prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who gives out the award named after the person who argued that colonies were redundant?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Tycho Brahe Prize
The Tycho Brahe Prize is awarded by the European Astronomical Society  Inaugurated in 2008, the prize is awarded annually in recognition of the pioneering development or exploitation of European astronomical instrumentation, or major discoveries based largely on such instruments 

Tycho Brahe Prize laureates
The following persons have received the Tycho Brahe Prize:

See also
List of astronomy awards
Prizes named after people
Passage 2:
Booktrust Teenage Prize
The Booktrust Teenage Prize was an annual award given to young adult literature published in the UK  The prize was administered by Book Trust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading  The Booktrust Teenage Prize was last awarded in 2010 and is no longer running 

Honorees
Passage 3:
Adam Smith Prize
The Adam Smith Prizes are prizes currently awarded for the best overall examination performance and best dissertation in Part IIB of the Economics Tripos (the graduation examination for economics undergraduates) at the University of Cambridge  The prize - named after Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith - was originally established in 1891 and awarded triennially for the best submitted essay on a subject of the writer's choice 

List of past recipients
1894 Arthur Lyon Bowley
1897 Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence
1900 Sydney Chapman
1903 Arthur Cecil Pigou
1906 Ernest Alfred Benians
1909 John Maynard Keynes
1929 R  F  Kahn
1930 Ruth Cohen
1932 K  S  Isles
1933 B  P  Adarkar
1935 W  B  Reddaway
1936 D  G  Champernowne
1954 Amartya Sen
1956 Manmohan Singh
1974 Martin Osborne
1987 Richard J  Parkin
2000 Saugato Datta and Richard Fearon
2004 James Benford
2006 Mark Shields
2007 Stefanie Stantcheva
2008 Thomas Mckendrick and Shivam Patel
2009 Praneet Shah
2011 Ossie Akushie and Shafi Anwar
2013 Inna Grinis and Ivan Kuznetsov
2014 James Walker
2015 Ben Andrews and Jonathon Hazell
2016 Isar Bhattacharjee and Toni Oki
2017 Joel Flynn and Joseph Lee
2018 Tireni Ajilore, George Nikolakoudis, Laurence O’Brien and Sajan Shah
2019 Vlastimil Rasocha and Kuishuai Yi
2020 Neal Patel, David Lee, Liam Grant, Andrew Koh and Michael Bennett
2021 Valerie Chuang, Matthew Chen and Jack Golden

See also
List of economics awards
Passage 4:
Berwick Prize
The Berwick Prize and Senior Berwick Prize are two prizes of the London Mathematical Society awarded in alternating years in memory of William Edward Hodgson Berwick, a previous Vice-President of the LMS  Berwick left some money to be given to the society to establish two prizes  His widow Daisy May Berwick gave the society the money and the society established the prizes, with the first Senior Berwick Prize being presented in 1946 and the first Junior Berwick Prize the following year  The prizes are awarded "in recognition of an outstanding piece of mathematical research     published by the Society" in the eight years before the year of the award The Berwick Prize was known as the Junior Berwick Prize up to 1999, and was given its current name for the 2001 award 

Senior Berwick Prize winners
Source:

Berwick Prize winners
Source:

See also
Whitehead Prize
Senior Whitehead Prize
Shephard Prize
Fröhlich Prize
Naylor Prize and Lectureship
Pólya Prize (LMS)
De Morgan Medal
List of mathematics awards 
Passage 5:
Lilienfeld Prize
The Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, to remember Julius Edgar Lilienfeld, has been awarded annually, since 1989  (It was not awarded in 2002)  The purpose of the Prize is to recognize outstanding contributions to physics 

Recipients
Source: American Physical Society

External links
J  E  Lilienfeld Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics APS

See also
List of physics awards
Passage 6:
List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Swedish: Nobelpriset i kemi) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry  It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896   These prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine  As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences  The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, of the Netherlands  Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years  In 1901, van 't Hoff received 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007   The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death At least 25 laureates have received the Nobel Prize for contributions in the field of organic chemistry, more than any other field of chemistry  Two Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry, Germans Richard Kuhn (1938) and Adolf Butenandt (1939), were not allowed by their government to accept the prize  They would later receive a medal and diploma, but not the money  Frederick Sanger is one out of three laureates to be awarded the Nobel Prize twice in the same subject, in 1958 and 1980  John Bardeen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 and 1972, and Karl Barry Sharpless, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001 and 2022, are the others  Two others have won Nobel Prizes twice, one in chemistry and one in another subject: Maria Skłodowska-Curie (physics in 1903, chemistry in 1911) and Linus Pauling (chemistry in 1954, peace in 1962)  As of 2022, the prize has been awarded to 189 individuals, including eight women (Maria Skłodowska-Curie being the first to be awarded in 1911) There have been eight years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was not awarded (1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940–42)  There were also nine years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was delayed for one year  The Prize was not awarded in 1914, as the Nobel Committee for Chemistry  decided that none of that year's nominations met the necessary criteria, but was awarded to Theodore William Richards in 1915 and counted as the 1914 prize  This precedent was followed for the 1918 prize awarded to Fritz Haber in 1919, the 1920 prize awarded to Walther Nernst in 1921, the 1921 prize awarded to Frederick Soddy in 1922, the 1925 prize awarded to Richard Zsigmondy in 1926, the 1927 prize awarded to Heinrich Otto Wieland in 1928, the 1938 prize awarded to Richard Kuhn in 1939, the 1943 prize awarded to George de Hevesy in 1944, and the 1944 prize awarded to Otto Hahn in 1945 In 2020, Ioannidis et al  reported that half of the Nobel Prizes for science awarded between 1995 and 2017 were clustered in just a few disciplines within their broader fields  Atomic physics, particle physics, cell biology, and neuroscience dominated the two subjects outside chemistry, while molecular chemistry was the chief prize-winning discipline in its domain  Molecular chemists won 5 3% of all science Nobel Prizes during this period 

Laureates
See also
Timeline of chemistry
Passage 7:
Karl Jaspers Prize
The Karl Jaspers Prize or Karl-Jaspers-Preis is a German philosophy award named after Karl Jaspers and awarded by the city of Heidelberg and the University of Heidelberg  It was first awarded in 1983 "for a scientific work of international significance supported by philosophical spirit"  The Karl Jaspers Prize was initially endowed with 5,000 euros, though since 2013 this has increased to €25,000  Next to the Friedrich Nietzsche Prize it is one of the highest awards in Germany awarded exclusively for philosophical achievements 

Award winners
Passage 8:
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states  It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries  
At its height in the 19th and early 20th century, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power  By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23 per cent of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35 5 million km2 (13 7 million sq mi), 24 per cent of the Earth's total land area  As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread  At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the Sun was always shining on at least one of its territories  Today, numerous nations across the world trace their contemporary statehood to the end of British rule, including the United States, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Israel 
During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires  Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia  A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (Britain, following the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland) the dominant colonial power in North America  Britain became the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent after the East India Company's conquest of Mughal Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 
The American War of Independence resulted in Britain losing some of its oldest and most populous colonies in North America by 1783  British attention then turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific  After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century and expanded its imperial holdings  It pursued trade concessions in China and Japan, and territory in Southeast Asia   The  "Scramble for Africa" and "Great Game" also ensued  The period of relative peace (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as Pax Britannica (Latin for "British Peace")  Alongside the formal control that Britain exerted over its colonies, its dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such as Asia and Latin America  Increasing degrees of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies, some of which were formally reclassified as Dominions in the 1920s  By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britain's economic lead  Military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily on its empire  The conflict placed enormous strain on its military, financial, and manpower resources  Although the empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after the First World War, Britain was no longer the world's preeminent industrial or military power 
In the Second World War, Britain's colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia were occupied by the Empire of Japan  Despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped accelerate the decline of the empire  India, Britain's most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence in 1947 as part of a larger decolonisation movement, in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire  The Suez Crisis of 1956 confirmed Britain's decline as a global power, and the transfer of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 symbolised for many the end of the British Empire, though fourteen overseas territories that are remnants of the empire remain under British sovereignty  After independence, many former British colonies, along with most of the dominions, joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states  Fifteen of these, including the United Kingdom, retain a common monarch, currently King Charles III 

Origins (1497–1583)
The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms  In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, commissioned John Cabot to lead an expedition to discover a northwest passage to Asia via the North Atlantic  Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, and made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland  He believed he had reached Asia, and there was no attempt to found a colony  Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but did not return; it is unknown what happened to his ships No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made until well into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, during the last decades of the 16th century  In the meantime, Henry VIII's 1533 Statute in Restraint of Appeals had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire"  The Protestant Reformation turned England and Catholic Spain into implacable enemies  In 1562, Elizabeth I encouraged the privateers John Hawkins and Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa with the aim of establishing an Atlantic slave trade  This effort was rebuffed and later, as the Anglo-Spanish Wars intensified, Elizabeth I gave her blessing to further privateering raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that was returning across the Atlantic, laden with treasure from the New World  At the same time, influential writers such as Richard Hakluyt and John Dee (who was the first to use the term "British Empire") were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own empire  By this time, Spain had become the dominant power in the Americas and was exploring the Pacific Ocean, Portugal had established trading posts and forts from the coasts of Africa and Brazil to China, and France had begun to settle the Saint Lawrence River area, later to become New France Although England tended to trail behind Portugal, Spain, and France in establishing overseas colonies, it carried out its first modern colonisation, referred to as the Ulster Plantation, in 16th century Ireland by settling English Protestants in Ulster  England had already colonised part of the country following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169  Several people who helped establish the Ulster Plantations later played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as the West Country Men 

English overseas possessions (1583–1707)
In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a patent to Humphrey Gilbert for discovery and overseas exploration  That year, Gilbert sailed for the Caribbean with the intention of engaging in piracy and establishing a colony in North America, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the Atlantic  In 1583, he embarked on a second attempt  On this occasion, he formally claimed the harbour of the island of Newfoundland, although no settlers were left behind  Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England and was succeeded by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, who was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584  Later that year, Raleigh founded the Roanoke Colony on the coast of present-day North Carolina, but lack of supplies caused the colony to fail In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the Treaty of London, ending hostilities with Spain  Now at peace with its main rival, English attention shifted from preying on other nations' colonial infrastructures to the business of establishing its own overseas colonies  The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement of North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of joint-stock companies, most notably the East India Company, to administer colonies and overseas trade  This period, until the loss of the Thirteen Colonies after the American War of Independence towards the end of the 18th century, has been referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire" 

Americas, Africa and the slave trade
England's early efforts at colonisation in the Americas met with mixed success  An attempt to establish a colony in Guiana in 1604 lasted only two years and failed in its main objective to find gold deposits  Colonies on the Caribbean islands of St Lucia (1605) and Grenada (1609) rapidly folded  The first permanent English settlement in the Americas was founded in 1607 in Jamestown by Captain John Smith, and managed by the Virginia Company; the Crown took direct control of the venture in 1624, thereby founding the Colony of Virginia  Bermuda was settled and claimed by England as a result of the 1609 shipwreck of the Virginia Company's flagship, while attempts to settle Newfoundland were largely unsuccessful  In 1620, Plymouth was founded as a haven by Puritan religious separatists, later known as the Pilgrims  Fleeing from religious persecution would become the motive for many English would-be colonists to risk the arduous trans-Atlantic voyage: Maryland was established by English Roman Catholics (1634), Rhode Island (1636) as a colony tolerant of all religions and Connecticut (1639) for Congregationalists  England's North American holdings were further expanded by the annexation of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1664, following the capture of New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York  Although less financially successful than colonies in the Caribbean, these territories had large areas of good agricultural land and attracted far greater numbers of English emigrants, who preferred their temperate climates The British West Indies initially provided England's most important and lucrative colonies  Settlements were successfully established in St  Kitts (1624), Barbados (1627) and Nevis (1628), but struggled until the "Sugar Revolution" transformed the Caribbean economy in the mid-17th century  Large sugarcane plantations were first established in the 1640s on Barbados, with assistance from Dutch merchants and Sephardic Jews fleeing Portuguese Brazil  At first, sugar was grown primarily using white indentured labour, but rising costs soon led English traders to embrace the use of imported African slaves  The enormous wealth generated by slave-produced sugar made Barbados the most successful colony in the Americas, and one of the most densely populated places in the world  This boom led to the spread of sugar cultivation across the Caribbean, financed the development of non-plantation colonies in North America, and accelerated the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, particularly the triangular trade of slaves, sugar and provisions between Africa, the West Indies and Europe To ensure that the increasingly healthy profits of colonial trade remained in English hands, Parliament decreed in 1651 that only English ships would be able to ply their trade in English colonies  This led to hostilities with the United Dutch Provinces—a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars—which would eventually strengthen England's position in the Americas at the expense of the Dutch  In 1655, England annexed the island of Jamaica from the Spanish, and in 1666 succeeded in colonising the Bahamas 
In 1670, Charles II incorporated by royal charter the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in the area known as Rupert's Land, which would later form a large proportion of the Dominion of Canada  Forts and trading posts established by the HBC were frequently the subject of attacks by the French, who had established their own fur trading colony in adjacent New France Two years later, the Royal African Company was granted a monopoly on the supply of slaves to the British colonies in the Caribbean  The company would transport more slaves across the Atlantic than any other, and significantly grew England's share of the trade, from 33 per cent in 1673 to 74 per cent in 1683  The removal of this monopoly between 1688 and 1712 allowed independent British slave traders to thrive, leading to a rapid escalation in the number of slaves transported  British ships carried a third of all slaves shipped across the Atlantic—approximately 3 5 million Africans—until the abolition of the trade by Parliament in 1807 (see § Abolition of slavery)  To facilitate the shipment of slaves, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as James Island, Accra and Bunce Island  In the British Caribbean, the percentage of the population of African descent rose from 25 per cent in 1650 to around 80 per cent in 1780, and in the Thirteen Colonies from 10 per cent to 40 per cent over the same period (the majority in the southern colonies)  The transatlantic slave trade played a pervasive role in British economic life, and became a major economic mainstay for western port cities  Ships registered in Bristol, Liverpool and London were responsible for the bulk of British slave trading  For the transported, harsh and unhygienic conditions on the slaving ships and poor diets meant that the average mortality rate during the Middle Passage was one in seven 

Rivalry with other European empires
At the end of the 16th century, England and the Dutch Empire began to challenge the Portuguese Empire's monopoly of trade with Asia, forming private joint-stock companies to finance the voyages—the English, later British, East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively  The primary aim of these companies was to tap into the lucrative spice trade, an effort focused mainly on two regions: the East Indies archipelago, and an important hub in the trade network, India  There, they competed for trade supremacy with Portugal and with each other  Although England eclipsed the Netherlands as a colonial power, in the short term the Netherlands' more advanced financial system and the three Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century left it with a stronger position in Asia  Hostilities ceased after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the Dutch William of Orange ascended the English throne, bringing peace between the Dutch Republic and England  A deal between the two nations left the spice trade of the East Indies archipelago to the Netherlands and the textiles industry of India to England, but textiles soon overtook spices in terms of profitability Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant the two countries entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the conflict—waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance—left the English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military budget to the costly land war in Europe  The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philip V of Spain, a grandson of the King of France, raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their respective colonies, an unacceptable state of affairs for England and the other powers of Europe  In 1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted for thirteen years 

Scottish attempt to expand overseas
In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland, which established a settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama  Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada, and affected by malaria, the colony was abandoned two years later  The Darien scheme was a financial disaster for Scotland: a quarter of Scottish capital was lost in the enterprise  The episode had major political consequences, helping to persuade the government of the Kingdom of Scotland of the merits of turning the personal union with England into a political and economic one under the Kingdom of Great Britain established by the Acts of Union 1707 

"First" British Empire (1707–1783)
The 18th century saw the newly united Great Britain rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, with France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage  Great Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire continued the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted until 1714 and was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht  Philip V of Spain renounced his and his descendants' claim to the French throne, and Spain lost its empire in Europe  The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia, and from Spain Gibraltar and Menorca  Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean  Spain ceded the rights to the lucrative asiento (permission to sell African slaves in Spanish America) to Britain  With the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the Triangle Trade routes  In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all attacks on British shipping; however, in the 1750 Treaty of Madrid Britain lost its slave-trading rights in Latin America In the East Indies, British and Dutch merchants continued to compete in spices and textiles  With textiles becoming the larger trade, by 1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the Dutch  During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent, as the English East India Company and its French counterpart, struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the Mughal Empire  The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India  France was left control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, ending French hopes of controlling India  In the following decades the British East India Company gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the threat of force from the Presidency Armies, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys, led by British officers  The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven Years' War (1756–1763) involving France, Britain, and the other major European powers The signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 had important consequences for the future of the British Empire  In North America, France's future as a colonial power effectively ended with the recognition of British claims to Rupert's Land, and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and Louisiana to Spain  Spain ceded Florida to Britain  Along with its victory over France in India, the Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's most powerful maritime power 

Loss of the Thirteen American Colonies
During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent  This was summarised at the time by the colonists' slogan "No taxation without representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen  The American Revolution began with a rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government  In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775  The following year, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence proclaiming the colonies' sovereignty from the British Empire as the new United States of America  The entry of French and Spanish forces into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms  American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783 The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time Britain's most populous overseas possession, is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa  Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal  The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence  The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784  The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated again during the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain tried to cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy  The United States Congress declared war, the War of 1812, and invaded Canadian territory  In response, Britain invaded the US, but the pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States 

Rise of the "Second" British Empire (1783–1815)
Exploration of the Pacific
Since 1718, transportation to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year  Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government turned to Australia  The coast of Australia had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch in 1606, but there was no attempt to colonise it  In 1770 James Cook charted the eastern coast while on a scientific voyage, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it New South Wales  In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788  Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation  Indigenous Australians were considered too uncivilised to require treaties, and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples  Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to Tasmania until 1853 and to Western Australia until 1868  The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold, mainly because of the Victorian gold rush, making its capital Melbourne for a time the richest city in the world During his voyage, Cook visited New Zealand, known to Europeans due to the 1642 voyage of the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman  Cook claimed both the North and the South islands for the British crown in 1769 and 1770 respectively  Initially, interaction between the indigenous Maori population and European settlers was limited to the trading of goods  European settlement increased through the early decades of the 19th century, with many trading stations being established, especially in the North  In 1839, the New Zealand Company announced plans to buy large tracts of land and establish colonies in New Zealand  On 6 February 1840, Captain William Hobson and around 40 Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi which is considered to be New Zealand's founding document, despite differing interpretations of the Maori and English versions of the text being the cause of ongoing dispute The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific  Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area, culminating in the Nootka Crisis in 1789  Both sides mobilised for war, but when France refused to support Spain it was forced to back down, leading to the Nootka Convention  The outcome was a humiliation for Spain, which practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast  This opened the way to British expansion in the area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a naval expedition led by George Vancouver which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around Vancouver Island  On land, expeditions sought to discover a river route to the Pacific for the extension of the North American fur trade  Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company led the first, starting out in 1792, and a year a later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the Rio Grande, reaching the ocean near present-day Bella Coola  This preceded the Lewis and Clark Expedition by twelve years  Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, John Finlay, founded the first permanent European settlement in British Columbia, Fort St  John  The North West Company sought further exploration and backed expeditions by David Thompson, starting in 1797, and later by Simon Fraser  These pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast, expanding British North America westward 

Wars with France
Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations  It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was at risk: Napoleon threatened to invade Britain itself, just as his armies had overrun many countries of continental Europe The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win  French ports were blockaded by the Royal Navy, which won a decisive victory over a French Imperial Navy-Spanish Navy fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805  Overseas colonies were attacked and occupied, including those of the Netherlands, which was annexed by Napoleon in 1810  France was finally defeated by a coalition of European armies in 1815  Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the Ionian Islands, Malta (which it had occupied in 1798), Mauritius, St Lucia, the Seychelles, and Tobago; Spain ceded Trinidad; the Netherlands ceded Guyana, Ceylon and the Cape Colony, while the Danish ceded Heligoland  Britain returned Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Réunion to France; Menorca to Spain; Danish West Indies to Denmark and Java and Suriname to the Netherlands 

Abolition of slavery
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, goods produced by slavery became less important to the British economy  Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular slave rebellions  With support from the British abolitionist movement, Parliament enacted the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the empire  In 1808, Sierra Leone Colony was designated an official British colony for freed slaves  Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the West India Committee decline  The Slavery Abolition Act, passed the following year, abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834, finally bringing the empire into line with the law in the UK (with the exception of the territories administered by the East India Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844)  Under the Act, slaves were granted full emancipation after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship"  Facing further opposition from abolitionists, the apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838  The British government compensated slave-owners 

Britain's imperial century (1815–1914)
Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, around 10 million sq mi (26 million km2) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire  Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than Russia in Central Asia  Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as the Pax Britannica, and a foreign policy of "splendid isolation"  Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, Britain's dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many countries, such as China, Argentina and Siam, which has been described by some historians as an "Informal Empire" 

British imperial strength was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph, new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the empire  By 1902, the British Empire was linked together by a network of telegraph cables, called the All Red Line 

East India Company rule and the British Raj in India
The East India Company drove the expansion of the British Empire in Asia  The company's army had first joined forces with the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War, and the two continued to co-operate in arenas outside India: the eviction of the French from Egypt (1799), the capture of Java from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of Penang Island (1786), Singapore (1819) and Malacca (1824), and the defeat of Burma (1826) From its base in India, the company had been engaged in an increasingly profitable opium export trade to Qing China since the 1730s  This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by China in 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China  In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities at Canton of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the First Opium War, and resulted in the seizure by Britain of Hong Kong Island, at that time a minor settlement, and other Treaty Ports including Shanghai During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British Crown began to assume an increasingly large role in the affairs of the company  A series of Acts of Parliament were passed, including the Regulating Act of 1773, Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1813 which regulated the company's affairs and established the sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired  The company's eventual end was precipitated by the Indian Rebellion in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, Indian troops under British officers and discipline  The rebellion took six months to suppress, with heavy loss of life on both sides  The following year the British government dissolved the company and assumed direct control over India through the Government of India Act 1858, establishing the British Raj, where an appointed governor-general administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India  India became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source of Britain's strength A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to widespread famines on the subcontinent in which it is estimated that over 15 million people died  The East India Company had failed to implement any coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule  Later, under direct British rule, commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to have an effect 

Rivalry with Russia
During the 19th century, Britain and the Russian Empire vied to fill the power vacuums that had been left by the declining Ottoman Empire, Qajar dynasty and Qing dynasty  This rivalry in Central Asia came to be known as the "Great Game"  As far as Britain was concerned, defeats inflicted by Russia on Persia and Turkey demonstrated its imperial ambitions and capabilities and stoked fears in Britain of an overland invasion of India  In 1839, Britain moved to pre-empt this by invading Afghanistan, but the First Anglo-Afghan War was a disaster for Britain When Russia invaded the Ottoman Balkans in 1853, fears of Russian dominance in the Mediterranean and the Middle East led Britain and France to enter the war in support of the Ottoman Empire and invade the Crimean Peninsula to destroy Russian naval capabilities  The ensuing Crimean War (1854–1856), which involved new techniques of modern warfare, was the only global war fought between Britain and another imperial power during the Pax Britannica and was a resounding defeat for Russia  The situation remained unresolved in Central Asia for two more decades, with Britain annexing Baluchistan in 1876 and Russia annexing Kirghizia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan  For a while, it appeared that another war would be inevitable, but the two countries reached an agreement on their respective spheres of influence in the region in 1878 and on all outstanding matters in 1907 with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente  The destruction of the Imperial Russian Navy by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 limited its threat to the British 

Cape to Cairo
The Dutch East India Company had founded the Dutch Cape Colony on the southern tip of Africa in 1652 as a way station for its ships travelling to and from its colonies in the East Indies  Britain formally acquired the colony, and its large Afrikaner (or Boer) population in 1806, having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands during the Flanders Campaign  British immigration to the Cape Colony began to rise after 1820, and pushed thousands of Boers, resentful of British rule, northwards to found their own—mostly short-lived—independent republics, during the Great Trek of the late 1830s and early 1840s  In the process the Voortrekkers clashed repeatedly with the British, who had their own agenda with regard to colonial expansion in South Africa and to the various native African polities, including those of the Sotho people and the Zulu Kingdom  Eventually, the Boers established two republics that had a longer lifespan: the South African Republic or Transvaal Republic (1852–1877; 1881–1902) and the Orange Free State (1854–1902)  In 1902 Britain occupied both republics, concluding a treaty with the two Boer Republics following the Second Boer War (1899–1902) In 1869 the Suez Canal opened under Napoleon III, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean  Initially the Canal was opposed by the British; but once opened, its strategic value was quickly recognised and became the "jugular vein of the Empire"  In 1875, the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Isma'il Pasha's 44 per cent shareholding in the Suez Canal for £4 million (equivalent to £400 million in 2021)  Although this did not grant outright control of the strategic waterway, it did give Britain leverage  Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation in 1882   Although Britain controlled the Khedivate of Egypt into the 20th century, it was officially a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and not part of the British Empire   The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to weaken the British position, but a compromise was reached with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople, which made the Canal officially neutral territory With competitive French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in the lower Congo River region undermining orderly colonisation of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was held to regulate the competition between the European powers in what was called the "Scramble for Africa" by defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims  The scramble continued into the 1890s, and caused Britain to reconsider its decision in 1885 to withdraw from Sudan  A joint force of British and Egyptian troops defeated the Mahdist Army in 1896 and rebuffed an attempted French invasion at Fashoda in 1898  Sudan was nominally made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, but a British colony in reality British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes, pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa, to urge a "Cape to Cairo" railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral-rich south of the continent  During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned British South Africa Company, occupied and annexed territories named after him, Rhodesia 

Changing status of the white colonies
The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839 Durham Report, which proposed unification and self-government for Upper and Lower Canada, as a solution to political unrest which had erupted in armed rebellions in 1837  This began with the passing of the Act of Union in 1840, which created the Province of Canada  Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies  With the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formed into Canada, a confederation enjoying full self-government with the exception of international relations  Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the Australian colonies federating in 1901  The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the 1907 Imperial Conference The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted political campaigns for Irish home rule  Ireland had been united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the Act of Union 1800 after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and had suffered a severe famine between 1845 and 1852  Home rule was supported by the British Prime minister, William Gladstone, who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 Home Rule bill was defeated in Parliament  Although the bill, if passed, would have granted Ireland less autonomy within the UK than the Canadian provinces had within their own federation, many MPs feared that a partially independent Ireland might pose a security threat to Great Britain or mark the beginning of the break-up of the empire  A second Home Rule bill was defeated for similar reasons  A third bill was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because of the outbreak of the First World War leading to the 1916 Easter Rising 

World wars (1914–1945)
By the turn of the 20th century, fears had begun to grow in Britain that it would no longer be able to defend the metropole and the entirety of the empire while at the same time maintaining the policy of "splendid isolation"  Germany was rapidly rising as a military and industrial power and was now seen as the most likely opponent in any future war  Recognising that it was overstretched in the Pacific and threatened at home by the Imperial German Navy, Britain formed an alliance with Japan in 1902 and with its old enemies France and Russia in 1904 and 1907, respectively 

First World War
Britain's fears of war with Germany were realised in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War  Britain quickly invaded and occupied most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa  In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand occupied German New Guinea and German Samoa respectively  Plans for a post-war division of the Ottoman Empire, which had joined the war on Germany's side, were secretly drawn up by Britain and France under the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement  This agreement was not divulged to the Sharif of Mecca, who the British had been encouraging to launch an Arab revolt against their Ottoman rulers, giving the impression that Britain was supporting the creation of an independent Arab state The British declaration of war on Germany and its allies committed the colonies and Dominions, which provided invaluable military, financial and material support  Over 2 5 million men served in the armies of the Dominions, as well as many thousands of volunteers from the Crown colonies  The contributions of Australian and New Zealand troops during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire had a great impact on the national consciousness at home and marked a watershed in the transition of Australia and New Zealand from colonies to nations in their own right  The countries continue to commemorate this occasion on Anzac Day  Canadians viewed the Battle of Vimy Ridge in a similar light  The important contribution of the Dominions to the war effort was recognised in 1917 by the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George when he invited each of the Dominion Prime Ministers to join an Imperial War Cabinet to co-ordinate imperial policy Under the terms of the concluding Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919, the empire reached its greatest extent with the addition of 1 8 million sq mi (4 7 million km2) and 13 million new subjects  The colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire were distributed to the Allied powers as League of Nations mandates  Britain gained control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon and Togoland, and Tanganyika  The Dominions themselves acquired mandates of their own: the Union of South Africa gained South West Africa (modern-day Namibia), Australia gained New Guinea, and New Zealand Western Samoa  Nauru was made a combined mandate of Britain and the two Pacific Dominions 

Inter-war period
The changing world order that the war had brought about, in particular the growth of the United States and Japan as naval powers, and the rise of independence movements in India and Ireland, caused a major reassessment of British imperial policy  Forced to choose between alignment with the United States or Japan, Britain opted not to renew its Anglo-Japanese Alliance and instead signed the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, where Britain accepted naval parity with the United States  This decision was the source of much debate in Britain during the 1930s as militaristic governments took hold in Germany and Japan helped in part by the Great Depression, for it was feared that the empire could not survive a simultaneous attack by both nations  The issue of the empire's security was a serious concern in Britain, as it was vital to the British economy In 1919, the frustrations caused by delays to Irish home rule led the MPs of Sinn Féin, a pro-independence party that had won a majority of the Irish seats in the 1918 British general election, to establish an independent parliament in Dublin, at which Irish independence was declared  The Irish Republican Army simultaneously began a guerrilla war against the British administration  The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with a stalemate and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creating the Irish Free State, a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown  Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom 

A similar struggle began in India when the Government of India Act 1919 failed to satisfy the demand for independence  Concerns over communist and foreign plots following the Ghadar conspiracy ensured that war-time strictures were renewed by the Rowlatt Acts  This led to tension, particularly in the Punjab region, where repressive measures culminated in the Amritsar Massacre  In Britain, public opinion was divided over the morality of the massacre, between those who saw it as having saved India from anarchy, and those who viewed it with revulsion  The non-cooperation movement was called off in March 1922 following the Chauri Chaura incident, and discontent continued to simmer for the next 25 years In 1922, Egypt, which had been declared a British protectorate at the outbreak of the First World War, was granted formal independence, though it continued to be a British client state until 1954  British troops remained stationed in Egypt until the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in 1936, under which it was agreed that the troops would withdraw but continue to occupy and defend the Suez Canal zone  In return, Egypt was assisted in joining the League of Nations  Iraq, a British mandate since 1920, gained membership of the League in its own right after achieving independence from Britain in 1932  In Palestine, Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Arabs and increasing numbers of Jews  The Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated into the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to a limit that would be determined by the mandatory power  This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly revolted in 1936  As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s, Britain judged the support of Arabs as more important than the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish immigration and in turn triggering a Jewish insurgency The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy, independent of Britain, was recognised at the 1923 Imperial Conference  Britain's request for military assistance from the Dominions at the outbreak of the Chanak Crisis the previous year had been turned down by Canada and South Africa, and Canada had refused to be bound by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne  After pressure from the Irish Free State and South Africa, the 1926 Imperial Conference issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926, declaring the Dominions to be "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another" within a "British Commonwealth of Nations"  This declaration was given legal substance under the 1931 Statute of Westminster  The parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland were now independent of British legislative control, they could nullify British laws and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent  Newfoundland reverted to colonial status in 1933, suffering from financial difficulties during the Great Depression  In 1937 the Irish Free State introduced a republican constitution renaming itself Ireland 

Second World War
Britain's declaration of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939 included the Crown colonies and India but did not automatically commit the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa  All soon declared war on Germany  While Britain continued to regard Ireland as still within the British Commonwealth, Ireland chose to remain legally neutral throughout the war After the Fall of France in June 1940, Britain and the empire stood alone against Germany, until the German invasion of Greece on 7 April 1941  British Prime Minister Winston Churchill successfully lobbied President Franklin D  Roosevelt for military aid from the United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress to commit the country to war  In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and signed the Atlantic Charter, which included the statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected  This wording was ambiguous as to whether it referred to European countries invaded by Germany and Italy, or the peoples colonised by European nations, and would later be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements For Churchill, the entry of the United States into the war was the "greatest joy"  He felt that Britain was now assured of victory, but failed to recognise that the "many disasters, immeasurable costs and tribulations [which he knew] lay ahead" in December 1941 would have permanent consequences for the future of the empire  The manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power, including, particularly, the Fall of Singapore, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of Gibraltar  The realisation that Britain could not defend its entire empire pushed Australia and New Zealand, which now appeared threatened by Japanese forces, into closer ties with the United States and, ultimately, the 1951 ANZUS Pact  The war weakened the empire in other ways: undermining Britain's control of politics in India, inflicting long-term economic damage, and irrevocably changing geopolitics by pushing the Soviet Union and the United States to the centre of the global stage 

Decolonisation and decline (1945–1997)
Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, the effects of the conflict were profound, both at home and abroad  Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the balance of global power  Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after the negotiation of a US$4 33 billion loan from the United States, the last installment of which was repaid in 2006  At the same time, anti-colonial movements were on the rise in the colonies of European nations  The situation was complicated further by the increasing Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union  In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism  In practice, American anti-communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check  At first, British politicians believed it would be possible to maintain Britain's role as a world power at the head of a re-imagined Commonwealth, but by 1960 they were forced to recognise that there was an irresistible "wind of change" blowing  Their priorities changed to maintaining an extensive zone of British influence and ensuring that stable, non-Communist governments were established in former colonies  In this context, while other European powers such as France and Portugal waged costly and unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact, Britain generally adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies, although violence occurred in Malaya, Kenya and Palestine  Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to 5 million, 3 million of whom were in Hong Kong 

Initial disengagement
The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945 general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire: Indian independence  India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress (led by Mahatma Gandhi) and the Muslim League (led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah)—had been campaigning for independence for decades, but disagreed as to how it should be implemented  Congress favoured a unified secular Indian state, whereas the League, fearing domination by the Hindu majority, desired a separate Islamic state for Muslim-majority regions  Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later than 30 June 1948  When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947  The borders drawn by the British to broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan  Millions of Muslims crossed from India to Pakistan and Hindus vice versa, and violence between the two communities cost hundreds of thousands of lives  Burma, which had been administered as part of British India until 1937, and Sri Lanka gained their independence the following year in 1948  India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the Commonwealth, while Burma chose not to join The British Mandate in Palestine, where an Arab majority lived alongside a Jewish minority, presented the British with a similar problem to that of India  The matter was complicated by large numbers of Jewish refugees seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the Holocaust, while Arabs were opposed to the creation of a Jewish state  Frustrated by the intractability of the problem, attacks by Jewish paramilitary organisations and the increasing cost of maintaining its military presence, Britain announced in 1947 that it would withdraw in 1948 and leave the matter to the United Nations to solve  The UN General Assembly subsequently voted for a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state  It was immediately followed by the outbreak of a civil war between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, and British forces withdrew amid the fighting  The British Mandate for Palestine officially terminated at midnight on 15 May 1948 as the State of Israel declared independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, during which the territory of the former Mandate was partitioned between Israel and the surrounding Arab states  Amid the fighting, British forces continued to withdraw from Israel, with the last British troops departing from Haifa on 30 June 1948 Following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, anti-Japanese resistance movements in Malaya turned their attention towards the British, who had moved to quickly retake control of the colony, valuing it as a source of rubber and tin  The fact that the guerrillas were primarily Malaysian Chinese Communists meant that the British attempt to quell the uprising was supported by the Muslim Malay majority, on the understanding that once the insurgency had been quelled, independence would be granted  The Malayan Emergency, as it was called, began in 1948 and lasted until 1960, but by 1957, Britain felt confident enough to grant independence to the Federation of Malaya within the Commonwealth  In 1963, the 11 states of the federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo joined to form Malaysia, but in 1965 Chinese-majority Singapore was expelled from the union following tensions between the Malay and Chinese populations and became an independent city-state  Brunei, which had been a British protectorate since 1888, declined to join the union 

Suez and its aftermath
In the 1951 general election, the Conservative Party returned to power in Britain under the leadership of Winston Churchill  Churchill and the Conservatives believed that Britain's position as a world power relied on the continued existence of the empire, with the base at the Suez Canal allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle East in spite of the loss of India  Churchill could not ignore Gamal Abdul Nasser's new revolutionary government of Egypt that had taken power in 1952, and the following year it was agreed that British troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that Sudan would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to follow  Sudan was granted independence on 1 January 1956 In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal  The response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal  Eden infuriated US President Dwight D  Eisenhower by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower refused to back the invasion  Another of Eisenhower's concerns was the possibility of a wider war with the Soviet Union after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side  Eisenhower applied financial leverage by threatening to sell US reserves of the British pound and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency  Though the invasion force was militarily successful in its objectives, UN intervention and US pressure forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal of its forces, and Eden resigned The Suez Crisis very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the world stage and its end as a first-rate power, demonstrating that henceforth it could no longer act without at least the acquiescence, if not the full support, of the United States  The events at Suez wounded British national pride, leading one Member of Parliament (MP) to describe it as "Britain's Waterloo" and another to suggest that the country had become an "American satellite"  Margaret Thatcher later described the mindset she believed had befallen Britain's political leaders after Suez where they "went from believing that Britain could do anything to an almost neurotic belief that Britain could do nothing", from which Britain did not recover until the successful recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982 While the Suez Crisis caused British power in the Middle East to weaken, it did not collapse  Britain again deployed its armed forces to the region, intervening in Oman (1957), Jordan (1958) and Kuwait (1961), though on these occasions with American approval, as the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's foreign policy was to remain firmly aligned with the United States  Although Britain granted Kuwait independence in 1961, it continued to maintain a military presence in the Middle East for another decade  On 16 January 1968, a few weeks after the devaluation of the pound, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced that British Armed Forces troops would be withdrawn from major military bases East of Suez, which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from Malaysia and Singapore by the end of 1971, instead of 1975 as earlier planned  By that time over 50,000 British military personnel were still stationed in the Far East, including 30,000 in Singapore  The British granted independence to the Maldives in 1965 but continued to station a garrison there until 1976, withdrew from Aden in 1967, and granted independence to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in 1971 

Wind of change
Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town, South Africa in February 1960 where he spoke of "the wind of change blowing through this continent"  Macmillan wished to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria, and under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly  To the three colonies that had been granted independence in the 1950s—Sudan, the Gold Coast and Malaya—were added nearly ten times that number during the 1960s  Owing to the rapid pace of decolonisation during this period, the cabinet post of Secretary of State for the Colonies was abolished in 1966, along with the Colonial Office, which merged with the Commonwealth Relations Office to form the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) in October 1968 Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self-governing Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968  British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process  Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year Mau Mau uprising, in which tens of thousands of suspected rebels were interned by the colonial government in detention camps  Throughout the 1960s, the British government took a "No independence until majority rule" policy towards decolonising the empire, leading the white minority government of Southern Rhodesia to enact the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain, resulting in a civil war that lasted until the British-mediated Lancaster House Agreement of 1979  The agreement saw the British Empire temporarily re-establish the Colony of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980 as a transitionary government to a majority-rule Republic of Zimbabwe  This was the last British possession in Africa  
In Cyprus, a guerrilla war waged by the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA against British rule, was ended in 1959 by the London and Zürich Agreements, which resulted in Cyprus being granted independence in 1960  The UK retained the military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as sovereign base areas  The Mediterranean colony of Malta was amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of Malta, though the idea had been raised in 1955 of integration with Britain Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, established in 1958 in an attempt to unite the British Caribbean colonies under one government, but which collapsed following the loss of its two largest members  Jamaica attained independence in 1962, as did Trinidad and Tobago  Barbados achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, in the 1970s and 1980s, but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence  The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands and Montserrat opted to retain ties with Britain, while Guyana achieved independence in 1966  Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981  A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved British Overseas Territories in the Pacific acquired independence in the 1970s beginning with Fiji in 1970 and ending with Vanuatu in 1980  Vanuatu's independence was delayed because of political conflict between English and French-speaking communities, as the islands had been jointly administered as a condominium with France  Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu became Commonwealth realms 

End of empire
By 1981, aside from a scattering of islands and outposts, the process of decolonisation that had begun after the Second World War was largely complete  In 1982, Britain's resolve in defending its remaining overseas territories was tested when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, acting on a long-standing claim that dated back to the Spanish Empire  Britain's successful military response to retake the Falkland Islands during the ensuing Falklands War contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's status as a world power The 1980s saw Canada, Australia, and New Zealand sever their final constitutional links with Britain  Although granted legislative independence by the Statute of Westminster 1931, vestigial constitutional links had remained in place  The British Parliament retained the power to amend key Canadian constitutional statutes, meaning that effectively an act of the British Parliament was required to make certain changes to the Canadian Constitution  The British Parliament had the power to pass laws extending to Canada at Canadian request  Although no longer able to pass any laws that would apply as Australian Commonwealth law, the British Parliament retained the power to legislate for the individual Australian states  With regard to New Zealand, the British Parliament retained the power to pass legislation applying to New Zealand with the New Zealand Parliament's consent  In 1982, the last legal link between Canada and Britain was severed by the Canada Act 1982, which was passed by the British parliament, formally patriating the Canadian Constitution  The act ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution  Similarly, the Australia Act 1986 (effective 3 March 1986) severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian states, while New Zealand's Constitution Act 1986 (effective 1 January 1987) reformed the constitution of New Zealand to sever its constitutional link with Britain On 1 January 1984, Brunei, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, was granted independence  Independence had been delayed due to the opposition of the Sultan, who had preferred British protection In September 1982 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese Communist government, on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong  Under the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1860 Convention of Peking, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula had been respectively ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the majority of the colony consisted of the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in 1997  Thatcher, seeing parallels with the Falkland Islands, initially wished to hold Hong Kong and proposed British administration with Chinese sovereignty, though this was rejected by China  A deal was reached in 1984—under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China  The handover ceremony in 1997 marked for many, including King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, who was in attendance, "the end of Empire", though many British territories that are remnants of the empire still remain 

Legacy
Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles  In 1983, the British Nationality Act 1981 renamed the existing Crown Colonies as "British Dependent Territories", and in 2002 they were renamed the British Overseas Territories  Most former British colonies and protectorates are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2 2 billion people  The United Kingdom and 14 other countries, all collectively known as the Commonwealth realms, voluntarily continue to share the same person—King Charles III—as their respective head of state  These 15 nations are distinct and equal legal entities: the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu Decades, and in some cases centuries, of British rule and emigration have left their mark on the independent nations that rose from the British Empire  The empire established the use of the English language in regions around the world  Today it is the primary language of up to 460 million people and is spoken by about 1 5 billion as a first, second or foreign language  Individual and team sports developed in Britain, particularly football, cricket, lawn tennis, and golf were exported  British missionaries who travelled around the globe often in advance of soldiers and civil servants spread Protestantism (including Anglicanism) to all continents  The British Empire provided refuge for religiously persecuted continental Europeans for hundreds of years 

Political boundaries drawn by the British did not always reflect homogeneous ethnicities or religions, contributing to conflicts in formerly colonised areas  The British Empire was responsible for large migrations of peoples  Millions left the British Isles, with the founding settler colonist populations of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand coming mainly from Britain and Ireland  Tensions remain between the white settler populations of these countries and their indigenous minorities, and between white settler minorities and indigenous majorities in South Africa and Zimbabwe  Settlers in Ireland from Great Britain have left their mark in the form of divided nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland  Millions of people moved to and from British colonies, with large numbers of Overseas Indian people emigrating to other parts of the empire, such as Malaysia and Fiji, and Overseas Chinese people to Malaysia, Singapore and the Caribbean  The demographics of the United Kingdom itself were changed after the Second World War owing to immigration to Britain from its former colonies In the 19th century, innovation in Britain led to revolutionary changes in manufacturing, the development of factory systems, and the growth of transportation by railway and steamship  British colonial architecture, such as in churches, railway stations and government buildings, can be seen in many cities that were once part of the British Empire  The British choice of system of measurement, the imperial system, continues to be used in some countries in various ways  The convention of driving on the left-hand side of the road has been retained in much of the former empire The Westminster system of parliamentary democracy has served as the template for the governments for many former colonies, and English common law for legal systems  International commercial contracts are often based on English common law  The British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council still serves as the highest court of appeal for twelve former colonies Historians' approaches to understanding the British Empire are diverse and evolving  Two key sites of debate over recent decades have been the impact of post-colonial studies, which seek to critically re-evaluate the history of imperialism, and the continued relevance of historians Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, whose work greatly influenced imperial historiography during the 1950s and 1960s  In addition, differing assessments of the empire's legacy remain relevant to debates over recent history and politics, such as the Anglo-American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Britain's role and identity in the contemporary world Historians such as Caroline Elkins have argued against perceptions of the British Empire as a primarily liberalising and modernising enterprise, criticising its widespread use of violence and emergency laws to maintain power  Common criticisms of the empire include the use of detention camps in its colonies, massacres of indigenous peoples, and famine-response policies  Some scholars, including Amartya Sen, assert that British policies worsened the famines in India that killed millions during British rule  Conversely, historians such as Niall Ferguson say that the economic and institutional development the British Empire brought resulted in a net benefit to its colonies  Other historians treat its legacy as varied and ambiguous  Public attitudes towards the empire within Britain remain somewhat positive 

See also
Notes
Context 3: Passage 1:
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353  It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351  Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but during the Black Death it probably also took a secondary form, spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols, causing pneumonic plague The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic  The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history 
The origin of the Black Death is disputed  Genetic analysis points to the evolution of Yersinia pestis in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China 2,600 years ago  The immediate territorial origins of the Black Death and its outbreak remains unclear with some pointing towards Central Asia, China, the Middle East and Europe  The pandemic was reportedly first introduced to Europe during the siege of the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea by the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg in 1347  From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese ships, spreading through the Mediterranean Basin and reaching North Africa, Western Asia and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily and the Italian Peninsula  There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread person-to-person as pneumonic plague, thus explaining the quick inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague  In 2022, it was discovered that there was a sudden surge of deaths in what is today Kyrgyzstan from the Black Death in the late 1330s; when combined with genetic evidence, this implies that the initial spread may not have been due to Mongol conquests in the 14th century, as previously speculated The Black Death was the second great natural disaster to strike Europe during the Late Middle Ages (the first one being the Great Famine of 1315–1317) and is estimated to have killed 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population, as well as about one-third of the population of the Middle East  The plague might have reduced the world population from c  475 million to 350–375 million in the 14th century  There were further outbreaks throughout the Late Middle Ages and, with other contributing factors (the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages), the European population did not regain its level in 1300 until 1500  Outbreaks of the plague recurred around the world until the early 19th century 

Names
European writers contemporary with the plague described the disease in Latin as pestis or pestilentia, 'pestilence'; epidemia, 'epidemic'; mortalitas, 'mortality'  In English prior to the 18th century, the event was called the "pestilence" or "great pestilence", "the plague" or the "great death"  Subsequent to the pandemic "the furste moreyn" (first murrain) or "first pestilence" was applied, to distinguish the mid-14th century phenomenon from other infectious diseases and epidemics of plague The 1347 pandemic plague was not referred to specifically as "black" in the time of occurrence in any European language, though the expression "black death" had occasionally been applied to fatal disease beforehand  "Black death" was not used to describe the plague pandemic in English until the 1750s; the term is first attested in 1755, where it translated Danish: den sorte død, lit  'the black death'  This expression as a proper name for the pandemic had been popularized by Swedish and Danish chroniclers in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and in the 16th and 17th centuries was transferred to other languages as a calque: Icelandic: svarti dauði, German: der schwarze Tod, and French: la mort noire  Previously, most European languages had named the pandemic a variant or calque of the Latin: magna mortalitas, lit  'Great Death' The phrase 'black death' – describing Death as black – is very old  Homer used it in the Odyssey to describe the monstrous Scylla, with her mouths "full of black Death" (Ancient Greek: πλεῖοι μέλανος Θανάτοιο, romanized: pleîoi mélanos Thanátoio)  Seneca the Younger may have been the first to describe an epidemic as 'black death', (Latin: mors atra) but only in reference to the acute lethality and dark prognosis of disease  The 12th–13th century French physician Gilles de Corbeil had already used atra mors to refer to a "pestilential fever" (febris pestilentialis) in his work On the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases (De signis et symptomatibus aegritudium)  The phrase mors nigra, 'black death', was used in 1350 by Simon de Covino (or Couvin), a Belgian astronomer, in his poem "On the Judgement of the Sun at a Feast of Saturn" (De judicio Solis in convivio Saturni), which attributes the plague to an astrological conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn  His use of the phrase is not connected unambiguously with the plague pandemic of 1347 and appears to refer to the fatal outcome of disease The historian Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet wrote about the Great Pestilence in 1893 and suggested that it had been "some form of the ordinary Eastern or bubonic plague"  In 1908, Gasquet said use of the name atra mors for the 14th-century epidemic first appeared in a 1631 book on Danish history by J  I  Pontanus: "Commonly and from its effects, they called it the black death" (Vulgo & ab effectu atram mortem vocitabant) 

Previous plague epidemics
Research from 2017 suggests plague first infected humans in Europe and Asia in the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age  Research in 2018 found evidence of Yersinia pestis in an ancient Swedish tomb, which may have been associated with the "Neolithic decline" around 3000 BCE, in which European populations fell significantly  This Y  pestis may have been different from more modern types, with bubonic plague transmissible by fleas first known from Bronze Age remains near Samara The symptoms of bubonic plague are first attested in a fragment of Rufus of Ephesus preserved by Oribasius; these ancient medical authorities suggest bubonic plague had appeared in the Roman Empire before the reign of Trajan, six centuries before arriving at Pelusium in the reign of Justinian I  In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian (541–542 CE, with recurrences until 750) was Y  pestis  This is known as the first plague pandemic  In 610, the Chinese physician Chao Yuanfang described a "malignant bubo" "coming in abruptly with high fever together with the appearance of a bundle of nodes beneath the tissue " The Chinese physician Sun Simo who died in 652 also mentioned a "malignant bubo" and plague that was common in Lingnan (Guangzhou)  Ole Jørgen Benedictow believes that this indicates it was an offshoot of the first plague pandemic which made its way eastward to Chinese territory by around 600 

14th-century plague
Causes
Early theory
The most authoritative contemporary account is found in a report from the medical faculty in Paris to Philip VI of France  It blamed the heavens, in the form of a conjunction of three planets in 1345 that caused a "great pestilence in the air" (miasma theory)  Muslim religious scholars taught that the pandemic was a "martyrdom and mercy" from God, assuring the believer's place in paradise  For non-believers, it was a punishment  Some Muslim doctors cautioned against trying to prevent or treat a disease sent by God  Others adopted preventive measures and treatments for plague used by Europeans  These Muslim doctors also depended on the writings of the ancient Greeks 

Predominant modern theory
Due to climate change in Asia, rodents began to flee the dried-out grasslands to more populated areas, spreading the disease  The plague disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas, including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, North India, Uganda and the western United States Y  pestis was discovered by Alexandre Yersin, a pupil of Louis Pasteur, during an epidemic of bubonic plague in Hong Kong in 1894; Yersin also proved this bacillus was present in rodents and suggested the rat was the main vehicle of transmission  The mechanism by which Y  pestis is usually transmitted was established in 1898 by Paul-Louis Simond and was found to involve the bites of fleas whose midguts had become obstructed by replicating Y  pestis several days after feeding on an infected host  This blockage starves the fleas and drives them to aggressive feeding behaviour and attempts to clear the blockage by regurgitation, resulting in thousands of plague bacteria being flushed into the feeding site, infecting the host  The bubonic plague mechanism was also dependent on two populations of rodents: one resistant to the disease, which act as hosts, keeping the disease endemic, and a second that lacks resistance  When the second population dies, the fleas move on to other hosts, including people, thus creating a human epidemic 

DNA evidence
Definitive confirmation of the role of Y  pestis arrived in 2010 with a publication in PLOS Pathogens by Haensch et al  They assessed the presence of DNA/RNA with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques for Y  pestis from the tooth sockets in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and subsequent resurgences  The authors concluded that this new research, together with prior analyses from the south of France and Germany, "ends the debate about the cause of the Black Death, and unambiguously demonstrates that Y  pestis was the causative agent of the epidemic plague that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages"  In 2011, these results were further confirmed with genetic evidence derived from Black Death victims in the East Smithfield burial site in England  Schuenemann et al  concluded in 2011 "that the Black Death in medieval Europe was caused by a variant of Y  pestis that may no longer exist" Later in 2011, Bos et al  reported in Nature the first draft genome of Y  pestis from plague victims from the same East Smithfield cemetery and indicated that the strain that caused the Black Death is ancestral to most modern strains of Y  pestis Since this time, further genomic papers have further confirmed the phylogenetic placement of the Y  pestis strain responsible for the Black Death as both the ancestor of later plague epidemics including the third plague pandemic and as the descendant of the strain responsible for the Plague of Justinian  In addition, plague genomes from significantly earlier in prehistory have been recovered DNA taken from 25 skeletons from 14th century London have shown plague is a strain of Y  pestis almost identical to that which hit Madagascar in 2013  Further DNA evidence also proves the role of Y  Pestis and traces the source to the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan 

Alternative explanations
It is recognised that an epidemiological account of plague is as important as an identification of symptoms, but researchers are hampered by the lack of reliable statistics from this period  Most work has been done on the spread of the disease in England, and even estimates of overall population at the start vary by over 100% as no census was undertaken in England between the time of publication of the Domesday Book of 1086 and the poll tax of the year 1377  Estimates of plague victims are usually extrapolated from figures for the clergy 
Mathematical modelling is used to match the spreading patterns and the means of transmission  A research in 2018 challenged the popular hypothesis that "infected rats died, their flea parasites could have jumped from the recently dead rat hosts to humans"  It suggested an alternative model in which "the disease was spread from human fleas and body lice to other people"  The second model claims to better fit the trends of death toll because the rat-flea-human hypothesis would have produced a delayed but very high spike in deaths, which contradict historical death data Lars Walløe complains that all of these authors "take it for granted that Simond's infection model, black rat → rat flea → human, which was developed to explain the spread of plague in India, is the only way an epidemic of Yersinia pestis infection could spread", whilst pointing to several other possibilities  Similarly, Monica Green has argued that greater attention is needed to the range of (especially non-commensal) animals that might be involved in the transmission of plague Archaeologist Barney Sloane has argued that there is insufficient evidence of the extinction of numerous rats in the archaeological record of the medieval waterfront in London and that the disease spread too quickly to support the thesis that Y  pestis was spread from fleas on rats; he argues that transmission must have been person to person  This theory is supported by research in 2018 which suggested transmission was more likely by body lice and fleas during the second plague pandemic 

Summary
Although academic debate continues, no single alternative solution has achieved widespread acceptance  Many scholars arguing for Y  pestis as the major agent of the pandemic suggest that its extent and symptoms can be explained by a combination of bubonic plague with other diseases, including typhus, smallpox and respiratory infections  In addition to the bubonic infection, others point to additional septicaemic (a type of "blood poisoning") and pneumonic (an airborne plague that attacks the lungs before the rest of the body) forms of plague, which lengthen the duration of outbreaks throughout the seasons and help account for its high mortality rate and additional recorded symptoms  In 2014, Public Health England announced the results of an examination of 25 bodies exhumed in the Clerkenwell area of London, as well as of wills registered in London during the period, which supported the pneumonic hypothesis  Currently, while osteoarcheologists have conclusively verified the presence of Y  pestis bacteria in burial sites across northern Europe through examination of bones and dental pulp, no other epidemic pathogen has been discovered to bolster the alternative explanations 

Transmission
Lack of hygiene
The importance of hygiene was recognised only in the nineteenth century with the development of the germ theory of disease; until then streets were commonly filthy, with live animals of all sorts around and human parasites abounding, facilitating the spread of transmissible disease By the early fourteenth century so much filth had collected inside urban Europe that French and Italian cities were naming streets after human waste  In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde, the French word for "shit"  There were rue Merdeux, rue Merdelet, rue Merdusson, rue des Merdons and rue Merdiere—as well as a rue du Pipi Pigs, cattle, chickens, geese, goats and horses roamed the streets of medieval London and Paris  Medieval homeowners were supposed to police their housefronts, including removing animal dung, but most urbanites were as careless as William E  Cosner, a resident of the London suburb of Farringdon Without  A complaint lodged against Cosner charges that "men could not pass [by his house] for the stink [of]       horse dung and horse piss "One irate Londoner complained that the runoff from the local slaughterhouse had made his garden "stinking and putrid", while another charged that the blood from slain animals flooded nearby streets and lanes, "making a foul corruption and abominable sight to all dwelling near " In much of medieval Europe, sanitation legislation consisted of an ordinance requiring homeowners to shout, "Look out below!" three times before dumping a full chamber pot into the street Early Christians, who thought self-abnegation a cardinal virtue, considered bathing, if not a vice, then a temptation  "Who knows what impure thoughts might arise in a tub of warm water? With this danger in mind, St  Benedict declared, "To those who are well, and especially to the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted " St  Agnes took the injunction to heart and died without ever bathing 

Territorial origins
According to a team of medical geneticists led by Mark Achtman that analysed the genetic variation of the bacterium Yersinia pestis "evolved in or near China" over 2,600 years ago  Later research by a team led by Galina Eroshenko places the origins more specifically in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China  However more recent research notes that the previous sampling had a very heavy East Asian bias and that sampling since then has discovered strains of Y  pestis in the Caucasus region that were previously thought to be restricted to China  There is also no physical or specific textual evidence of the Black Death in 14th century China  As a result, China's place in the sequence of the plague's spread is still debated to this day  According to Charles Creighton, records of epidemics in 14th century China suggest nothing more than typhus and major Chinese outbreaks of epidemic disease post-date the European epidemic by several years  The earliest Chinese descriptions of the bubonic plague do not appear until the 1640s Nestorian graves dating to 1338–1339 near Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan have inscriptions referring to plague, which has led some historians and epidemiologists to think they mark the outbreak of the epidemic; this is supported by recent direct findings of Y  pestis DNA in teeth samples from graves in the area with inscriptions referring to "pestilence" as the cause of death  Epidemics killed an estimated 25 million across Asia during the fifteen years before the Black Death reached Constantinople in 1347 
The evidence does not suggest, at least at present, that these mortality crises were caused by plague  Although some scholars, including McNeill and Cao, see the 1333 outbreak as a prelude to the outbreaks in Europe from the late 1340s to the early 1350s, scholars of the Yuan and Ming periods remain skeptical about such an interpretation  Nonetheless, the remarkably high mortality rates during the Datong mortality should discourage us from rejecting the possibility of localized/regional outbreaks of plague in different parts of China, albeit differing in scale from, and unrelated to, the pandemic mortality of the Black Death  What we lack is any indication of a plague pandemic that engulfed vast territories of the Yuan Empire and later moved into western Eurasia through Central Asia 
According to John Norris, evidence from Issyk-Kul indicates a small sporadic outbreak characteristic of transmission from rodents to humans with no wide-scale impact  According to Achtman, the dating of the plague suggests that it was not carried along the Silk Road, and its widespread appearance in that region probably postdates the European outbreak  There are no records of the symptoms of the Black Death from Mongol sources or writings from travelers east of the Black Sea prior to the Crimean outbreak in 1346  Finally, the Silk Road had already been heavily disrupted before the spread of the Black Death  Western and Middle Eastern traders found it difficult to trade on the Silk Road by 1325 and impossible by 1340, making spread of the plague less likely Others still favor an origin in China or even Kurdistan, and not Central Asia  According to the theory of Chinese origin, the disease may have traveled along the Silk Road with Mongol armies and traders, or it could have arrived via ship, but this theory is still contested  It is speculated that rats aboard Zheng He's ships in the 15th century may have carried the plague to Southeast Asia, India and Africa 
Research on the Delhi Sultanate and the Yuan Dynasty shows no evidence of any serious epidemic in fourteenth-century India and no specific evidence of plague in fourteenth-century China, suggesting that the Black Death may not have reached these regions  Ole Benedictow argues that since the first clear reports of the Black Death come from Kaffa, the Black Death most likely originated in the nearby plague focus on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea 
Demographic historians estimate that China's population fell by at least 15 percent, and perhaps as much as a third, between 1340 and 1370  This population loss coincided with the Black Death that ravaged Europe and much of the Islamic world in 1347–52  However, there is a conspicuous lack of evidence for pandemic disease on the scale of the Black Death in China at this time  War and famine – and the diseases that typically accompanied them – probably were the main causes of mortality in the final decades of Mongol rule 
Monica H  Green suggests that the reason why other parts of Eurasia outside the west do not contain the same evidence of the Black Plague is because there were actually four strains of Yersinia pestis that became predominant in different parts of the world  Mongol records of illness such as food poisoning may have been referring to the Black Plague  Another theory is that the Black Death originated near Europe and cycled through the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Russia before making its way to China  Other historians such as John Norris and Ole Benedictaw believe the Black Death likely originated in Europe or the Middle East and never reached China 

European outbreak
Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via Genoese traders from their port city of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347  During a protracted siege of the city, in 1345–1346 the Mongol Golden Horde army of Jani Beg, whose mainly Tatar troops were suffering from the disease, catapulted infected corpses over the city walls of Kaffa to infect the inhabitants, though it is more likely that infected rats travelled across the siege lines to spread the epidemic to the inhabitants  As the disease took hold, Genoese traders fled across the Black Sea to Constantinople, where the disease first arrived in Europe in summer 1347 The epidemic there killed the 13-year-old son of the Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos, who wrote a description of the disease modelled on Thucydides's account of the 5th century BCE Plague of Athens, but noting the spread of the Black Death by ship between maritime cities  Nicephorus Gregoras also described in writing to Demetrios Kydones the rising death toll, the futility of medicine, and the panic of the citizens  The first outbreak in Constantinople lasted a year, but the disease recurred ten times before 1400 Carried by twelve Genoese galleys, plague arrived by ship in Sicily in October 1347; the disease spread rapidly all over the island  Galleys from Kaffa reached Genoa and Venice in January 1348, but it was the outbreak in Pisa a few weeks later that was the entry point to northern Italy  Towards the end of January, one of the galleys expelled from Italy arrived in Marseilles From Italy, the disease spread northwest across Europe, striking France, Spain (the epidemic began to wreak havoc first on the Crown of Aragon in the spring of 1348), Portugal and England by June 1348, then spread east and north through Germany, Scotland and Scandinavia from 1348 to 1350  It was introduced into Norway in 1349 when a ship landed at Askøy, then spread to Bjørgvin (modern Bergen) and Iceland  Finally, it spread to northwestern Russia in 1351  Plague was somewhat more uncommon in parts of Europe with less developed trade with their neighbours, including the majority of the Basque Country, isolated parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, and isolated Alpine villages throughout the continent According to some epidemiologists, periods of unfavourable weather decimated plague-infected rodent populations and forced their fleas onto alternative hosts, inducing plague outbreaks which often peaked in the hot summers of the Mediterranean, as well as during the cool autumn months of the southern Baltic region  Among many other culprits of plague contagiousness, malnutrition, even if distantly, also contributed to such an immense loss in European population, since it weakened immune systems 

Western Asian and North African outbreak
The disease struck various regions in the Middle East and North Africa during the pandemic, leading to serious depopulation and permanent change in both economic and social structures  As infected rodents infected new rodents, the disease spread across the region, entering also from southern Russia 
By autumn 1347, plague had reached Alexandria in Egypt, transmitted by sea from Constantinople; according to a contemporary witness, from a single merchant ship carrying slaves  By late summer 1348 it reached Cairo, capital of the Mamluk Sultanate, cultural centre of the Islamic world, and the largest city in the Mediterranean Basin; the Bahriyya child sultan an-Nasir Hasan fled and more than a third of the 600,000 residents died  The Nile was choked with corpses despite Cairo having a medieval hospital, the late 13th century bimaristan of the Qalawun complex  The historian al-Maqrizi described the abundant work for grave-diggers and practitioners of funeral rites, and plague recurred in Cairo more than fifty times over the following one and a half centuries During 1347, the disease travelled eastward to Gaza by April; by July it had reached Damascus, and in October plague had broken out in Aleppo  That year, in the territory of modern Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Palestine, the cities of Ascalon, Acre, Jerusalem, Sidon and Homs were all infected  In 1348–1349, the disease reached Antioch  The city's residents fled to the north, but most of them ended up dying during the journey  Within two years, the plague had spread throughout the Islamic world, from Arabia across North Africa  The pandemic spread westwards from Alexandria along the African coast, while in April 1348 Tunis was infected by ship from Sicily  Tunis was then under attack by an army from Morocco; this army dispersed in 1348 and brought the contagion with them to Morocco, whose epidemic may also have been seeded from the Islamic city of Almería in al-Andalus Mecca became infected in 1348 by pilgrims performing the Hajj  In 1351 or 1352, the Rasulid sultan of the Yemen, al-Mujahid Ali, was released from Mamluk captivity in Egypt and carried plague with him on his return home  During 1348, records show the city of Mosul suffered a massive epidemic, and the city of Baghdad experienced a second round of the disease 

Signs and symptoms
Bubonic plague
Symptoms of the disease include fever of 38–41 °C (100–106 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise  Left untreated, of those that contract the bubonic plague, 80 percent die within eight days Contemporary accounts of the pandemic are varied and often imprecise  The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of buboes (or gavocciolos) in the groin, neck and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened  Boccaccio's description:

In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg     From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous  As the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves 
This was followed by acute fever and vomiting of blood  Most people died two to seven days after initial infection  Freckle-like spots and rashes, which could have been caused by flea-bites, were identified as another potential sign of plague 

Pneumonic plague
Lodewijk Heyligen, whose master the Cardinal Colonna died of plague in 1348, noted a distinct form of the disease, pneumonic plague, that infected the lungs and led to respiratory problems  Symptoms include fever, cough and blood-tinged sputum  As the disease progresses, sputum becomes free-flowing and bright red  Pneumonic plague has a mortality rate of 90 to 95 percent 

Septicaemic plague
Septicaemic plague is the least common of the three forms, with a mortality rate near 100%  Symptoms are high fevers and purple skin patches (purpura due to disseminated intravascular coagulation)  In cases of pneumonic and particularly septicaemic plague, the progress of the disease is so rapid that there would often be no time for the development of the enlarged lymph nodes that were noted as buboes 

Consequences
Deaths
There are no exact figures for the death toll; the rate varied widely by locality  In urban centres, the greater the population before the outbreak, the longer the duration of the period of abnormal mortality  It killed some 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia  A study published in 2022 of pollen samples across Europe between 1250 and 1450 was used to estimate changes in agricultural output before and after the Black Death  The authors found great variability in different regions, with evidence for high mortality in areas of Scandinavia, France, western Germany, Greece and central Italy, but uninterrupted agricultural growth in central and eastern Europe, Iberia and Ireland The mortality rate of the Black Death in the 14th century was far greater than the worst 20th-century outbreaks of Y  pestis plague, which occurred in India and killed as much as 3% of the population of certain cities  The overwhelming number of deceased bodies produced by the Black Death caused the necessity of mass burial sites in Europe, sometimes including up to several hundred or several thousand skeletons  The mass burial sites that have been excavated have allowed archaeologists to continue interpreting and defining the biological, sociological, historical and anthropological implications of the Black Death According to medieval historian Philip Daileader, it is likely that over four years, 45–50% of the European population died of plague  Norwegian historian Ole Benedictow suggests it could have been as much as 60% of the European population  In 1348, the disease spread so rapidly that before any physicians or government authorities had time to reflect upon its origins, about a third of the European population had already perished  In crowded cities, it was not uncommon for as much as 50% of the population to die  Half of Paris' population of 100,000 people died  In Italy, the population of Florence was reduced from between 110,000 and 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 down to 50,000 in 1351  At least 60% of the population of Hamburg and Bremen perished, and a similar percentage of Londoners may have died from the disease as well, with a death toll of approximately 62,000 between 1346 and 1353  Florence's tax records suggest that 80% of the city's population died within four months in 1348  Before 1350, there were about 170,000 settlements in Germany, and this was reduced by nearly 40,000 by 1450  The disease bypassed some areas, with the most isolated areas being less vulnerable to contagion  Plague did not appear in Douai in Flanders until the turn of the 15th century, and the impact was less severe on the populations of Hainaut, Finland, northern Germany and areas of Poland  Monks, nuns and priests were especially hard-hit since they cared for people with the Black Death 

The physician to the Avignon Papacy, Raimundo Chalmel de Vinario (Latin: Magister Raimundus, lit  'Master Raymond'), observed the decreasing mortality rate of successive outbreaks of plague in 1347–48, 1362, 1371 and 1382 in his 1382 treatise On Epidemics (De epidemica)  In the first outbreak, two thirds of the population contracted the illness and most patients died; in the next, half the population became ill but only some died; by the third, a tenth were affected and many survived; while by the fourth occurrence, only one in twenty people were sickened and most of them survived  By the 1380s in Europe, it predominantly affected children  Chalmel de Vinario recognised that bloodletting was ineffective (though he continued to prescribe bleeding for members of the Roman Curia, whom he disliked), and said that all true cases of plague were caused by astrological factors and were incurable; he himself was never able to effect a cure The most widely accepted estimate for the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran and Syria, during this time, is for a death toll of about a third of the population  The Black Death killed about 40% of Egypt's population  In Cairo, with a population numbering as many as 600,000, and possibly the largest city west of China, between one third and 40% of the inhabitants died within eight months Italian chronicler Agnolo di Tura recorded his experience from Siena, where plague arrived in May 1348:

Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through the breath and sight  And so they died  And none could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship  Members of a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices     great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead  And they died by the hundreds both day and night     And as soon as those ditches were filled more were dug     And I, Agnolo di Tura     buried my five children with my own hands  And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city  There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death  And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world 

Economic
It has been suggested that the plague, like some others in history, disproportionately affected the poorest people, who were already in generally worse physical condition than the wealthier citizens   Nevertheless, with such a large overall population decline from the pandemic, wages soared in response to a labour shortage  On the other hand, in the quarter century after the Black Death in England, it is clear many labourers, artisans and craftsmen, those living from money-wages alone, did suffer a reduction in real incomes owing to rampant inflation  Landowners were also pushed to substitute monetary rents for labour services in an effort to keep tenants 

Environmental
A study performed by Thomas Van Hoof of the Utrecht University suggests that the innumerable deaths brought on by the pandemic cooled the climate by freeing up land and triggering reforestation  This may have led to the Little Ice Age 

Persecutions
Renewed religious fervour and fanaticism bloomed in the wake of the Black Death  Some Europeans targeted "various groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers and Romani, blaming them for the crisis  Lepers, and others with skin diseases such as acne or psoriasis, were killed throughout Europe 
Because 14th-century healers and governments were at a loss to explain or stop the disease, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for outbreaks  Many believed the epidemic was a punishment by God for their sins, and could be relieved by winning God's forgiveness There were many attacks against Jewish communities  In the Strasbourg massacre of February 1349, about 2,000 Jews were murdered  In August 1349, the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were annihilated  By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed  During this period many Jews relocated to Poland, where they received a warm welcome from King Casimir the Great 

Social
One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th-century Italy and led to the Renaissance  Italy was particularly badly hit by the pandemic, and it has been speculated that the resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife  It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art This does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred in Italy in the 14th century  The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy  The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors, in combination with an influx of Greek scholars following the fall of the Byzantine Empire  As a result of the drastic reduction in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners came to enjoy more freedom  To answer the increased need for labour, workers travelled in search of the most favorable position economically Prior to the emergence of the Black Death, the workings of Europe were run by the Catholic Church and the continent was considered a feudalistic society, composed of fiefs and city-states  The pandemic completely restructured both religion and political forces; survivors began to turn to other forms of spirituality and the power dynamics of the fiefs and city-states crumbled Cairo's population, partly owing to the numerous plague epidemics, was in the early 18th century half of what it was in 1347  The populations of some Italian cities, notably Florence, did not regain their pre-14th century size until the 19th century  The demographic decline due to the pandemic had economic consequences: the prices of food dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and 1400  Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall  The survivors of the pandemic found not only that the prices of food were lower but also that lands were more abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives, and this probably destabilised feudalism The word "quarantine" has its roots in this period, though the concept of isolating people to prevent the spread of disease is older  In the city-state of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), a thirty-day isolation period was implemented in 1377 for new arrivals to the city from plague-affected areas  The isolation period was later extended to forty days, and given the name "quarantino" from the Italian word for "forty" 

Recurrences
Second plague pandemic
The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries  According to Jean-Noël Biraben, the plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671  (Note that some researchers have cautions about the uncritical use of Biraben's data ) The second pandemic was particularly widespread in the following years: 1360–63; 1374; 1400; 1438–39; 1456–57; 1464–66; 1481–85; 1500–03; 1518–31; 1544–48; 1563–66; 1573–88; 1596–99; 1602–11; 1623–40; 1644–54; and 1664–67  Subsequent outbreaks, though severe, marked the retreat from most of Europe (18th century) and northern Africa (19th century)  The historian George Sussman argued that the plague had not occurred in East Africa until the 1900s  However, other sources suggest that the Second pandemic did indeed reach Sub-Saharan Africa According to historian Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to the plague in the epidemic of 1628–31 " In the first half of the 17th century, a plague killed some 1 7 million people in Italy  More than 1 25 million deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain The Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world  Plague could be found in the Islamic world almost every year between 1500 and 1850  Sometimes the outbreaks affected small areas, while other outbreaks affected multiple regions  Plague repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa  Algiers lost 30,000–50,000 inhabitants to it in 1620–21, and again in 1654–57, 1665, 1691 and 1740–42  Cairo suffered more than fifty plague epidemics within 150 years from the plague's first appearance, with the final outbreak of the second pandemic there in the 1840s  Plague remained a major event in Ottoman society until the second quarter of the 19th century  Between 1701 and 1750, thirty-seven larger and smaller epidemics were recorded in Constantinople, and an additional thirty-one between 1751 and 1800  Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague, and sometimes two-thirds of its population had died 

Third plague pandemic
The third plague pandemic (1855–1859) started in China in the mid-19th century, spreading to all inhabited continents and killing 10 million people in India alone  The investigation of the pathogen that caused the 19th-century plague was begun by teams of scientists who visited Hong Kong in 1894, among whom was the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, after whom the pathogen was named Twelve plague outbreaks in Australia between 1900 and 1925 resulted in well over 1,000 deaths, chiefly in Sydney  This led to the establishment of a Public Health Department there which undertook some leading-edge research on plague transmission from rat fleas to humans via the bacillus Yersinia pestis The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904, followed by another outbreak in 1907–1908 

Modern-day
Modern treatment methods include insecticides, the use of antibiotics, and a plague vaccine  It is feared that the plague bacterium could develop drug resistance and again become a major health threat  One case of a drug-resistant form of the bacterium was found in Madagascar in 1995  A further outbreak in Madagascar was reported in November 2014  In October 2017, the deadliest outbreak of the plague in modern times hit Madagascar, killing 170 people and infecting thousands An estimate of the case fatality rate for the modern bubonic plague, following the introduction of antibiotics, is 11%, although it may be higher in underdeveloped regions 

See also
Black Death in England
Black Death in medieval culture
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Flagellant
Globalization and disease
List of epidemics
Second plague pandemic
Timeline of plague
Passage 2:
Patricia Millardet
Patricia Millardet (24 March 1957 − 13 April 2020) was a French movie and television actress, who played judge Silvia Conti in the Italian mafia series La piovra She died of a heart attack in 2020 at the age of 63 

Partial filmography
Passage 3:
La Rosiere de Pessac
La Rosière de Pessac (The Virgin of Pessac) is the title of two hour-long films directed by Jean Eustache (in 1968 and 1979 respectively)   The films cover an annual ceremony, held in Eustache's place of birth, in which the mayor and his associates nominate a girl as the town's most virtuous   Thus, the girls chosen in those two years are eponymous subjects of these documentaries 

External links
La Rosière de Pessac at IMDb
La Rosière de Pessac at IMDb
Passage 4:
Orlando furioso (Vivaldi, 1714)
Orlando furioso RV 819 (Italian pronunciation: [orˈlando fuˈrjoːzo, -so], Teatro San Angelo, Venice 1714) is a three-act opera surviving in manuscript in Antonio Vivaldi's personal library, only partly related to his better known Orlando furioso (RV 728) of 1727  It is a recomposition of an Orlando furioso written by Giovanni Alberto Ristori which had been very successfully staged by Vivaldi and his father's impresa in 1713, and whose music survives in a few fragments retained in the score of RV 819  Therefore, Vivaldi's first cataloguer Peter Ryom did not assign the opera a RV number, but catalogued it as RV Anh  84  The libretto was by Grazio Braccioli 

Authorship
Federico Maria Sardelli, according to the studies of Reinhard Strohm, argues that Orlando RV 819 was entirely recomposed by Vivaldi, starting from the original Ristori's opera that Vivaldi himself had already changed during the numerous representations of the season 1713  He assigned to it the catalogue number RV 819  One suggestion is that Vivaldi avoided putting his own name on the opera having himself only recently taken direction of the Teatro San Angelo  Against this others consider that the bulk of the opera is a copy of Ristori's lost work 

Opera
Unlike the Orlando furioso (RV 728) of 1727, in which the role of Orlando is sung by a contralto, the 1714 opera assigns the title role to a bass  The third act is missing and the rest of the score (evidently used in performances by the composer) is incomplete  Two arias are lost, seven arias are incomplete (only the bass part is extant) and three arias are identical with extant arias in RV 727 and RV 729 

Recording
The French label Naïve, which had already recorded the more famous Orlando furioso and Orlando finto pazzo for its Vivaldi Edition, released a recording of the July 20, 2012 première at the Festival de Beaune, with Sardelli conducting Modo Antiquo and singers including Riccardo Novaro as Orlando, Gaëlle Arquez as Angelica, Romina Basso as Alcina and Teodora Gheorghiu as Bradamante  Given the heavily defective nature of the surviving manuscript, Sardelli had to reconstruct or compose ex novo the seven incomplete arias, in a Vivaldian style 

See also
List of operas by Antonio Vivaldi
Passage 5:
Denmark Place fire
The Denmark Place fire occurred on 16 August 1980 at 18 Denmark Place in Central London  The fire, caused by arson, killed 37 people of eight nationalities, most of whom were Spanish or Latin American, who were patrons of two unlicensed bars in the building  At the time, The Sunday Times suggested that it could be "the worst mass murder in British history" 

Background
There were two unlicensed bars on the top two floors of 18 Denmark Place: The Spanish Rooms, a late night bar frequented by locals, including Irish and Jamaican immigrants; and Rodo's, also known as El Dandy, a salsa club popular with South American immigrants  Access to both of these bars was obtained by shouting up from the street below in order to obtain a key  The only way into both of these clubs was through a locked front door and up some stairs leading to a landing  
Access to the club on the lower floor was via this landing and access to the club on the upper floor was via a fire escape enclosed with plywood  Both bars, being unlicensed, were obscured from the outside world by boarded up windows and the door on Denmark Street that led to the fire escape was bolted shut  The Metropolitan Police were aware of the clubs and were planning to shut them both down on Monday 18 August  A farewell party was being thrown over the weekend 

The fire
On the night of 16 August 1980, John Thompson, a Scottish-born petty criminal aged 42, entered The Spanish Rooms and drank there  He believed that the barman had overcharged him for the drink  After fighting with the barman he was ejected from the building and the door was locked behind him  Thompson found a 2-gallon container outside the club, hailed a taxi and then travelled to a 24-hour petrol station in Camden where he filled the container with petrol  He then returned to 18 Denmark Place, poured the petrol through the letterbox of the front door and put a lit piece of paper through Fire quickly took hold in the premises owing to the largely timber construction of the building  Both bars were badly damaged  There were estimated to be 150 people within the building at the time  People could not escape easily due to the boarded up windows, the locked fire escape and general lack of fire safety precautions owing to the bars' unlicensed status The fire burned quickly through the wooden staircase, destroying the main entrance and exit to the bars  Some patrons tried to escape via the back door but found that this was locked  Others smashed windows and jumped out onto the street below  On Denmark Street there was a music shop that backed onto the clubs and some patrons were found here trapped behind the security shutters  One firefighter managed to rescue six people from this area 
When firefighters were called to the fire at around 03:30 they could see smoke seeping from the shuttered windows  When an attempt was made to force the locked front door open they were showered with sparks and embers and were forced to retreat  Once firefighters were able to access the front door it took four minutes to break it down – behind it they found that the staircase was completely on fire 
The speed of the fire was so rapid that many of the bar patrons died where they were sitting or standing  An officer from the London Fire Brigade described the scene:

People seem to have died on the spot without even having time to move an inch  Some were slumped at tables  Seven were at the bar and appear to have fallen as they stood, with drinks still in their hands 

Aftermath
In May 1981, Thompson was convicted on a specimen charge of murdering one of the victims, Archibald Campbell (aged 63) and sentenced to life imprisonment  He died of lung cancer on 16 August 2008, the 28th anniversary of the fire There was comparatively little publicity about the fire, and no formal enquiry into it  The families of some of those who died were not aware of the circumstances  In 2022, after redevelopment of the site, a plaque was placed on a wall in memory 

See also
Blue Bird Café fire, 1972 fire in Montreal started in retaliations by patrons refused entry who then lit petrol in front of main entrance and only exit; also killed 37 
Happy Land fire, 1990 fire in New York City at illegally operated nightclub started the same way by aggrieved ejected patron; resulting 87 fatalities is the worst mass murder in city history caused by a single person 
Clerkenwell cinema fire, 1994 fire in London at an illegally operated adult cinema, intentionally started by an aggrieved patron 
Ghost Ship warehouse fire, 2016 fire at illegally operated nightclub in California that killed 37
Passage 6:
List of bones of the human skeleton
The human skeleton of an adult consists of around 206 bones, depending on the counting of sternum (which may alternatively be included as the manubrium, body of sternum, and the xiphoid process)  It is composed of 270 bones at the time of birth, but later decreases to 206: 80 bones in the axial skeleton and 126 bones in the appendicular skeleton  Many small accessory bones, such as sesamoid bones, are not included in this count 

Introduction
As a person ages, some bones fuse, a process which typically lasts until sometime within the third decade of life  Therefore, the number of bones in an individual may be evaluated differently throughout a lifetime  In addition, the bones of the skull and face are counted as separate bones, despite being fused naturally  Some reliable sesamoid bones such as the pisiform are counted, while others, such as the hallux sesamoids, are not 
Individuals may have more or fewer bones than the average (even accounting for developmental stage) owing to anatomical variations  The most common variations include sutural (wormian) bones, which are located along the sutural lines on the back of the skull, and sesamoid bones which develop within some tendons, mainly in the hands and feet  Some individuals may also have additional (i e , supernumerary) cervical ribs or lumbar vertebrae  Amputations or other injuries may result in the loss of bones  Complete bone fractures may split one bone into multiple pieces  Other genetic conditions may result in abnormally higher (e g  polydactyly or conjoined twins) or lower (e g  oligodactyly) counts of bones 

Bones
The axial skeleton, comprising the spine, chest and head, contains 80 bones  The appendicular skeleton, comprising the arms and legs, including the shoulder and pelvic girdles, contains 126 bones, bringing the total for the entire skeleton to 206 bones  Infants are born with about 270 bones with most of it being cartilage, but will later fuse together and decrease over time to 206 bones 

Spine (vertebral column)
A fully grown adult features 26 bones in the spine, whereas a child can have 34 

Cervical vertebrae (7 bones)
Thoracic vertebrae (12 bones)
Lumbar vertebrae (5 bones)
Sacrum (5 bones at birth, fused into one after adolescence)
Coccygeal vertebrae/Cordal (set of 4 bones at birth; some or all fuse together, but there seems to be a disagreement between researchers as to what the most common number should be  Some say the most common is 1, others say 2 or 3, with 4 being the least likely  It is counted as 1 in this article )

Chest (thorax)
There are 25 bones in the chest  The chest contains cartilage for the lungs to fill with air  

Sternum (1 or 3 bones  It is counted as 1 in this article )
Ribs (24, in 12 pairs)
Cervical ribs are extra ribs that occur in some people 

Head
There are 23 bones in the skull  Including the bones of the middle ear and the hyoid bone, the head contains 29 bones 

Cranial bones (8)
Occipital bone
Parietal bones (2)
Frontal bone
Temporal bones (2)
Sphenoid bone (sometimes counted as facial)
Ethmoid bone (sometimes counted as facial)
Facial bones (15)
Nasal bones (2)
Maxillae (upper jaw) (2)
Lacrimal bone (2)
Zygomatic bone (cheek bones) (2)
Palatine bone (2)
Inferior nasal concha (2)
Vomer (1)
Hyoid bone (1)
Mandible (1)
Middle ears (6 bones in total, 3 on each side)
Malleus (2)
Incus (2)
Stapes (2)

Upper limb (arm and forearm) and hand
There are a total of 64 bones in the arms, 32 in each arm

Upper arm bones (6 bones in total; 3 on each side)
Humerus (2)
Pectoral girdle (shoulder)
Scapula (2)
Clavicle (2)
Lower arm bones (4 bones in total, 2 on each side) left bone
Ulna (2) (Lined up with pinky)
Radius (2) (Lined up with thumb)
Hand (54 bones in total; 27 in each hand)
Carpals
Scaphoid bone (2)
Lunate bone (2)
Triquetral bone (2)
Pisiform bone (2)
Trapezium (2)
Trapezoid bone (2)
Capitate bone (2)
Hamate bone (2)
Metacarpals (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)
Phalanges of the hand (28 bones in total, 14 on each hand)
Proximal phalanges (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)
Intermediate phalanges (8 bones in total; 4 on each side)
Distal phalanges (10 bones in total; 5 on each side)

Pelvis (pelvic girdle)
The pelvis (or hip bone) is made up of three regions that have fused to form two coxal bones  They are the ilium, ischium, and pubis 

The sacrum and coccyx attach to the two hip bones to form the pelvis, but are more important to the spinal column, where they are counted The pelvis is one of two bones used to determine the sex of a skeleton, which is determined by examining the size of the greater sciatic notch (also known as the pelvic opening) 

Lower limb (thigh and leg) and foot
There are a total of 60 bones in the legs 

Femur (2)
Patella or kneecap (2)
Tibia (2)
Fibula (2)
Foot (52 bones in total, 26 per foot)
Tarsus/Tarsals
Calcaneus or heel bone (2)
Talus (2)
Navicular bone (2)
Medial cuneiform bone (2)
Intermediate cuneiform bone (2)
Lateral cuneiform bone (2)
Cuboid bone (2)
Metatarsals (10)
Phalanges of the foot (28 bones in total, 14 per foot)
Proximal phalanges (10)
Intermediate phalanges (8)
Distal phalanges (10)

See also
List of skeletal muscles of the human body
List of nerves of the human body
Circulatory system
Blood vessel
Passage 7:
2010 Elazığ earthquake
The 2010 Elazığ earthquake was a 6 1 Mw earthquake that occurred on 8 March 2010 at 02:32 UTC (04:32 local time)  The epicentre was Başyurt in Elazığ Province, in eastern Turkey  Initial reports in global media said as many as 57 people had died  By 10 March, reports in the Turkish media placed the death toll at 41 and later, the death toll rose to 42  Another 74 were injured, many after falling and jumping from buildings  A stampede through the streets led to further injuries The earthquake came one week to the day after the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers sent a report to parliament detailing inadequate building projects and the possibility that Istanbul would be destroyed by an earthquake, which could kill tens of thousands of people, at some point in the next three decades 

Earthquake
The quake occurred on the East Anatolian Fault, a major transform fault which represents  the boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian Plate 

Damage
According to officials, most of the deaths occurred in three villages: Okçular, Yukarı Kanatlı and Kayalı  At least five villages, though, suffered loss of life  Villagers fled buildings, spending the night outside and lighting fires in the streets for warmth Thirty houses collapsed in Okçular, and the death toll is at least 17  Reports from the scene indicate "the village is totally flattened" and "everything has been knocked down – there is not a stone in place" At least 25 people died in Yukarı Demirci, and emergency services went to Kovancılar Many people used vehicles and taxis to drive to the hospital  Most were asleep at the time the quake struck, with four sleeping sisters perishing in one house  Farm animals were also killed, and minarets fell down 

Aftershocks
Several aftershocks were felt, the strongest measuring 5 5 (at 09:47 local time), 5 1 (at 12:14) and 5 3 (at 13:12)  A total of over 20 aftershocks were counted within a short time following the quake  Villagers were told to stay away from buildings for several days due to the potential of further aftershocks Onur Tan et al  (2011) analyzed 2130 aftershocks (ML≥0 3) and reported in Geophysical Research Letters 

Response
Turkey: Four government ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, visited the scene as soon as news of the earthquake was reported  The Red Crescent and Turkey's disaster management centre donated blankets and tents  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later arrived  Pakistan: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani sent a condolence message to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the loss of lives and property and said that "We have learnt with utter sense of shock and profound sadness the news of the massive earthquake that has hit your beautiful country, today  Our hearts go out to our Turkish brethren over the loss of precious lives and destruction of property  I wish to convey, on behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan and on my own behalf our deepest condolences and commiserations to the people and Government of Turkey in bearing this enormous natural calamity " Israel: Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered an aid proposal to be put together but later said that Turkey informed Israel that it did not require assistance at this time 

See also
2020 Elazığ earthquake
List of earthquakes in 2010
List of earthquakes in Turkey
Passage 8:
La Cantuta massacre
La Cantuta massacre took place in Peru on 18 July 1992, during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori  Supposed members of Shining Path, including a university professor and nine students from Lima's La Cantuta University, were abducted, tortured, and killed by Grupo Colina, a military death squad  The incident occurred two days after the Shining Path's Tarata bombing, which killed over 40 people in Lima Province 
The massacre was one of the crimes cited in the conviction of Fujimori on 7 April 2009, for human rights abuses 

Context
The Enrique Guzmán y Valle National Education University (Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle, or "UNE"; better known as "La Cantuta", from the neighbourhood in which it stands) was founded as a teacher-training college in 1822, granted its university charter in 1965, closed down by the military government in 1977, and reopened in 1980 Because of its remote location, far away from the centre of Lima, the fact that most of its students hailed from the impoverished interior of the country, and that most of them intended to enter the highly politicised teaching profession, La Cantuta gained a reputation as hotbed of radical politics, such as communism and anarchism as early as the late 1950s and early 1960s  A series of student-led protest actions on the campus — including the blocking of the railway line linking Lima with the interior of the country — that led to the suspension of its activities in 1977 With the return of democratic rule in 1980, President Belaúnde reopened the university  The radical elements among the students and lecturers were quick to return, and by the mid-1980s the country's two main insurgent groups, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), had a strong presence on campus, being widely regarded as 2 very legitimate organisations  By the early 1990s, due to a strategic withdrawal by MRTA and the fragmentation of the other left-wing groups on campus, legal and illegal alike, Sendero Luminoso had the upper hand  This was in spite of operations such as that of 13 February 1987, when 4000 police officers conducted night-time raids at the dormitories of three state universities (including La Cantuta); 20 April 1989, when a joint force of police and army descended on La Cantuta University and San Marcos National University and arrested over 500 students on charges of subversion; or 22 May 1991, when, in response to a hostage crisis and rumors of an explosive device squirreled away on campus, Fujimori sent the army in to restore law and order at La Cantuta  Graffiti alluding to Sendero Luminoso and its leader, Abimael Guzmán, were painted over with patriotic slogans; students went about their business only after passing checkpoints and under close supervision from the armed forces; and the campus remained under military control for several years 

Abduction of July 1992
In the pre-dawn hours of 18 July 1992, two days after the Tarata bombing, members of the Army Intelligence Service (SIE) and the Army Directorate of Intelligence (DINTE), most of whom were attached to the recently established Grupo Colina death squad, burst into the residences of the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University Once inside, the troops forced all the students to leave their rooms and lie belly-down on the floor  Nine students believed to be linked to the Tarata Bombing — Bertila Lozano Torres, Dora Oyague Fierro, Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Richard Amaro Cóndor, Robert Édgar Teodoro Espinoza, Heráclides Pablo Meza, Felipe Flores Chipana, Marcelino Rosales Cárdenas, and Juan Gabriel Mariños Figueroa — were separated from the others and taken away  Meanwhile, in the staff residences, a group of soldiers broke into the home of professor Hugo Muñoz Sánchez  After searching his bedroom, they gagged the professor and led him away 

Prosecutions and amnesty
In April 1993, a group of Peruvian military officers anonymously released a document detailing the events at La Cantuta  Their document claimed the death squad had abducted the victims, tortured and murdered them, and then hurriedly buried them; later, they claimed, after questions had been raised in Congress, that the armed forces had exhumed, incinerated, and reburied the bodies in another location  The military whistleblowers named the members of Grupo Colina involved, identified the operations chief as Major Santiago Martín Rivas, and suggested that the group operated on the orders of Vladimiro Montesinos, head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) and a close advisor to President Fujimori 
On 6 May, Lt  Gen  Humberto Robles Espinoza, the army's third highest-ranking officer, publicly denounced a number of human rights violations committed by the SIN and the armed forces, including the La Cantuta killings  He was later dismissed from duty and subjected to death threats, and finally fled the country for political asylum in Argentina In June 1993, Justo Arizapana Vicente, a recycler, and his friend Guillermo Cataroca, leaked a marked map to congress man Roger Cáceres Velásquez and Radio Comas journalist Juan Jara Berrospi  Cáceres then shared the map with Ricardo Uceda at the news magazine Sí, who published it in July of that year  Mariella Barreto, an agent of the Peruvian Army Intelligence Service, is also sometimes credited with leaking this map to a Peruvian magazine  An investigation of the site indicated on the map by the public prosecutor revealed four clandestine graves  Forensic tests conducted on the remains, and on another set of bones found at another site, revealed that they belonged to Muñoz Sánchez and the students Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Amaro Condor, and Juan Gabriel Mariños Figueroa, and that at least some of them had been tortured prior to receiving an execution-style coup-de-grâce to the base of the neck  Barreto was murdered some years later: her decapitated and dismembered corpse, showing signs of ante-mortem torture, was found in March 1997  A few weeks after Mariella Barreto's death, her colleague Leonor La Rosa, was on TV in a hospital bed, declaring she had been tortured and that Barreto had been killed in retaliation for leaking information to the press about the Groupo Colina's plan to intimidate journalists and politicians from the opposition The military authorities had begun an investigation into the killings in May 1993  In addition, in December 1993, a civilian prosecutor filed criminal charges against several named members of the military  A conflict of jurisdiction thus arose between the military and civilian courts  The controversy was placed before the Supreme Court which, on 3 February 1994, ruled that it was unable to reach agreement on which venue should apply  Consequently, on the night of 7 February, Congress enacted a new law whereby the Supreme Court could decide such matters with a simple majority, instead of a unanimous vote  By a three-to-two vote of the Supreme Court's criminal division, the case was placed under military jurisdiction On 21 February 1994, the Supreme Council of Military Justice (CSJM) sentenced ten of the perpetrators to prison sentences of between one and 20 years Following Fujimori's landslide re-election in April 1995, in another all-night session on 14 June 1995, Congress enacted law No  26479, the "Amnesty Law", ordering the release of all police officers, soldiers, and civil servants convicted of or charged with civilian or military crimes during Peru's War on Terrorism  On 15 July, the Supreme Council of Military Justice ordered the release of all the individuals convicted for the La Cantuta killings 

Repeal of the Amnesty Law
The Amnesty Law was repealed after the Fujimori government in 2000 and, on 21 March 2001, Attorney General Nelly Calderón presented charges against Fujimori, accusing him of being one of the "co-authors" of this massacre and of the 1991 Barrios Altos massacre  She presented evidence that Fujimori, acting in concert with SIN supremo Vladimiro Montesinos, exercised control over Grupo Colina  The charges alleged that the group could not have committed crimes of this magnitude without Fujimori's express orders or consent, and that the formation and function of the Colina group was part of an overall counter-insurgency policy that involved systematic violations of human rights 

Prosecutions and apology
In November 2005, Fujimori was detained in Chile  Peruvian authorities filed for his extradition to face charges arising from various incidents during his presidency, including the La Cantuta massacre, and he was returned to Peru on 22 September 2007 
On 8 April 2008, a court found a number of people, including Julio Salazar, guilty of kidnapping, homicide, and forced disappearance In October 2007, pursuant to a 2006 ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government extended a formal apology for the massacre and undertook to make amends to the victims' next-of-kin, including compensation in the amount of US$1 8 million 

Fujimori's trial
During the trial of Alberto Fujimori, it was asserted by former Colina member José William Tena Jacinto that at least two of the victims were positively identified as Shining Path members Lieutenant Aquilino Portella and the Dean of the Social Science Department of the University, Claudio Cajahuaringa, have also claimed that Professor Hugo Muñoz Sánchez and student Bertila Lozano Torres were involved with Shining Path  In the case of Lozano, it was claimed that documents allegedly in her possession revealed that she was indeed an actual member of the insurgent organization In 2009 it was determined by a judicial ruling that not a single one of the victims in La Cantuta massacre was linked to any terrorist organization, it was in the same ruling that condemned Fujimori to a 25 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity 

See also
List of massacres in Peru

Notes
External links
"The La Canuta Case"  APRODEH 
La Cantuta Case – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
La Cantuta Case vs  Peru – Inter-American Court of Human Rights
La Cantuta – Truth and Reconciliation Commission, final report (PDF; Spanish)
La Cantuta – overview (MIT Western Hemisphere Project)
La Cantuta – summary of events (Spanish)
Questions and answers about Fujimori's criminal prosecution – Human Rights Watch
Passage 9:
La Silvia
La Silvia (RV 734) is an dramma pastorale per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Enrico Bissari  It was first performed on 28 August 1721 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on the occasion of the birthday celebrations of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth Christine, wife of Emperor Charles VI of Austria 

Background
In 1718 Vivaldi had been nominated maestro di cappella di camera, at the court of Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt in Mantua for whom he composed Armida al campo d'Egitto, Teuzzone, Scanderbeg (all 1718) and then Tito Manlio (1719) and La Candace (1720)  On his return to Venice, following performance of La verità in cimento at the Teatro Sant'Angelo, Vivaldi, thinly disguised as "Aldiviva", became, along with Giovanni Porta, Anna Maria Strada and others, one of the principal targets of the gentleman-composer Benedetto Marcello's satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda (written 1718-1719, published 1720) Bissari's text had originally been written in 1710 as a play for Princess Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, second wife of the Bavarian elector Maximillian II Emmanuel  The opera was performed again in Milan in 1723 and 1724  8 of the arias are preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino 

Roles
Recordings
2001 (reconstruction of nine surviving arias) Roberta Invernizzi, Gloria Banditelli, John Elwes, Philippe Cantor   Ensemble Baroque de Nice, dir  Gilbert Bezzina  Ligia  1CD 
Passage 10:
Giovanni Cifolelli
Giovanni Cifolelli was an Italian mandolin virtuoso and dramatic composer whose date and place of birth are unknown  In 1764 he made his appearance in Paris as a mandolin virtuoso and was highly esteemed, both as a performer and teacher  He published his Method for the mandolin while residing in Paris, which met with great success throughout France, being the most popular of its period 
His chief works were the operas L'Italienne and Pierre et Lucette, the former being an opera bouffe in one act (with the storyline or libretto by Nicolas-Étienne Framery)  These works were commissioned by the Comedie Italienne, Paris, and were produced at this theatre successfully, in 1770 and 1774  Several of the songs and duets in Pierre and Lucette were exceedingly popular in France, and they were republished in Paris in 1775 and 1780 

Works
L'Italienne  : comédie en 1 acte, mêlée d'ariettes (Paris, 1770)
Pierre et Lucette, comédie en deux actes et en prose mêlée d'ariettes (Paris, 1774)
Airs détachés de Perin et Lucette, comédie en deux actes, mêlées d'ariettes par M  Davesne (Paris, 1775)
Ariette nouvelle avec accompagnement de deux violons et basse
Non, laisse moi, laisse moi, Lucas  Duo (1775)



ground_truth: University of Cambridge

Cambridge

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: The city that Psycho Donuts is located in is in which county?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: Passage 1:
Saulkrasti Municipality
Saulkrasti Municipality (Latvian: Saulkrastu novads) is a municipality in Vidzeme, Latvia  The municipality was formed in 2009 by reorganization of Saulkrasti town with its countryside territory, with the administrative centre being Saulkrasti  In 2010 Saulkrasti parish was created from the countryside territory of Saulkrasti town  The population in 2020 was 6,735 During the 2021 Latvian administrative reform, the previous municipality was merged with Sēja Municipality 
The total area of Saulkrasti municipality is 46 8 km²  The administrative territory of Saulkrasti municipality is located on the coast of the Gulf of Riga, in the western part of Vidzeme  The territory of Saulkrasti municipality includes a coastal forest zone from the Lilaste River and the lake in the south to Zvejniekciems in the north  The administrative territory stretches for 17 kilometers  More than 6 thousand inhabitants are declared to live in the county  Along with the summer season, the population increases significantly, which is related to the beginning of the tourist season and the increase in the flow of horticultural cooperatives in the region  The distance from the center of Saulkrasti to Riga is 45 km, Limbaži - 47 km, Sigulda - 40 km, Salacgrīva - 58 km  The territory of the municipality is crossed by the international highway VIA Baltica  Four rivers flow through the county - Inčupe, Pēterupe, Ķīšupe and Aģe, which were symbolically depicted in the previous coat of arms of Saulkrasti Municipality as four silver bars 

Population
Twin towns — sister cities
Saulkrasti is twinned with:
 Gnesta, Sweden
 Neringa, Lithuania
 Odolanów, Poland
 Radashkovichy, Belarus

Images
See also
Administrative divisions of Latvia
Passage 2:
List of territorial entities where English is an official language
The following is a list of countries and territories where English is an official language—that is, a language used in citizen interactions with government officials  As of 2020, there were 58 sovereign states and 28 non-sovereign entities where English was an official language  Many administrative divisions have declared English an official language at the local or regional level 
Most states where English is an official language are former territories of the British Empire  Exceptions include Rwanda and Burundi, which were formerly German and then Belgian colonies; Cameroon, where only part of national territory was under British mandate; and Liberia, the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, which were American territories  English is the sole official language of the Commonwealth of Nations and of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)  English is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, NAFTA, the African Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Caribbean Community, the Union of South American Nations, and many other international organisations  Although English is not de jure an official language at the national level in the United States, most states and territories within the United States have English as an official language, and only Puerto Rico uses a language other than English as a primary working language The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, where the overwhelming majority of native English speakers reside, do not have English as an official language de jure, but English is considered their de facto official language because it dominates in these countries 

Sovereign states
Countries where English is a de jure official language
Countries where English is a predominant language conventionally spoken by both the government and main population, despite it having no de jure official status at national level
Countries where English is a de facto working language in government or education, but it is not recognized as de jure official, nor a primary language spoken by the main population
Non-sovereign entities
Non-sovereign entities where English is a de jure official language
Non-sovereign entities where English is a de facto official language
Non-sovereign entities where English is a de facto official, but not a primary language
Country subdivisions
In these country subdivisions, English has de jure official status, but English is not official in their respective countries at the national level 

See also
English-only movement
Anglo-America
Commonwealth of Nations
Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations
British Overseas Territories
English-speaking world
List of countries by English-speaking population
List of languages by total number of speakers
British Empire

Footnotes
Passage 3:
Psycho Donuts
Psycho Donuts is a donut shop in Campbell, California opened in March 2009  The theme of the shop is "craziness"; it specializes in unusual donut flavors and many of its donuts' names are puns on mental illnesses or other mental health conditions, and the store's decorations include a straitjacket and a padded cell  In 2016, a third location in Santa Clara, California was opened, which along with the second location in Downtown San Jose, has closed  In 2021 A pop up location in the Valley Fair mall was opened and it still currently operating 

Description
The shop was opened by Jordan Zweigoron and Kipp Berdianski in March 2009  Berdiansky left the partnership in late July, leaving Zweigoron as the sole owner  In 2014, Web Granger (1971–2019) became the owner of Psycho Donuts Psycho Donuts describes itself as a shop that "has taken donuts to the next demented level" and "has taken the neighborhood donut and put it on medication, and given it shock treatment"  Its products have unusual toppings such as pretzels and Froot Loops, and many of the donuts' names are puns on mental health conditions—for example, there are donuts called "Bipolar", "Manic Malt", and "Cereal Killer"—although several also have names unrelated to mental illness, such as "Donut Fries", "S'Mores", and "Crispy Critters"  Some refer to other serious medical conditions, such as "Massive Head Trauma"  The shop's decor also has a psychiatric institution theme: it includes a straitjacket and padded room, an eating area called "Group Therapy", and the staff wear lab coats or nurse uniforms  Zweigoron describes the store's atmosphere as that of a "fun mental institution" 

Controversy
The shop has attracted controversy since it was opened in March 2009  Mental health advocates have claimed that the theme of the shop is offensive and perpetuates stereotypes and stigmatization of mentally ill individuals  Organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), California's Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and Silicon Valley Independent Living Center called on Psycho Donuts in early April to change the store's name and theme, claiming that negative portrayals of people with mental illnesses create "obstacles" for these people in daily life and can have psychological consequences  Brian Miller of NAMI pointed out that few physical illnesses are subject to the stigma that mental illnesses are, and that a "shop that made fun of cancer" would never be accepted  Author Pete Earley compared the shop's gimmick to the practice of "mak[ing] gay men and lesbians the butt of jokes, as well as blacks, other minorities, and persons who were callously labeled as 'retards, gimps and cripples'"  A city council meeting on April 7, 2009, included discussion on whether or not the shop should be forced to change its theme, and protests were held near the shop throughout April and May  Another protest was held on August 2 On the other hand, the store's owners and supporters have argued that the shop's theme has no malicious intentions and that the store is meant to be fun and unusual  The business also intended to use part of its profits to support the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, although the organization did not accept the donation  The store's owners and supporters argued that Psycho Donuts has a First Amendment right (specifically, the right to free speech) to choose the name of their business and products  Finally, some people have argued that mental health advocates should worry about larger issues instead of "going after" such a small business, and that the controversy over the store would cause people to "not take mental health issues seriously" In May 2009, a workshop on mental health issues was held in Campbell; people attending the workshop credited the Psycho Donut controversy with raising the visibility of mental health issues and prompting the workshop In late August that year Zweigoron, having become the sole owner of the shop, announced that he would remove the straitjacket and padded cell from the shop's interior, and changed the name of two donuts on the menu, "Bipolar" (changed to "Mood Swing") and "Massive Head Trauma" ("Headbanger") In June 2013, Psycho Donuts again attracted controversy with the Foie Bomb, a foie gras donut, which it gave away free on National Donut Day because of a California anti-animal cruelty law forbidding the sale of foie gras  Ron Levi, the head chef, came up with the idea together with Charlie Ayers, former head chef at Google 

Donut Showdown
In 2013, Psycho Donuts' head chef Ron Levi, assisted by Joe Cloutier, won first place in Food Network Canada's Donut Showdown 

See also
Heart Attack Grill
Passage 4:
Pettai, Karaikal
Pettai is a panchayat village and revenue village in Pondicherry Union Territory, India  Administratively, Pettai is under the Thirunallar Taluk (formerly Thirunallar Commune Panchayat) of Karaikal District, Pondicherry Union Territory  Pettai is situated on the banks of the Arasalar River, to the west of Karaikal town and south of Thirunallar 
In the 2011 census 3,208 people were recorded as living in Pettai village 


== Notes ==
Passage 5:
Campbell, California
Campbell  is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area   As of the 2020 U S  Census, Campbell's population is 43,959  Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was involved in a famous U S  Supreme Court case that established the extent of the right to free speech in California Today, the Pruneyard Shopping Center is home to the South Bay offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 

History
Prior to the city
Prior to the founding of the neighborhood of Campbell, the land was occupied by the Ohlone, the Native American people of the Northern California coast 
About a third of present-day Campbell was part of the 1839 Alta California Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos land grant  The northern extent of the grant land was along present-day Rincon Avenue, and across the North end of John D  Morgan Park in central Campbell 

Industrialization
The city was founded by Benjamin Campbell (1826–1907), after whom the city is named  Benjamin came to California in 1846 with his father, William M  Campbell I (1793–1885)  William started a sawmill in Saratoga, and surveyed the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara  In 1851, Benjamin bought 160 acres (0 65 km2) in southern Santa Clara Valley and cultivated hay and grain on it  This area later became Campbell's historical downtown core 
In 1878, Campbell sold his land for $5 an acre to a railroad company  By 1887, the first subdivision was recorded west of the railroad, from Campbell Avenue to the spot where the Water Tower Plaza now stands  He and his wife Mary (née Rucker) Campbell (1834–1913) founded the city which was first known as Campbell's Place, but would later become the town of Campbell In 1888, the Campbell School District was formed The area became the center for shipping fruit grown in the surrounding area, and within a short time, the drying grounds and canneries made Campbell an important rail center  By 1892, the Campbell Fruit Growers' Union became a well-known cooperative with its 17-acre (69,000 m2) drying yard  J C  Ainsley Packing Company, Hyde Cannery, and Payne Cannery were the main fruit packing companies In 1895, The Bank of Campbell was founded and the first newspaper, the Campbell Weekly Visitor, began publication Campbell was incorporated as a city in 1952  The city then grew rapidly as orchard lands disappeared, tract by tract  Today, Campbell is a suburban residential neighborhood in the southern part of the Santa Clara Valley 

Geography
Campbell is bordered on the east and north by San Jose, on the south by Los Gatos, and on the west by a small portion of Saratoga 
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5 9 square miles (15 km2), of which 5 8 square miles (15 km2) is land and 0 1 square miles (0 26 km2) is water 
Of the total area, 1 49% is water, consisting of percolation ponds in Los Gatos Creek Park and in other locations; San Tomas Aquino Creek, which flows north on the west side of the city, is completely enclosed with fences and runs through concrete culverts; and Los Gatos Creek, which flows north-north-east on the east side of the city and has paths along both banks for hikers and joggers (locally called the "Perc Ponds")  Residents are able to reach Los Gatos by continuing on the creek trail  Downtown Campbell contains many local stores and shops, and every Sunday the downtown street close from 8am-1pm for a local farmers market 
State Route 17 runs roughly parallel to Los Gatos Creek on its eastern side; State Route 85 runs roughly east–west through Los Gatos just south of Campbell and cuts through the southwest corner of the city 

Demographics
2020
The 2020 United States Census reported that Campbell had a population of 43,959 

Racial Makeup
It was reported that 16,121 people live in households, with an average of 2 64 persons per house  84 1% were living in the same house 1 year ago  35 6% of households spoke a language other than English 
49 2% of the housing in occupied by the owner  The median value of owner occupied housing units was $1,156,000  The median gross rent was $2,323 

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Campbell had a population of 39,349 
The racial makeup of Campbell was 26,315 (66 9%) White, 7,247 (18 4%) Hispanic or Latino of any race, 6,320 (16 1%) Asian, 1,158 (2 9%) African American, 275 (0 7%) Native American, and 161 (0 4%) Pacific Islander  A remaining 2,713 (6 9%) identified as other races, and 2,407 (6 1%) from two or more races 
The Census reported that 39,148 people (99 5% of the population) lived in households, 79 (0 2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 122 (0 3%) were institutionalized 
There were 16,163 households, out of which 4,897 (30 3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 7,133 (44 1%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,741 (10 8%) had a female householder with no husband present, 812 (5 0%) had a male householder with no wife present   There were 1,092 (6 8%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 138 (0 9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships  4,805 households (29 7%) were made up of individuals, and 1,328 (8 2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 42   There were 9,686 families (59 9% of all households); the average family size was 3 05 
The population was spread out, with 8,271 people (21 0%) under the age of 18, 2,982 people (7 6%) aged 18 to 24, 12,834 people (32 6%) aged 25 to 44, 10,868 people (27 6%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,394 people (11 2%) who were 65 years of age or older   The median age was 38 3 years  For every 100 females, there were 96 2 males   For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94 2 males 
There were 16,950 housing units at an average density of 2,879 7 per square mile (1,111 9/km2), of which 8,093 (50 1%) were owner-occupied, and 8,070 (49 9%) were occupied by renters  The homeowner vacancy rate was 1 8%; the rental vacancy rate was 4 6%   20,975 people (53 3% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 18,173 people (46 2%) lived in rental housing units 

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 39,200 people, 15,920 households, and 9,122 families residing in the city   The population density was 6,802 8 inhabitants per square mile (2,626 6/km2)   There were 16,286 housing units at an average density of 2,905 0 per square mile (1,121 6/km2)   The racial makeup of the city was 72 78% White, 2 53% African American, 0 65% Native American, 14 16% Asian, 0 23% Pacific Islander, 4 87% from other races, and 4 77% from two or more races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13 33% of the population 
28 0% of the households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42 6% were married couples living together, 10 1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42 7% were non-families  30 4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 38 and the average family size was 3 02 
The city population was 21 6% under the age of 18, 7 6% from 18 to 24, 40 2% from 25 to 44, 20 9% from 45 to 64, and 9 7% who were 65 years of age or older   The median age was 35 years  For every 100 females, there were 98 6 males   For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96 7 males 
About 48% of the adult population has at least one college-level degree  However, this has declined in recent years as a greater number of working-class immigrants move into the city 
The median income for a household in the city was $67,214, and the median income for a family was $78,663 (these figures had risen to $70,928 and $89,285 respectively as of a 2007 estimate)  Males had a median income of $52,454 versus $43,750 for females  The per capita income for the city was $34,441   About 3 2% of families and 4 8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4 2% of those under age 18 and 8 3% of those age 65 or over 

Climate
Campbell has a Mediterranean climate, characterized by mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers 

Economy
8x8, Barracuda Networks, List Biological Laboratories, Move, ChargePoint, Hightail and ZURB are among the companies based in Campbell 

Top employers
According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Politics
At the county level, Campbell is located entirely within the 4th supervisorial district, represented on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors by Susan Ellenberg 
In the California State Legislature, Campbell is in the  15th Senate District, represented by Democrat Dave Cortese, and in the  23rd Assembly District, represented by Democrat Marc Berman In the United States House of Representatives, Campbell is in California's  16th congressional district, represented by Democrat Anna Eshoo The city is represented by the city council, which internally elects a mayor and vice-mayor every calendar year  In December 2020, Liz Gibbons and Paul Resnikoff were elected mayor and vice-mayor, respectively Campbell is strongly Democratic in presidential elections, with the last Republican to win the city being Ronald Reagan in 1984  
The city is policed by its own police force, the Campbell Police Department, which shares its building with the rest of city hall  It sponsors a Law Enforcement Exploring program 

Layout
Campbell is in the southwest portion of Santa Clara Valley  It is bisected by Highway 17 passing through eastern Campbell  Highway 85 is to its south  The historic downtown section sits just west of the railroad in the central area  The southwestern area of Campbell is known as the San Tomas neighborhood and varies somewhat from most of Campbell in the size of its lots and styles of housing  East–west running Hamilton Avenue is one of the northernmost roads in Campbell 
The largest park in Campbell is Los Gatos County Park near Highway 17, and the second largest is John D  Morgan Park 

Transportation
State Route 17
 State Route 85
 Interstate 280Campbell is served by several major roads,  including State Route 17, State Route 85, Interstate 280, and San Tomas Expressway (Santa Clara County Route G4)  Major local arterial roads include Winchester Boulevard and Bascom Avenue 
Public transport in Campbell is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and includes several local and express bus lines that link the community to nearby towns, including Cupertino, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara and Saratoga  Additionally, the town is served by three light rail stations on the Mountain View - Winchester line, including Hamilton Station, Downtown Campbell Station, and the line's terminus at Winchester Station  These stations were opened as part of the first phase of the Vasona Light Rail project; the line will be extended past Winchester to Vasona Junction in Los Gatos once funding is secured  That line is now served by buses The extension was the subject of a minor dispute with the Federal Railroad Administration over the sounding of train horns late at night  This dispute delayed the opening of most of the extension for two months before the grand opening on October 1, 2005 

Housing and businesses
There are few large shopping centers or business complexes in the city, as Campbell is primarily a suburban residential area   The Home Depot has a store within the city limits and is one of the city's largest employers 
Most residences are single-family homes, although there are some areas with condominiums, duplexes, and apartments  Single-family homes typically have one or two bathrooms and three or four bedrooms and are between 1,000 square feet (93 m2) and 1,600 square feet (150 m2) on lots typically measuring about 6,000 square feet (560 m2)   The vast majority were built in the 1950s through 1970s  There are pockets of older homes, mostly near downtown, often in demand for their architectural styles   There are also pockets of newer, much larger homes about 3,500 square feet (330 m2), mostly built in the 1990s on subdivided lots previously occupied by homes dating from the first half of the 20th century 
Campbell's downtown is located near where Campbell Avenue intersects with the railroad  The downtown has many shops, bars, and restaurants The oldest commercial building in the city was erected in 1920 for the Grower's Bank  The building was converted to a movie theater in 1938   In 1968, The Gaslighter Theater company purchased and refurbished the building with a small stage and bar  The Gaslighter produced melodramas and Vaudeville-style shows there until it closed in 2006  In 2013 the building was sold and underwent refurbishment to become a wine bar, tasting room, and restaurant As of October 2006, the median price of single-family homes and condos was $707,500, up 4 8% from the previous October, and averaging $472 per square foot ($5,080/m2) according to the San Jose Mercury News; the average single-family home price, excluding condos, was $645,000 in January, 2004 (according to the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors)   The price is based largely on the land value; the replacement cost for homes is about $150 to $200 per square foot ($1,600 to $2,200/m2) With the advent of the California housing crisis, property values have greatly increased; as of April 2018, the median home value was $1,453,300, according to Zillow Like many other cities in the Santa Clara Valley, Campbell was originally orchard land that was later developed into housing tracts 

Education
Campbell public schools belong to two districts, the Campbell Union School District and the Campbell Union High School District  Of these districts, the schools located within the city are Campbell School of Innovation (K-8), Capri Elementary, Rosemary Elementary, Village School, and Westmont High School  Forest Hill Elementary School's campus is partially located in Campbell as well  Westmont High School is home to one of the few enduring Future Farmers of America programs left in the San Francisco Bay Area 
Within the school districts, there are 19 Campbell elementary schools, 9 Campbell middle schools, 3 Campbell high schools and 28 Campbell preschool schools  There are also 13 private schools in Campbell 
Santa Clara County Library operates the Campbell Library, which is currently relocated to the Campbell Community Center while it's being renovated 

Points of interest
Landmarks
In the early 1990s, the Ainsley House a unique English Tudor-style house built in 1925, was moved from its original site at the corner of Hamilton and Bascom Avenues (the current site of eBay's headquarters) to the downtown quad and furnished with many of the Ainsley family's original furnishings   It has become the centerpiece for the Ainsley House and Campbell Historical Museum, which houses additional exhibits in the nearby old firehouse   The Ainsley House was built in the style of English country cottages for John Colpitts Ainsley, a canning pioneer in Santa Clara County, which was at the time known for its vast spreads of fruit orchards 

The Campbell Community Center is located on the northwest corner of Winchester and Campbell Avenues, in the building that used to be Campbell High School, the original school in the Campbell Union High School District  The Redwood Tree, which stands at the corner of Winchester Boulevard and Campbell Avenue was originally planted there on May 11, 1903, by then President Teddy Roosevelt  The city acquired the property on August 1, 1985, five years after the school shut down  The Heritage Theater, formerly the high school's auditorium, was reopened after renovations in 2004 as an entertainment and event venue  The Community Center holds classes, and portions are available to be rented for various events 

The Campbell Water Tower is a highly visible remnant of Campbell's "small town" past and located on the site of the original city water company and pumping plant near downtown 
Campbell used to be the home of the Winchester Drive-In Theater (now a business park) and is also home to a number of public parks that include John D  Morgan Park, Campbell Park, Edith Morley Park (the site of the city's community garden program), Jack Fischer Park, the Los Gatos Creek Trail Park, Orchard City Green, and Stojanovich Family Park  Joseph Gomes Park located at 217 Winchester Blvd  is the smallest park in Campbell 

The Dubcich farm located on West Campbell Ave  near John D  Morgan Park is Campbell's last remaining piece of agricultural property and connection to the city's agrarian origins  It is still intact with its original farm house dating back to the 1920s, barn, and fruit trees 

Athletics
Campbell for many years had one of the most successful youth baseball programs in the country, reaching fourteen World Series from 1960 to 1987 
Campbell's youth baseball system dates to 1909, when Campbell High School formed its first team and won the Interurban Athletic Union championship  The community's first non-scholastic youth baseball organization was the Junior Hardball League, which began in 1947  In 1954, Campbell Little League and Campbell Pony League began operation, and Moreland Little League, which is located in west San Jose but historically has served many Campbell residents, started in 1959 
Moreland in 1962 became the only Northern California team to win a Little League World Series, with 6-foot-1, 210-pound (95 kg) Ted Campbell pitching a no-hitter in a 3–0 victory over Kankakee, Illinois, in the championship game  Campbell Little League reached the Little League World Series championship game in 1970, 1976, and 1979, becoming one of only two American leagues to go to the LLWS three times in one decade  In all, Campbell-system teams have won six youth baseball World Series and finished second five times  Ten future major leaguers played in the Campbell youth baseball system: Chris Codiroli, Don Hahn, George Tsamis, Steve Davis, Dan Gladden, Doug Capilla, Rich Troedson, Joe Ferguson, John Oldham, and Greg Gohr 
The Last Baseball Town, a book by Campbell resident Chuck Hildebrand that chronicles the city's baseball heritage, was published in May 2009 

Notable people
The following is a list of notable individuals who were born, raised, and/or residents in the City of Campbell 

Alan Aerts, world powerlifting champion, former owner (now retired) of Custom Vending Systems, and Campbell "Citizen of the Year" in 2005 and 2006
Dave Meltzer, wrestling journalist, historian and author
Sylvia Browne, psychic, spiritualist, author with her office in Campbell for many years 
Brett Dalton, actor, attended Westmont High School 
Lars Frederiksen, musician, of the bands Rancid, Lars Frederiksen & The Bastards and The Old Firm Casuals, raised in Campbell 
Claire Lobrovich, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player, born and raised in Campbell
Evan Low, state assemblyman, former mayor and city councilman, one of the youngest Asian-American and openly gay politicians in the U S 
Passage 6:
States of Nigeria
Nigeria is a federation of 36 states and 1 federal capital territory  Each of the 36 states is a semi-autonomous political unit that shares powers with the federal government as enumerated under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria  The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is the capital territory of Nigeria, and it is in this territory that the capital city of Abuja is located  The FCT is not a state but is administered by elected officials who are supervised by the federal government  Each state is subdivided into local government areas (LGAs)  There are 774 local governments in Nigeria  Under the constitution, the 36 states are co-equal but not supreme because sovereignty resides with the federal government  The constitution can be amended by the National Assembly, but each amendment must be ratified by two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation 

Current states and the Federal Capital Territory
Evolution of Nigerian states
Government
States of Nigeria have the right to organize and structure their individual governments in any way within the parameters set by the Constitution of Nigeria 

Legislature
At the state level, the legislature is unicameral, with the number of its members equal to three times the number of legislators it has in the Federal House of Representatives  It has the power to legislate on matters on the concurrent list 

Executive
At the state level, the head of the executive is the governor, who has the power to appoint people to the state executive council, subject to the advice and consent of the state house of assembly (legislature)  The head of a ministry at the state level is the commissioner, who is assisted by a permanent secretary, who is also a senior civil servant of the state 

Judiciary
The Judiciary is one of the co-equal arms of the state government concerned with the interpretation of the laws of the state government  The judiciary is headed by the chief justice of the state appointed by the governor subject to the approval of the state house of assembly 

Chronology
See also
List of Nigerian states by population
ISO 3166-2:NG
List of state governors of Nigeria

Notes
Sources
Gboyega Ajayi (2007)  The military and the Nigerian state, 1966–1993: a study of the strategies of political power control  Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press  ISBN 978-1-59221-568-3 
Solomon Akhere Benjamin (1999)  The 1996 state and local government reorganizations in Nigeria  Ibadan: Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research  ISBN 978-181-238-9 
Rotimi T  Suberu (1994)  1991 state and local government reorganizations in Nigeria  Ibadan: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan  ISBN 978-2015-28-8 

External links
"New States of Nigeria"  Statoids 
Headline News in Nigeria Archived 2018-08-20 at the Wayback Machine StatesStates And Capital In Nigeria, Their Slogans & Current Governors A comprehensive list of all states in Nigeria and their current governors 
Passage 7:
Tumaraa
Tumaraa is a commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The commune of Tumaraa is located on the island of Raiatea, in the administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands, themselves part of the Society Islands  At the 2017 census it had a population of 3,721, making it the least populous commune on Raiatea Tumaraa consists of the following associated communes:

Fetuna
Tehurui
Tevaitoa
VaiaauThe administrative centre of the commune is the settlement of Tevaitoa  The tallest mountain on Raiatea - Mont Temehani - is located within Tumaraa 
Passage 8:
Motru Coal Mine
Motru Coal Mine is an open-pit mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Motru, Gorj County  The legal entity managing the Motru mine is the National Company of Lignite Oltenia which was set up in 1997 The exploitation has two open pits Lupoaia, Roșiuța that produced 6 6 million tonnes of lignite in 2008  The mine has around 2,300 workers and is endowed with 13 bucket-wheel excavators, seven spreaders, two mixed machines and two deposits spreader  The total proven recoverable reserves of the mine amount to 108 million tonnes of lignite 
Passage 9:
Gmina Łowicz
Gmina Łowicz is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Łowicz County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland  Its seat is the town of Łowicz, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina 
The gmina covers an area of 133 38 square kilometres (51 5 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 7,444 

Villages
Gmina Łowicz contains the villages and settlements of Bocheń, Dąbkowice Dolne, Dąbkowice Górne, Guźnia, Jamno, Jastrzębia, Klewków, Małszyce, Mystkowice, Niedźwiada, Ostrów, Otolice, Parma, Pilaszków, Placencja, Popów, Strzelcew, Świące, Świeryż Drugi, Świeryż Pierwszy, Szczudłów, Urbańszczyzna, Wygoda, Zabostów Duży, Zabostów Mały, Zawady and Zielkowice 

Neighbouring gminas
Gmina Łowicz is bordered by the town of Łowicz and by the gminas of Bielawy, Chąśno, Domaniewice, Kocierzew Południowy, Łyszkowice, Nieborów and Zduny 
Passage 10:
Krasnovishersky District
Krasnovishersky District (Russian: Краснови́шерский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion) of Perm Krai, Russia; one of the thirty-three in the krai  Municipally, it is incorporated as Krasnovishersky Municipal District  It is located in the northeast of the krai, in the valley of the Vishera River, and borders with the Komi Republic in the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast in the east, Cherdynsky District in the west, Solikamsky District in the south, and with the territory of the town of krai significance of Alexandrovsk in the southeast  The area of the district is 15,375 square kilometers (5,936 sq mi)  Its administrative center is the town of Krasnovishersk  Population:  22,554 (2010 Census); 27,871 (2002 Census); 30,827 (1989 Census)  The population of Krasnovishersk accounts for 71 4% of the district's total population 

Geography
The eastern part of the district is mostly mountainous, while the western part is mostly flat, with some hills with the height of about 190–220 meters (620–720 ft)  The highest point of Perm Krai, Mount Tulymsky Kamen, is located in the district  There are many rivers in the district, including the Vishera River with its tributaries the Yazva, the Vels, the Uls, and many others  The town of Krasnovishersk is located 320 kilometers (200 mi) from the city of Perm  Natural resources of the district include diamonds, gold, oil, natural gas, and others 
The climate is temperate continental  The average annual temperature is +0 1 °C (32 2 °F); annual precipitation is 550–700 millimeters (22–28 in)  Up to 87% of the district's territory is covered by forests  In the extreme northeast of the district the Vishera Nature Reserve is located 

History
The district was established on January 13, 1941  Until then, its territory was a part of Cherdynsky District  Krasnovishersk, the administrative center of the district, was granted town status on July 2, 1942 

Demographics
As of the 2002 Census, about 89 7% of district's population were Russians and 2 5% were the Komi people 

Economy
The industry of the district includes timber industry, pulp and paper mill, mining and food industry 

See also
Visherogorsk
Zagovorukha
Passage 11:
Cyprus Popular Bank
Cyprus Popular Bank (from 2006 to 2011 known as Marfin Popular Bank) was the second-largest banking group in Cyprus behind the Bank of Cyprus until it was 'shuttered' in March 2013 and split into two parts  The 'good' Cypriot part was merged into the Bank of Cyprus (including insured deposits under 100,000 Euro) and the 'bad' part or legacy entity holds all the overseas operations as well as uninsured deposits above 100,000 Euro, old shares and bonds  The uninsured depositors were subject to a bail-in and became the new shareholders of the legacy entity   As at May 2017, the legacy entity is one of the largest shareholders of Bank of Cyprus with 4 8% but does not hold a board seat  All the overseas operations, of the now defunct Cyprus Popular Bank, are also held by the legacy entity, until they are sold by the Special Administrator, at first Ms Andri Antoniadou, who ran the legacy entity for two years, from March 2013 until 3 March 2015  She tendered her resignation due to disagreements, with the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and the Central Bank Board members, who amended the lawyers of the legacy entity, without consulting her  Veteran banker Chris Pavlou who is an expert in Treasury and risk management took over as Special Administrator of the legacy entity in April 2015 until December 2016  The legacy entity is pursuing legal action against former major shareholder Marfin Investment Group 
Its shares were listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange and the Athens Stock Exchange  CPB had a network of more than 295 branches in Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, the UK and Malta  The bank had applied to open a representative office in Beijing, People's Republic of China Trading on the island as Laiki Bank (Laiki being the Greek word for Popular), as of September 2012 it held a 16% share of the market in loans and a 14 4% share of deposits   The Bank made a series of large loans, many to Greek companies prior to and during their financial crisis  What followed has been described as "billions handed out in bad loans created a financial time-bomb"  After the bank collapsed, it was rescued by the Cypriot government, which took 84% ownership on 30 June 2012 and as of March 2013 it is being dismantled as part of the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis 

History
In 1901, four leading citizens of Limassol—Agathoclis Francoudis, Ioannis Kyriakides, Christodoulos Sozos and Neoklis Ioannides—established the Popular Savings Bank of Limassol to encourage saving among the workforce  More than two decades later, in 1924, the bank changed its name from the Popular Savings Bank of Limassol to the Popular Bank of Limassol  The bank also became the first company in Cyprus to register as a public-traded company 
Then in 1967, the Popular Bank of Limassol changed its name to Cyprus Popular Bank (CPB) to reflect the bank’s expansion beyond Limassol  Expansion beyond Limassol followed quickly, with the establishment of its first branches in Nicosia,  Famagusta (1969), and Paphos and Larnaca (1970)  Also in 1970, Midland Bank acquired 22% of the company's shares, making Midland a major shareholder in CPB  The next year CPB relocated its headquarters from Limassol to Nicosia 

1974 CPB established its first London branch 
1983 CPB acquired all the Cyprus operations of Grindlays Bank located in the area under government control 
1992 CPB opened the first branch of European Popular Bank in Athens  CPB owned 58% of the shares of the bank; other shareholders included HSBC (formerly Midland Bank) and Greek and Cypriot investors  CPB retained branches in Heraklion and Thessaloniki
1995 CPB opened its first representative offices in South Africa and in Toronto, Ontario, Canada 
1996 CPB opened its first representative offices in Australia 
1997 CPB opened its first representative offices in Serbia and in Russia ("Rosprombank")
1998 CPB establishes a representative office in New York  (NY State Banking Dept says State chartered) 
2000 The Cyprus Popular Bank Group changed its name to Laiki Group 
2001 The Laiki Group established a subsidiary in Australia with five branches 
2005 The Group established Laiki Bank (Guernsey), and purchased Bank Centrobank in Serbia 
2006 The Greek Marfin Investment Group acquired HSBC's shares in Laiki Bank, establishing a strong minority share position   Subsequently, the Marfin Investment Group through more acquisitions managed to take control of Laiki Bank, which it re-branded as Marfin Popular Bank   In Greece, the Marfin Group consolidated Egnatia, Laiki and Marfin to form Marfin Egnatia Bank, which is the 95%-owned Greek subsidiary of Marfin Popular Bank 
2007 The bank announced the planned takeover of 50 12% of the share capital of AS SBM Pank, a bank in Estonia MPB also acquired 99 2% of the shares of Marine Transport Bank Ukraine for US$156 million  This bank was founded in 1993 as Marine Trade Bank and changed its name to Marine Transport Bank in 1996  It has its headquarters in the Odesa region and has 86 branches 
Lastly, MPB acquired 43% of the share capital of Lombard Bank Malta for €48 million from Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI) of Lugano  CPB now holds c  49% of Lombard Bank Malta In 2007, the bank announced a multi-million financial deal to sponsor the football First Division in Cyprus until 2010 
2008 Marfin Popular Bank completed its acquisition of 50 4% of the shares of CJSC RPB Holding, parent company of the Rossisysky Promishlenny Bank (Rosprombank), for €83 million  The acquisition makes Marfin the first Greek or Cypriot bank to acquire control of a bank in Russia 
In 2010, they launched a new mobile banking and mobile trading service  In the same year, the company was selected as the bank of the year in Cyprus by the Banker 
2010 MPB sold 85% of Laiki Bank Australia to Bank of Beirut  The Australian bank received a new name, Beirut Hellenic Bank  At the time, the bank had a branch in Adelaide, four branches in Melbourne and five branches in Sydney 
2011 MPB sold the majority of its shareholding in its Estonian subsidiary and returned to its historic name of Cyprus Popular Bank (CPB) 
In 2012 CPB converted its Greek subsidiary into a branch of the parent bank 
The 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis resulted in financial difficulties at CPB  The Cypriot state recapitalized CPB on 30 June 2012 with the result that the government acquired 84% of the bank's equity  This increased the bank's core tier 1 capital ratio towards 9%, the level mandated by the European Banking Authority 
In early 2013 CPB renamed its Greek branches to CPB Bank and on 26 March the bank sold them to Piraeus Bank  Laiki was split into a good and bad bank, the good bank (Cyprus operations) merged with Bank of Cyprus and the bad bank is in the process of being sold and finally shuttered  The board and CEO were replaced on 27 March  The bad bank was being run by a Special Administrator Ms Andri Antoniadou who was acting CEO until 3 March 2015  Veteran banker Chris Pavlou took over as Special Administrator in April 2015 until December 2016 In 2018 European Court dismisses compensation claim in Cyprus 2013 deposit-grab 
Passage 12:
Oblasts of the Soviet Union
The oblasts of the Soviet Union were second-level administrative units of the Soviet Union, and first-level entities of the republics of the Soviet Union 

Terminology
Oblast is a Slavic term that exists in the Russian language  Russian was official in all republics 

By location
Baltic region
In the 1950s there were 10 oblasts in the three Baltic republics 

1953-04-28 Law on abolition of Pärnu, Tallinn and Tartu oblasts (Estonia) 
1953-04-25 Law on abolition of Riga, Daugavpils and Liepāja oblasts (Latvia) 
1953-05-28 Law on abolition of Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Šiauliai oblasts (Lithuania)

Transcaucasian region
In the 1950s there were 4 oblasts in the two Transcaucasian republics (only in Azerbaijan and Georgia) 

1953-04-23 Law on abolition of Baku and Ganja oblasts (Azerbaijan) 
1953-04-23 Law on abolition of Kutaisi and Tbilisi oblasts (Georgia)

List
See also
Oblasts of Russia
Oblasts of the Russian Empire
Oblast
Passage 13:
Moorea-Maiao
Moʻorea-Maiʻao is a commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The commune is in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands  At the 2017 census it had a population of 17,816 The commune of Moʻorea-Maiʻao is made up of the island of Moʻorea (133 km2/51 sq  miles; 17,463 inhabitants at the 2017 census) and the much smaller atoll of Maiʻao (8 8 km2/3 4 sq  miles; 353 inhabitants at the 2017 census), located 78 km (48 mi) southwest of Moʻorea 
Moʻorea-Maiʻao consists of the following associated communes:

The administrative centre of the commune is the settlement of Afareaitu, on the island of Moʻorea 
Passage 14:
Taputapuatea
Taputapuatea is a commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The commune of Taputapuatea is located on the island of Raiatea, in the administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands, themselves part of the Society Islands  At the 2017 census it had a population of 4,792  The commune was named after a large marae complex which was the religious center of eastern Polynesia for roughly 1000 years  The archaeological site of Taputapuatea marae is still today the most famous landmark of Raiatea, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 Taputapuatea consists of the following associated communes:

Avera
Opoa
PuohineThe administrative centre of the commune is the settlement of Avera 
Passage 15:
Pak Tam Chung
Pak Tam Chung (Chinese: 北潭涌) is an area in the southern part of the Sai Kung Peninsula in the New Territories of Hong Kong  It is administratively under the Sai Kung District 

Features
Pak Tam Chung was described as consisting of six villages in 1911 with fewer than 405 inhabitants: Wong Yi Chau (黃宜洲), Pak Tam (北潭), Sheung Yiu (上窰), Tsak Yue Wu (鯽魚湖), Wong Keng Tei (黃麖地) and Tsam Chuk Wan  The six villages were all inhabited by Hakka people, with the exception of two hamlets in Pak Tam There is a visitor centre for nature education set up by the Hong Kong Government  Near the centre is a vehicle barrier leading to the restricted portion of Sai Kung East Country Park in Pak Tam Chung  For vehicles, only those with authorisation can enter the area and reach places like Hoi Ha, Pak Tam Au and High Island Reservoir 
There are a number of picnic and barbecue facilities within Pak Tam Chung, including a site designed for physically disabled visitors 
Po Leung Kuk owns a holiday camp site in Pak Tam Chung, the Po Leung Kuk Pak Tam Chung Camp (保良局北潭涌渡假營) 

See also
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Historic churches of Sai Kung Peninsula
Sai Kung Town
Tai Po District
Passage 16:
Minsk Region
Minsk Region, also known as Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts (Belarusian: Мі́нская во́бласць, romanized: Minskaja voblasć, IPA: [ˈmʲinskaja ˈvobɫasʲtsʲ]; Russian: Минская о́бласть, romanized: Minskaya oblast), is one of the regions of Belarus  Its administrative center is Minsk, although it is a separate administrative territorial entity of Belarus  As of 2011, the region's population is 1,411,500 

Geography
Minsk Region covers a total of 39,900 km2, about 19 44% of the national total area  Lake Narach, the largest lake in the country, is located in the northern part of the region  There are four other large lakes in this region: Svir (8th largest), Myadel (11th largest), Syalyava (14th largest) and Myastro (15th largest)  It is the only region of Belarus whose border is not part of the international border of Belarus 

History
Beginning the 10th century, the territory of the current Minsk Region was part of Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, and later it was included in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania  With the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, the territory became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 
In 1793, as a result of the second partition of Polish territory, the area was annexed by Russia as the Minsk Region  During the collapse of the Russian Empire due to the Civil War, the western part was annexed to Poland in 1921, while the east became Soviet Belarus 
The Minsk region was established on 15 January 1938, based on the amendment of the Constitutional Law of the USSR  As of 20 February 1938, the area included 20 districts   Following the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, the former Eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic were annexed in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact partitioning Poland and added to the Minsk Region 
On 20 September 1944, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck were removed from the Minsk region and transferred to the newly formed Bobruisk Region 
On 8 January 1954, by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the Nesvizhski and Stolbtsovsky districts from the abolished Baranovichi Region, as well as the Glusk, Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck from the abolished Bobruisk Region, were added to the Minsk Region 
In 1960, following the abolition of Molodechno Region, its southern part became the northern part of the Minsk Region 

Tourism
The number of travel agencies in Minsk Region grew from twelve in 2000 to seventy in 2010  The most popular tourist destinations of the region are Zaslavskoye Lake, the Zhdanovichi area which has health resorts, Nesvizh Palace and its surroundings, as well as the alpine ski resorts of Logoysk and Silichi 

Administrative subdivisions
The Minsk Region comprises 22 districts (raions), 307 selsovets, 22 cities, 8 city municipalities, and 20 urban-type settlements 

Districts of Minsk Region
Cities and towns
Population of cities and towns in Minsk Region

Demographics
See also
Administrative divisions of Belarus
Villages in Minsk Region
Passage 17:
Federalism
Federalism is a combined and compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single political system, dividing the powers between the two  Federalism in the modern era was first adopted in the unions of states during the Old Swiss Confederacy Federalism differs from confederalism, in which the general level of government is subordinate to the regional level, and from devolution within a unitary state, in which the regional level of government is subordinate to the general level  It represents the central form in the pathway of regional integration or separation, bounded on the less integrated side by confederalism and on the more integrated side by devolution within a unitary state Examples of a federation or federal province or state include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States  Some characterize the European Union as the pioneering example of federalism in a multi-state setting, in a concept termed the "federal union of states" 

Overview
Etymology
The terms "federalism" and "confederalism" share a root in the Latin word foedus, meaning "treaty, pact or covenant"  Their common early meaning until the late eighteenth century was a simple league or inter-governmental relationship among sovereign states based on a treaty  They were therefore initially synonyms  It was in this sense that James Madison in Federalist No 39 had referred to the new US Constitution as "neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both" (i e  as constituting neither a single large unitary state nor a league/confederation among several small states, but a hybrid of the two)  In the course of the nineteenth century United States, the meaning of federalism would come to shift, strengthening to refer uniquely to the novel compound political form established at the Philadelphia Convention, while the meaning of confederalism would remain at a league of states 

Origin
In the narrow sense, federalism refers to the mode in which the body politic of a state is organized internally, and this is the meaning most often used in modern times  Political scientists, however, use it in a much broader sense, referring instead to a "multi-layer or pluralistic concept of social and political life "The first forms of federalism took place in ancient times, in the form of alliances between states  Some examples from the seventh to second century B C  were the Archaic League, the Aetolic League, the Peloponnesian League, and the Delian League  An early ancestor of federalism was the Achaean League in Hellenistic Greece  Unlike the Greek city states of Classical Greece, each of which insisted on keeping its complete independence, changing conditions in the Hellenistic period drove many city states to band together even at the cost of losing part of their sovereignty  Subsequent unions of states included the first and second Swiss Confederations (1291–1798 and 1815–48), the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1579–1795), the German Bund (1815–66), the first American union known as the Confederation of the United States of America (1781–89), and second American union formed as the United States of America (1789–1865) 

Political theory
Modern federalism is a political system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments  The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world depending on context  Since the term federalization also describes distinctive political processes, its use as well depends on the context In political theory, two main types of federalization are recognized:

integrative, or aggregative federalization, designating various processes like: integration of non-federated political subjects by creating a new federation, accession of non-federated subjects into an existing federation, or transformation of a confederation into a federation
devolutive, or dis-aggregative federalization: transformation of a unitary state into a federation

Reasons for adoption
According to Daniel Ziblatt, there are four competing theoretical explanations in the academic literature for the adoption of federal systems:

Ideational theories, which hold that a greater ideological commitment to decentralist ideas in society makes federalism more likely to be adopted 
Cultural-historical theories, which hold that federal institutions are more likely to be adopted in societies with culturally or ethnically fragmented populations 
"Social contract" theories, which hold that federalism emerges as a bargain between a center and a periphery where the center is not powerful enough to dominate the periphery and the periphery is not powerful enough to secede from the center 
"Infrastructural power" theories, which hold that federalism is likely to emerge when the subunits of a potential federation already have highly developed infrastructures (e g  they are already constitutional, parliamentary, and administratively modernized states) Immanuel Kant noted that "the problem of setting up a state can be solved even by a nation of devils" so long as they possess an appropriate constitution which pits opposing factions against each other with a system of checks and balances  In particular individual states required a federation as a safeguard against the possibility of war Proponents for federal systems have historically argued that the power-sharing inherent in federal systems reduces both domestic security threats and foreign threats  Federalism allows states to be large and diverse, mitigating the risk of a tyrannical government through centralization of powers 

Examples
Many countries have implemented federal systems of government with varying degree of central and regional sovereignty  The federal government of these countries can be divided into minimalistic federations, consisting of only two sub-federal units or multi-regional, those that consist of three to dozens of regional governments  They can also be grouped based on their body polity type, such as emirate, provincial, republican or state federal systems  Another way to study federated countries is by categorizing them into those whose entire territory is federated as opposed to only part of its territory comprising the federal portion of the country  Some federal systems are national systems while others, like the European Union are supra national 
In general, two extremes of federalism can be distinguished: at one extreme, the strong federal state is almost completely unitary, with few powers reserved for local governments; while at the other extreme, the national government may be a federal state in name only, being a confederation in actuality  Federalism may encompass as few as two or three internal divisions, as is the case in Belgium or Bosnia and Herzegovina 
The governments of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, and Mexico, among others, are also organized along federalist principles 
In Canada, federalism typically implies opposition to sovereigntist movements (most commonly Quebec separatism)  In 1999, the Government of Canada established the Forum of Federations as an international network for exchange of best practices among federal and federalizing countries  Headquartered in Ottawa, the Forum of Federations partner governments include Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Switzerland 

Europe vs  the United States
In Europe, "federalist" is sometimes used to describe those who favor a common federal government, with distributed power at regional, national and supranational levels  The Union of European Federalists advocates for this development within the European Union, ultimately leading to the United States of Europe  Although there are medieval and early modern examples of European states which used confederal and federal systems, contemporary European federalism originated in post-war Europe; one of the more important initiatives was Winston Churchill's speech in Zürich in 1946 In the United States, federalism originally referred to belief in a stronger central government  When the U S  Constitution was being drafted, the Federalist Party supported a stronger central government, while "Anti-Federalists" wanted a weaker central government  This is very different from the modern usage of "federalism" in Europe and the United States  The distinction stems from the fact that "federalism" is situated in the middle of the political spectrum between a confederacy and a unitary state  The U S  Constitution was written as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation, under which the United States was a loose confederation with a weak central government 
In contrast, Europe has a greater history of unitary states than North America, thus European "federalism" argues for a weaker central government, relative to a unitary state  The modern American usage of the word is much closer to the European sense  As the power of the U S  federal government has increased, some people have perceived a much more unitary state than they believe the Founding Fathers intended  Most people politically advocating "federalism" in the United States argue in favor of limiting the powers of the federal government, especially the judiciary (see Federalist Society, New Federalism) 
The contemporary concept of federalism came about with the creation of an entirely new system of government that provided for democratic representation at two governing levels simultaneously, which was implemented in the US Constitution  In the United States implementation of federalism, a bicameral general government, consisting of a chamber of popular representation proportional to population (the House of Representatives), and a chamber of equal State-based representation consisting of two delegates per State (the Senate), was overlaid upon the pre-existing regional governments of the thirteen independent States  With each level of government allocated a defined sphere of powers, under a written constitution and the rule of law (that is, subject to the independent third-party arbitration of a supreme court in competence disputes), the two levels were thus brought into a coordinate relationship for the first time 
In 1946, Kenneth Wheare observed that the two levels of government in the US were "co-equally supreme"  In this, he echoed the perspective of American founding father James Madison who saw the several States as forming "distinct and independent portions of the supremacy" in relation to the general government 

Constitutional structure
Division of powers
In a federation, the division of power between federal and regional governments is usually outlined in the constitution  Almost every country allows some degree of regional self-government, but in federations the right to self-government of the component states is constitutionally entrenched  Component states often also possess their own constitutions which they may amend as they see fit, although in the event of conflict the federal constitution usually takes precedence 
In almost all federations the central government enjoys the powers of foreign policy and national defense as exclusive federal powers  Were this not the case a federation would not be a single sovereign state, per the UN definition  Notably, the states of Germany retain the right to act on their own behalf at an international level, a condition originally granted in exchange for the Kingdom of Bavaria's agreement to join the German Empire in 1871  The constitutions of Germany and the United States provide that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government are retained by the states  The Constitution of some countries, like Canada and India, state that powers not explicitly granted to the provincial/state governments are retained by the federal government  Much like the US system, the Australian Constitution allocates to the Federal government (the Commonwealth of Australia) the power to make laws about certain specified matters which were considered too difficult for the States to manage, so that the States retain all other areas of responsibility  Under the division of powers of the European Union in the Lisbon Treaty, powers which are not either exclusively of Union competence or shared between the Union and the Member States as concurrent powers are retained by the constituent States 

Where every component state of a federation possesses the same powers, we are said to find 'symmetric federalism'  Asymmetric federalism exists where states are granted different powers, or some possess greater autonomy than others do  This is often done in recognition of the existence of a distinct culture in a particular region or regions  In Spain, the Basques and Catalans, as well as the Galicians, spearheaded a historic movement to have their national specificity recognized, crystallizing in the "historical communities" such as Navarre, Galicia, Catalonia, and the Basque Country  They have more powers than the later expanded arrangement for other Spanish regions, or the Spain of the autonomous communities (called also the "coffee for everyone" arrangement), partly to deal with their separate identity and to appease peripheral nationalist leanings, partly out of respect to specific rights they had held earlier in history  However, strictly speaking Spain is not a federation, but a system of asymmetric devolved government within a unitary state 
It is common that during the historical evolution of a federation there is a gradual movement of power from the component states to the centre, as the federal government acquires additional powers, sometimes to deal with unforeseen circumstances  The acquisition of new powers by a federal government may occur through formal constitutional amendment or simply through a broadening of the interpretation of a government's existing constitutional powers given by the courts 
Usually, a federation is formed at two levels: the central government and the regions (states, provinces, territories), and little to nothing is said about second or third level administrative political entities  Brazil is an exception, because the 1988 Constitution included the municipalities as autonomous political entities making the federation tripartite, encompassing the Union, the States, and the municipalities  Each state is divided into municipalities (municípios) with their own legislative council (câmara de vereadores) and a mayor (prefeito), which are partly autonomous from both Federal and State Government  Each municipality has a "little constitution", called "organic law" (lei orgânica)  Mexico is an intermediate case, in that municipalities are granted full-autonomy by the federal constitution and their existence as autonomous entities (municipio libre, "free municipality") is established by the federal government and cannot be revoked by the states' constitutions  Moreover, the federal constitution determines which powers and competencies belong exclusively to the municipalities and not to the constituent states  However, municipalities do not have an elected legislative assembly 
Federations often employ the paradox of being a union of states, while still being states (or having aspects of statehood) in themselves  For example, James Madison (author of the US Constitution) wrote in Federalist Paper No  39 that the US Constitution "is in strictness neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both  In its foundation, it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the Government are drawn, it is partly federal, and partly national   " This stems from the fact that states in the US maintain all sovereignty that they do not yield to the federation by their own consent  This was reaffirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reserves all powers and rights that are not delegated to the Federal Government as left to the States and to the people 

Bicameralism
The structures of most federal governments incorporate mechanisms to protect the rights of component states  One method, known as 'intrastate federalism', is to directly represent the governments of component states in federal political institutions  Where a federation has a bicameral legislature the upper house is often used to represent the component states while the lower house represents the people of the nation as a whole  A federal upper house may be based on a special scheme of apportionment, as is the case in the senates of the United States and Australia, where each state is represented by an equal number of senators irrespective of the size of its population 
Alternatively, or in addition to this practice, the members of an upper house may be indirectly elected by the government or legislature of the component states, as occurred in the United States prior to 1913, or be actual members or delegates of the state governments, as, for example, is the case in the German Bundesrat and in the Council of the European Union  The lower house of a federal legislature is usually directly elected, with apportionment in proportion to population, although states may sometimes still be guaranteed a certain minimum number of seats 

Intergovernmental relations
In Canada, the provincial governments represent regional interests and negotiate directly with the central government  A First Ministers conference of the prime minister and the provincial premiers is the de facto highest political forum in the land, although it is not mentioned in the constitution 

Constitutional change
Federations often have special procedures for amendment of the federal constitution  As well as reflecting the federal structure of the state this may guarantee that the self-governing status of the component states cannot be abolished without their consent  An amendment to the constitution of the United States must be ratified by three-quarters of either the state legislatures, or of constitutional conventions specially elected in each of the states, before it can come into effect  In referendums to amend the constitutions of Australia and Switzerland it is required that a proposal be endorsed not just by an overall majority of the electorate in the nation as a whole, but also by separate majorities in each of a majority of the states or cantons  In Australia, this latter requirement is known as a double majority 
Some federal constitutions also provide that certain constitutional amendments cannot occur without the unanimous consent of all states or of a particular state  The US constitution provides that no state may be deprived of equal representation in the senate without its consent  In Australia, if a proposed amendment will specifically impact one or more states, then it must be endorsed in the referendum held in each of those states  Any amendment to the Canadian constitution that would modify the role of the monarchy would require unanimous consent of the provinces  The German Basic Law provides that no amendment is admissible at all that would abolish the federal system 

Other technical terms
Fiscal federalism – the relative financial positions and the financial relations between the levels of government in a federal system 
Formal federalism (or 'constitutional federalism') – the delineation of powers is specified in a written constitution, which may or may not correspond to the actual operation of the system in practice 
Executive federalism refers in the English-speaking tradition to the intergovernmental relationships between the executive branches of the levels of government in a federal system and in the continental European tradition to the way constituent units 'execute' or administer laws made centrally 
Gleichschaltung – the conversion from a federal governance to either a completely unitary or more unitary one, the term was borrowed from the German for conversion from alternating to direct current  During the Nazi era the traditional German states were mostly left intact in the formal sense, but their constitutional rights and sovereignty were eroded and ultimately ended and replaced with the Gau system  Gleichschaltung also has a broader sense referring to political consolidation in general 
defederalize – to remove from federal government, such as taking a responsibility from a national level government and giving it to states or provinces

In relation to conflict
It has been argued that federalism and other forms of territorial autonomy are a useful way to structure political systems in order to prevent violence among different groups within countries because it allows certain groups to legislate at the subnational level  Some scholars have suggested, however, that federalism can divide countries and result in state collapse because it creates proto-states  Still others have shown that federalism is only divisive when it lacks mechanisms that encourage political parties to compete across regional boundaries Federalism is sometimes viewed in the context of international negotiation as "the best system for integrating diverse nations, ethnic groups, or combatant parties, all of whom may have cause to fear control by an overly powerful center " However, those skeptical of federal prescriptions sometimes believe that increased regional autonomy can lead to secession or dissolution of the nation  In Syria, for example, federalization proposals have failed in part because "Syrians fear that these borders could turn out to be the same as the ones that the fighting parties have currently carved out "

See also
Notes and references
Sources
External links

P -J  Proudhon (1863), The Principle of Federation 



ground_truth: Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County, California

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How many times did plague occur in the birthplace of La Silvia's composer?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: 
The controlled breach of the dike was estimated to flood approximately 225 square kilometres (87 sq mi)  This option was chosen as opposed to risking an uncontrolled breach, which could release as much as 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi) with flows of up to 15,000 cu ft/s (420 m3/s), while over 800 homes would be affected by the waters  Military personnel were assigned to build flood protection in Brandon, on the Assiniboine River west of Portage la Prairie, and for residences that were at risk of flooding due to the controlled breach 
The intentional breach and overland flooding began on Saturday May, 14  The resultant flooding was very slow moving and was expected to take several days to reach the La Salle River  The waters intentionally spilled from the Assiniboine were expected to cover 185 square kilometres (71 sq mi) and flood a possible 150 homes  The Expected crest at the Portage Reservoir was then downgraded to around 52,000 cu ft/s (1,500 m3/s), leading some engineers to question the necessity of the breach at Hoop & Holler Bend as between the Portage Diversion (34,000 cu ft/s (960 m3/s)) and the Assiniboine River Channel (up to 20,000 cu ft/s (570 m3/s)) could have handled the floodwater  The controlled breach has carried no more than 400 cu ft/s (11 m3/s) and flooding was modest 

Effects on Lake Manitoba
With the diversion of water from the Assiniboine using the Portage Diversion into Lake Manitoba, the water level on the lake increased  Increasing the capacity of the Diversion put surrounding residences in danger of being flooded, also prompting an evacuation of Delta Beach on Lake Manitoba  Due to the increased capacity of the diversion and the duration of its use, it increased water levels on Lake Manitoba significantly, more than the 1976 Assiniboine River Flood, which resulted in approximately 1,420,000 acre-feet (1 75 km3) of water being diverted  In 2011 a total of 4,768,000 acre-feet (5 881 km3)  was diverted into the lake  The Manitoba Government's projections indicated that excluding the outflows of Lake Manitoba through the Fairford River resulted in an increase of 1 22 feet (0 37 m) in the level of the lake [1]  The Flood of 2011 surpassed these totals, causing flooding to Lake Manitoba and peaked at 817 2 feet (249 1 m) above sea level, 5 feet (1 5 m) above the normal operating range   This led to flood fighting efforts shifting from the Assiniboine River to Lake Manitoba 
A technical review of the 2011 flood completed in October, 2013 concluded that the net effect of artificial works (Fairford River improvements and the Portage Diversion) was a rise of 0 3 feet (0 091 m) on the lake  However, the rise occurred in weeks, rather than years as would occur in natural conditions 
Passage 11:
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a Scottish breed of retriever dog of medium size  It is characterised by a gentle and affectionate nature and a striking golden coat  It is commonly kept as a pet and is among the most frequently registered breeds in several Western countries  It is a frequent competitor in dog shows and obedience trials; it is also used as a gundog, and may be trained for use as a guide dog 
The breed was created by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks at his Scottish estate Guisachan in the late nineteenth century  He cross-bred Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels, with some further infusions of Red Setter, Labrador Retriever and Bloodhound  The breed was recognised by the Kennel Club in 1913, and during the interwar period spread to many parts of the world 

History
The Golden Retriever was developed in Scotland in the nineteenth century by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (later to become Baron Tweedmouth) from Flat-coated Retrievers judiciously crossed with Tweed Water Spaniels and some other British dog breeds  Prior to the 1952 publication of the very detailed stud book which had been meticulously maintained by Marjoribanks, a number of romantic tales were published about the origins of the breed In the 1860s Marjoribanks set out to create what to his mind was the ultimate breed of retriever at his Scottish estate Guisachan  He started by acquiring a yellow-coloured Flat-coated Retriever dog called Nous; Nous had been whelped in June 1864 and was the only yellow pup in an otherwise all black-coloured litter  Whilst uncommon, occasionally liver, brown, golden or yellow-coloured purebred Flat-coated Retriever pups are whelped to matings of two black parents  It is the pedigree of Nous that was the source for the romantic tales of the heritage of the Golden Retriever  One early account claimed Nous was purchased from a Russian circus trainer in Brighton, another claimed he was bought from a cobbler, and yet another claimed a gypsy  The stud book states that Nous was a Flat-coated Retriever bred by Lord Chichester on his Stanmer Park estate near Brighton In 1868 Nous was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel bitch named Belle, who is recorded in the stud book as being whelped in 1863 and being of "Ladykirk breeding"  The litter from this mating consisted of four yellow pups, Primrose, Ada, Cowslip and Crocus  The best bitch from this litter, Cowslip, was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel called Tweed with the mating producing a bitch pup called Topsy  Cowslip was subsequently mated to a Red Setter called Sampson; that mating produced a dog pup called Jack  Topsy was mated with a black Flat-coated Retriever called Sambo and a bitch pup from that litter, Zoe, was mated back to Jack and two pups from that mating were retained, a dog called Nous II and a bitch called Gill  Gill was mated to a black Labrador Retriever called Tracer, and a bitch pup from that mating, Queenie, was mated back to Nous II; all Golden Retrievers descend from this mating  The progeny from these various matings varied in colour from pure black to light cream, but it was the golden coloured ones that were retained and mated to each other, forming the foundation stock of the Golden Retriever breed  Marjoribanks is also known to have used a sandy-coloured Bloodhound and another Labrador in subsequent years of the breeding programme 
In 1952 Marjoribanks's great-nephew, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, teamed up with Elma Stonex and together they studied Marjoribanks's stud book  In 1960 their research was published, presenting all of the evidence required to counter all tales of Russian ancestry  The stud book, which covers the period from 1868 to 1890, is preserved in the library of the Kennel Club in London 

In the early days Golden Retrievers were called the 'Flat-coated Retriever, Golden', Initially the Golden Retriever was considered a colour variety of the former breed  In 1903 the Kennel Club recorded the first examples, listing them in the same register as Flat-coats  In 1904 a Golden Retriever won a field trial and in 1908 the first examples were exhibited at conformation shows  In 1911 a breed club was formed for the breed in England, the Golden Retriever Club, and they were given a new name, the 'Yellow or Golden Retriever'; from this point they were increasingly seen as a separate breed from the Flat-coated Retriever  It was not until 1913 that the Kennel Club began recording them on a separate breed register from the Flat-coated Retriever and in 1920 the 'Yellow or' was dropped from the breed name and they were officially called the 'Golden Retriever' One early twentieth century enthusiast of the breed, Winifred Charlesworth, was instrumental in the establishment of the breed club as well as its separate Kennel Club recognition  It was she who drew up the first breed standard, which was adopted by the Kennel Club and with only minor amendments and remains largely unchanged  She bred and exhibited the first Golden Retriever Show Champion, was a strong advocate for maintaining the working instincts of the breed, and she is credited with popularising it at field trials and introducing it to shooting sportsmen In the years after the First World War its popularity increased markedly and in the 1920s and 1930s it spread through much of the Western world  The Canadian Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1927, the American Kennel Club in 1932; the first examples were registered in France in 1934 and Australia in 1937  The worldwide popularity of the breed meant it did not suffer the misfortunes many British dog breeds did during the Second World War due to British wartime restrictions on the breeding of larger dogs, with ample quality breeding stock available globally to ensure none of its characteristics were lost Since the 1940s its popularity has continued to grow, and it has become one of the most recognised and most frequently registered dog breeds in the Western world 

Description
Appearance
The Golden Retriever is a powerfully built, medium-sized breed of dog; according to the Kennel Club breed standard, dogs stand from 56 to 61 centimetres (22 to 24 in) and bitches from 51 to 56 centimetres (20 to 22 in)  Healthy adult examples typically weigh between 25 and 34 kilograms (55 and 75 lb) The Golden Retriever has a broad head with a well-defined stop, with dark eyes set well apart, a wide and powerful muzzle, a large black nose, dark-pigmented and slightly drooping flews, and ears of moderate size set high and hanging with a slight fold  The neck is muscular and fairly long with loose-fitting skin, the shoulders well laid-back and long-bladed, and the body deep through the chest with well-sprung ribs  The back is usually level from withers to croup and the long, straight tail is usually carried flat, roughly in line with the back  The forelegs are straight with good bone, the hind legs are powerful with well bent stifles and muscular thighs, and the feet are cat-like The double coat is a recognisable and striking feature: the outer coat is long, flat or wavy and has good feathering on the forelegs, while the undercoat is dense and provides weather resistance  The coat can be any shade of cream, yellow or gold; the coat typically becomes paler with age  The Kennel Club breed standard prohibits red or mahogany-coloured coats, but a few white hairs on the chest are permitted  Originally only yellow or golden coloured examples were permitted, this excluded many outstanding cream coloured dogs; to overcome this in 1936 the Kennel Club's standard was amended to include the cream colour  The cream colour, which in more modern times can be almost white, has become the dominant colour and is particularly favoured by conformation show exhibitors  Golden Retrievers that are bred for conformation shows tend to have longer and finer coats than those bred for working as gundogs The Kennel Club breed standard is accepted by every kennel club in the world except those of Canada and the United States  Breed standards in North America call for a slightly taller dog and the cream colour is not permitted 

Temperament
The Golden Retriever is considered an intelligent, gentle natured and very affectionate breed of dog  As is typical with retriever breeds, the breed is generally calm and biddable, being very easy to train and extremely keen to please their master  The breed is known to make excellent pets and family dogs, being generally extremely tolerant of children and keen to accompany any member of the family in a range of activities  Due to their affable natures, the breed is often completely devoid of guarding instincts  However, there have also been reports of some very aggressive Golden Retrievers in certain lineages  It has been suggested that these variations in aggression are partially caused by genetic factors The breed usually retains many of their gundog traits and instincts including an excellent sense of smell and a strong instinct to retrieve; even among those not trained as gundogs it is typical for Golden Retrievers to present their owners with toys or other objects  Compared to other retriever breeds the Golden Retriever is typically quite slow to mature 

Popularity and uses
The Golden Retriever is one of the most commonly kept breeds of companion dog in the Western world, and is often among the top ten dog breeds by number of registrations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada  It is a frequent competitor at dog shows; separate show lines of the breed have been developed  The dogs can be trained as guide dogs and therapy dogs, and may compete in obedience trials and other dog sports The Golden Retriever is still used as a gundog by sportsmen, both as a hunting companion in the field and for competing in field trials   It is used more for retrieval of land-based gamebirds such as grouse and partridge than for wildfowl hunting  Those used as gundogs are usually from working lines specifically bred for field use; dogs from pet or show lines are rarely suitable  A Golden Retriever with a traditional dense double coat is well suited to working in cold and wet conditions, as the coat provides water resistance and insulation  Compared to other retriever breeds, the Golden Retriever is not a strong swimmer; its long coat causes it to sit low in the water when swimming The Golden Retriever is much less commonly used by sportsmen as a hunting companion than the Labrador Retriever  One reason is that the breed is generally quite slow to mature, particularly compared to the Labrador; often when a Golden Retriever is still in basic training a Labrador of the same age has already completed a season of hunting  Another is its long coat, which requires more maintenance and grooming than that of the Labrador, particularly after working in muddy conditions or close cover, as their long hair is more prone to picking up dirt and burrs  More Golden Retrievers are bred as pets or for the show ring than for hunting, so it can be hard for sportsmen to find pups bred from proven working lines 

Health
Golden Retrievers are a generally healthy breed; they have an average lifespan of 12 to 13 years  Irresponsible breeding to meet high demand has led to the prevalence of inherited health problems in some breed lines, including allergic skin conditions, eye problems and sometimes snappiness  These problems are rarely encountered in dogs bred from responsible breeders The breed is unusually prone to cancer, with one United States study finding cancer to be the cause of death in approximately 50% of the population, the second highest in the study  Several European studies found a much lower prevalence (20–39%), which may reflect the significant genetic divergence between the American and European populations   They are especially prone to hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma, with an estimated lifetime risk of one in five for the former and one in eight for the latter  The high prevalence of cancer deaths among Golden Retrievers may partly represent a lack of other congenital diseases 

Notable Golden Retrievers
Liberty, presidential pet of President Gerald R  Ford 
Bailey, pet of US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren 
Orca, PDSA Gold Medal recipient for bravery 
Mayor Max, elected Mayor of Idyllwild, California 

See also
Dogs portal

Explanatory notes
Passage 12:
Pawnee River
The Pawnee River or Pawnee Fork is a river in western Kansas in the United States, about 198 miles (319 km) long  It is a tributary of the Arkansas River, which in turn is a branch of the Mississippi River 
It rises in northwestern Gray County at an elevation of 2,835 feet (864 m), as the outflow of several agricultural drainage channels  For 20 miles (32 km) the river runs due north, before turning northeast near Ravanna  The river arcs to the south and receives Buckner Creek, its main tributary at the town of Burdett, then flows east past Rozel and through Fort Larned National Historic Site  It joins the Arkansas River on the left bank, south of the city of Larned This river drains an arid farming region of about 2,700 square miles (7,000 km2) of the Great Plains  Most of its flow is consumed by irrigation before it reaches the mouth, and the river dries up for periods of months at a time in most years  The land surrounding the river was originally inhabited by the Kansa, Cheyenne, Osage, Pawnee and other tribes, the latter for which the river is named  The river was a route for the Santa Fe Trail in the 19th century, and was also the scene of Native American-U S  wars in 1854, after which Fort Larned was established on the river to maintain a permanent military presence in the region 

See also
List of rivers of Kansas
Passage 13:
Mangalam River
Mangalam River is the main tributary of the river Gayathripuzha, which in turn is a tributary of Bharathapuzha, the second longest river in Kerala, India   It is around 30 km long in length, with its source from Nelliyampathi forests, and passing through Vadakkencherry, Kannambra, Puthucode, Padur, etc  and joining Gayathripuzha at Plazhi in the border of Thrissur and Palakkad districts 
Cherukunnapuzha is a tributary of Mangalam River and Mangalam Dam is constructed across this river  A canal system for irrigation purpose was completed and opened in 1966, in Alathur taluk, Palakkad district 

Tributaries of the river Mangalam river
Cherukunnapuzha

See also
Bharathapuzha - Main river
Gayathripuzha - One of the main  tributaries of the river Bharathapuzha

Other tributaries of the river Gayathripuzha
Ayalurpuzha
Vandazhippuzha
Meenkarappuzha
Chulliyar
Passage 14:
VX-6
Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6 or AIRDEVRON SIX, commonly referred to by its nickname, "puckered penguins") was a United States Navy Air Development Squadron based at McMurdo Station, Antarctica  Established at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on 17 January 1955, the squadron's mission was to conduct operations in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the operational component of the United States Antarctic Program 
Using the tail code XD, the squadron flew numerous fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters over the course of its existence—many of which were pioneering endeavors  For example, the first air link between Antarctica and New Zealand was established by men and aircraft of VX-6 in 1955  The following year, a ski-equipped R4D Dakota of VX-6 became the first aircraft to land at the South Pole  In 1961, the first emergency midwinter medical evacuation flight was conducted from Byrd Station to  Christchurch  In 1963, an LC-130F Hercules of VX-6 made the longest flight in Antarctic history  In 1967, a United States Navy LC-130F of VX-6 completed the first scheduled winter flight to Antarctica, landing at Williams Field 
VX-6 changed the tail code of its aircraft to JD in 1957, and was redesignated as Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6) on 1 January 1969  Over the first 14-years of its existence during the time it was designated VX-6, seventeen sailors and marines assigned died in Antarctica during Operation Deep Freeze missions 

History
VX-6 traces its roots to Operation Highjump (1946–1947), the fourth Antarctic expedition conducted by United States Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd  That expedition set out in December 1946 to conduct an extensive aerial survey of Antarctica, using Martin PBM Mariners based in the pack ice of the Ross Sea, as well as land-based R4D Dakotas (Dakota, from the acronym "DACoTA" for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft, was the designation used by the United States Navy to refer to the Douglas C-47 Skytrain)  By the time Operation Highjump was concluded in late February 1947, the team had mapped about 5,500 miles (8,900 km) of coastline and 1,500,000 square miles (3,900,000 km2) of the interior of the continent VX-6 was one of six air development squadrons formed by the United States Navy beginning in 1946 to develop and evaluate aircraft tactics and techniques  These squadrons were initially directed by the Operational Development Force, which was redesignated in May 1959 as the Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR)  These six squadrons were initially designated as VX-1 (tail code XA), VX-2 (tail code XB), VX-3 (tail code XC), VX-4 (tail code XF), VX-5 (tail code XE) and VX-6 (tail code XD)  On 1 January 1969, the surviving Air Development Squadrons (VX-1, VX-4, VX-5 and VX-6) became Air Test and Evaluation Squadrons  Their designations were changed to VXE-1, VXE-4, VXE-5 and VXE-6  Their tail codes of these squadrons were changed to JA, JF, JE and JD, respectively 

Operation Deep Freeze I and II
Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6) was formally established on 17 January 1955 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland  The squadron's mission was to conduct aviation operations in support of United States Department of Defense responsibilities in connection with the United States Antarctic Program  On 1 February, Task Force 43 was activated to plan Antarctic operations scheduled to begin in the fall under the code name Operation Deep Freeze, with Captain George J  Dufek as commanding officer  Dufek would remain as commanding officer through Operation Deep Freeze IV, which concluded in 1959  The mission of Task Force 43 was to provide all the logistical support necessary for the successful U S  participation in the upcoming International Geophysical Year (1957–8)  More specifically, this meant that Task Force 43 was responsible for the construction of airstrips and iceports and the establishment of bases on Antarctica that would enable scientists to conduct geophysical studies upon that continent  On 14 November, the flagship of the recently promoted RADM Dufek, Commander Task Force 43, steamed from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia to rendezvous in New Zealand with other ships of the task force for the onward voyage to Antarctica VX-6 made its first deployment at that time as part of Task Force 43 (the logistics arm of Operation Deep Freeze)  That first season, VX-6 completed nine long-range exploratory flights  The squadron also transported people and materials necessary for the construction of Little America Base Camp, the Naval Air Operations Facility on Hut Point Peninsula (Ross Island), the first South Pole Station (now referred to as "Old Pole"), and assisted in the establishment of four other bases on the continent  On 20 December 1955, two Lockheed P2V-2 Neptunes and two R5D Skymasters (R5D was the designation used by the United States Navy to refer to the Douglas C-54 Skymaster) established the first air link between Antarctica and New Zealand with a flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Station Following its return from Operation Deep Freeze I in February 1956, VX-6 was relocated to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island  Naval Construction Battalion Center Davisville, the site of manufacture of the first Quonset huts, was also located at Quonset Point  NCBC Davisville was the home of Naval Construction Battalion 200, which had been established to perform the construction of any facilities required by the United States Antarctic Program  In September of that year, LCDR Ray E  Hall drew the first rendition of "Puckered Pete", a cartoon character which later became the unofficial mascot of VX-6 

On 31 October 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, Qué Será Será, a ski-equipped R4D Dakota piloted by LCDR Conrad S  Shinn, became the first plane to land at the South Pole  The seven United States Navy men (RADM George J  Dufek, CAPT Douglas L  Cordiner, CAPT William M  Hawkes, LCDR Conrad S  Shinn, LT John R  Swadener, AD2 John P  Strider, and AT2 William A  Cumbie Jr ) aboard that aircraft were the first to stand at this spot in 44 years, the last being Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition in January 1912  RADM Dufek had chosen LCDR Shinn and his flight crew to attempt the landing, which was an extraordinary undertaking since the South Pole was almost 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level where the aircraft engines would operate considerably below their optimum power levels  In addition it was expected that extremely cold conditions could be expected on the surface  The landing party remained at the South Pole for only 49 minutes, setting up navigational aids to assist the future delivery of materials and equipment for constructing a scientific observation station at the spot  Also in 1956, an R4D Dakota delivered the first group of 11 Seabees and 11 dog sleds, together with tents and other equipment to the South Pole, to begin construction of the first South Pole Station 

1957–1969
In 1957, the first letter of all the east-coast-based VX squadrons, including VX-6, was changed from X to J  In January 1958, a VX-6 UC-1 Otter made the first wheels-on-dirt landing in Antarctica at Marble Point  On 1 October 1959, RADM David M  Tyree (Commander, U S  Naval Support Force Antarctica from 14 April 1959–26 November 1962) arrived at Naval Air Facility McMurdo Station from Christchurch aboard an R5D Skymaster piloted by LCDR J  A  Henning of VX-6  This first flight of the season marked the operational implementation of Operation Deep Freeze V On 9–10 April 1961, the first midwinter medical evacuation flight was conducted to rescue Leonid Kuperov, a seriously ill Soviet scientist, from Byrd Station  Two VX-6 C-130BL Hercules from Quonset Point flew from to Christchurch  One (piloted by CDR Lloyd E  Newcomer) then flew on to Byrd Station to pick up Kuperov, while the other stood by in Christchurch  The total distance flown during this rescue mission was just under 13000 miles On 22 February 1963, an LC-130F Hercules of VX-6 made the longest flight in Antarctic history, covering territory never before seen by man  The plane (piloted by CDR William H  Everett and carrying RADM James R  Reedy (Commander, U S  Naval Support Force Antarctica from November 1962–April 1965) among its passengers, made the 3,470-mile (5,580 km) flight from McMurdo Station, beyond the South Pole to the Shackleton Range and then southeastward to the pole of inaccessibility before returning to McMurdo Station; the duration of this journey was 10 hours and 40 minutes  Also in February 1963, VX-6 completed the first delivery of bulk fuel by a Lockheed LC-130 Hercules On 26 June 1964, an LC-130F Hercules, commanded by LT Robert V  Mayer of VX-6, completed a round-trip flight from Christchurch to Antarctica in an emergency evacuation of petty officer B  L  McMullen, critically injured in a fall  As in the earlier medical evacuation of 1961, two planes, with teams of medical specialists on board, flew from NAS Quonset Point to Christchurch where one plane stood by while the other undertook the hazardous flight  On 30 September 1964, three LC-130 Hercules aircraft of VX-6 took off from Melbourne, Christchurch and Punta Arenas, respectively  The three aircraft flew to Antarctica, landing on Williams Field, 7 miles (11 km) from McMurdo Station  The flight from Melbourne, the first in history from Australia to Antarctica, passed over the South Pole to drop a 50-pound sack of mail to the wintering-over party, then landed at Byrd Station before proceeding to McMurdo Station  The arrival of RADM Reedy on this flight marked the official opening of Operation Deep Freeze 1965  Also in 1964, VX-6 conducted the first flight from Cape Town, South Africa to McMurdo Station, the first flight of a U S  aircraft to the Soviet Vostok Station, and the first successful demonstration of trimetrogon aerial photography, used extensively to map Antarctica On 7 June 1966, a C-130 Hercules, piloted by CDR Marion Morris of VX-6, returned to Christchurch after a flight to McMurdo Station to evacuate UT-2 Robert L  Mayfield, who had been critically injured in a fall  It was the third emergency air evacuation from Antarctica during the winter night On 18 June 1967, The first scheduled winter flight to Antarctica was successfully completed when a United States Navy LC-130F of VX-6 flying from Christchurch landed at Williams Field  Although earlier winter flights had been made to Antarctica as a result of medical emergencies, this was the first planned flight  On 2 December 1967, an LC-117D Skytrooper landed at McMurdo Station from Hallett Station  This was the last C-117 flight on the Antarctic continent, marking the end of 11 years of service to VX-6 by the Douglas C-47 Skytrain airframe On 1 January 1969, VX-6 was redesignated as Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6) 

Aircraft
In support of Operation Deep Freeze, the squadron operated a variety of aircraft throughout the course of its existence  Fixed-wing aircraft included the Grumman UF-1L Albatross, UC-1 Otter, Douglas Skytrain (R4D Dakota and C-47 models), Douglas Skymaster (R5D and C-54 models), Lockheed Neptune (P2V-2 and P2V-7 models), Lockheed Constellation (R7D and R7V models), and the Lockheed LC-130 Hercules  The ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules, whose long range and heavy load capability significantly increased the capabilities of the unit, was introduced during Operation Deep Freeze 1961  Helicopters included the Sikorsky Seahorse (HUS-1A and HUS-1L models), and the Sikorsky HO4S-3 

Aviation accidents and incidents
Seventeen sailors and marines assigned to VX-6 died in Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze On 18 October 1956, a P2V-2 Neptune crashed at McMurdo Station during a landing in whiteout conditions, killing David W  Carey, Rayburn A  Hudman, Marion O  Marze, and Charles S  Miller On 12 July 1957, an HO4S-3 crashed in the vicinity of McMurdo Station during austral winter, killing Nelson R  Cole On 4 January 1959, a UC-1 Otter crashed on takeoff at Marble Point, killing Harvey E  Gardner and Lawrence J  Farrell On 9 November 1961, a P2V-7 crashed on takeoff from Wilkes Station, killing William D  Counts, Romuald P  Compton, William W  Chastain, James L  Gray and passenger geologist Dr  Edward C  Thiel On 2 February 1966, a LC-47J crashed on Ross Ice Shelf during takeoff, killing Ronald Rosenthal, Harold M  Morris, William D  Fordell, Richard S  Simmons, Wayne M  Shattuck, and Charles C  Kelley 

See also
Mount VX-6
VX-9
VX-20
VX-23
VX-30
VX-31
Passage 15:
Indian River Charter High School
Indian River Charter High School (IRCHS) is a co-educational public charter high school in Vero Beach, Florida  The school operates under charter from the Indian River County School District 

Location
The school is located near the Mueller Campus of the Indian River State College 
Passage 16:
Bolshaya Lyampa
The Bolshaya Lyampa (Russian: Большая Лямпа) is a river in Perm Krai, Russia, a right tributary of the Uls which in turn is a tributary of the Vishera  The river is 34 kilometres (21 mi) long  Its source is near the border with Sverdlovsk Oblast  It flows into the Uls 55 kilometres (34 mi) from the larger river's mouth  The Bolshaya Lyampa's main tributary is the Malaya Lyampa 
Passage 17:
Ngunguru River
The Ngunguru River is a river of the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island  It initially flows southwest before turning east to flow into a long, wide estuary which empties into Ngunguru Bay to the northwest of Whangārei  The town of Ngunguru sits on the estuary's north bank at its opening to the bay 

See also
List of rivers of New Zealand
Passage 18:
Metsimotlhabe River
The Metsimotlhabe River is the largest river in the Kweneng District of Botswana, draining the area that lies to the south of Molepolole into the Notwane River, in turn a tributary of the Limpopo River   
The name "Metsimotlhabe" means "water sand river" The Bokaa Dam was built in 1990/1991 by damming the Metsimotlhabe River just south of Bokaa village 
Surface drainage in the sandveld surrounding the Metsimotlhabe is limited to pans and dry valleys, which rarely carry surface water Sand extraction from the riverbed has caused problems, since this lowers the water table and causes the surrounding vegetation to die 
This is a significant economic activity in the District 
In June 2012 a spokesperson for the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources pointed out that demand was high due to the boom in housing caused by the growing affluence of the country 



ground_truth: 22