversary, in 2012, NTC employed 9,500 employees in product development, design, production engineering, and purchasing. Nissan Technical Center works closely with its overseas operations: Nissan Technical Center (NTC)/North America, NTC/Mexico, Nissan Design America, and Nissan Silicon Valley Office. In 2007, the company opened Nissan Advanced Technology Center (NATC), near the NTC site. It works in close contact with the central research, the Silicon Valley office, the technical office near the Nissan headquarters in central Yokohama, and the overseas offices in Detroit, Silicon Valley, and Moscow. Nissan's test courses are in Tochigi (two courses), Yokosuka and Hokkaido. ### Nissan Digital Hubs In mid-2018, Nissan launched its first of many planned software and information technology development centers in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Manufacturing locations ----------------------- Data extracted from Nissan's international corporate website. ### East Asia * Japan + Yokosuka, Kanagawa (Oppama Plant & Research Center) + Kaminokawa, Tochigi (Tochigi Plant) + Kanda, Fukuoka (Nissan Motor Kyushu & Nissan Shatai Kyushu Plant) + Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa (Yokohama Engine Plant, Nissan's oldest factory) + Iwaki, Fukushima (Iwaki Engine Plant) + Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (Nissan Shatai Shonan Plant) + Nagoya, Aichi (Aichi Machine Industry Atsuta & Eitoku Plants) + Matsusaka, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Matsusaka Plant) + Tsu, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Tsu Plant) + Uji, Kyoto (Auto Works Kyoto) + Ageo, Saitama (Nissan Diesel Motor, currently owned by the Volvo Group) + Samukawa, Kanagawa (Nissan Machinery) + Zama, Kanagawa (Assembly lines in the Zama Plant were closed in 1995, currently Global Production Engineering Center and storage unit for its historic models. Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), a joint-venture between Nissan and NEC, produces lithium-ion batteries in Zama.) + Musashimurayama, Tokyo (Assembly lines at the Musashimurayama facility were closed in 2001, and the facility has been repurposed as the Carest Murayama Megamall. It was formerly operated by the Prince Motor Company until 1966 when they merged with Nissan). It is now a museum called Carest Murayama Megamall occupying a 213,252 square foot facility. * China mainland + Wuhan, Hubei (Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., a joint venture) + Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong (Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company) + Xiangyang, Hubei (Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd.) + Zhengzhou, Henan (Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co., Ltd., a joint venture) + Dalian, Liaoning (Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company) * Taiwan + Taipei ### Southeast Asia * Malaysia + Segambut, Kuala Lumpur (Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd) + Serendah, Selangor (TCMA) * Vietnam + Hanoi, Hanoi * Indonesia + Cikampek, West Java * Philippines + Santa Rosa City, Laguna * Thailand + Bangna, Samutprakarn (Nissan Motors (Thailand)) ### South Asia * India + Chennai, Tamil Nadu + Trivandrum, Kerala ### Oceania * Australia + Dandenong, Victoria (Nissan Casting Australia Pty. Ltd) ### Americas * United States + Smyrna, Tennessee + Canton, Mississippi + Decherd, Tennessee * Mexico + Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes (2 plants) + Cuernavaca, Morelos * Brazil + São José dos Pinhais, Paraná (Renault-Nissan plant) + Resende, Rio de Janeiro * Argentina + Santa Isabel (Renault-Nissan plant) ### Africa * Morocco + Tangier (Under construction, Renault-Nissan plant) * Egypt + 6th of October City, Giza Governorate * Kenya + Thika, Kiambu County * South Africa + Rosslyn, Pretoria, Gauteng ### Europe * Spain + Ávila, Castilla y León * United Kingdom + Sunderland, North East England * Russia (defunct 2022) + St. Petersburg, Russia (defunct 2022) * France + Flins (Renault factory) See also -------- * Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles * Autech * Calsonic * Datsun * Dongfeng Motor Company * Dongfeng Nissan-Diesel Company * Impul * Infiniti * Jatco * Laurence Hartnett * Nissan Engine Museum * Nissan Motor Car Carrier * Nissan Proving Grounds * Project Better Place * Shinichiro Sakurai * Yokohama F. Marinos * Yulon

Nissan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan

**Software** is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists of machine language instructions supported by an individual processor—typically a central processing unit (CPU) or a graphics processing unit (GPU). Machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. For example, an instruction may change the value stored in a particular storage location in the computer—an effect that is not directly observable to the user. An instruction may also invoke one of many input or output operations, for example, displaying some text on a computer screen, causing state changes that should be visible to the user. The processor executes the instructions in the order they are provided, unless it is instructed to "jump" to a different instruction or is interrupted by the operating system. As of 2023[update], most personal computers, smartphone devices, and servers have processors with multiple execution units, or multiple processors performing computation together, so computing has become a much more concurrent activity than in the past. The majority of software is written in high-level programming languages. They are easier and more efficient for programmers because they are closer to natural languages than machine languages. High-level languages are translated into machine language using a compiler, an interpreter, or a combination of the two. Software may also be written in a low-level assembly language that has a strong correspondence to the computer's machine language instructions and is translated into machine language using an assembler. History ------- An algorithm for what would have been the first piece of software was written by Ada Lovelace in the 19th century, for the planned Analytical Engine. She created proofs to show how the engine would calculate Bernoulli numbers. Because of the proofs and the algorithm, she is considered the first computer programmer. The first theory about software, prior to the creation of computers as we know them today, was proposed by Alan Turing in his 1936 essay, *On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem* (decision problem). This eventually led to the creation of the academic fields of computer science and software engineering; both fields study software and its creation. Computer science is the theoretical study of computer and software (Turing's essay is an example of computer science), whereas software engineering is the application of engineering principles to development of software. In 2000, Fred Shapiro, a librarian at the Yale Law School, published a letter revealing that John Wilder Tukey's 1958 paper "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics" contained the earliest known usage of the term "software" found in a search of JSTOR's electronic archives, predating the *Oxford English Dictionary*'s citation by two years. This led many to credit Tukey with coining the term, particularly in obituaries published that same year, although Tukey never claimed credit for any such coinage. In 1995, Paul Niquette claimed he had originally coined the term in October 1953, although he could not find any documents supporting his claim. The earliest known publication of the term "software" in an engineering context was in August 1953 by Richard R. Carhart, in a Rand Corporation Research Memorandum. Types ----- On virtually all computer platforms, software can be grouped into a few broad categories. ### Purpose, or domain of use Based on the goal, computer software can be divided into: * **Application software** uses the computer system to perform special functions beyond the basic operation of the computer itself. There are many different types of application software because the range of tasks that can be performed with a modern computer is so large—see list of software. * **System software** manages hardware behaviour, as to provide basic functionalities that are required by users, or for other software to run properly, if at all. System software is also designed for providing a platform for running application software, and it includes the following: + **Operating systems** are essential collections of software that manage resources and provide common services for other software that runs "on top" of them. Supervisory programs, boot loaders, shells and window systems are core parts of operating systems. In practice, an operating system comes bundled with additional software (including application software) so that a user can potentially do some work with a computer that only has one operating system. + **Device drivers** operate or control a particular type of device that is attached to a computer. Each device needs at least one corresponding device driver; because a computer typically has at minimum at least one input device and at least one output device, a computer typically needs more than one device driver. + **Utilities** are computer programs designed to assist users in the maintenance and care of their computers. * **Malicious software**, or **malware**, is software that is developed to harm or disrupt computers. Malware is closely associated with computer-related crimes, though some malicious programs may have been designed as practical jokes. ### Nature or domain of execution * Desktop applications such as web browsers and Microsoft Office and LibreOffice and WordPerfect, as well as smartphone and tablet applications (called "apps"). * JavaScript scripts are pieces of software traditionally embedded in web pages that are run directly inside the web browser when a web page is loaded without the need for a web browser plugin. Software written in other programming languages can also be run within the web browser if the software is either translated into JavaScript, or if a web browser plugin that supports that language is installed; the most common example of the latter is ActionScript scripts, which are supported by the Adobe Flash plugin. * Server software, including: + Web applications, which usually run on the web server and output dynamically generated web pages to web browsers, using e.g. PHP, Java, ASP.NET, or even JavaScript that runs on the server. In modern times these commonly include some JavaScript to be run in the web browser as well, in which case they typically run partly on the server, partly in the web browser. * Plugins and extensions are software that extends or modifies the functionality of another piece of software, and require that software be used in order to function. * Embedded software resides as firmware within embedded systems, devices dedicated to a single use or a few uses such as cars and televisions (although some embedded devices such as wireless chipsets can *themselves* be part of an ordinary, non-embedded computer system such as a PC or smartphone). In the embedded system context there is sometimes no clear distinction between the system software and the application software. However, some embedded systems run embedded operating systems, and these systems do retain the distinction between system software and application software (although typically there will only be one, fixed application which is always run). * Microcode is a special, relatively obscure type of embedded software which tells the processor *itself* how to execute machine code, so it is actually a lower level than machine code. It is typically proprietary to the processor manufacturer, and any necessary correctional microcode software updates are supplied by them to users (which is much cheaper than shipping replacement processor hardware). Thus an ordinary programmer would not expect to ever have to deal with it. ### Programming tools Programming tools are also software in the form of programs or applications that developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support software. Software is written in one or more programming languages; there are many programming languages in existence, and each has at least one implementation, each of which consists of its own set of programming tools. These tools may be relatively self-contained programs such as compilers, debuggers, interpreters, linkers, and text editors, that can be combined to accomplish a task; or they may form an integrated development environment (IDE), which combines much or all of the functionality of such self-contained tools. IDEs may do this by either invoking the relevant individual tools or by re-implementing their functionality in a new way. An IDE can make it easier to do specific tasks, such as searching in files in a particular project. Many programming language implementations provide the option of using both individual tools or an IDE. Topics ------ ### Architecture People who use modern general purpose computers (as opposed to embedded systems, analog computers and supercomputers) usually see three layers of software performing a variety of tasks: platform, application, and user software. * **Platform software**: The platform includes the firmware, device drivers, an operating system, and typically a graphical user interface which, in total, allow a user to interact with the computer and its peripherals (associated equipment). Platform software often comes bundled with the computer. On a PC one will usually have the ability to change the platform software. * **Application software**: Application software is what most people think of when they think of software. Typical examples include office suites and video games. Application software is often purchased separately from computer hardware. Sometimes applications are bundled with the computer, but that does not change the fact that they run as independent applications. Applications are usually independent programs from the operating system, though they are often tailored for specific platforms. Most users think of compilers, databases, and other "system software" as applications. * **User-written software**: End-user development tailors systems to meet users' specific needs. User software includes spreadsheet templates and word processor templates. Even email filters are a kind of user software. Users create this software themselves and often overlook how important it is. Depending on how competently the user-written software has been integrated into default application packages, many users may not be aware of the distinction between the original packages, and what has been added by co-workers. ### Execution Computer software has to be "loaded" into the computer's storage (such as the hard drive or memory). Once the software has loaded, the computer is able to *execute* the software. This involves passing instructions from the application software, through the system software, to the hardware which ultimately receives the instruction as machine code. Each instruction causes the computer to carry out an operation—moving data, carrying out a computation, or altering the control flow of instructions. Data movement is typically from one place in memory to another. Sometimes it involves moving data between memory and registers which enable high-speed data access in the CPU. Moving data, especially large amounts of it, can be costly; this is sometimes avoided by using "pointers" to data instead. Computations include simple operations such as incrementing the value of a variable data element. More complex computations may involve many operations and data elements together. ### Quality and reliability Software quality is very important, especially for commercial and system software. If software is faulty, it can delete a person's work, crash the computer and do other unexpected things. Faults and errors are called "bugs" which are often discovered during alpha and beta testing. Software is often also a victim to what is known as software aging, the progressive performance degradation resulting from a combination of unseen bugs. Many bugs are discovered and fixed through software testing. However, software testing rarely—if ever—eliminates every bug; some programmers say that "every program has at least one more bug" (Lubarsky's Law). In the waterfall method of software development, separate testing teams are typically employed, but in newer approaches, collectively termed agile software development, developers often do all their own testing, and demonstrate the software to users/clients regularly to obtain feedback. Software can be tested through unit testing, regression testing and other methods, which are done manually, or most commonly, automatically, since the amount of code to be tested can be large. Programs containing command software enable hardware engineering and system operations to function much easier together. ### License The software's license gives the user the right to use the software in the licensed environment, and in the case of free software licenses, also grants other rights such as the right to make copies. Proprietary software can be divided into two types: * freeware, which includes the category of "free trial" software or "freemium" software (in the past, the term shareware was often used for free trial/freemium software). As the name suggests, freeware can be used for free, although in the case of free trials or freemium software, this is sometimes only true for a limited period of time or with limited functionality. * software available for a fee, which can only be legally used on purchase of a license. Open-source software comes with a free software license, granting the recipient the rights to modify and redistribute the software. ### Patents Software patents, like other types of patents, are theoretically supposed to give an inventor an exclusive, time-limited license for a *detailed idea (e.g. an algorithm) on how to implement* a piece of software, or a component of a piece of software. Ideas for useful things that software could *do*, and user *requirements*, are not supposed to be patentable, and concrete implementations (i.e. the actual software packages implementing the patent) are not supposed to be patentable either—the latter are already covered by copyright, generally automatically. So software patents are supposed to cover the middle area, between requirements and concrete implementation. In some countries, a requirement for the claimed invention to have an effect on the physical world may also be part of the requirements for a software patent to be held valid—although since *all* useful software has effects on the physical world, this requirement may be open to debate. Meanwhile, American copyright law was applied to various aspects of the writing of the software code. Software patents are controversial in the software industry with many people holding different views about them. One of the sources of controversy is that the aforementioned split between initial ideas and patent does not seem to be honored in practice by patent lawyers—for example the patent for aspect-oriented programming (AOP), which purported to claim rights over *any* programming tool implementing the idea of AOP, howsoever implemented. Another source of controversy is the effect on innovation, with many distinguished experts and companies arguing that software is such a fast-moving field that software patents merely create vast additional litigation costs and risks, and actually retard innovation. In the case of debates about software patents outside the United States, the argument has been made that large American corporations and patent lawyers are likely to be the primary beneficiaries of allowing or continue to allow software patents. Design and implementation ------------------------- Design and implementation of software vary depending on the complexity of the software. For instance, the design and creation of Microsoft Word took much more time than designing and developing Microsoft Notepad because the former has much more basic functionality. Software is usually developed in integrated development environments (IDE) like Eclipse, IntelliJ and Microsoft Visual Studio that can simplify the process and compile the software. As noted in a different section, software is usually created on top of existing software and the application programming interface (API) that the underlying software provides like GTK+, JavaBeans or Swing. Libraries (APIs) can be categorized by their purpose. For instance, the Spring Framework is used for implementing enterprise applications, the Windows Forms library is used for designing graphical user interface (GUI) applications like Microsoft Word, and Windows Communication Foundation is used for designing web services. When a program is designed, it relies upon the API. For instance, a Microsoft Windows desktop application might call API functions in the .NET Windows Forms library like *Form1.Close()* and *Form1.Show()* to close or open the application. Without these APIs, the programmer needs to write these functionalities entirely themselves. Companies like Oracle and Microsoft provide their own APIs so that many applications are written using their software libraries that usually have numerous APIs in them. Data structures such as hash tables, arrays, and binary trees, and algorithms such as quicksort, can be useful for creating software. Computer software has special economic characteristics that make its design, creation, and distribution different from most other economic goods.[*specify*] A person who creates software is called a programmer, software engineer or software developer, terms that all have a similar meaning. More informal terms for programmer also exist such as "coder" and "hacker" – although use of the latter word may cause confusion, because it is more often used to mean someone who illegally breaks into computer systems. See also -------- * Computer program * Independent software vendor * Open-source software * Outline of software * Software asset management * Software release life cycle

Software

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software

In Japanese history, the **Jōmon period** (縄文時代, *Jōmon jidai*) is the time between c. 14,000 and 300 BC, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common **Jōmon culture**, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated it into Japanese as *Jōmon*. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world. The Jōmon period was rich in tools and jewelry made from bone, stone, shell and antler; pottery figurines and vessels; and lacquerware. It is often compared to pre-Columbian cultures of the North American Pacific Northwest and especially to the Valdivia culture in Ecuador because in these settings cultural complexity developed within a primarily hunting-gathering context with limited use of horticulture. Chronology ---------- The approximately 14,000 year Jōmon period is conventionally divided into several phases: Incipient (13,750-8,500 BC), *Initial* (8,500–5,000), *Early* (5,000–3,520), *Middle* (3,520–2,470), *Late* (2,470–1,250), and *Final* (1,250–500), with each phase progressively shorter than the prior phase. The fact that this entire period is given the same name by archaeologists should not be taken to mean that there was not considerable regional and temporal diversity; the time between the earliest Jōmon pottery and that of the more well-known Middle Jōmon period is about twice as long as the span separating the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza from the 21st century. Dating of the Jōmon sub-phases is based primarily upon ceramic typology, and to a lesser extent radiocarbon dating. Recent findings have refined the final phase of the Jōmon period to 300 BC. The Yayoi period started between 500 and 300 BC according to radio-carbon evidence, while Yayoi styled pottery was found in a Jōmon site of northern Kyushu already in 800 BC. Pottery ------- The earliest pottery in Japan was made at or before the start of the Incipient Jōmon period. Small fragments, dated to 14,500 BC, were found at the Odai Yamamoto I site in 1998. Pottery of roughly the same age was subsequently found at other sites such as in Kamikuroiwa and the Fukui cave. Archaeologist Junko Habu claims "[t]he majority of Japanese scholars believed, and still believe, that pottery production was first invented in mainland Asia and subsequently introduced into the Japanese archipelago." This seems to be confirmed by recent archaeology. As of now, the earliest pottery vessels in the world date back to 20 000 BP and were discovered in Xianren Cave in Jiangxi, China. The pottery may have been used as cookware. Other early pottery vessels include those excavated from the Yuchanyan Cave in southern China, dated from 16 000 BC, and at present it appears that pottery emerged at roughly the same time in Japan, and in the Amur River basin of the Russian Far East. The first Jōmon pottery is characterized by the cord-marking that gives the period its name and has now been found in large numbers of sites. The pottery of the period has been classified by archaeologists into some 70 styles, with many more local varieties of the styles. The antiquity of Jōmon pottery was first identified after World War II, through radiocarbon dating methods. The earliest vessels were mostly smallish round-bottomed bowls 10–50 cm high that are assumed to have been used for boiling food and, perhaps, storing it beforehand. They belonged to hunter-gatherers and the size of the vessels may have been limited by a need for portability. As later bowls increase in size, this is taken to be a sign of an increasingly settled pattern of living. These types continued to develop, with increasingly elaborate patterns of decoration, undulating rims, and flat bottoms so that they could stand on a surface. The manufacture of pottery typically implies some form of sedentary life because pottery is heavy, bulky, and fragile and thus generally unusable for hunter-gatherers. However, this does not seem to have been the case with the first Jōmon people, who perhaps numbered 20,000 individuals over the whole archipelago. It seems that food sources were so abundant in the natural environment of the Japanese islands that they could support fairly large, semi-sedentary populations. The Jōmon people used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were evidently skillful coastal and deep-water fishers. ### Chronological ceramic typology Incipient Jōmon (14 000–7 500 BC) * Linear applique * Nail impression * Cord impression * Muroya lower Initial Jōmon (7500–4000 BC) * Igusa * Inaridai * Mito * Lower Tado * Upper Tado * Shiboguchi * Kayama Incipient and Initial Jōmon (13 750–5 000 BC) --------------------------------------------- Traces of Paleolithic culture, mainly stone tools, occur in Japan from around 30 000 BC onwards. The earliest "Incipient Jōmon" phase began while Japan was still linked to continental Asia as a narrow peninsula. As the glaciers melted following the end of the last glacial period (approximately 12 000 BC), sea levels rose, separating the Japanese archipelago from the Asian mainland; the closest point (in Kyushu) about 190 kilometres (120 mi) from the Korean Peninsula is near enough to be intermittently influenced by continental developments, but far enough removed for the peoples of the Japanese islands to develop independently. The main connection between the Japanese archipelago and Mainland Asia was through the Korean Peninsula to Kyushu and Honshu. In addition, Luzon, Taiwan, Ryukyu, and Kyushu constitute a continuous chain of islands, connecting the Jōmon with Southeast Asia, while Honshu, Hokkaido and Sakhalin connected the Jōmon with Siberia. Within the archipelago, the vegetation was transformed by the end of the Ice Age. In southwestern Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, broadleaf evergreen trees dominated the forests, whereas broadleaf deciduous trees and conifers were common in northeastern Honshu and southern Hokkaido. Many native tree species, such as beeches, buckeyes, chestnuts, and oaks produced edible nuts and acorns. These provided substantial sources of food for both humans and animals. In the northeast, the plentiful marine life carried south by the Oyashio Current, especially salmon, was another major food source. Settlements along both the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean subsisted on immense amounts of shellfish, leaving distinctive middens (mounds of discarded shells and other refuse) that are now prized sources of information for archaeologists. Other food sources meriting special mention include Sika deer, wild boar (with possible wild-pig management), wild plants such as yam-like tubers, and freshwater fish. Supported by the highly productive deciduous forests and an abundance of seafood, the population was concentrated in Honshu and Kyushu, but Jōmon sites range from Hokkaido to the Ryukyu Islands. Tigers once existed in the Japanese archipelago, but they became extinct in prehistoric times. Early Jōmon (5000–3520 BC) -------------------------- The Early Jōmon period saw an explosion in population, as indicated by the number of larger aggregated villages from this period. This period occurred during the Holocene climatic optimum, when the local climate became warmer and more humid. ### Early agriculture The degree to which horticulture or small-scale agriculture was practiced by Jōmon people is debated. Currently, there is no scientific consensus to support a conceptualization of Jōmon period culture as only hunter-gatherer. There is evidence to suggest that arboriculture was practiced in the form of tending groves of lacquer (*Toxicodendron verniciflua*) and nut (*Castanea crenata* and *Aesculus turbinata*) producing trees, as well as soybean, bottle gourd, hemp, Perilla, adzuki, among others. These characteristics place them somewhere in between hunting-gathering and agriculture. An apparently domesticated variety of peach appeared very early at Jōmon sites in 6700–6400 BP (4700–4400 BC). This was already similar to modern cultivated forms. This domesticated type of peach was apparently brought into Japan from China. Nevertheless, in China, itself, this variety is currently attested only at a later date of 5300–4300 BP. Middle Jōmon (3520–2470 BC) --------------------------- Highly ornate pottery dogū figurines and vessels, such as the so-called "flame style" vessels, and lacquered wood objects remain from that time. Although the ornamentation of pottery increased over time, the ceramic fabric always remained quite coarse. During this time Magatama stone beads make a transition from being a common jewelry item found in homes into serving as a grave good. This is a period where there are large burial mounds and monuments. This period saw a rise in complexity in the design of pit-houses, the most commonly used method of housing at the time, with some even having paved stone floors. A study in 2015 found that this form of dwelling continued up until the Satsumon culture. Using archaeological data on pollen count, this phase is the warmest of all the phases. By the end of this phase the warm climate starts to enter a cooling trend. Late and Final Jōmon (2470–500 BC) ---------------------------------- After 1500 BC, the climate cooled entering a stage of neoglaciation, and populations seem to have contracted dramatically. Comparatively few archaeological sites can be found after 1500 BC. The Japanese chestnut, *Castanea crenata*, becomes essential, not only as a nut bearing tree, but also because it was extremely durable in wet conditions and became the most used timber for building houses during the Late Jōmon phase. During the Final Jōmon period, a slow shift was taking place in western Japan: steadily increasing contact with the Korean Peninsula eventually led to the establishment of Korean-type settlements in western Kyushu, beginning around 900 BC. The settlers brought with them new technologies such as wet rice farming and bronze and iron metallurgy, as well as new pottery styles similar to those of the Mumun pottery period. The settlements of these new arrivals seem to have coexisted with those of the Jōmon and Yayoi for around a thousand years. Outside Hokkaido, the Final Jōmon is succeeded by a new farming culture, the Yayoi (c. 300 BC – AD 300), named after an archaeological site near Tokyo. Within Hokkaido, the Jōmon is succeeded by the Okhotsk culture and Zoku-Jōmon (post-Jōmon) or Epi-Jōmon culture, which later replaced or merged with the Satsumon culture around the 7th century. ### Main periods * Middle Jōmon (3520–2470 BC): + Katsusaka/Otamadai + Kasori E1 + Kasori E2 * Late Jōmon (2470–1250 BC): + Horinouchi + Kasori B2, + Angyo 1 * Final Jōmon (1250–500 BC): + Tohoku District - Oubora B - Oubora BC (Ōfunato, Iwate) - Oubora C1 - Oubora C2 - Oubora A - Oubora A' + Kanto District - Angyo 2 (Kawaguchi, Saitama) - Angyo 3 ### Population decline At the end of the Jōmon period the local population declined sharply. Scientists suggest that this was possibly caused by food shortages and other environmental problems. They concluded that not all Jōmon groups suffered under these circumstances but the overall population declined. Examining the remains of the people who lived throughout the Jōmon period, there is evidence that these deaths were not inflicted by warfare or violence on a large enough scale to cause these deaths. Foundation myths ---------------- The origin myths of Japanese civilization extend back to periods now regarded as part of the Jōmon period, but they show little or no relation to the current archaeological understanding of Jōmon culture. The traditional founding date of the Japanese nation by Emperor Jimmu is February 11, 660 BC. That version of Japanese history, however, comes from the country's first written records, the *Kojiki* and the *Nihon Shoki*, dating from the 6th to the 8th centuries, after Japan had adopted Chinese characters (Go-on/Kan-on). Some elements of modern Japanese culture may date from the period and reflect the influences of a mingled migration from the northern Asian continent and the southern Pacific areas and the local Jōmon peoples. Among those elements are the precursors to Shinto, marriage customs, architectural styles, and technological developments such as lacquerware, laminated bows called "*yumi*", and metalworking. Origin and ethnogenesis ----------------------- The relationship of Jōmon people to the modern Japanese (Yamato people), Ryukyuans, and Ainu is not well clarified. Morphological studies of dental variation and genetic studies suggest that the Jōmon people were rather diverse, while other studies of autosomes and immunoglobin alleles suggest that the Jōmon people were of predominantly Northeast Asian and Siberian origin. The contemporary Japanese people descended from a mixture of the various ancient hunter-gatherer tribes of the Jōmon period and the Yayoi rice-agriculturalists, and these two major ancestral groups came to Japan over different routes at different times. The Jōmon people were not one homogenous ethnic group. According to Mitsuru Sakitani the Jōmon people are an admixture of several Paleolithic populations. He suggests that Y-chromosome haplogroups C1a1 and D-M55 are two of the Jōmon lineages. According to study "*Jōmon culture and the peopling of the Japanese archipelago*" by Schmidt and Seguchi (2014), the prehistoric Jōmon people descended from diverse paleolithic populations with multiple migrations into Jōmon-period Japan. They concluded: "*In this respect, the biological identity of the Jomon is heterogeneous, and it may be indicative of diverse peoples who possibly belonged to a common culture, known as the Jomon*". A study by Lee and Hasegawa of the Waseda University, concluded that the Jōmon period population of Hokkaido consisted of two distinctive populations, which later merged to form the proto-Ainu in northern Hokkaido. The Ainu language can be connected to an "Okhotsk component" which spread southwards. They further concluded that the "dual structure theory" regarding the population history of Japan must be revised and that the Jōmon people had more diversity than originally suggested. A 2015 study found specific gene alleles, related to facial structure and features among some Ainu individuals, which largely descended from local Hokkaido Jōmon groups. These alleles are typically associated with Europeans but absent from other East Asians (including Japanese people), which suggests geneflow from a currently unidentified source population into the Jōmon period population of Hokkaido. Although these specific alleles can explain the unusual physical appearance of certain Ainu individuals, compared to other Northeast Asians, the exact origin of these alleles remains unknown. Recent Y chromosome haplotype testing indicates that male haplogroups D-M55 (~30%) and C1a1 (5.4%) may reflect paternal Jōmon contribution to the modern Japanese Archipelago. Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Jōmon skeletons indicates that haplogroups N9b, D4h2, G1b and M7a may reflect maternal Jōmon contribution to the modern Japanese mtDNA pool. Full genome analyses in 2020 and 2021 revealed further information regarding the origin of the Jōmon peoples. The genetic results suggest early admixture between different groups in Japan already during the Paleolithic, followed by constant geneflow from coastal East Asian groups, resulting in a heterogeneous population which then homogenized until the arrival of the Yayoi people. Geneflow from Northeast Asia during the Jōmon period is associated with the C1a1 and C2 lineages, geneflow from the Tibetan Plateau and Southern China is associated with the D1a2a (previously D1b) and D1a1 (previously D1a) lineages. Geneflow from ancient Siberia was also detected into the northern Jōmon people of Hokkaido, with later geneflow from Hokkaido into parts of northern Honshu (Tohoku). The lineages K and F are suggested to have been presented during the early Jōmon period but got replaced by C and D. The analysis of a Jōmon sample (Ikawazu) and an ancient sample from the Tibetan Plateau (Chokhopani, Ch) found only partially shared ancestry, pointing towards a "positive genetic bottleneck" regarding the spread of haplogroup D from ancient "East Asian Highlanders" (related to modern day Tujia people, Mien people, and Tibetans, as well as Tripuri people). The genetic evidence suggests that an East Asian source population, near the Himalayan mountain range, contributed ancestry to the Jōmon period population of Japan, and less to ancient Southeast Asians. The authors concluded that this points to an inland migration through southern or central China towards Japan during the Paleolithic. Another ancestry component seem to have arrived from Siberia into Hokkaido. Archeological and biological evidence link the southern Jōmon culture of Kyushu, Shikoku and parts of Honshu to cultures of southern China and Northeast India. A common culture, known as the "broadleafed evergreen forest culture", ranged from southwestern Japan through southern China towards Northeast India and southern Tibet, and was characterized by the cultivation of Azuki beans. Some linguists suggest that the Japonic languages were already present within the Japanese archipelago and coastal Korea, before the Yayoi period, and can be linked to one of the Jōmon populations of southwestern Japan, rather than the later Yayoi or Kofun period rice-agriculturalists. Japonic-speakers then expanded during the Yayoi period, assimilating the newcomers, adopting rice-agriculture, and fusing mainland Asian technologies with local traditions. Vovin (2021) presented arguments for the presence of Austronesian peoples within the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period, based on previous linguistic, and specific Austronesian vocabulary loaned into the core vocabulary of (Insular) Japanese. He suggests that Austronesian-speakers arrived in Japan during the Jōmon period and prior to the arrival of Yayoi period migrants, associated with the spread of Japonic languages. These Austronesian-speakers were subsequently assimilated into the Japanese ethnicity. Evidence for non-Ainuic, non-Austronesian, and non-Korean loanwords are found among Insular Japonic languages, and probably derived from unknown and extinct Jōmon languages. Cultural revival ---------------- The modern public perception of the Jōmon has gradually changed from primitive and obsolete to captivating. In the early 21st century, the Jōmon cord markings was revived and used on clothing, accessories and tattoos. Archaeologist Jun Takayama theorizes that the patterns on Dogū depicted tattoos. In the 1970s a movement started to reproduce the ancient techniques of Jomon-style ceramics. Contemporary Jōmon pottery is based on Jōmon-style ceramics and earthenware that has been replicated with ancient techniques such as a bonfire. The motifs of Jōmon artifacts are used as inspiration for vessels and e.g. origami, cookies, candies, notebooks and neckties. In 2018, a Jōmon exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum had 350,000 visitors which was 3.5 times more than expected. Jomon-style pit houses have been recreated in places such as the Jomon Village Historic Garden. Magazines such as Jomonzine cover the prehistoric period. Gallery ------- * Late Jomon clay statue, Kazahari I, Aomori Prefecture, 1500–1000 BC.Late Jomon clay statue, Kazahari I, Aomori Prefecture, 1500–1000 BC. * Late Jomon clay head, Shidanai, Iwate Prefecture, 1500–1000 BC.Late Jomon clay head, Shidanai, Iwate Prefecture, 1500–1000 BC. * A Middle Jomon jar. 2000 BC.A Middle Jomon jar. 2000 BC. * Final Jomon jar, Kamegaoka style.Final Jomon jar, Kamegaoka style. * Clay statue, late Jomon period (1000–400 BC), Tokyo National MuseumClay statue, late Jomon period (1000–400 BC), Tokyo National Museum See also -------- * Comb Ceramic * Koshintō * Prehistoric Asia * Unofficial nengō system (私年号) * Yayoi period

Jōmon period

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmon_period

**Influenza**, commonly known as "**the flu**", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms begin from one to four days after exposure to the virus (typically two days) and last for about 2–8 days. Diarrhea and vomiting can occur, particularly in children. Influenza may progress to pneumonia, which can be caused by the virus or by a subsequent bacterial infection. Other complications of infection include acute respiratory distress syndrome, meningitis, encephalitis, and worsening of pre-existing health problems such as asthma and cardiovascular disease. There are four types of influenza virus: A, B, C, and D. Aquatic birds are the primary source of Influenza A virus (IAV), which is also widespread in various mammals, including humans and pigs. Influenza B virus (IBV) and Influenza C virus (ICV) primarily infect humans, and Influenza D virus (IDV) is found in cattle and pigs. IAV and IBV circulate in humans and cause seasonal epidemics, and ICV causes a mild infection, primarily in children. IDV can infect humans but is not known to cause illness. In humans, influenza viruses are primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets produced from coughing and sneezing. Transmission through aerosols and intermediate objects and surfaces contaminated by the virus also occur. Frequent hand washing and covering one's mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing reduce transmission. Annual vaccination can help to provide protection against influenza. Influenza viruses, particularly IAV, evolve quickly, so flu vaccines are updated regularly to match which influenza strains are in circulation. Vaccines provide protection against IAV subtypes H1N1 and H3N2 and one or two IBV subtypes. Influenza infection is diagnosed with laboratory methods such as antibody or antigen tests and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify viral nucleic acid. The disease can be treated with supportive measures and, in severe cases, with antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir. In healthy individuals, influenza is typically self-limiting and rarely fatal, but it can be deadly in high-risk groups. In a typical year, 5–15% of the population contracts influenza. There are 3–5 million severe cases annually, with up to 650,000 respiratory-related deaths globally each year. Deaths most commonly occur in high-risk groups, including young children, the elderly, and people with chronic health conditions. In temperate regions of the world, the number of influenza cases peaks during winter, whereas in the tropics influenza can occur year-round. Since the late 1800s, large outbreaks of novel influenza strains that spread globally, called pandemics, have occurred every 10–50 years. Five flu pandemics have occurred since 1900: the Spanish flu in 1918–1920, which was the most severe flu pandemic, the Asian flu in 1957, the Hong Kong flu in 1968, the Russian flu in 1977, and the swine flu pandemic in 2009. Signs and symptoms ------------------ The time between exposure to the virus and development of symptoms, called the incubation period, is 1–4 days, most commonly 1–2 days. Many infections, however, are asymptomatic. The onset of symptoms is sudden, and initial symptoms are predominately non-specific, including fever, chills, headaches, muscle pain or aching, a feeling of discomfort, loss of appetite, lack of energy/fatigue, and confusion. These symptoms are usually accompanied by respiratory symptoms such as a dry cough, sore or dry throat, hoarse voice, and a stuffy or runny nose. Coughing is the most common symptom. Gastrointestinal symptoms may also occur, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and gastroenteritis, especially in children. The standard influenza symptoms typically last for 2–8 days. A 2021 study suggests influenza can cause long lasting symptoms in a similar way to long COVID. Symptomatic infections are usually mild and limited to the upper respiratory tract, but progression to pneumonia is relatively common. Pneumonia may be caused by the primary viral infection or by a secondary bacterial infection. Primary pneumonia is characterized by rapid progression of fever, cough, labored breathing, and low oxygen levels that cause bluish skin. It is especially common among those who have an underlying cardiovascular disease such as rheumatic heart disease. Secondary pneumonia typically has a period of improvement in symptoms for 1–3 weeks followed by recurrent fever, sputum production, and fluid buildup in the lungs, but can also occur just a few days after influenza symptoms appear. About a third of primary pneumonia cases are followed by secondary pneumonia, which is most frequently caused by the bacteria *Streptococcus pneumoniae* and *Staphylococcus aureus*. Virology -------- ### Types of virus Influenza viruses comprise four species. Each of the four species is the sole member of its own genus, and the four influenza genera comprise four of the seven genera in the family *Orthomyxoviridae*. They are: * *Influenza A virus* (IAV), genus *Alphainfluenzavirus* * *Influenza B virus* (IBV), genus *Betainfluenzavirus* * *Influenza C virus* (ICV), genus *Gammainfluenzavirus* * *Influenza D virus* (IDV), genus *Deltainfluenzavirus* IAV is responsible for most cases of severe illness as well as seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics. It infects people of all ages but tends to disproportionately cause severe illness in the elderly, the very young, and those who have chronic health issues. Birds are the primary reservoir of IAV, especially aquatic birds such as ducks, geese, shorebirds, and gulls, but the virus also circulates among mammals, including pigs, horses, and marine mammals. IAV is classified into subtypes based on the viral proteins haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). As of 2019, 18 H subtypes and 11 N subtypes have been identified. Most potential combinations have been reported in birds, but H17-18 and N10-11 have only been found in bats. Only H subtypes H1-3 and N subtypes N1-2 are known to have circulated in humans. The IAV subtypes in circulation as of 2018[update] are H1N1 and H3N2. IAVs can be classified more specifically by natural host species, geographical origin, year of isolation, and strain number, such as H1N1/A/duck/Alberta/35/76. IBV mainly infects humans but has been identified in seals, horses, dogs, and pigs. IBV does not have subtypes like IAV but has two antigenically distinct lineages, termed the B/Victoria/2/1987-like and B/Yamagata/16/1988-like lineages, or simply (B/)Victoria(-like) and (B/)Yamagata(-like). Both lineages are in circulation in humans, disproportionately affecting children. IBVs contribute to seasonal epidemics alongside IAVs but have never been associated with a pandemic. ICV, like IBV, is primarily found in humans, though it also has been detected in pigs, feral dogs, dromedary camels, cattle, and dogs. ICV infection primarily affects children and is usually asymptomatic or has mild cold-like symptoms, though more severe symptoms such as gastroenteritis and pneumonia can occur. Unlike IAV and IBV, ICV has not been a major focus of research pertaining to antiviral drugs, vaccines, and other measures against influenza. ICV is subclassified into six genetic/antigenic lineages. IDV has been isolated from pigs and cattle, the latter being the natural reservoir. Infection has also been observed in humans, horses, dromedary camels, and small ruminants such as goats and sheep. IDV is distantly related to ICV. While cattle workers have occasionally tested positive to prior IDV infection, it is not known to cause disease in humans. ICV and IDV experience a slower rate of antigenic evolution than IAV and IBV. Because of this antigenic stability, relatively few novel lineages emerge. ### Genome and structure Influenza viruses have a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA genome that is segmented. The negative sense of the genome means it can be used as a template to synthesize messenger RNA (mRNA). IAV and IBV have eight genome segments that encode 10 major proteins. ICV and IDV have seven genome segments that encode nine major proteins. Three segments encode three subunits of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) complex: PB1, a transcriptase, PB2, which recognizes 5' caps, and PA (P3 for ICV and IDV), an endonuclease. The matrix protein (M1) and membrane protein (M2) share a segment, as do the non-structural protein (NS1) and the nuclear export protein (NEP). For IAV and IBV, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) are encoded on one segment each, whereas ICV and IDV encode a hemagglutinin-esterase fusion (HEF) protein on one segment that merges the functions of HA and NA. The final genome segment encodes the viral nucleoprotein (NP). Influenza viruses also encode various accessory proteins, such as PB1-F2 and PA-X, that are expressed through alternative open reading frames and which are important in host defense suppression, virulence, and pathogenicity. The virus particle, called a virion, is pleomorphic and varies between being filamentous, bacilliform, or spherical in shape. Clinical isolates tend to be pleomorphic, whereas strains adapted to laboratory growth typically produce spherical virions. Filamentous virions are about 250 nanometers (nm) by 80 nm, bacilliform 120–250 by 95 nm, and spherical 120 nm in diameter. The virion consists of each segment of the genome bound to nucleoproteins in separate ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes for each segment, all of which are surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane called the viral envelope. There is a copy of the RdRp, all subunits included, bound to each RNP. The envelope is reinforced structurally by matrix proteins on the interior that enclose the RNPs, and the envelope contains HA and NA (or HEF) proteins extending outward from the exterior surface of the envelope. HA and HEF proteins have a distinct "head" and "stalk" structure. M2 proteins form proton ion channels through the viral envelope that are required for viral entry and exit. IBVs contain a surface protein named NB that is anchored in the envelope, but its function is unknown. ### Life cycle The viral life cycle begins by binding to a target cell. Binding is mediated by the viral HA proteins on the surface of the envelope, which bind to cells that contain sialic acid receptors on the surface of the cell membrane. For N1 subtypes with the "G147R" mutation and N2 subtypes, the NA protein can initiate entry. Prior to binding, NA proteins promote access to target cells by degrading mucus, which helps to remove extracellular decoy receptors that would impede access to target cells. After binding, the virus is internalized into the cell by an endosome that contains the virion inside it. The endosome is acidified by cellular vATPase to have lower pH, which triggers a conformational change in HA that allows fusion of the viral envelope with the endosomal membrane. At the same time, hydrogen ions diffuse into the virion through M2 ion channels, disrupting internal protein-protein interactions to release RNPs into the host cell's cytosol. The M1 protein shell surrounding RNPs is degraded, fully uncoating RNPs in the cytosol. RNPs are then imported into the nucleus with the help of viral localization signals. There, the viral RNA polymerase transcribes mRNA using the genomic negative-sense strand as a template. The polymerase snatches 5' caps for viral mRNA from cellular RNA to prime mRNA synthesis and the 3'-end of mRNA is polyadenylated at the end of transcription. Once viral mRNA is transcribed, it is exported out of the nucleus and translated by host ribosomes in a cap-dependent manner to synthesize viral proteins. RdRp also synthesizes complementary positive-sense strands of the viral genome in a complementary RNP complex which are then used as templates by viral polymerases to synthesize copies of the negative-sense genome. During these processes, RdRps of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) function optimally at a higher temperature than mammalian influenza viruses. Newly synthesized viral polymerase subunits and NP proteins are imported to the nucleus to further increase the rate of viral replication and form RNPs. HA, NA, and M2 proteins are trafficked with the aid of M1 and NEP proteins to the cell membrane through the Golgi apparatus and inserted into the cell's membrane. Viral non-structural proteins including NS1, PB1-F2, and PA-X regulate host cellular processes to disable antiviral responses. PB1-F2 aso interacts with PB1 to keep polymerases in the nucleus longer. M1 and NEP proteins localize to the nucleus during the later stages of infection, bind to viral RNPs and mediate their export to the cytoplasm where they migrate to the cell membrane with the aid of recycled endosomes and are bundled into the segments of the genome. Progeny viruses leave the cell by budding from the cell membrane, which is initiated by the accumulation of M1 proteins at the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. The viral genome is incorporated inside a viral envelope derived from portions of the cell membrane that have HA, NA, and M2 proteins. At the end of budding, HA proteins remain attached to cellular sialic acid until they are cleaved by the sialidase activity of NA proteins. The virion is then released from the cell. The sialidase activity of NA also cleaves any sialic acid residues from the viral surface, which helps prevent newly assembled viruses from aggregating near the cell surface and improving infectivity. Similar to other aspects of influenza replication, optimal NA activity is temperature- and pH-dependent. Ultimately, presence of large quantities of viral RNA in the cell triggers apoptosis, i.e. programmed cell death, which is initiated by cellular factors to restrict viral replication. ### Antigenic drift and shift Two key processes that influenza viruses evolve through are antigenic drift and antigenic shift. Antigenic drift is when an influenza virus's antigens change due to the gradual accumulation of mutations in the antigen's (HA or NA) gene. This can occur in response to evolutionary pressure exerted by the host immune response. Antigenic drift is especially common for the HA protein, in which just a few amino acid changes in the head region can constitute antigenic drift. The result is the production of novel strains that can evade pre-existing antibody-mediated immunity. Antigenic drift occurs in all influenza species but is slower in B than A and slowest in C and D. Antigenic drift is a major cause of seasonal influenza, and requires that flu vaccines be updated annually. HA is the main component of inactivated vaccines, so surveillance monitors antigenic drift of this antigen among circulating strains. Antigenic evolution of influenza viruses of humans appears to be faster than influenza viruses in swine and equines. In wild birds, within-subtype antigenic variation appears to be limited but has been observed in poultry. Antigenic shift is a sudden, drastic change in an influenza virus's antigen, usually HA. During antigenic shift, antigenically different strains that infect the same cell can reassort genome segments with each other, producing hybrid progeny. Since all influenza viruses have segmented genomes, all are capable of reassortment. Antigenic shift, however, only occurs among influenza viruses of the same genus and most commonly occurs among IAVs. In particular, reassortment is very common in AIVs, creating a large diversity of influenza viruses in birds, but is uncommon in human, equine, and canine lineages. Pigs, bats, and quails have receptors for both mammalian and avian IAVs, so they are potential "mixing vessels" for reassortment. If an animal strain reassorts with a human strain, then a novel strain can emerge that is capable of human-to-human transmission. This has caused pandemics, but only a limited number have occurred, so it is difficult to predict when the next will happen. Mechanism --------- ### Transmission People who are infected can transmit influenza viruses through breathing, talking, coughing, and sneezing, which spread respiratory droplets and aerosols that contain virus particles into the air. A person susceptible to infection can then contract influenza by coming into contact with these particles. Respiratory droplets are relatively large and travel less than two meters before falling onto nearby surfaces. Aerosols are smaller and remain suspended in the air longer, so they take longer to settle and can travel further than respiratory droplets. Inhalation of aerosols can lead to infection, but most transmission is in the area about two meters around an infected person via respiratory droplets that come into contact with mucosa of the upper respiratory tract. Transmission through contact with a person, bodily fluids, or intermediate objects (fomites) can also occur, such as through contaminated hands and surfaces since influenza viruses can survive for hours on non-porous surfaces. If one's hands are contaminated, then touching one's face can cause infection. Influenza is usually transmissible from one day before the onset of symptoms to 5–7 days after. In healthy adults, the virus is shed for up to 3–5 days. In children and the immunocompromised, the virus may be transmissible for several weeks. Children ages 2–17 are considered to be the primary and most efficient spreaders of influenza. Children who have not had multiple prior exposures to influenza viruses shed the virus at greater quantities and for a longer duration than other children. People who are at risk of exposure to influenza include health care workers, social care workers, and those who live with or care for people vulnerable to influenza. In long-term care facilities, the flu can spread rapidly after it is introduced. A variety of factors likely encourage influenza transmission, including lower temperature, lower absolute and relative humidity, less ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and crowding. Influenza viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract like H1N1 tend to be more mild but more transmissible, whereas those that infect the lower respiratory tract like H5N1 tend to cause more severe illness but are less contagious. ### Pathophysiology In humans, influenza viruses first cause infection by infecting epithelial cells in the respiratory tract. Illness during infection is primarily the result of lung inflammation and compromise caused by epithelial cell infection and death, combined with inflammation caused by the immune system's response to infection. Non-respiratory organs can become involved, but the mechanisms by which influenza is involved in these cases are unknown. Severe respiratory illness can be caused by multiple, non-exclusive mechanisms, including obstruction of the airways, loss of alveolar structure, loss of lung epithelial integrity due to epithelial cell infection and death, and degradation of the extracellular matrix that maintains lung structure. In particular, alveolar cell infection appears to drive severe symptoms since this results in impaired gas exchange and enables viruses to infect endothelial cells, which produce large quantities of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Pneumonia caused by influenza viruses is characterized by high levels of viral replication in the lower respiratory tract, accompanied by a strong pro-inflammatory response called a cytokine storm. Infection with H5N1 or H7N9 especially produces high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In bacterial infections, early depletion of macrophages during influenza creates a favorable environment in the lungs for bacterial growth since these white blood cells are important in responding to bacterial infection. Host mechanisms to encourage tissue repair may inadvertently allow bacterial infection. Infection also induces production of systemic glucocorticoids that can reduce inflammation to preserve tissue integrity but allow increased bacterial growth. The pathophysiology of influenza is significantly influenced by which receptors influenza viruses bind to during entry into cells. Mammalian influenza viruses preferentially bind to sialic acids connected to the rest of the oligosaccharide by an α-2,6 link, most commonly found in various respiratory cells, such as respiratory and retinal epithelial cells. AIVs prefer sialic acids with an α-2,3 linkage, which are most common in birds in gastrointestinal epithelial cells and in humans in the lower respiratory tract. Furthermore, cleavage of the HA protein into HA1, the binding subunit, and HA2, the fusion subunit, is performed by different proteases, affecting which cells can be infected. For mammalian influenza viruses and low pathogenic AIVs, cleavage is extracellular, which limits infection to cells that have the appropriate proteases, whereas for highly pathogenic AIVs, cleavage is intracellular and performed by ubiquitous proteases, which allows for infection of a greater variety of cells, thereby contributing to more severe disease. ### Immunology Cells possess sensors to detect viral RNA, which can then induce interferon production. Interferons mediate expression of antiviral proteins and proteins that recruit immune cells to the infection site, and they also notify nearby uninfected cells of infection. Some infected cells release pro-inflammatory cytokines that recruit immune cells to the site of infection. Immune cells control viral infection by killing infected cells and phagocytizing viral particles and apoptotic cells. An exacerbated immune response, however, can harm the host organism through a cytokine storm. To counter the immune response, influenza viruses encode various non-structural proteins, including NS1, NEP, PB1-F2, and PA-X, that are involved in curtailing the host immune response by suppressing interferon production and host gene expression. B cells, a type of white blood cell, produce antibodies that bind to influenza antigens HA and NA (or HEF) and other proteins to a lesser degree. Once bound to these proteins, antibodies block virions from binding to cellular receptors, neutralizing the virus. In humans, a sizeable antibody response occurs ~1 week after viral exposure. This antibody response is typically robust and long-lasting, especially for ICV and IDV. In other words, people exposed to a certain strain in childhood still possess antibodies to that strain at a reasonable level later in life, which can provide some protection to related strains. There is, however, an "original antigenic sin", in which the first HA subtype a person is exposed to influences the antibody-based immune response to future infections and vaccines. Prevention ---------- ### Vaccination Annual vaccination is the primary and most effective way to prevent influenza and influenza-associated complications, especially for high-risk groups. Vaccines against the flu are trivalent or quadrivalent, providing protection against an H1N1 strain, an H3N2 strain, and one or two IBV strains corresponding to the two IBV lineages. Two types of vaccines are in use: inactivated vaccines that contain "killed" (i.e. inactivated) viruses and live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) that contain weakened viruses. There are three types of inactivated vaccines: whole virus, split virus, in which the virus is disrupted by a detergent, and subunit, which only contains the viral antigens HA and NA. Most flu vaccines are inactivated and administered via intramuscular injection. LAIVs are sprayed into the nasal cavity. Vaccination recommendations vary by country. Some recommend vaccination for all people above a certain age, such as 6 months, whereas other countries recommendation is limited for high at risk groups, such as pregnant women, young children (excluding newborns), the elderly, people with chronic medical conditions, health care workers, people who come into contact with high-risk people, and people who transmit the virus easily. Young infants cannot receive flu vaccines for safety reasons, but they can inherit passive immunity from their mother if inactivated vaccines are administered to the mother during pregnancy. Influenza vaccination also helps to reduce the probability of reassortment. In general, influenza vaccines are only effective if there is an antigenic match between vaccine strains and circulating strains. Additionally, most commercially available flu vaccines are manufactured by propagation of influenza viruses in embryonated chicken eggs, taking 6–8 months. Flu seasons are different in the northern and southern hemisphere, so the WHO meets twice a year, one for each hemisphere, to discuss which strains should be included in flu vaccines based on observation from HA inhibition assays. Other manufacturing methods include an MDCK cell culture-based inactivated vaccine and a recombinant subunit vaccine manufactured from baculovirus overexpression in insect cells. ### Antiviral chemoprophylaxis Influenza can be prevented or reduced in severity by post-exposure prophylaxis with the antiviral drugs oseltamivir, which can be taken orally by those at least three months old, and zanamivir, which can be inhaled by those above seven years of age. Chemoprophylaxis is most useful for individuals at high-risk of developing complications and those who cannot receive the flu vaccine due to contraindications or lack of effectiveness. Post-exposure chemoprophylaxis is only recommended if oseltamivir is taken within 48 hours of contact with a confirmed or suspected influenza case and zanamivir within 36 hours. It is recommended that it be offered to people who have yet to receive a vaccine for the current flu season, who have been vaccinated less than two week since contact, if there is a significant mismatch between vaccine and circulating strains, or during an outbreak in a closed setting regardless of vaccination history. ### Infection control Hand hygiene is important in reducing the spread of influenza. This includes frequent hand washing with soap and water, using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and not touching one's eyes, nose, and mouth with one's hands. Covering one's nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing is important. Other methods to limit influenza transmission include staying home when sick, avoiding contact with others until one day after symptoms end, and disinfecting surfaces likely to be contaminated by the virus, such as doorknobs. Health education through media and posters is often used to remind people of the aforementioned etiquette and hygiene. There is uncertainty about the use of masks since research thus far has not shown a significant reduction in seasonal influenza with mask usage. Likewise, the effectiveness of screening at points of entry into countries is not well researched. Social distancing measures such as school closures, avoiding contact with infected people via isolation or quarantine, and limiting mass gatherings may reduce transmission, but these measures are often expensive, unpopular, and difficult to implement. Consequently, the commonly recommended methods of infection control are respiratory etiquette, hand hygiene, and mask wearing, which are inexpensive and easy to perform. Pharmaceutical measures are effective but may not be available in the early stages of an outbreak. In health care settings, infected individuals may be cohorted or assigned to individual rooms. Protective clothing such as masks, gloves, and gowns is recommended when coming into contact with infected individuals if there is a risk of exposure to infected bodily fluids. Keeping patients in negative pressure rooms and avoiding aerosol-producing activities may help, but special air handling and ventilation systems are not considered necessary to prevent the spread of influenza in the air. In residential homes, new admissions may need to be closed until the spread of influenza is controlled. When discharging patients to care homes, it is important to take care if there is a known influenza outbreak. Since influenza viruses circulate in animals such as birds and pigs, prevention of transmission from these animals is important. Water treatment, indoor raising of animals, quarantining sick animals, vaccination, and biosecurity are the primary measures used. Placing poultry houses and piggeries on high ground away from high-density farms, backyard farms, live poultry markets, and bodies of water helps to minimize contact with wild birds. Closure of live poultry markets appears to the most effective measure and has shown to be effective at controlling the spread of H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2. Other biosecurity measures include cleaning and disinfecting facilities and vehicles, banning visits to poultry farms, not bringing birds intended for slaughter back to farms, changing clothes, disinfecting foot baths, and treating food and water. If live poultry markets are not closed, then "clean days" when unsold poultry is removed and facilities are disinfected and "no carry-over" policies to eliminate infectious material before new poultry arrive can be used to reduce the spread of influenza viruses. If a novel influenza viruses has breached the aforementioned biosecurity measures, then rapid detection to stamp it out via quarantining, decontamination, and culling may be necessary to prevent the virus from becoming endemic. Vaccines exist for avian H5, H7, and H9 subtypes that are used in some countries. In China, for example, vaccination of domestic birds against H7N9 successfully limited its spread, indicating that vaccination may be an effective strategy if used in combination with other measures to limit transmission. In pigs and horses, management of influenza is dependent on vaccination with biosecurity. Diagnosis --------- Diagnosis based on symptoms is fairly accurate in otherwise healthy people during seasonal epidemics and should be suspected in cases of pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, or if encephalitis, myocarditis, or breaking down of muscle tissue occur. Because influenza is similar to other viral respiratory tract illnesses, laboratory diagnosis is necessary for confirmation. Common ways of collecting samples for testing include nasal and throat swabs. Samples may be taken from the lower respiratory tract if infection has cleared the upper but not lower respiratory tract. Influenza testing is recommended for anyone hospitalized with symptoms resembling influenza during flu season or who is connected to an influenza case. For severe cases, earlier diagnosis improves patient outcome. Diagnostic methods that can identify influenza include viral cultures, antibody- and antigen-detecting tests, and nucleic acid-based tests. Viruses can be grown in a culture of mammalian cells or embryonated eggs for 3–10 days to monitor cytopathic effect. Final confirmation can then be done via antibody staining, hemadsorption using red blood cells, or immunofluorescence microscopy. Shell vial cultures, which can identify infection via immunostaining before a cytopathic effect appears, are more sensitive than traditional cultures with results in 1–3 days. Cultures can be used to characterize novel viruses, observe sensitivity to antiviral drugs, and monitor antigenic drift, but they are relatively slow and require specialized skills and equipment. Serological assays can be used to detect an antibody response to influenza after natural infection or vaccination. Common serological assays include hemagglutination inhibition assays that detect HA-specific antibodies, virus neutralization assays that check whether antibodies have neutralized the virus, and enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assays. These methods tend to be relatively inexpensive and fast but are less reliable than nucleic-acid based tests. Direct fluorescent or immunofluorescent antibody (DFA/IFA) tests involve staining respiratory epithelial cells in samples with fluorescently-labeled influenza-specific antibodies, followed by examination under a fluorescent microscope. They can differentiate between IAV and IBV but can't subtype IAV. Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) are a simple way of obtaining assay results, are low cost, and produce results quickly, at less than 30 minutes, so they are commonly used, but they can't distinguish between IAV and IBV or between IAV subtypes and are not as sensitive as nucleic-acid based tests. Nucleic acid-based tests (NATs) amplify and detect viral nucleic acid. Most of these tests take a few hours, but rapid molecular assays are as fast as RIDTs. Among NATs, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the most traditional and considered the gold standard for diagnosing influenza because it is fast and can subtype IAV, but it is relatively expensive and more prone to false-positives than cultures. Other NATs that have been used include loop-mediated isothermal amplification-based assays, simple amplification-based assays, and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification. Nucleic acid sequencing methods can identify infection by obtaining the nucleic acid sequence of viral samples to identify the virus and antiviral drug resistance. The traditional method is Sanger sequencing, but it has been largely replaced by next-generation methods that have greater sequencing speed and throughput. Treatment --------- Treatment of influenza in cases of mild or moderate illness is supportive and includes anti-fever medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, adequate fluid intake to avoid dehydration, and resting at home. Cough drops and throat sprays may be beneficial for sore throat. It is recommended to avoid alcohol and tobacco use while sick with the flu. Aspirin is not recommended to treat influenza in children due to an elevated risk of developing Reye syndrome. Corticosteroids likewise are not recommended except when treating septic shock or an underlying medical condition, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma exacerbation, since they are associated with increased mortality. If a secondary bacterial infection occurs, then treatment with antibiotics may be necessary. ### Antivirals Antiviral drugs| Drug | Route of administration | Approved age of use | | --- | --- | --- | | Oseltamivir | Oral | At least two weeks old | | Zanamivir | Inhalation | At least five years old | | Peramivir | Intravenous injection | At least 18 years old | | Laninamivir | Inhalation | 40 milligrams (mg) dose for people at least 10 years old, 20 mg for those under 10 | | Baloxavir marboxil | Oral | At least 12 years old | Antiviral drugs are primarily used to treat severely ill patients, especially those with compromised immune systems. Antivirals are most effective when started in the first 48 hours after symptoms appear. Later administration may still be beneficial for those who have underlying immune defects, those with more severe symptoms, or those who have a higher risk of developing complications if these individuals are still shedding the virus. Antiviral treatment is also recommended if a person is hospitalized with suspected influenza instead of waiting for test results to return and if symptoms are worsening. Most antiviral drugs against influenza fall into two categories: neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors and M2 inhibitors. Baloxavir marboxil is a notable exception, which targets the endonuclease activity of the viral RNA polymerase and can be used as an alternative to NA and M2 inhibitors for IAV and IBV. NA inhibitors target the enzymatic activity of NA receptors, mimicking the binding of sialic acid in the active site of NA on IAV and IBV virions so that viral release from infected cells and the rate of viral replication are impaired. NA inhibitors include oseltamivir, which is consumed orally in a prodrug form and converted to its active form in the liver, and zanamivir, which is a powder that is inhaled nasally. Oseltamivir and zanamivir are effective for prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis, and research overall indicates that NA inhibitors are effective at reducing rates of complications, hospitalization, and mortality and the duration of illness. Additionally, the earlier NA inhibitors are provided, the better the outcome, though late administration can still be beneficial in severe cases. Other NA inhibitors include laninamivir and peramivir, the latter of which can be used as an alternative to oseltamivir for people who cannot tolerate or absorb it. The adamantanes amantadine and rimantadine are orally administered drugs that block the influenza virus's M2 ion channel, preventing viral uncoating. These drugs are only functional against IAV but are no longer recommended for use because of widespread resistance to them among IAVs. Adamantane resistance first emerged in H3N2 in 2003, becoming worldwide by 2008. Oseltamivir resistance is no longer widespread because the 2009 pandemic H1N1 strain (H1N1 pdm09), which is resistant to adamantanes, seemingly replaced resistant strains in circulation. Since the 2009 pandemic, oseltamivir resistance has mainly been observed in patients undergoing therapy, especially the immunocompromised and young children. Oseltamivir resistance is usually reported in H1N1, but has been reported in H3N2 and IBVs less commonly. Because of this, oseltamivir is recommended as the first drug of choice for immunocompetent people, whereas for the immunocompromised, oseltamivir is recommended against H3N2 and IBV and zanamivir against H1N1 pdm09. Zanamivir resistance is observed less frequently, and resistance to peramivir and baloxavir marboxil is possible. Prognosis --------- In healthy individuals, influenza infection is usually self-limiting and rarely fatal. Symptoms usually last for 2–8 days. Influenza can cause people to miss work or school, and it is associated with decreased job performance and, in older adults, reduced independence. Fatigue and malaise may last for several weeks after recovery, and healthy adults may experience pulmonary abnormalities that can take several weeks to resolve. Complications and mortality primarily occur in high-risk populations and those who are hospitalized. Severe disease and mortality are usually attributable to pneumonia from the primary viral infection or a secondary bacterial infection, which can progress to ARDS. Other respiratory complications that may occur include sinusitis, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, excess fluid buildup in the lungs, and exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and asthma. Middle ear infection and croup may occur, most commonly in children. Secondary *S. aureus* infection has been observed, primarily in children, to cause toxic shock syndrome after influenza, with hypotension, fever, and reddening and peeling of the skin. Complications affecting the cardiovascular system are rare and include pericarditis, fulminant myocarditis with a fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat, and exacerbation of pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Inflammation or swelling of muscles accompanied by muscle tissue breaking down occurs rarely, usually in children, which presents as extreme tenderness and muscle pain in the legs and a reluctance to walk for 2–3 days. Influenza can affect pregnancy, including causing smaller neonatal size, increased risk of premature birth, and an increased risk of child death shortly before or after birth. Neurological complications have been associated with influenza on rare occasions, including aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, disseminated encephalomyelitis, transverse myelitis, and Guillain–Barré syndrome. Additionally, febrile seizures and Reye syndrome can occur, most commonly in children. Influenza-associated encephalopathy can occur directly from central nervous system infection from the presence of the virus in blood and presents as suddent onset of fever with convulsions, followed by rapid progression to coma. An atypical form of encephalitis called encephalitis lethargica, characterized by headache, drowsiness, and coma, may rarely occur sometime after infection. In survivors of influenza-associated encephalopathy, neurological defects may occur. Primarily in children, in severe cases the immune system may rarely dramatically overproduce white blood cells that release cytokines, causing severe inflammation. People who are at least 65 years of age, due to a weakened immune system from aging or a chronic illness, are a high-risk group for developing complications, as are children less than one year of age and children who have not been previously exposed to influenza viruses multiple times. Pregnant women are at an elevated risk, which increases by trimester and lasts up to two weeks after childbirth. Obesity, in particular a body mass index greater than 35–40, is associated with greater amounts of viral replication, increased severity of secondary bacterial infection, and reduced vaccination efficacy. People who have underlying health conditions are also considered at-risk, including those who have congenital or chronic heart problems or lung (e.g. asthma), kidney, liver, blood, neurological, or metabolic (e.g. diabetes) disorders, as are people who are immunocompromised from chemotherapy, asplenia, prolonged steroid treatment, splenic dysfunction, or HIV infection. Tobacco use, including past use, places a person at risk. The role of genetics in influenza is not well researched, but it may be a factor in influenza mortality. Epidemiology ------------ Influenza is typically characterized by seasonal epidemics and sporadic pandemics. Most of the burden of influenza is a result of flu seasons caused by IAV and IBV. Among IAV subtypes, H1N1 and H3N2 circulate in humans and are responsible for seasonal influenza. Cases disproportionately occur in children, but most severe causes are among the elderly, the very young, and the immunocompromised. In a typical year, influenza viruses infect 5–15% of the global population, causing 3–5 million cases of severe illness annually and accounting for 290,000–650,000 deaths each year due to respiratory illness. 5–10% of adults and 20–30% of children contract influenza each year. The reported number of influenza cases is usually much lower than the actual number of cases. During seasonal epidemics, it is estimated that about 80% of otherwise healthy people who have a cough or sore throat have the flu. Approximately 30–40% of people hospitalized for influenza develop pneumonia, and about 5% of all severe pneumonia cases in hospitals are due to influenza, which is also the most common cause of ARDS in adults. In children, influenza is one of the two most common causes of ARDS, the other being the respiratory syncytial virus. About 3–5% of children each year develop otitis media due to influenza. Adults who develop organ failure from influenza and children who have PIM scores and acute renal failure have higher rates of mortality. During seasonal influenza, mortality is concentrated in the very young and the elderly, whereas during flu pandemics, young adults are often affected at a high rate. In temperate regions, the number of influenza cases varies from season to season. Lower vitamin D levels, presumably due to less sunlight, lower humidity, lower temperature, and minor changes in virus proteins caused by antigenic drift contribute to annual epidemics that peak during the winter season. In the northern hemisphere, this is from October to May (more narrowly December to April), and in the southern hemisphere, this is from May to October (more narrowly June to September). There are therefore two distinct influenza seasons every year in temperate regions, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. In tropical and subtropical regions, seasonality is more complex and appears to be affected by various climatic factors such as minimum temperature, hours of sunshine, maximum rainfall, and high humidity. Influenza may therefore occur year-round in these regions. Influenza epidemics in modern times have the tendency to start in the eastern or southern hemisphere, with Asia being a key reservoir of influenza viruses. IAV and IBV co-circulate, so the two have the same patterns of transmission. The seasonality of ICV, however, is poorly understood. ICV infection is most common in children under the age of 2, and by adulthood most people have been exposed to it. ICV-associated hospitalization most commonly occurs in children under the age of 3 and is frequently accompanied by co-infection with another virus or a bacterium, which may increase the severity of disease. When considering all hospitalizations for respiratory illness among young children, ICV appears to account for only a small percentage of such cases. Large outbreaks of ICV infection can occur, so incidence varies significantly. Outbreaks of influenza caused by novel influenza viruses are common. Depending on the level of pre-existing immunity in the population, novel influenza viruses can spread rapidly and cause pandemics with millions of deaths. These pandemics, in contrast to seasonal influenza, are caused by antigenic shifts involving animal influenza viruses. To date, all known flu pandemics have been caused by IAVs, and they follow the same pattern of spreading from an origin point to the rest of the world over the course of multiple waves in a year. Pandemic strains tend to be associated with higher rates of pneumonia in otherwise healthy individuals. Generally after each influenza pandemic, the pandemic strain continues to circulate as the cause of seasonal influenza, replacing prior strains. From 1700 to 1889, influenza pandemics occurred about once every 50–60 years. Since then, pandemics have occurred about once every 10–50 years, so they may be getting more frequent over time. History ------- It is impossible to know when an influenza virus first infected humans or when the first influenza pandemic occurred. The first influenza epidemic may have occurred around 6,000 BC in China, and possible descriptions of influenza exist in Greek writings from the 5th century BC. In both 1173–1174 AD and 1387 AD, epidemics occurred across Europe that were named "influenza". Whether these epidemics or others were caused by influenza is unclear since there was then no consistent naming pattern for epidemic respiratory diseases, and "influenza" didn't become clearly associated with respiratory disease until centuries later. Influenza may have been brought to the Americas as early as 1493, when an epidemic disease resembling influenza killed most of the population of the Antilles. The first convincing record of an influenza pandemic was chronicled in 1510. It began in East Asia before spreading to North Africa and then Europe. Following the pandemic, seasonal influenza occurred, with subsequent pandemics in 1557 and 1580. The flu pandemic in 1557 was potentially the first time influenza was connected to miscarriage and death of pregnant women. The 1580 flu pandemic originated in Asia during summer, spread to Africa, then Europe, and finally America. By the end of the 16th century, influenza was beginning to become understood as a specific, recognizable disease with epidemic and endemic forms. In 1648, it was discovered that horses also experience influenza. Influenza data after 1700 is more accurate, so it is easier to identify flu pandemics after this point, each of which incrementally increased understanding of influenza. The first flu pandemic of the 18th century started in 1729 in Russia in spring, spreading worldwide over the course of three years with distinct waves, the later ones being more lethal. The second flu pandemic of the 18th century was in 1781–1782, starting in China in autumn. From this pandemic, influenza became associated with sudden outbreaks of febrile illness. The next flu pandemic was from 1830 to 1833, beginning in China in winter. This pandemic had a high attack rate, but the mortality rate was low. A minor influenza pandemic occurred from 1847 to 1851 at the same time as the third cholera pandemic and was the first flu pandemic to occur with vital statistics being recorded, so influenza mortality was clearly recorded for the first time. Highly pathogenic avian influenza was recognized in 1878 and was soon linked to transmission to humans. By the time of the 1889 pandemic, which may have been caused by an H2N2 strain, the flu had become an easily recognizable disease. The microbial agent responsible for influenza was incorrently identified in 1892 by R. F. J. Pfeiffer as the bacteria species *Haemophilus influenzae*, which retains "influenza" in its name. In succeeding years, the field of virology began to form as viruses were identified as the cause of many diseases. From 1901 to 1903, Italian and Austrian researchers were able to show that avian influenza, then called "fowl plague", was caused by a microscopic agent smaller than bacteria by using filters with pores too small for bacteria to pass through. The fundamental differences between viruses and bacteria, however, were not yet fully understood. From 1918 to 1920, the Spanish flu pandemic became the most devastating influenza pandemic and one of the deadliest pandemics in history. The pandemic, probably caused by H1N1, likely began in the United States before spreading worldwide via soldiers during and after the First World War. The initial wave in the first half of 1918 was relatively minor and resembled past flu pandemics, but the second wave later that year had a much higher mortality rate, accounting for most deaths. A third wave with lower mortality occurred in many places a few months after the second. By the end of 1920, it is estimated that about a third to half of all people in the world had been infected, with tens of millions of deaths, disproportionately young adults. During the 1918 pandemic, the respiratory route of transmission was clearly identified and influenza was shown to be caused by a "filter passer", not a bacterium, but there remained a lack of agreement about influenza's cause for another decade and research on influenza declined. After the pandemic, H1N1 circulated in humans in seasonal form up until the next pandemic. In 1931, Richard Shope published three papers identifying a virus as the cause of swine influenza, a then newly recognized disease among pigs that was characterized during the second wave of the 1918 pandemic. Shope's research reinvigorated research on human influenza, and many advances in virology, serology, immunology, experimental animal models, vaccinology, and immunotherapy have since arisen from influenza research. Just two years after influenza viruses were discovered, in 1933, IAV was identified as the agent responsible for human influenza. Subtypes of IAV were discovered throughout the 1930s, and IBV was discovered in 1940. During the Second World War, the US government worked on developing inactivated vaccines for influenza, resulting in the first influenza vaccine being licensed in 1945 in the United States. ICV was discovered two years later in 1947. In 1955, avian influenza was confirmed to be caused by IAV. Four influenza pandemics have occurred since WWII, each less severe than the 1918 pandemic. The first of these was the Asian flu from 1957 to 1958, caused by an H2N2 strain and beginning in China's Yunnan province. The number of deaths probably exceeded one million, mostly among the very young and very old. The 1957 pandemic was the first flu pandemic to occur in the presence of a global surveillance system and laboratories able to study the novel influenza virus. After the pandemic, H2N2 was the IAV subtype responsible for seasonal influenza. The first antiviral drug against influenza, amantadine, was approved for use in 1966, with additional antiviral drugs being used since the 1990s. In 1968, H3N2 was introduced into humans through a rearrangement between an avian H3N2 strain and an H2N2 strain that was circulating in humans. The novel H3N2 strain emerged in Hong Kong and spread worldwide, causing the Hong Kong flu pandemic, which resulted in 500,000–2,000,000 deaths. This was the first pandemic to spread significantly by air travel. H2N2 and H3N2 co-circulated after the pandemic until 1971 when H2N2 waned in prevalence and was completely replaced by H3N2. In 1977, H1N1 reemerged in humans, possibly after it was released from a freezer in a laboratory accident, and caused a pseudo-pandemic. Whether the 1977 "pandemic" deserves to be included in the natural history of flu pandemics is debatable. This H1N1 strain was antigenically similar to the H1N1 strains that circulated prior to 1957. Since 1977, both H1N1 and H3N2 have circulated in humans as part of seasonal influenza. In 1980, the classification system used to subtype influenza viruses was introduced. At some point, IBV diverged into two strains, named the B/Victoria-like and B/Yamagata-like lineages, both of which have been circulating in humans since 1983. In 1996, HPAI H5N1 was detected in Guangdong, China and a year later emerged in poultry in Hong Kong, gradually spreading worldwide from there. A small H5N1 outbreak in humans in Hong Kong occurred then, and sporadic human cases have occurred since 1997, carrying a high case fatality rate. The most recent flu pandemic was the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which originated in Mexico and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. It was caused by a novel H1N1 strain that was a reassortment of human, swine, and avian influenza viruses. The 2009 pandemic had the effect of replacing prior H1N1 strains in circulation with the novel strain but not any other influenza viruses. Consequently, H1N1, H3N2, and both IBV lineages have been in circulation in seasonal form since the 2009 pandemic. In 2011, IDV was discovered in pigs in Oklahoma, USA, and cattle were later identified as the primary reservoir of IDV. In the same year, avian H7N9 was detected in China and began to cause human infections in 2013, starting in Shanghai and Anhui and remaining mostly in China. HPAI H7N9 emerged sometime in 2016 and has occasionally infected humans incidentally. Other AIVs have less commonly infected humans since the 1990s, including H5N6, H6N1, H7N2-4, H7N7, and H10N7-8, and HPAI H subtypes such as H5N1-3, H5N5-6, and H5N8 have begun to spread throughout much of the world since the 2010s. Future flu pandemics, which may be caused by an influenza virus of avian origin, are viewed as almost inevitable, and increased globalization has made it easier for novel viruses to spread, so there are continual efforts to prepare for future pandemics and improve the prevention and treatment of influenza. ### Etymology The word *influenza* comes from the Italian word *influenza*, from medieval Latin *influentia*, originally meaning "visitation" or "influence". Terms such as *influenza di freddo*, meaning "influence of the cold", and *influenza di stelle*, meaning "influence of the stars" are attested from the 14th century. The latter referred to the disease's cause, which at the time was ascribed by some to unfavorable astrological conditions. As early as 1504, *influenza* began to mean a "visitation" or "outbreak" of any disease affecting many people in a single place at once. During an outbreak of influenza in 1743 that started in Italy and spread throughout Europe, the word reached the English language and was anglicized in pronunciation. Since the mid-1800s, *influenza* has also been used to refer to severe colds. The shortened form of the word, "(the) flu", is first attested in 1839 as *flue* with the spelling *flu* confirmed in 1893. Other names that have been used for influenza include *epidemic catarrh*, *la grippe* from French, *sweating sickness*, and, especially when referring to the 1918 pandemic strain, *Spanish fever*. Research -------- Influenza research is wide-ranging and includes efforts to understand how influenza viruses enter hosts, the relationship between influenza viruses and bacteria, how influenza symptoms progress, and what make some influenza viruses deadlier than others. Non-structural proteins encoded by influenza viruses are periodically discovered and their functions are continually under research. Past pandemics, and especially the 1918 pandemic, are the subject of much research to understand flu pandemics. As part of pandemic preparedness, the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System is a global network of laboratories that monitors influenza transmission and epidemiology. Additional areas of research include ways to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of influenza. Existing diagnostic methods have a variety of limitations coupled with their advantages. For example, NATs have high sensitivity and specificity but are impractical in under-resourced regions due to their high cost, complexity, maintenance, and training required. Low-cost, portable RIDTs can rapidly diagnose influenza but have highly variable sensitivity and are unable to subtype IAV. As a result of these limitations and others, research into new diagnostic methods revolves around producing new methods that are cost-effective, less labor-intensive, and less complex than existing methods while also being able to differentiate influenza species and IAV subtypes. One approach in development are lab-on-a-chips, which are diagnostic devices that make use of a variety of diagnostic tests, such as RT-PCR and serological assays, in microchip form. These chips have many potential advantages, including high reaction efficiency, low energy consumption, and low waste generation. New antiviral drugs are also in development due to the elimination of adamantines as viable drugs and concerns over oseltamivir resistance. These include: NA inhibitors that can be injected intravenously, such as intravenous formulations of zanamivir; favipiravir, which is a polymerase inhibitor used against several RNA viruses; pimodivir, which prevents cap-binding required during viral transcription; and nitazoxanide, which inhibits HA maturation. Reducing excess inflammation in the respiratory tract is also subject to much research since this is one of the primary mechanisms of influenza pathology. Other forms of therapy in development include monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies that target viral proteins, convalescent plasma, different approaches to modify the host antiviral response, and stem cell-based therapies to repair lung damage. Much research on LAIVs focuses on identifying genome sequences that can be deleted to create harmless influenza viruses in vaccines that still confer immunity. The high variability and rapid evolution of influenza virus antigens, however, is a major obstacle in developing effective vaccines. Furthermore, it is hard to predict which strains will be in circulation during the next flu season, manufacturing a sufficient quantity of flu vaccines for the next season is difficult, LAIVs have limited efficacy, and repeated annual vaccination potentially has diminished efficacy. For these reasons, "broadly-reactive" or "universal" flu vaccines are being researched that can provide protection against many or all influenza viruses. Approaches to develop such a vaccine include HA stalk-based methods such as chimeras that have the same stalk but different heads, HA head-based methods such as computationally optimized broadly neutralizing antigens, anti-idiotypic antibodies, and vaccines to elicit immune responses to highly conserved viral proteins. mRNA vaccines to provide protection against influenza are also under research. In animals ---------- ### Birds Aquatic birds such as ducks, geese, shorebirds, and gulls are the primary reservoir of IAVs. In birds, AIVs may be either low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses that produce little to no symptoms or highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses that cause severe illness. Symptoms of HPAI infection include lack of energy and appetite, decreased egg production, soft-shelled or misshapen eggs, swelling of the head, comb, wattles, and hocks, purple discoloration of wattles, combs, and legs, nasal discharge, coughing, sneezing, incoordination, and diarrhea. Birds infected with an HPAI virus may also die suddenly without any signs of infection. The distinction between LPAI and HPAI can generally be made based on how lethal an AIV is to chickens. At the genetic level, an AIV can be usually be identified as an HPAI virus if it has a multibasic cleavage site in the HA protein, which contains additional residues in the HA gene. Most AIVs are LPAI. Notable HPAI viruses include HPAI H5N1 and HPAI H7N9. HPAI viruses have been a major disease burden in the 21st century, resulting in the death of large numbers of birds. In H7N9's case, some circulating strains were originally LPAI but became HPAI by acquiring the HA multibasic cleavage site. Avian H9N2 is also of concern because although it is LPAI, it is a common donor of genes to H5N1 and H7N9 during reassortment. Migratory birds can spread influenza across long distances. An example of this was when an H5N1 strain in 2005 infected birds at Qinghai Lake, China, which is a stopover and breeding site for many migratory birds, subsequently spreading the virus to more than 20 countries across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. AIVs can be transmitted from wild birds to domestic free-range ducks and in turn to poultry through contaminated water, aerosols, and fomites. Ducks therefore act as key intermediates between wild and domestic birds. Transmission to poultry typically occurs in backyard farming and live animal markets where multiple species interact with each other. From there, AIVs can spread to poultry farms in the absence of adequate biosecurity. Among poultry, HPAI transmission occurs through aerosols and contaminated feces, cages, feed, and dead animals. Back-transmission of HPAI viruses from poultry to wild birds has occurred and is implicated in mass die-offs and intercontinental spread. AIVs have occasionally infected humans through aerosols, fomites, and contaminated water. Direction transmission from wild birds is rare. Instead, most transmission involves domestic poultry, mainly chickens, ducks, and geese but also a variety of other birds such as guinea fowl, partridge, pheasants, and quails. The primary risk factor for infection with AIVs is exposure to birds in farms and live poultry markets. Typically, infection with an AIV has an incubation period of 3–5 days but can be up to 9 days. H5N1 and H7N9 cause severe lower respiratory tract illness, whereas other AIVs such as H9N2 cause a more mild upper respiratory tract illness, commonly with conjunctivitis. Limited transmission of avian H2, H5-7, H9, and H10 subtypes from one person to another through respiratory droplets, aerosols, and fomites has occurred, but sustained human-to-human transmission of AIVs has not occurred. Before 2013, H5N1 was the most common AIV to infect humans. Since then, H7N9 has been responsible for most human cases. ### Pigs Influenza in pigs is a respiratory disease similar to influenza in humans and is found worldwide. Asymptomatic infections are common. Symptoms typically appear 1–3 days after infection and include fever, lethargy, anorexia, weight loss, labored breathing, coughing, sneezing, and nasal discharge. In sows, pregnancy may be aborted. Complications include secondary infections and potentially fatal bronchopneumonia. Pigs become contagious within a day of infection and typically spread the virus for 7–10 days, which can spread rapidly within a herd. Pigs usually recover from infection within 3–7 days after symptoms appear. Prevention and control measures include inactivated vaccines and culling infected herds. The influenza viruses usually responsible for swine flu are IAV subtypes H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2. Some IAVs can be transmitted via aerosols from pigs to humans and vice versa. Furthermore, pigs, along with bats and quails, are recognized as a mixing vessel of influenza viruses because they have both α-2,3 and α-2,6 sialic acid receptors in their respiratory tract. Because of that, both avian and mammalian influenza viruses can infect pigs. If co-infection occurs, then reassortment is possible. A notable example of this was the reassortment of a swine, avian, and human influenza virus in 2009, resulting in a novel H1N1 strain that caused the 2009 flu pandemic. Spillover events from humans to pigs, however, appear to be more common than from pigs to humans. ### Other animals Influenza viruses have been found in many other animals, including cattle, horses, dogs, cats, and marine mammals. Nearly all IAVs are apparently descended from ancestral viruses in birds. The exception are bat influenza-like viruses, which have an uncertain origin. These bat viruses have HA and NA subtypes H17, H18, N10, and N11. H17N10 and H18N11 are unable to reassort with other IAVs, but they are still able to replicate in other mammals. AIVs sometimes crossover into mammals. For example, in late 2016 to early 2017, an avian H7N2 strain was found to be infecting cats in New York. Equine IAVs include H7N7 and two lineages of H3N8. H7N7, however, has not been detected in horses since the late 1970s, so it may have become extinct in horses. H3N8 in equines spreads via aerosols and causes respiratory illness. Equine H3N8 perferentially binds to α-2,3 sialic acids, so horses are usually considered dead-end hosts, but transmission to dogs and camels has occurred, raising concerns that horses may be mixing vessels for reassortment. In canines, the only IAVs in circulation are equine-derived H3N8 and avian-derived H3N2. Canine H3N8 has not been observed to reassort with other subtypes. H3N2 has a much broader host range and can reassort with H1N1 and H5N1. An isolated case of H6N1 likely from a chicken was found infecting a dog, so other AIVs may emerge in canines. Other mammals to be infected by IAVs include H7N7 and H4N5 in seals, H1N3 in whales, and H10N4 and H3N2 in minks. Various mutations have been identified that are associated with AIVs adapting to mammals. Since HA proteins vary in which sialic acids they bind to, mutations in the HA receptor binding site can allow AIVs to infect mammals. Other mutations include mutations affecting which sialic acids NA proteins cleave and a mutation in the PB2 polymerase subunit that improves tolerance of lower temperatures in mammalian respiratory tracts and enhances RNP assembly by stabilizing NP and PB2 binding. IBV is mainly found in humans but has also been detected in pigs, dogs, horses, and seals. Likewise, ICV primarily infects humans but has been observed in pigs, dogs, cattle, and dromedary camels. IDV causes an influenza-like illness in pigs but its impact in its natural reservoir, cattle, is relatively unknown. It may cause respiratory disease resembling human influenza on its own, or it may be part of a bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex with other pathogens during co-infection. BRD is a concern for the cattle industry, so IDV's possible involvement in BRD has led to research on vaccines for cattle that can provide protection against IDV. Two antigenic lineages are in circulation: D/swine/Oklahoma/1334/2011 (D/OK) and D/bovine/Oklahoma/660/2013 (D/660).

Influenza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza

The **M1 Abrams** (/ˈeɪbrəmz/) is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest tanks in service at nearly 68 short tons (62 metric tons), it introduced several modern technologies to US armored forces, including a multifuel turbine engine, sophisticated Chobham composite armor, a computer fire control system, separate ammunition storage in a blowout compartment, and NBC protection for crew safety. Initial models of the M1 were armed with a 105 mm M68 gun, while later variants feature a license-produced Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44 designated M256. The M1 Abrams was developed from the failed MBT-70 project that intended to replace the obsolete M60 tank. There are three main operational Abrams versions, the M1, **M1A1**, and **M1A2**, with each new iteration seeing improvements in armament, protection, and electronics. The Abrams was to be replaced in U.S. Army service by the XM1202 Mounted Combat System, but since that project was cancelled, the Army has opted to continue maintaining and operating the M1 series for the foreseeable future by upgrading with improved optics, armor, and firepower. The M1 Abrams entered service in 1980 and serves as the main battle tank of the United States Army and formerly of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The export version is used by the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Poland and Iraq. The Abrams was first used in combat in the Gulf War and has seen combat in both the War in Afghanistan and Iraq War under U.S. service, while Iraqi Abrams tanks have seen action in the war against the Islamic State and have seen use by Saudi Arabia during the Yemeni Civil War. History ------- ### Previous developments Through the 1960s the US Army and Bundeswehr had collaborated on a single design that would replace both the M60 tank and the Leopard 1. The overall goal was to have a single new design with improved firepower to handle new Soviet tanks like the T-62, while providing improved protection against the T-62's new 115 mm smoothbore gun and especially high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds.[*failed verification*] The resulting design, the MBT-70, incorporated new technologies across the board. A hydropneumatic suspension provided improved cross-country ride quality and also allowed the entire tank to be raised or lowered by the driver. New 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) engines powered the designs which could both reach 43 miles per hour (69 km/h). The American version used a 152 mm gun whose primary long-range weapon was the Shillelagh missile. While the design was highly capable, its weight continued to grow, as did its budget. By 1969, the unit cost stood at five times the original estimates, causing the Department of Defense to suspend the program. Development of the tank continued on an austere basis until January 1970, when the DoD and Germany ended their partnership. The U.S. Army began work on an austere version of the MBT-70, named XM803. The Army's changes were insufficient to allay concerns about the tank's cost. Congress canceled the XM803 in December 1971 but permitted the Army to reallocate remaining funds to develop a new main battle tank. ### Starting afresh The Army began the **XM815** project in January 1972. The Main Battle Tank Task Force was established under Major General William Desobry. The task force prepared design studies with the technical support of Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). In spring 1962, Desobry was briefed by the British on their own newly developed "Burlington" armor from the British Army's labs. The armor performed exceptionally against shaped charges such as HEAT rounds. In September, Desobry convinced the Army to incorporate the new armor. In order to take full advantage of Burlington, also known as Chobham, the new tank would have to have armor around two feet thick (for comparison, the armor on the M60 is around four inches thick). General Creighton Abrams set the weight of the new tank at 58 short tons (53 t). The original goal of keeping weight under 50 short tons (45 t) was abandoned. The **XM1** program was approved to begin in January 1973. TACOM began examining specific goals. After several rounds of input, the decision was made to provide armor to defeat the "heavy threat" posed by the T-62's 115 mm gun using projected improvements of their armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) ammunition through the 1980s, and the new 125 mm gun of the T-64 and T-72 firing HEAT rounds. To this end, a new design basis emerged in February 1973. It had to defeat any hit from a Soviet gun within 800 meters and 30 degrees to either side. The tank would be armed with the 105 mm M68 gun, a licensed version of the Royal Ordnance L7, and a 20 mm version of the M242 Bushmaster. The Army later deleted the latter from the design, seeing it as superfluous. In May 1973, Chrysler Defense and General Motors submitted proposals. Both were armed with the 105 mm M68 gun, the licensed L7, and the 20 mm Bushmaster. Chrysler chose a 1,500 hp gas turbine Lycoming AGT1500. GM's model was powered by a 1,500 hp diesel similar to that used on the American MBT-70 and XM803. At the time, the Pentagon's procurement system was beset with problems being caused by the desire to have the best possible design. This often resulted in programs being canceled due to cost overruns, leaving the forces with outdated systems, as was the case with the MBT-70. There was a strong movement within the Army to get a new design within budget to prevent the MBT-70 experience from repeating itself. For the new design, the Army stated the unit cost was to be no more than $507,000 in 1972 dollars (equivalent to $3,550,000 in 2022). The Pentagon's approach to control of research and development was modified with the XM1. Previous acquisition strategy called for a significant amount of the design work be done by the government. Under the new framework, contractors would competitively bid their own designs rather than compete solely for the right to manufacture the end product. ### More changes Through the period while the initial prototypes were being built, a debate broke out between Germany and US about the use of the 105 mm gun. The Army was planning on introducing several new types of ammunition for the 105 that would greatly improve its performance, notably, the XM-774 using depleted uranium. These rounds would give it the performance needed to defeat any Soviet tank with ease. There was some concern that depleted uranium would not be allowed in Germany, perhaps just in peacetime, so improvements to the tungsten cored M735 were also considered. Through this same period, there was an ongoing effort to improve NATO logistics by standardizing ammunition to the maximum possible degree. The Germans were moving ahead with their 120 mm gun on the Leopard 2K, and noted that the British had also introduced a 120 mm gun of their own in keeping with their long-range combat doctrine. By 1977 the decision had been made to eventually move the new tank to a 120 mm gun. After head-to-head testing between the Royal Ordnance L11A5 and the Rh-120, the latter was chosen and later type-classified as the M256. The turret designs of the two prototypes were modified to allow either gun to be fitted. Although the L11/M256 120mm gun was chosen to be the main weapon of the Abrams in 1979, the improved ammunition for the gun still was not fully developed, thus delaying its fielding until 1984. The early production versions of the M1 Abrams (M1 & IPM1) were armed with the M68A1 for two reasons. First was due to the large number of M60 tanks with the M68E1 gun still in widespread US service in the 1980s and a large on-hand stockpile of 105mm munitions. Fitting the M1 with the M68A1 gun was viewed as an economical and practical solution that allowed for commonality in ammunition among the two types of tanks. Secondly was that the M68A1 could employ the newly developed M900 APFSDS depleted uranium round that had improved penetration performance in comparison to the M774. ### Prototypes XM1 prototypesChryslerGeneral Motors Prototypes were delivered in 1976 by Chrysler and GM armed with the M68E1 105 mm gun. They entered head-to-head testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, along with a Leopard 2 AV prototype for comparison. The Leopard 2 was found to meet U.S. requirements but was thought to cost more. The testing showed that the GM design was generally superior to Chrysler's, offering better armor protection, and better fire control and turret stabilization systems. These early preproduction prototypes were provisionally armed with the M68E1 105mm main gun while a preferred 120 mm gun and its ammunition were in their design and component development phase. These prototypes used a combination mount that allowed for evaluating both 105 mm and 120 mm guns. During testing, the power packs of both designs proved to have issues. The Chrysler gas turbine engine had extensive heat recovery systems in an attempt to improve its fuel efficiency to something similar to a traditional internal combustion engine. This proved not to be the case: the engine consumed much more fuel than expected, burning 3.8 US gallons per mile (890 L/100 km). The GM design used a new variable-compression diesel design. By spring 1976, the decision to choose the GM design was largely complete. In addition to offering better overall performance, there were concerns about Chrysler's engine both from a reliability and fuel consumption standpoint. The GM program was also slightly cheaper overall at $208 million compared to $221 million for Chrysler. In July 1976, the Army prepared to inform Congress of the decision to move ahead with the GM design. All that was required was the final sign-off by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. ### Chrysler is chosen On 20 July 1976, United States Secretary of the Army Martin Hoffmann and a group of generals visited Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Clements and Director of Defense Research and Engineering Malcolm Currie on their decision. They were surprised when Clements and Currie criticized their decision and demanded the turbine be selected. Donald Rumsfeld heard arguments from both in the afternoon. The Army team spent the night writing briefs and presented them to Rumsfeld the next morning, who then announced a four-month delay. Within days, GM was asked to present a new design with a turbine engine. According to Assistant Secretary for Research and Development Ed Miller, "It became increasingly clear that the only solution which would be acceptable to Clements and Currie was the turbine... It was a political decision that was reached, and for all intents and purposes that decision gave the award to Chrysler since they were the only contractor with a gas turbine." On 12 November 1976, the Defense Department awarded a $20 billion development contract to Chrysler. The turbine engine does not appear to be the only reason for this decision. Chrysler was the only company that appeared to be seriously interested in tank development; the M60 had been lucrative for the company and relied on that program for much of its profit. In contrast, GM made only about 1% of its income from military sales, compared to 5% for Chrysler, and only submitted their bid after a "special plea" from the Pentagon. ### Production starts In January 1978, a program was initiated to develop an enhanced version of the 105mm gun, the M68A1 as a possible alternate weapon for the M1 Abrams. The new XM24/L55 gun barrel was 18 inches (45.72 cm) longer in comparison to the XM24/L52 barrel used on the M60 tanks. It has a higher chamber pressure, reinforced breech and a higher muzzle velocity. Low rate initial production (LRIP) of the vehicle was approved on 7 May 1979. In February 1982, General Dynamics Land Systems Division (GDLS) purchased Chrysler Defense, after Chrysler built over 1,000 M1s. A total of 3,273 M1 Abrams tanks were produced during 1979–1985 and first entered U.S. Army service in 1980. Production at the government-owned, GDLS-operated Lima Army Tank Plant in Lima, Ohio, was joined by vehicles built at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan from 1982 to 1996. The U.S. Army Laboratory Command (LABCOM), under the supervision of the United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL), was also heavily involved with designing the tank with M1A1 armor resistant shells, M829A2 armor-penetrating rounds, and improved weapon range. The M1 was armed with the license-built M68A1 version of the 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun. The tank featured the first of its kind Chobham armor. The M1 Abrams was the first to use this advanced armor. It consisted of an arrangement of metal plates, ceramic blocks and open space. An improved model called the M1IP was produced briefly in 1984 and contained upgrades to armour and other small improvements. The M1IP models were used in the Canadian Army Trophy NATO tank gunnery competition in 1985 and 1987. About 5,000 M1A1 Abrams tanks were produced from 1986 to 1992 and featured the M256 120 mm (4.7 in) smoothbore cannon developed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany for the Leopard 2, improved armor, consisting of depleted uranium and other classified materials, and a CBRN protection system. Production of M1 and M1A1 tanks totaled some 9,000 tanks at a cost of approximately $4.3 million per unit. In 1990, Project On Government Oversight in a report criticized the M1's high costs and low fuel efficiency in comparison with other tanks of similar power and effectiveness such as the Leopard 2. As the Abrams entered service, they operated alongside M60A3 within the U.S. military, and with other NATO tanks in various Cold War exercises which usually took place in Western Europe, especially West Germany. The exercises were aimed at countering Soviet forces. Adaptations before the Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) gave the vehicle better firepower and NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) protection. ### Gulf War The Abrams remained untested in combat until the Gulf War in 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. A total of 1,848 M1A1s were deployed to Saudi Arabia to participate in the liberation of Kuwait. The M1A1 was superior to Iraq's Soviet-era T-54/T-55 and T-62 tanks, as well as T-72 versions imported from the Soviet Union and Poland. Polish officials stated that no license-produced T-72 (nicknamed Lion of Babylon) tanks were finished before destruction of the Iraqi Taji tank plant in 1991. The T-72s, like most Soviet export designs, lacked night-vision systems and then-modern rangefinders, though they did have some night-fighting tanks with older active infrared systems or floodlights. Very few M1 tanks were hit by enemy fire and none were destroyed as a direct result of enemy fire, none of which resulted in any fatalities. Three Abrams were left behind the enemy lines after a swift attack on Talil airfield, south of Nasiriyah, on February 27. One of them was hit by enemy fire, the two other embedded in mud. The tanks were destroyed by U.S. forces in order to prevent any trophy-claim by the Iraqi Army. A total of 23 M1A1s were damaged or destroyed during the war. Of the nine Abrams tanks destroyed, seven were destroyed by friendly fire and two intentionally destroyed to prevent capture by the Iraqi Army. No M1s were lost to enemy tank fire. Some others took minor combat damage, with little effect on their operational readiness. The M1A1 could kill other tanks at ranges in excess of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). This range was crucial in combat against previous generation tanks of Soviet design in Desert Storm, as the effective range of the main gun in the Soviet/Iraqi tanks was less than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). This meant Abrams tanks could hit Iraqi tanks before the enemy got in range—a decisive advantage in this kind of combat. In friendly fire incidents, the front armor and fore side turret armor survived direct APFSDS hits from other M1A1s. This was not the case for the side armor of the hull and the rear armor of the turret, as both areas were penetrated on at least two occasions by unintentional strikes by depleted uranium ammunition during the Battle of Norfolk. During operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm some M1IP and M1A1s were modified locally in theater (in the war zone) by modification work orders (MWO) with additional rolled homogeneous armor plating welded on the turret front. Lessons from the war improved the tank's weapons sights and fire control unit. ### Waco siege During the Waco siege in 1993 two M1A1 Abrams tanks were borrowed from the military and deployed by the FBI against the Branch Davidians. ### Upgrades The M1A2 was a further improvement of the M1A1, with a commander's independent thermal viewer, weapon station, position navigation equipment, and a full set of controls and displays linked by a digital data bus. These upgrades also provided the M1A2 with an improved fire control system. The M1A2 System Enhancement Package (SEP) added digital maps, Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Linux communications system capabilities for commanders, and an improved cooling system to compensate for heat generated by the additional computer systems. The M1A2 SEP also serves as the basis for the M104 Wolverine heavy assault bridge. The M1A2 SEPv2 (version 2) added Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS or CROWS II) support, color displays, better interfaces, a new operating system, better front and side armor, and an upgraded transmission for better durability. Further upgrades included depleted uranium armor for all variants, a system overhaul that returns all A1s to like-new condition (M1A1 AIM), a digital enhancement package for the A1 (M1A1D), and a commonality program to standardize parts between the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps (M1A1HC). Improvements to survivability, lethality, and protection have been sought since 2014. ### Iraq War Further combat was seen during 2003 when U.S. forces invaded Iraq and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the Iraq War's Operation Iraqi Freedom. One achievement of the M1A1s was the destruction of seven T-72s in a point-blank skirmish (less than 50 yards (46 m)) near Mahmoudiyah, about 18 miles (29 km) south of Baghdad, with no U.S. losses. This was in the face of inadequately trained Iraqi tank crews, most of whom had not fired live ammunition in the previous year due to the sanctions then in operation and made no hits at point-blank range. Following lessons learned in Desert Storm, the Abrams and many other U.S. combat vehicles used in the conflict were fitted with Combat Identification Panels to reduce friendly fire incidents. Several Abrams tanks that were irrecoverable due to loss of mobility or other circumstances were destroyed by friendly forces, usually by other Abrams tanks, to prevent their capture. Some Abrams tanks were disabled by Iraqi infantrymen in ambushes during the invasion. Some troops employed short-range anti-tank rockets and fired at the tracks, rear and top. Other tanks were put out of action by engine fires when flammable fuel stored externally in turret racks was hit by small arms fire and spilled into the engine compartment. By March 2005, approximately 80 Abrams tanks were forced out of action by enemy attacks; 63 were shipped back to the U.S. for repairs, while 17 were damaged beyond repair with 3 of them at the beginning of 2003. Vulnerabilities exposed during urban combat in the Iraq War were addressed with the Tank Urban Survival Kit (TUSK) modifications, including armor upgrades and a gun shield, issued to some M1 Abrams tanks. It added protection in the rear and side of the tank and improved fighting ability and survival ability in urban environments. By December 2006 more than 530 Abrams tanks had been shipped back to the U.S. for repairs. In May 2008, it was reported that a U.S. M1 tank had also been damaged in Iraq by insurgent fire of a Soviet-made RPG-29 "Vampir", which uses a tandem-charge HEAT warhead to penetrate explosive reactive armor (ERA) as well as composite armor behind it. The U.S. considered the RPG-29 a high threat to armor and refused to allow the newly formed Iraqi Army to buy it, fearing that it would fall into the insurgents' hands. ### Iraqi Army service Between 2010 and 2012 the U.S. supplied 140 refurbished M1A1 Abrams tanks to Iraq. In mid-2014, they saw action when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched the June 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. During three months, about one-third of the Iraqi Army's M1 tanks had been damaged or destroyed by ISIL and some were captured by opposing forces. By December 2014, the Iraqi Army only had about 40 operational Abrams left. That month, the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of another 175 Abrams to Iraq. Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) were reported to operate M1 Abrams, and released publicity showing the tanks being transported by trucks to take part in the Battle of Mosul. It is not known whether the tanks were captured from ISIS, seized from Iraq's military, or handed over. One Iraqi-operated Abrams has been nicknamed "The Beast" after it became the lone working tank when taking back the town of Hit in April 2016, destroying enemy fighting positions and IED emplacements. In October 2017, Abrams were used by the Iraqi security forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces (also called Al-Hashd al-Shaabi) in assaults against the Kurdistan Regional Government Peshmerga in the town of Altun Kupri (also called Prde). It was claimed by Kurdish commanders that at least one Abrams was destroyed by the Peshmerga. ### War in Afghanistan Tanks may have limited utility in Afghanistan due to the mountainous terrain, although Canada and Denmark deployed Leopard 1 and 2 MBTs that were specially modified to operate in the relatively flat and arid conditions of southwestern Afghanistan. In late 2010, at the request of Regional Command Southwest, the U.S. Marine Corps deployed a small detachment of 14 M1A1 Abrams tanks from Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Forward), to southern Afghanistan in support of operations in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. ### 2015 Yemen Civil War After the start of the Saudi Arabian intervention in Yemen during the 2015 Yemeni Civil War, Saudi Arabian M1A2 MBTs were deployed near the Saudi Arabian/Yemeni border. In August 2016, the U.S. approved a deal to sell up to 153 more Abrams tanks to Saudi Arabia, including 20 "battle damage replacements", suggesting that some Saudi Arabian Abrams had been destroyed or severely damaged in combat in Yemen. ### Russo-Ukrainian War #### 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 January 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the US would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, stating that this was intended to "enhance the Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory and achieve its strategic objectives" and was "not an offensive threat to Russia." The plan to transfer the tanks to Ukraine was approved as part of a larger support package. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh specified that the tanks would be the M1A2 variant; however, because they were not available in excess in U.S. stocks, they would be purchased through Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and could take up to two years to manufacture and deliver. She also acknowledged the challenges of training Ukrainian tank crews and maintaining the tanks in Ukraine. In March 2023 the Pentagon announced that, in order to expedite delivery, older M1A1 variants would be pulled from Army stocks and refurbished for delivery by the fall. This change would also ensure deliveries to US allies of new M1A2s would not be disrupted. ### Production shutdown The U.S. Army planned to end production at the Lima Army Tank Plant from 2013 to 2016 in an effort to save over $1 billion; it would be restarted in 2017 to upgrade existing tanks. General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), which operates the factory, opposed the move, arguing that suspension of operations would increase long-term costs and reduce flexibility. Specifically, GDLS estimated that closing the plant would cost $380 million and restarting production would cost $1.3 billion. By August 2013, Congress had allocated $181 million for buying parts and upgrading Abrams systems to mitigate industrial base risks and sustain development and production capability. Congress and General Dynamics were criticized for redirecting money to keep production lines open and accused of "forcing the Army to buy tanks it didn't need." General Dynamics asserted that a four-year shutdown would cost $1.1–1.6 billion to reopen the line, depending on the length of the shutdown, whether machinery would be kept operating, and whether the plant's components would be completely removed. They contended that the move was to upgrade Army National Guard units to expand a "pure fleet" and maintain production of identified "irreplaceable" subcomponents. A prolonged shutdown could cause their makers to lose their ability to produce them and foreign tank sales were not guaranteed to keep production lines open. There is still risk of production gaps even with production extended through 2015. With funds awarded before recapitalization is needed, budgetary pressures may push planned new upgrades for the Abrams from 2017 to 2019. In December 2014, Congress again allocated $120 million, against the wishes of the Army, for Abrams upgrades including improving gas mileage by integrating an auxiliary power unit (APU) to decrease idle time fuel consumption and upgrading the tank's sights and sensors. In late 2016, tank production and refurbishment had fallen to a rate of one per month with fewer than 100 workers on site. In 2017, the Trump administration ordered military production to increase, including Abrams production and employment. In 2018, it was reported that the Army had ordered 135 tanks re-built to new standards, with employment at over 500 workers and expected to rise to 1,000. ### Future plans During the 1980s and 1990s, the Block III main battle tank from the Armored Systems Modernization (ASM) program was expected to succeed the M1 Abrams family in the 1990s. The design had an unmanned turret with a 140 mm main gun, as well as improved protection. The end of Cold War hostilities caused the end of the program. The tracked M8 Armored Gun System was conceived as a possible supplement for the Abrams in U.S. service for low-intensity conflict in the early 1990s. Prototypes were made but the program was canceled. The eight-wheeled M1128 Mobile Gun System was designed to supplement the Abrams in U.S. service for low-intensity conflicts. It has been introduced into service and serves with Stryker brigades. The Future Combat Systems XM1202 Mounted Combat System was to replace the Abrams in U.S. Army service and was in development when funding for the program was cut from the DoD's budget in 2010[*clarification needed*]. Engineering Change Proposal 1 is a two-part upgrade process. ECP1A adds space, weight, and power improvements and active protection against improvised explosive devices. Nine ECP1A prototypes have been produced as of October 2014. ECP1B, which will begin development in 2015, may include sensor upgrades and the convergence of several tank round capabilities into a multi-purpose round. In 2011 the Army anticipated that the remaining M1A1 fleet will remain in U.S. service until at least 2021, and the M1A2 to beyond 2050. The United States Army National Guard will continue using M1A1s for a lengthier, undetermined period. The Marine Corps pursued a force restructuring plan named Force Design 2030. Under this program, all US Marine tank battalions were deactivated and its M1A1 tanks transferred to the Army by the end of 2021. The U.S. Army is evaluating a replacement for the M1 Abrams as part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) program, notionally known as the Decisive Lethality Platform (DLP). Design ------ ### Countermeasures #### Camouflage Earlier U.S. military vehicles, used from World War I through the Vietnam War, used a scheme of "olive drab", often with large white stars. Prototypes, early production M1 (105 mm gun) and M1-IP models switched to a flat forest green paint scheme. The large white insignia stars have also transitioned to much smaller black markings. Some units painted their M1s with the older Mobility Equipment Research and Design Command (MERDC) 4-color paint scheme but the turn-in requirements for these tanks required repainting them to overall forest green. Therefore, even though a large number of the base model M1s were camouflaged in the field, few or none exist today. M1A1s came from the factory with the NATO three color camouflage Black/Med-Green/Dark-Brown Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) paint jobs. Today, M1A1s are given the NATO three color paint job during rebuilds. M1s and M1A1s deployed to Operation Desert Storm were hastily painted desert tan. Some, but not all, of these tanks were re-painted to their "authorized" paint scheme. M1A2s built for Middle Eastern countries were painted in desert tan. Replacement parts (roadwheels, armor skirt panels, drive sprockets, etc.) are painted olive green, which can sometimes lead to vehicles with a patchwork of green and desert tan parts. Australian M1A1s were desert tan when delivered but have undergone a transition to the Australian Army vehicle standard 'Disruptive Pattern Camouflage'; a scheme that consists of black, olive drab, and brown.[*self-published source?*] The U.S. Army can equip its Abrams tanks with the Saab Barracuda camouflage system, which provides concealment against visual, infrared, thermal infrared, and broad-band radar detection. #### Concealment The turret is fitted with two six-barreled M250 smoke grenade launchers (USMC M1A1s used an eight-barreled version), with one on each side. When deployed, the grenades airburst, creating a thick smoke that blocks both visual and thermal imaging. The engine is also equipped with a smoke generator that is triggered by the driver. When activated, fuel is sprayed into the hot turbine exhaust, creating the thick smoke. Due to a risk of fires however, this system is sometimes disabled. #### Armor In July 1973, representatives from Chrysler and General Motors traveled to the United Kingdom, and were escorted by personnel from the Ballistic Research Laboratory and XM1 Project Manager Major General Robert J. Baer to witness the progress of British developed Chobham armor. They observed the manufacturing processes required for the production of Chobham armor, which was an arrangement of metal plates, ceramic blocks and open space; and saw a proposed design for a new British vehicle utilizing it. HEAT and sabot rounds enter the beginning layers of armor but are unable to penetrate the crew compartment. Ceramics have the ability to absorb a great deal of heat, and can blunt physical blows by cracking and deflecting the force. The remaining hot gasses and metal shrapnel spread out or settle in empty air pockets. Both contractors reevaluated their proposed armor configurations based upon the newly obtained data. This led to major changes in the General Motors XM1, the most prominent of which is the turret front changing from vertical to sloped armor. The Chrysler XM1 on the other hand retained its basic shape although a number of changes were made. The Ballistic Research Laboratory had to develop new armor combinations in order to accommodate the changes made by the contractors. Similar to most other main battle tanks, the M1 Abrams feature composite armor only on the frontal aspect of the hull. However, the Abrams' turret features composite armoring across both the front and the sides. In addition, the side skirts of the frontal half of the hull are also made of composite, providing superior ballistic protection against chemical energy munitions such as HEAT rounds. The composition of the Abrams' composite armor consists of sandwiched plates of non-explosive reactive armor (NERA) between conventional steel plates. The NERA plates feature elasticity, allowing them to flex and distort upon perforation, disrupting the penetrating jets of shaped charges and providing more material and space for a kinetic round to pass through, thus providing increased protection compared to conventional steel armor of similar weight. For the M1 Abrams base model, Steven Zaloga estimates the frontal armor at 350 mm vs APFSDS and 700 mm vs HEAT warhead in the book, *M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank 1982–1992* (1993). In *M1 Abrams vs T-72 Ural* (2009), he uses Soviet estimates of 470 mm vs APFSDS and 650 mm vs HEAT for the base model Abrams. He also gives the Soviet estimates for the M1A1, 600 mm vs APFSDS, and 700 mm vs HEAT. Armor protection was improved by implementing a new special armor incorporating depleted uranium and other undisclosed materials and layouts. This was introduced into the M1A1 production starting October 1988. This new armor increased effective armor particularly against kinetic energy rounds but at the expense of adding considerable weight to the tank, as depleted uranium is 1.7 times denser than lead. The first M1A1 tanks to receive this upgrade were tanks stationed in Germany. US-based tank battalions participating in Operation Desert Storm received an emergency program to upgrade their tanks with depleted uranium armor immediately before the onset of the campaign. M1A2 tanks uniformly incorporate depleted uranium armor, and all M1A1 tanks in active service have been upgraded to this standard as well. This variant was designated as the M1A1HA (HA for Heavy Armor). The M1A1 AIM, M1A2 SEP and all subsequent Abrams models feature depleted uranium in both the hull and turret armor. Each Abrams variant after the M1A1 have been equipped with depleted uranium armor of different generations. The M1A1HA uses first generation armor, while the M1A2 and M1A1HC use second generation depleted uranium. The M1A2 SEP variants have been equipped with third generation depleted uranium armor combined with a graphite coating. The M1A2C also features increased physical line-of-sight turret armor. For the M1A1HA, Zaloga gives a frontal armor estimate of 600 mm vs APFSDS and 1300 mm vs HEAT in *M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank 1982–1992*, nearly double the original protection of the Abrams. In *M1 Abrams vs T-72 Ural*, he uses different estimates of 600 mm vs APFSDS and 700 mm vs HEAT for the front hull and 800 mm vs APFSDS and 1300 mm vs HEAT for the front of the turret. The protection of M1A2 SEP is a frontal turret armor estimate of 940–960 mm vs APFSDS and 1,320–1,620 vs HEAT, glacis estimate of 560–590 mm vs APFSDS and 510–1,050 vs HEAT, and lower front hull estimate of 580–650 mm vs APFSDS and 800–970 vs HEAT. The M1A2 SEPV3 increased the LOS thickness of the turret and hull front armor; total armor protection from this increase is not known. In 1998, a program was begun to incorporate improved turret side armor into the M1A2. This was intended to offer better protection against rocket-propelled grenades more modern than the baseline RPG-7. These kits were installed on about 325 older M1A2 tanks in 2001–2009 and it was also included in upgraded tanks. The Abrams may also be fitted with explosive reactive armor over the track skirts if needed (such as the Tank Urban Survival Kit) and slat armor over the rear of the tank and rear fuel cells to protect against ATGMs. Protection against spalling is provided by a kevlar liner. #### Damage control The tank has a halon firefighting system to automatically extinguish fires in the crew compartment. The engine compartment has a firefighting system that is engaged by pulling a T-handle located on the left side of the hull. The Halon gas can be dangerous to the crew. However, the toxicity of Halon 1301 gas at 7% concentration is much lower than the combustion products produced by fire in the crew compartment, and CO2 dump would be lethal to the crew. The crew compartment also contains small hand-held fire extinguishers. Fuel and ammunition are stored in armored compartments with blowout panels intended to protect the crew from the risk of the tank's own ammunition cooking off (exploding) if the tank is damaged. The main gun's ammunition is stored in the rear section of the turret, with blast doors that open under power by sliding sideways only to remove a round for firing, then automatically close. Doctrine mandates that the ammunition door must be closed before arming the main gun. #### Tank Urban Survival Kit The **Tank Urban Survival Kit** (TUSK) is a series of improvements to the M1 Abrams intended to improve fighting ability in urban environments. Historically, urban and other close battlefields have been poor places for tanks to fight. A tank's front armor is much stronger than that on the sides, top, or rear. In an urban environment, attacks can come from any direction, and attackers can get close enough to reliably hit weak points in the tank's armor or gain sufficient elevation to hit the top armor. Armor upgrades include reactive armor on the sides of the tank and slat armor (similar to that on the Stryker) on the rear to protect against rocket-propelled grenades and other shaped charge warheads. A Transparent Armor Gun Shield and a thermal sight system are added to the loader's top-mounted M240B 7.62 mm machine gun, and a Kongsberg Gruppen Remote Weapon Turret carrying a 12.7 mm (.50 in) caliber machine gun (again similar to that used on the Stryker) is in place of the tank commander's original 12.7 mm (.50 in) caliber machine gun mount, wherein the commander had to expose himself to fire the weapon manually. An exterior telephone allows supporting infantry to communicate with the tank commander. The TUSK system is a field-installable kit that allows tanks to be upgraded without needing to be recalled to a maintenance depot. While the reactive armor may not be needed in most situations, like those present in maneuver warfare, items like the rear slat armor, loader's gun shield, infantry phone (which saw use on Marine Corps M1A1s as early as 2003), and Kongsberg Remote Weapons Station for the 12.7 mm (.50 in) caliber machine gun will eventually be added to the entire M1A2 fleet. In August 2006, General Dynamics Land Systems received a U.S. Army order for 505 Tank Urban Survivability Kits (TUSK) for Abrams main battle tanks supporting operations in Iraq, under a US$45 million contract. Deliveries were expected to be completed by April 2009. Under a separate order, the U.S. Army awarded General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products (GDATP) US$30 million to produce reactive armor kits to equip M1A2s. The reactive tiles for the M1 will be locally produced at GDATP's Burlington Technology Center. Tiles will be produced at the company's reactive armor facility in Stone County Operations, McHenry, Mississippi. In December 2006, the U.S. Army added Counter Improvised Explosive Device enhancements to the M1A1 and M1A2 TUSK, awarding GDLS $11.3 million contract, part of the $59 million package mentioned above. In December, GDLS also received an order, amounting to around 40% of a US$48 million order, for loader's thermal weapon sights being part of the TUSK system improvements for the M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams Tanks. #### Active protection system In addition to the armor, some USMC Abrams tanks[*needs update*] were equipped with a Softkill Active protection system, the AN/VLQ-6 Missile Countermeasure Device (MCD) that can impede the function of guidance systems of some semi-active control line-of-sight (SACLOS) wire- and radio guided anti-tank missiles (such as the Russian 9K114 Shturm) and infrared homing missiles. The MCD works by emitting a massive, condensed infrared signal to confuse the infrared homing seeker of an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). However, the drawback to the system is that the ATGM is not destroyed, it is merely directed away from its intended target, leaving the missile to detonate elsewhere. This device is mounted on the turret roof in front of the loader's hatch, and can lead some people to mistake Abrams tanks fitted with these devices for the M1A2 version, since the Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer on the latter is mounted in the same place, though the MCD is box-shaped and fixed in place as opposed to cylindrical and rotating like the CITV. In 2016, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps began testing out the Israeli Trophy active protection system to protect their Abrams tanks from modern RPG and ATGM threats by either jamming (with ATGMs) or firing small rounds to deflect incoming projectiles. The Army planned to field a brigade of over 80 tanks equipped with Trophy to Europe in 2020. It is planned for up to 261 Abrams to be upgraded with the system, enough for four brigades. In June 2018, the Army awarded Leonardo DRS, U.S. partner to Trophy's designer Rafael, a $193 million contract to deliver the system in support of M1 Abrams "immediate operational requirements". U.S. Army M1A2 SEP V2 Abrams tanks deployed to Germany in July 2020 fitted with Trophy systems. Deliveries to equip four tank brigades were completed in January 2021. ### Armament #### Primary ##### M68A1 rifled gun The main armament of the original model M1 and M1IP was the M68A1 105 mm rifled tank gun firing a variety of APFSDS, HEAT, high explosive, white phosphorus rounds and an anti-personnel (multiple flechette) round. This gun used a license-made tube of the British Royal Ordnance L7 gun together with the vertical sliding breech block and other parts of the U.S. T254E2 prototype gun. However, it proved to be inadequate; a cannon with lethality beyond the 1.9-mile (3 km) range was needed to combat newer armor technologies. To attain that lethality, the projectile diameter needed to be increased. The tank was able to carry 55 105 mm rounds, with 44 stored in the turret blow-out compartment and the rest in hull stowage. ##### M256 smoothbore gun The main armament of the M1A1 and M1A2 is the M256 120 mm smoothbore gun, designed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany, manufactured under license in the U.S. by Watervliet Arsenal, New York. The M256 is an improved variant of the Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44 gun carried on the German Leopard 2 on all variants up to the Leopard 2A5, the difference being in thickness and chamber pressure. Leopard 2A6 replaced the L/44 barrel with a longer L/55. Due to the increased caliber, only 40 or 42 rounds are able to be stored depending on if the tank is an A1 or A2 model. * Elevation: −9 to +20 degree The M256 fires a variety of rounds. The primary APFSDS round of the Abrams is the depleted uranium M829 round, of which four variants have been designed. M829A1, known as the "Silver Bullet", saw widespread service in the Gulf War, where it proved itself against Iraqi armor such as the T-72. The M829A2 APFSDS round was developed specifically as an immediate solution to address the improved protection of a Russian T-72, T-80U or T-90 main battle tank equipped with Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armor (ERA). Later, the M829A3 round was introduced to improve its effectiveness against next generation ERA equipped tanks, through usage of a multi-material penetrator and increased penetrator diameter that can resist the shear effect of K-5 type ERA. Development of the M829 series is continuing with the M829A4 currently entering production, featuring advanced technology such as data-link capability. The Abrams also fires HEAT warhead shaped charge rounds such as the M830, the latest version of which (M830A1) incorporates a sophisticated multi-mode electronic sensing fuse and more fragmentation that allows it to be used effectively against armored vehicles, personnel, and low-flying aircraft. The Abrams uses a manual loader, who also provides additional support for maintenance, observation post/listening post (OP/LP) operations, and other tasks. The new M1028 120 mm anti-personnel canister cartridge was brought into service early for use in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It contains 1,098 3⁄8-inch (9.5 mm) tungsten balls that spread from the muzzle to produce a shotgun effect lethal out to 600 meters (2,000 ft). The tungsten balls can be used to clear enemy dismounts, break up hasty ambush sites in urban areas, clear defiles, stop infantry attacks and counter-attacks and support friendly infantry assaults by providing covering fire. The canister round is also a highly effective breaching round and can level cinder block walls and knock man-sized holes in reinforced concrete walls for infantry raids at distances up to 75 meters (246 ft). Also in use is the M908 obstacle-reduction round. It is designed to destroy obstacles and barriers. The round is a modified M830A1 with the front fuse replaced by a steel nose to penetrate into the obstacle before detonation. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) conducted a thermal analysis of the M256 from 2002 to 2003 to evaluate the potential of using a hybrid barrel system that would allow for multiple weapon systems such as the XM1111 Mid-Range munition, airburst rounds, or XM1147. The test concluded that mesh density (number of elements per unit area) impacts accuracy of the M256 and specific densities would be needed for each weapon system. In 2013 the Army was developing a new round to replace the M830/M830A1, M1028, and M908. Called the Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) round, it will have point detonation, delay, and airburst modes through an ammunition data-link and a multi-mode, programmable fuse in a single munition. Having one round that does the job of four would simplify logistics and be able to be used on a variety of targets. The AMP is to be effective against bunkers, infantry, light armor, and obstacles out to 500 meters, and will be able to breach reinforced concrete walls and defeat ATGM teams from 500 to 2,000 meters. Orbital ATK was awarded a contract to begin the first phase of development for the AMP XM1147 High-Explosive Multi-Purpose with Tracer cartridge in October 2015. In addition to these, the XM1111 (Mid-Range-Munition Chemical Energy) was also in development. The XM1111 was a guided munition using a dual-mode seeker that combined imaging-infrared and semi-active laser guidance. The MRM-CE was selected over the competing MRM-KE, which used a rocket-assisted kinetic energy penetrator. The CE variant was chosen due to its better effects against secondary targets, providing a more versatile weapon. The Army hoped to achieve IOC with the XM1111 by 2013. However, the Mid-Range Munition was cancelled in 2009 along with Future Combat Systems. #### Secondary The Abrams tank has three machine guns, with an optional fourth: 1. A .50 cal. (12.7 mm) M2HB machine gun in front of the commander's hatch. On the M1 and M1A1, this gun is mounted on the Commander's Weapons Station. This allows the weapon to be aimed and fired from within the tank. Normal combat loadout for the M1A1 is a single 100-round box of ammo at the weapon, and another 900 rounds carried. The later M1A2 variant had a "flex" mount that required the tank commander to expose his or her upper torso in order to fire the weapon. In urban environments in Iraq this was found to be unsafe. With the Common Remote Operated Weapons System (CROWS) add-on kit, an M2A1 .50 Caliber Machine gun, M240, or M249 SAW can be mounted on a CROWS remote weapons platform (similar to the Protector M151 remote weapon station used on the Stryker family of vehicles). Current variants of the Tank Urban Survival Kit (TUSK) on the M1A2 have forgone this, instead adding transparent gun shields to the commander's weapon station. The upgrade variant called the M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management (AIM) equips the .50 caliber gun with a thermal sight for accurate night and other low-visibility shooting. 2. A 7.62 mm M240 machine gun in front of the loader's hatch on a skate mount (seen at right). Some of these were fitted with gun shields during the Iraq War, as well as night-vision scopes for low-visibility engagements and firing. This gun can be moved to the TC's position if the M2 .50 cal is damaged. 3. A second 7.62 mm M240 machine gun in a coaxial mount (i.e., it points at the same targets as the main gun) to the right of the main gun. The coaxial MG is aimed and fired with the same computerized firing control system used for the main gun. On earlier M1 and M1A1s 3000 rounds are carried, all linked together and ready to fire. This was reduced slightly in later models to make room for new system electronics. A typical 7.62mm combat loadout is between 10,000 and 14,000 rounds carried on each tank. 4. (Optional) A second coaxial .50 cal. (12.7 mm) M2HB machine gun can be mounted directly above the main gun in a remote weapons platform as part of the CSAMM (Counter Sniper Anti Material Mount) package. #### Aiming The Abrams is equipped with a ballistic fire-control computer that uses user and system-supplied data from a variety of sources to compute, display, and incorporate the three components of a ballistic solution—lead angle, ammunition type, and range to the target—to accurately fire the main gun. These three components are determined using a laser rangefinder, crosswind sensor, a pendulum static cant sensor, data concerning performance and flight characteristics of each specific type of round, tank-specific boresight alignment data, ammunition temperature, air temperature, barometric pressure, a muzzle reference system (MRS) that determines and compensates for barrel drop at the muzzle due to gravitational pull and barrel heating due to firing or sunlight, and target speed determined by tracking rate tachometers in the Gunner's or Commander's Controls Handles. All of these factors are computed into a ballistic solution and updated 30 times per second. The updated solution is displayed in the Gunner's or Tank Commander's field of view in the form of a reticle in both day and Thermal modes. The ballistic computer manipulates the turret and a complex arrangement of mirrors so that all one has to do is keep the reticle on the target and fire to achieve a hit. Proper lead and gun tube elevation are applied to the turret by the computer, greatly simplifying the job of the gunner. The fire-control system uses this data to compute a firing solution for the gunner. The ballistic solution generated ensures a hit percentage greater than 95 percent at nominal ranges. Either the commander or gunner can fire the main gun. Additionally, the Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV) on the M1A2 can be used to locate targets and pass them on for the gunner to engage while the commander scans for new targets. If the primary sight system malfunctions or is damaged, the main and coaxial weapons can be manually aimed using a telescopic scope boresighted to the main gun known as the Gunner's Auxiliary Sight (GAS). The GAS has two interchangeable reticles; one for HEAT and *multi-purpose anti-tank* (MPAT) ammunition and one for APFSDS and *Smart Target-Activated Fire and Forget* (STAFF) ammunition. Turret traverse and main gun elevation can be performed with manual handles and cranks if the *fire control* or *hydraulic* systems fail. The commander's M2HB .50 caliber machine gun on the M1 and M1A1 is aimed by a 3× magnification sight incorporated into the Commander's Weapon Station (CWS), while the M1A2 uses the machine gun's own iron sights, or a remote aiming system such as the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) system when used as part of the Tank Urban Survival Kit. The loader's M240 machine gun is aimed either with the built-in iron sights or with a thermal scope mounted on the machine gun. In late 2017, the 400 USMC M1A1 Abrams were to be upgraded with better and longer-range sights on the Abrams Integrated Display and Targeting System (AIDATS) replacing the black-and-white camera view with a color sight and day/night thermal sight, simplified handling with a single set of controls, and a slew to cue button that repositions the turret with one command. Preliminary testing showed the upgrades reduced target engagement time from six seconds to three by allowing the commander and gunner to work more closely and collaborate better on target acquisition. ### Mobility #### Tactical The M1 Abrams's powertrain consists of an AGT1500 multifuel gas turbine (originally made by Lycoming, now Honeywell) capable of 1,500 shaft horsepower (1,100 kW) at 30,000 rpm and 395 lb⋅ft (536 N⋅m) at 10,000 rpm and a six-speed (four forward, two reverse) Allison X-1100-3B Hydro-Kinetic automatic transmission. This gives it a governed top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) on paved roads, and 30 mph (48 km/h) cross-country. With the engine governor removed, speeds of around 60 mph (97 km/h) are possible on an improved surface. However, damage to the drivetrain (especially to the tracks) and an increased risk of injuries to the crew can occur at speeds above 45 mph (72 km/h). The tank was built around this engine and it is multifuel-capable, including diesel, gasoline, marine diesel and jet fuel (such as JP-4 or JP-8). In the AGT1500, jet fuel has poorer fuel economy and operating range compared to diesel. By 1989, the Army was transitioning solely to JP-8 for the M1 Abrams, part of a plan to reduce the service's logistics burden by using a single fuel for aviation and ground vehicles. However, as of 2023, the U.S. Army frequently refuels the Abrams with diesel, which is also used by the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Australian M1A1 AIM SA burns diesel fuel, since the use of JP-8 is less common in the Australian Army. The gas turbine propulsion system has proven quite reliable in practice and combat, but its high fuel consumption is a serious logistic problem. The engine burns more than 1.67 US gallons per mile (392 Liters/100 km) or (60 US gallons (230 L) per hour) when traveling cross-country and 10 US gallons (38 L) per hour when idle. The high-speed, high-temperature jet blast emitted from the rear of M1 Abrams tanks makes it hazardous for infantry to take cover or follow behind the tank in urban combat. The turbine is very quiet when compared to diesel engines of similar power output and produces sound significantly different from a contemporary diesel tank engine, reducing the audible distance of the sound, thus earning the Abrams the nickname "whispering death" during its first Reforger exercise. The Army received proposals, including two diesel options, to provide the common engine for the XM2001 Crusader and Abrams. In 2000, the Army selected the gas turbine engine LV100-5 from Honeywell and subcontractor General Electric. The new LV100-5 engine was lighter and smaller (43% fewer parts) with rapid acceleration, quieter running, and no visible exhaust. It also featured a 33% reduction in fuel consumption (50% less when idle) and near drop-in replacement. The Common Engine Program was shelved when the Crusader program was canceled. Phase 2 of Army's PROSE (Partnership for Reduced O&S Costs, Engine) program, however, called for further development of the LV100-5 and replacement of the current AGT1500 engine. An 220-pound (100 kg) Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) was designed by the Army's TARDEC, replacing an existing battery pack that weighs about 500 pounds (230 kg). It uses a high power density 330 cc (20 in3) Wankel rotary engine modified to use diesel and military grade jet fuel. The new APU will also be more fuel efficient than the tank's main engine. Testing of the first APUs began in 2009. Although the M1 tank is not designed to carry riders easily, provisions exist for the Abrams to transport troops in tank desant with the turret stabilization device switched off. A battle equipped infantry squad may ride on the rear of the tank, behind the turret. The soldiers can use ropes and equipment straps to provide handholds and snap links to secure themselves. If enemy contact is made the tank conceals itself,[*clarification needed*] allowing the infantry to dismount. #### Strategic Strategic mobility is the ability of the tanks of an armed force to arrive in a timely, cost effective, and synchronized fashion. The Abrams can be carried by a C-5 Galaxy or a C-17 Globemaster III. The limited capacity (two combat-ready tanks in a C-5, one combat-ready tank in a C-17) caused serious logistical problems when deploying the tanks for the first Gulf War, though there was enough time for 1,848 tanks to be transported by ship. The Marines transported their Marine Air-Ground Task Force Abrams tanks by combat ship. A *Wasp*-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) typically carried a platoon of four to five tanks attached to the deployed Marine Expeditionary Unit, which were then amphibiously transported to shore by Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) at one combat-ready tank per landing craft. The Abrams is also transportable by truck, namely the Oshkosh M1070 and M1000 Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS) for the US Military. The HETS can operate on highways, secondary roads, and cross-country. It accommodates the four tank crew members. The Australian Army uses customised MAN trucks to transport its Abrams. The first instance of the Abrams being airlifted directly into a battlefield occurred in October 1993. Following the Battle of Mogadishu, 18 M1 tanks were airlifted by C-5 aircraft to Somalia from Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia. Variants and upgrades --------------------- * **XM1-FSED**: Preproduction test model. Eleven Full-Scale Engineering Development test bed vehicles were produced in 1977–78. These vehicles were also called Pilot Vehicles and numbered PV-1 through PV-11. * **M1**: First production variant. Production began (at Chrysler) in 1979 and continued to 1985 (at General Dynamics) (3,273 built for the US). The first 110 tanks were low rate initial production (LRIP) models, still called XM1s, because they were built before the tank being type-classified as the M1. + **M1IP** (Improved Performance): Produced briefly in 1984 before the M1A1, contained upgrades and reconfigurations like new turret with thicker frontal armor, new turret with rear storage rack is referred as *long* turret instead of older *short* turret, armor upgraded from ~650mm line of sight thickness to ~880mm (894 built for US). * **M1A1**: Production started in 1985 and continued to 1992, pressurized NBC system, rear bustle rack for improved stowage of supplies and crew belongings, redesigned blow-off panels and M256 120 mm smoothbore cannon (4,976 built for the U.S. Army, 221 for USMC, 59 M1A1 AIM SA sold to Australia). + **M1A1HA** (Heavy Armor): Added first generation depleted uranium armor components. Some tanks were later upgraded with second generation depleted uranium armor components, and are unofficially designated M1A1HA+. + **M1A1HC** (Heavy Common): Added new second generation depleted uranium armor components, digital engine control and other small upgrades common between Army and Marine Corps tanks. + **M1A1D** (Digital): A digital upgrade for the M1A1HC, to keep up with M1A2 SEP, manufactured in quantity for only 2 battalions. + **M1A1 AIM v.1** (Abrams Integrated Management): A program whereby older units are reconditioned to zero hour conditions; and the tank is improved by adding Forward-Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) and Far Target Locate sensors, a tank-infantry phone, communications gear, including FBCB2 and Blue Force Tracking to aid in crew situational awareness, and a thermal sight for the .50 caliber machine gun. + **M1A1 AIM v.2/M1A1SA** (Situational Awareness): Upgrades similar to AIM v.1 tanks + new third generation depleted uranium armor components. Configuration for the Royal Moroccan Army, which is almost identical to the Australian variant, except exportable turret armor is installed by General Dynamics Land System to replace the DU armor. + **M1A1 FEP** (Firepower Enhancement Package): Similar upgrade to AIM v.2 for USMC tanks. + **M1A1KVT** (Krasnovian Variant Tank): M1A1s that have been visually modified to resemble Soviet-made tanks for use at the National Training Center, fitted with MILES gear and a Hoffman device. + **M1A1M**: An export variant ordered by the Iraqi Army. + **M1A1** (AIDATS upgrade): Upgrade-only variant to all USMC General Dynamics M1A1 Abrams tanks to improve the tank commander's situational awareness with an upgraded thermal sight, color day camera, and a stationary color display. * **M1A2** (Baseline): Production began in 1992 and initial operating capability achieved in 1993. (77 built for the U.S. and more than 600 M1s upgraded to M1A2, 315 for Saudi Arabia, 1,005 for Egypt, 218 for Kuwait). The M1A2 offers the tank commander an independent thermal sight and ability to, in rapid sequence, shoot at two targets without the need to acquire each one sequentially, also second generation depleted uranium armor components. + **M1A2 SEP** (System Enhancement Package): Is fitted with new, second-generation gunner's thermal sight. Has upgraded third-generation depleted uranium armor components with graphite coating (240 new built, 300 M1A2s upgraded to M1A2 SEP for the US, also unknown numbers of upgraded basic M1s and M1IPs, also 400 oldest M1A1s upgraded to M1A2 SEP). + **M1A2S** (Saudi Package): Saudi Arabian variant upgrade of the M1A2 based on M1A2 SEP, with some features, such as depleted uranium armor, believed to be missing and replaced by special armor. (442 M1A2s upgraded to M1A2S). + **M1A2 SEPv2**: Added Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station low-profile as standard, color displays, improved interfaces, a new operating system, improved crew-compartment cooling, and new second generation thermal optics. + **M1A2 SEPv3** (formerly M1A2C): Has increased power generation and distribution, better communications and networking, new Vehicle Health Management System (VHMS) and Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs) for improved maintenance, an Ammunition DataLink (ADL) to use airburst rounds, improved counter-IED armor package, Next Generation Armor Package (NGAP), and an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) under armor to run electronics while stationary instead of the engine, visually distinguishing the version by a small exhaust at the left rear. More passive ballistic protection added to the turret faces, along with new Explosive Reactive Armor mountings (Abrams Reactive Armor Tile (ARAT)) and Trophy Active Protection systems added to the turret sides. Prototypes began testing in 2015, and the first were delivered in October 2017. The first unit received them in July 2020. - **M1A2T**: Special configuration variant of the M1A2 SEPv3 reportedly being offered for sale to Taiwan as of March 2019 and approved by US State Department as of July 2019. Per DSCA statement, it is roughly equivalent to M1A2 SEPv3, except depleted uranium armor is replaced by FMS export armor. There is no mention of the Trophy APS system. The new-built tanks will be produced at Anniston Army Depot, Anniston, Alabama, and the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, Lima, Ohio. + **M1A2 SEPv4** (formerly M1A2D): The 2-12 Cavalry Regiment received the first M1A2 SEPv4 tank as of 21 January 2023[update]. It was previously under development as of 29 March 2022[update]. The Commander's Primary Sight, also known as the Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer, and Gunner's Primary Sight will be upgraded with third Gen FLIR, an improved laser rangefinder and color cameras. Additional improvements will include advanced meteorological sensors, laser warning/detection receivers, directional smoke grenade launchers and integration of the new XM1147 advanced multi-purpose [sv] (AMP) 120mm tank round. The AN/VVR-4 laser warning receiver and ROSY rapid obscurant system have been trialed by the US Army for adoption on the Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle. + **M1A2-K**: Under development, unique variant for the Kuwaiti Army, slated to replace Kuwait's current M1A2 fleet. * **Tank Test Bed** (**TTB**) Prototype TACOM project begun in 1983 with unmanned turret, three crew members in armored capsule in front of the heavy armored hull, main armament was 120mm smoothbore gun M256 linked to a Meggitt mechanical autoloader and a vertical ammunition carousel inside the turret basket. * **M1 Thumper (also known as ATAC Demonstration System)** was a single M1A1 fitted with a heavily modified turret to trial the experimental XM291 ATAC (sometimes referred to as LW120) smoothbore gun, a more powerful replacement for the M256, with double the chamber volume and muzzle energy and capable of firing either 120mm or 140mm ammunition with only a barrel change. The cannon's operation was assisted by a XM91 mechanical cassette autoloader to better handle the larger rounds, especially the two-piece 140mm types, which were too heavy for a human loader to carry. The Thumper underwent testing in 1988 and in the 1990s at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where it demonstrated precision equal to a M1A1's but with significantly higher armor penetration capability. * **Component Advanced Technology Test Bed** (**CATTB**) was a pair of highly modified prototypes conceived under the auspices of the Advanced Tank Armament Systems (ATAS) program to test several promising technologies, including a Benét Labs & Watervliet Arsenal 140mm XM291 smoothbore cannon and multiple horizontal carousels (one ready storage in the turret bustle fitted with a XM91 mechanical autoloader, and two non-ready storages inside the hull), a Cummins XAP-1000 AIPS diesel engine, new tracks, in-arm hydropneumatic suspension and the Multi-Sensor Target Acquisition System (MTAS) with its low-power, millimetric wave radar. Two prototypes (ATAS ATD I and ATD II, later rechristened CATTB Phase I and Phase II) were built out of spare M1 hulls in 1993 and 1994 and tested at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The aforementioned Thumper is often erroneously described as a de-tuned CATTB, although it predates the latter by five years. * **AbramsX** is a technology demonstrator of the M1 Abrams series by General Dynamics Land Systems. The AbramsX features a lightweight Watervliet Arsenal XM360 smoothbore gun with pepperbox muzzle brake, a Meggitt bustle autoloader, an unmanned turret (which reduces the crew to 3), a hybrid diesel-electric power pack that gives 50% more fuel efficiency, a 30 mm chain gun in a remote weapon station, active protection systems, an augmented reality suite that would increase the crews' situational awareness thanks to cameras and sensors mounted around the tank's exterior, a silent mode when running on electric power, the ability to be updated more easily than existing tanks and use loitering munitions such as the AeroVironment Switchblade as well as surveillance drones, and reduced weight for improved mobility. In October 2022, GDLS released a video showing the Technology Demonstrator and various technology tests. ### Specialized * **RV90 Armored Recovery Vehicle**: A prototype designed by General Dynamics was produced in 1988 and evaluated against the M88A1E1 later that year. The Army selected the M88A1E1, which went into production as the M88A2 Hercules. * **Air Ground Defense System** (**AGDS**): Proposed air defense variant of the Abrams equipped with dual 35 mm Bushmaster III autocannons, 12 ADATS missiles and advanced electro-optical and radar targeting systems derived from the ADATS. It was supposed to be capable of both air defense and anti-tank purposes with the ADATS MIM-146 missiles which was a dual purpose ATGM/SAM. The proposal never saw consideration and was never developed further. * **M1 Panther II**: A remote controlled mine clearing vehicle with turret removed, mine rollers on front, and the Standardized Teleoperation System. * **M104 Wolverine Heavy Assault Bridge**: GDLS produced these under contract for the U.S. Army with testing beginning in 1996. The 26 meters (85 ft) bridge was produced by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. The chassis is an Abrams converted to M1A2 standard. Forty-three units were produced when production wrapped up in 2003. * **Battle Command Vehicle**: The vehicle was visually modified to with a mock M256 gun to appear like an ordinary Abrams MBT, but featured communications equipment and workstations for battle commanders. United Defense LP constructed a prototype which the Army tested at Fort Hood in 1997. * **Visually modified** The National Training Center possesses 28 visually modified M1A1s resembling T-80s. * **M1 Grizzly** (**Breacher**): In 1997 TACOM awarded United Defense a $129 million contract to construct this vehicle based on the Abrams chassis. This was capable of clearing minefields and demolishing obstacles with its dozer blade and telescopic power-driven arm. The chassis had suspension of M1A2 standard, and was operated by a crew of two. Two vehicles were delivered to the Army in 1999. Development was halted by the following year. * **M1074 Joint Assault Bridge** (**JAB**): Bridgelayer combining a heavy "scissor" bridge with the M1 Abrams chassis. Expected to reach low-rate initial production in 2019 to replace the M60 AVLB and M104 Wolverine. * **M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle** (**ABV**): Assault variant for the USMC. Based upon the M1A1 Abrams chassis, the Assault Breacher Vehicle has a variety of systems installed, such as a full-width mine plow, two linear demolition charges, and a lane-marking system. Reactive armor has been fitted to the vehicle providing additional protection against HEAT warhead-based weapons. The turret has been replaced by a new smaller one with two MICLIC launchers at its rear. A M2HB .50 machine gun in a remote weapons station is mounted on the commander's cupola and a bank of grenade launchers are fitted to each side of the superstructure to cover the frontal arc for self-protection. *Additional equipment* * **Mine clearing plows**: An early example consisted of two mine plows and a chain with a weight running between them. The **Mine Clearing Blade System (MCBS)**: It is capable of clearing mines up to 6 feet in front of the tank's path. * **Mine-clearing rollers**: The **Tank Mounted Mine Clearing Roller** (**TMMCR**) comprises two roller banks of five discs each and a chain with a weight running between the rollers. **Self Protection Combat Roller** (SPCR) targets pressure activated explosive devices. The system comprises two 4-wheel roller gangs. An optional Magnetic System Duplicator (MSD) can be fitted to help protect the equipment from the effect of magnetic influence fused mines. * **Surface Clearance Device** (SCD): The SCD is employed to clear surface laid mines and IEDs from roads, trails and rough terrain. There are two versions of the SCD; a V-blade optimised for clearing routes and a straight angle-blade which is optimised for clearing staging and assembly areas. * **Vehicle Magnetic Signature Duplicator** (VEMSID): The VEMSID causes detonation of magnetic influence mines. The system comprises four emitter coils, two associated power boxes and an MSD Control Unit (MSDCU). * **Bulldozer attachment**. The U.S. Army tested this attachment in 1982. This was unsuccessful in part because it resulted in transmission overheating, and was never used. Specifications -------------- Abrams specifications| | M1 | M1IP | M1A1 | M1A2 | M1A2 SEP | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Produced | 1979–85 | 1984 | 1985–92 | 1992 on | 1999 on | | Length | 32.04 ft (9.77 m) | | Width | 12 ft (3.7 m) | | Height | 7.79 ft (2.37 m) | 8.0 ft (2.4 m) | | Top speed | 45 mph (72 km/h) | 41.5 mph (66.8 km/h) | 42 mph (68 km/h) | | Range | 310 mi (500 km) | 275 mi (443 km) | 288 mi (463 km) | 265 mi (426 km) | 264 mi (425 km) | | Power | 1,500 shp (1,100 kW) | | Weight | 61.4 short tons (55.7 t) | 62.8 short tons (57.0 t) | **M1A1**: 61.5 short tons (55.8 t) **M1A1SA**: 67.6 short tons (61.3 t) | 68.4 short tons (62.1 t) | **SEP v1**: 69.5 short tons (63.0 t) **SEP v2**: 71.2 short tons (64.6 t)**SEP v3**: 73.6 short tons (66.8 t) | | Main armament | 105 mm M68A1 rifled | 120 mm M256 smoothbore | | Crew | 4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver) | | Protection | Chobham armor | Longer turret for thicker composite array | **M1A1**: BRL-2 composite armor **M1A1HA/HC/M1A2**: Depleted uranium inserts in frontal turret arrays **M1A1 AIM/SA**: Depleted uranium inserts in hull and turret | Depleted uranium inserts in hull and turret Improved Chobham armor and increased turret armor Additions of ARAT ERA, slat armor | Operators --------- * Australia – Australian Army: 59 M1A1 (AIM) configuration tanks (hybrids with a mix of equipment used by U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps but without depleted uranium layers in armor). They were bought from the U.S. in 2006 and replaced the Leopard AS1 in 2007. As of 2017, the Australian Government was considering expanding the Army's fleet of Abrams to 90 tanks. In April 2021, the U.S. granted an FMS for 160 M1A1 tank hulls to produce 75 M1A2 SEPv3 tanks, 29 M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles and 18 M1074 Joint Assault Bridges, including the development of a unique armor package for the Australian Army. In January 2022, Australia committed to purchase 120 tanks and armored vehicles, including 75 M1A2s, at a total cost of $3.5 billion and to be delivered in 2024; the M1A2s will replace their 59 M1A1s. * Egypt – Egyptian Army: 1,360 M1A1 tanks assembled in Egypt for the Egyptian Army in cooperation with the U.S. * Iraq – Iraqi Army: 321 M1A1Ms Iraq was leasing 22 U.S. Army M1A1s for training in 2008. The first 11 tanks were delivered to the Iraqi Army in August 2010 with all deliveries completed by August 2011. In October 2012, it was reported that six more tanks were being delivered. Zaloga wrote that four battalions of the 9th Armoured Division were equipped with M1s by 2014: 1st and 2nd of the 34th Brigade, and 4th and 5th of the 35th Brigade. * Kuwait – Kuwaiti Army: 218 M1A2s * Poland – Polish Land Forces: Poland has bought 250 M1A2 SEP v3 tanks. Production is set to finish by 2024, and delivery in early 2025. After the donation of over 200 Polish T-72 tanks to Ukraine, an agreement between the Polish and American governments was signed to buy 116 ex-U.S. M1A1s. Delivery is expected to start in 2022. 7 loaned training tanks have already been delivered to Poland as of July 2022. The total purchase cost with support vehicles, crew training, and large supply of ammunition will cost PLN 23.3 billion (approximately $6 billion). They are to supplement 247 Leopard 2PL main battle tanks as well as older T-72 and PT-91 tanks. 28 M1A2 SEPv2 tanks were leased in July 2022 to train crews until deliveries begin. * Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabian Army: 373 Abrams tanks, To be upgraded to M1A2S configuration in Saudi Arabia. 69 more M1A2S tanks ordered on 8 January 2013, to be delivered by 31 July 2014. * Morocco – Royal Moroccan Army: 222 M1A1 SA (situational awareness) tanks ordered in 2015. Deliveries under the contract started in July 2016 with an estimated completion date of February 2018. The contract include 150 refurbished and upgraded tanks to the special armor configuration. Morocco took delivery of the first batch of M1A1SAs on 28 July 2016. A Foreign Military Sale for 162 M1A2Ms was approved by the U.S. Department of State in November 2018 and sent to Congress for final approval. * Taiwan – Republic of China Army: Taiwan considered purchasing upwards of 200 M1s, which was later reduced with the intention of acquiring 120 M1A1 tanks. The Ministry of National Defence stated in 2016 that it was discussing sales of M1A1s with the U.S. This plan was apparently canceled by October 2017; instead the Taiwanese government sought to upgrade its existing M60A3s with a 120 mm main gun and new ballistics computer. In July 2018, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense budgeted money to buy 108 M1A2s from the U.S. to replace its aging CM-11 Brave Tiger and M60A3 TTS tanks. The U.S. Department of State approved the $2.2 billion sale in July 2019. A sale of 108 M1A2Ts was later finalized. The first two were delivered to Taiwan in June 2022. * United States – United States Army and United States Marine Corps received over 8,100 M1, M1A1 and M1A2 tanks combined. + U.S. Army – 2,509 total, 750 M1A1SA, 1,605 M1A2 SEPv2, 154 M1A2 SEPv3 (some 3,700 more M1A1 and M1A2 in storage). ### Future operators * Ukraine – Ukrainian Army: 31 M1 Abrams to be delivered at an unknown date, as part of U.S. support for Ukraine. As of 21 March 2023, the US government is offering to supply Ukraine with older M1A1 Abrams tanks, "that have been upgraded very similar capability to the M1A2", as opposed to newer M1A2 tanks in an effort to speed up delivery. According to Pentagon Press Secretary US Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder these tanks are to be delivered "by Fall" 2023 instead of the original delivery time of mid-2024. These tanks are to be taken from existing M1A1 "excessive hulls" from US stocks and modernized to the required standard. The US will not send depleted uranium ammunition, something that the UK is sending. The U.S. announced that the Abrams tanks will soon be sent to Germany so that Ukrainian soldiers could start training on them. * Romania – Romanian Land Forces: On 7 March 2023, a senior defense official announced that the Romanian Land Forces is in the process of advancing a proposal for the purchase of an Abrams tank battalion. In May 2023, the decision to buy 54 used M1A2 Abrams was approved by the Parliament of Romania. The Romanian M1A2 variant is designated M1A2R. ### Former operators * United States – United States Marine Corps: In 2020 the Marine Corps announced the disbandment of its tank units, citing a pivot towards amphibious warfare by implementing Force Design 2030. All 450 of the Marine Corps M1 Abrams MBTs were transferred to the U.S. Army with withdrawal from Marine Corps service being completed in May 2021. See also -------- * List of the United States military vehicles by model number * List of main battle tanks by country * List of main battle tanks by generation * Unmanned ground vehicle

M1 Abrams

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Abrams