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

Question: In what year did Margaret Knox's spouse pass away?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Miller Township, Knox County, Ohio
Miller Township is one of the twenty-two townships of Knox County, Ohio, United States   The 2010 census found 1,006 people in the township 

Geography
Located in the southern part of the county, it borders the following townships:

Clinton Township - north
Pleasant Township - northeast
Morgan Township - east
Burlington Township, Licking County - south
Bennington Township, Licking County - southwest corner
Milford Township - west
Liberty Township - northwest cornerNo municipalities are located in Miller Township 

Name and history
Miller Township was named for James Miller, a pioneer settler who gave elections officials five and one half gallons of whiskey to secure the honor   It is the only Miller Township statewide Miller Township was originally built up chiefly by settlers from Vermont and Rhode Island 

Government
The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1  Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it  There is also an elected township fiscal officer, who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election  Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees 
Passage 2:
Margaret McWade
Margaret McWade (born Margaret May Fish; September 3, 1871 –  April 1, 1956) was an American stage and film actress  She began her career in vaudeville in the early 1890s  Her most memorable role was as one of The Pixilated Sisters, a comedic stage act with actress Margaret Seddon  Later in 1936, they reprised their roles in the movie Mr  Deeds Goes to Town 

Biography
Margaret May Fish was born September 3, 1871, in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest of three daughters  A number of short biographies state that Fish was born in 1872; however, the 1900 U S  Census reports her birth in 1871 

Career
During her early career, Margaret May Fish went by the stage name Margaret May  In the late 1890s, while performing in vaudeville, she met fellow actress Margaret Seddon  The two actresses teamed to create a stage act known as The Pixillated Sisters  The act proved to be a hit for the duo  Years later, they would reprise The Pixilated Sisters in the 1936 movie Mr  Deeds Goes to Town 
On September 4, 1897, Margaret married actor Edward McWade  Margaret and her husband appeared in a number of stage performances together in Boston and New York before their marriage  Their earliest stage appearance together was in March 1892 in Boston  They were cast as supporting characters in County Fair at the Whitney Opera House  Until late 1919, Margaret continued to use her stage name Margaret May Margaret McWade made her screen debut in the 1914 silent film The Drama of Heyville, starring Marc McDermott and directed by Ashley Miller  She was under contract to the Edison Film Company and was later picked up by the Vitagraph Film Company  She acted in a total of 59 films from 1914 to 1954 Between films, she was a prolific stage actress, touring the U S  with various theatrical companies  Margaret also toured in theater shows with her husband Edward, several which he wrote  In April 1901, Edward McWade wrote and produced the play Winchester at the American Theater in New York  The play was based upon an event during the Civil War  Edward McWade wrote a supporting role for his wife  In 1902, he wrote the play The Land of Mystery, a romantic drama in which Margaret also had a role In 1922, Margaret was cast in the movie The Blot, produced and directed by Lois Weber  The Blot is considered by many critics to be Weber's greatest film  McWade played Mrs  Griggs, and she is described in reviews as the, "old mother hubbard, shouldering most of the burden for the penny pinching family " The movie received critical acclaim, which paved the way for more acting roles  McWade most often was described as playing the mother, aunt, older sister, spinster, and later in her career, the grandmother  In the Louisiana newspaper Monroe Morning World on June 5, 1938, she is described physically as "the one with the angular face and black hair" In 1935, producers approached both McWade and Seddon and asked them to reprise their roles as The Pixilated Sisters for the 1936 movie Mr  Deeds Goes to Town, starring Gary Cooper and directed by Frank Capra  In the film, the two actresses play sisters who believe that Cooper's character is "pixilated"  Reprising these characters set off a brief firestorm of stage and film performances for the duo  In The Corsicana Daily Sun, McWade is quoted regarding having played the Pixilated Sisters in the movie: "it's a one chance in a million, like something out of a book  It's not hard to understand  It wasn't we who clicked individually or even collectively  It was a grand part  If you recall, we turned the tide by our testimony in favor of Gary Cooper at an insanity hearing  He was a beloved character, and by helping him we helped ourselves "The two actresses teamed for a variety of films throughout the late 1930s and into the 1940s, often playing spinster sisters in comedic roles written for them, such as One Man's Bonus  After 1936, they often were billed in newspapers and posters as those "beloved Pixilated Sisters" 

Later years and death
Two years after performing in her last movie, Margaret McWade died on April 1, 1956, in Los Angeles at the age of 83  She was buried in her hometown of Chicago, Illinois in Rosehill Cemetery 

Stage performances
1892: The County Fair  The Whitney Opera House; Boston, MA; ** Edward McWade in production 
1893: Comic Stage Sketches  Boston, MA; **Edward McWade in production 
1901: Winchester  The American Theater, New York; Written by Edward McWade 
1902: The Land of Mystery  New York Theater Company; New York; Written by husband Edward McWade 
1912: Robert A  Hudson Theater; San Francisco, CA; New York Stage Production Company 
1925: The Painted Lady The William Fox Players  Touring theatrical show  Bar Harbor Maine 

Partial filmography
Passage 3:
Peggy Wehmeyer
Margaret "Peggy" Wehmeyer is an American journalist and op-ed writer contributing to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Dallas Morning News  She also served for seven years as the religion correspondent on the ABC News television network, before becoming the host and managing editor of The World Vision Report Wehmeyer was born in Oklahoma City and was raised mostly in Barbados and Texas  An ethnic German Jew, she is religiously Christian   She is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin  As a young woman, Wehmeyer worked and studied at Dallas Theological Seminary  In 1994, she was hired by ABC News, with the strong support of Peter Jennings, to become the first full-time religion correspondent on a national news network where she served for seven years   20/20 and Good Morning America also aired her stories  Prior to her job at ABC, she worked at WFAA-TV in Dallas on the station's religion beat In 2002, she left ABC to become the host and managing editor of the World Vision Report, a public radio broadcast funded by the World Vision charitable organization  As host of The World Vision Report, Peggy reported on global stories about justice and poverty  She has received multiple awards including two Cine Golden Eagle Awards, the Columbus International Film and Video Festival Award and a New York Festivals award 

Personal life
Wehmeyer has two adult daughters, Hannah Woods Buchannan (Assoc  Pastor, HPUMC) and Lauren Woods Meyer (Federal Public Defender)  Her marriage to Mark Woods lasted until his death in 2008 
Passage 4:
Thundering Caravans
Thundering Caravans is a 1952 American Western film directed by Harry Keller and starring Allan Lane, Mona Knox and Eddy Waller The film's art direction was by Frank Hotaling 

Plot
Cast
Allan Lane as Marshal Rocky Lane
Black Jack as Black Jack
Eddy Waller as Sheriff Nugget Clark
Mona Knox as Alice Scott
Roy Barcroft as Ed Brill
Isabel Randolph as Deborah Cranston
Richard Crane as Deputy Dan Reed
William Henry as Bert Cranston
Edward Clark as Printer Tom
Pierre Watkin as Head Marshal
Stanley Andrews as Henry Scott
Boyd 'Red' Morgan as Henchman Joe
Fred Aldrich as Townsman
Art Dillard as Henchman
Roy Engel as Frank
Marshall Reed as Wounded Driver
Tex Terry as Rogers
Dale Van Sickel as Cave Henchman
Passage 5:
Margaret Knox
Margaret Knox (née Stewart; 1547 – after 1612) was a Scottish noblewoman and the second wife of Scottish reformer John Knox, whom she married when she was 17 years old and he 54  The marriage caused consternation from Mary, Queen of Scots, as the couple had married without having obtained royal consent 

Family
Margaret Stewart was born in 1547, the daughter of Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree, and Agnes Cunningham  The family was staunchly Protestant, and also related to the Scottish royal family and the Hamiltons  Margaret had three sisters and four brothers, including James Stewart, Earl of Arran 

Marriages and children
On 26 March 1564, she married her first husband, John Knox, leader of the Scottish Reformation, and a close friend of her father  His first wife, Marjorie Bowes, had died in December 1560, leaving him with two small sons, Nathaniel and Eleazer  The marriage was strongly criticised by Queen Mary, as they had married without having first obtained her consent  Margaret, as the Queen's relative, was required to ask the monarch for permission to marry 
The couple made their home on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, and together they had three daughters:
Martha Knox (1565–1592), married Alexander Fairlie, by whom she had issue 
Margaret Knox (b 1567), married Zachary Pont, by whom she had issue 
Elizabeth Knox (1570- January 1622), married in 1594, John Welsh, minister of Ayr, by whom she had issue Margaret served as Knox's secretary, and later, when he became ill, his nurse  Following Knox's death in November 1572, the General Assembly, at the suggestion of the Regent, Morton, allowed Margaret to receive, for the year succeeding her husband's death, his pension of 500 merks In January 1574, she married her second husband, Sir Andrew Ker of Faldonside  He had been part of the conspiracy of Protestant nobles, led in March 1566 by Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven, who had stabbed to death Queen Mary's Italian secretary, David Rizzio in the presence of the Queen, who was almost six months pregnant at the time  It was Ker who had held his pistol at Mary's side, while she was constrained to watch Rizzio's killing Together they had a number of children, one of which was named John Ker, minister of Salt Preston On 8 April 1574, a Charter of Alienation confirmed Ker's provision for Margaret, in her widowhood, of the liferent of a third of ancestral lands in Haddingtonshire  Kerr died on 19 December 1599, and she did not remarry 
Margaret died sometime after 1612 
Passage 6:
Blue Chip Conference
The Blue Chip Conference is a high school athletic conference in southwestern Indiana, United States  The conference's members are small A or AA high schools located in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, and Martin counties  The BCC was founded in 1968, with Barr-Reeve, Bloomfield, Loogootee, North Daviess, North Knox, South Knox, and Springs Valley  Barr-Reeve had to wait until 1969 to be released from the Patoka Valley Conference to play in the league, and Loogootee also had to wait until 1970 to leave the Southwestern Indiana Conference  The conference grew to 11 schools in the mid-1970s, but for the most part has stabilized at nine schools since then with the only exception being the 6 year period between the addition of Wood Memorial in 2000 and loss of Forest Park in 2006 where the count was at 10 

Member schools
North Knox is a member of the Southwest Football Conference for football 
North Knox played in the Western Indiana Conference 1977-81, then played independently from 1981 to 1986 before rejoining the BCC 
Shoals played concurrently in the BCC and SWIAC from 1977 to 1979 

Former members
Bloomfield played concurrently in the BCC and SWIAC for its entire BCC duration 

Membership timeline
Conference championships
Football
Football was discontinued as a conference sport after the 1977-78 school year  Mitchell and Springs Valley would move to the Patoka Lake Conference one year later, and North Daviess would be an independent until joining the Southwest Seven Conference 

Boys basketball
Champions before 1993-94 season unverified 

Girls basketball
Champions before 2000-01 season unverified 

State titles
Barr-Reeve Vikings (3)
2013 Volleyball (A)
2015 Boys Basketball (A)
2018 Girls Volleyball (A)
2020 Girls Volleyball (AA)
2021 Boys Basketball (A)

Loogootee Lions (2)
2012 Boys Basketball (A)
2020 Girls Basketball (A)

North Knox Warriors (0)
Northeast Dubois Jeeps (0)
Shoals Jug Rox (0)
South Knox Spartans (0)
Vincennes Rivet Patriots (0)
1A Girls Basketball (2011)

Washington Catholic Cardinals (0)
Wood Memorial Trojans (1)
2017 Girls Basketball (A)

Runner-Up Titles, and State Finals Appearances
Barr-Reeve Vikings
1998 Boys Baseball   (A)
1998 Girls Volleyball(A)
2001 Girls Volleyball(A)
2002 Boys Basketball (A)
2007 Boys Basketball (A)
2008 Girls Volleyball(A)
2009 Girls Volleyball(A)
2010 Boys Basketball (A)
2014 Boys Basketball (A)
2015 Girls Basketball (A)
2016 Boys Cross Country - Single Class
2018 Girls Cross Country - Single Class
2019 Boys Basketball (A)

Wood Memorial Trojans
2007 Girls Basketball (A)

Loogootee Lions
2005 Boys Basketball  (A)
1975 Boys Basketball  (Pre-Class)
1970 Boys Basketball (Pre-Class)
2012 Girls Volleyball (A)
2007 Girls Volleyball (A)
2006 Girls Volleyball (A)
2005 Girls Volleyball (A)
2000 Girls Volleyball (A)
2021 Girls Basketball (A)
2020 Girls Volleyball (A)

Vincennes Rivet Patriots
2009 Girls Basketball (A)
2009 Boys Baseball (A)
2010 Girls Basketball (A)
2013 Boys Baseball (A)
2018 Girls Basketball (A)
2019 Girls Basketball (A)

Washington Catholic Cardinals
2005 Girls Basketball (A)

Former Member State Titles
Forest Park Rangers (3)
2001 Softball (A)
2005 Boys Basketball (2A)
2006 Boys Basketball (2A)

Neighboring Conferences
Pocket Athletic Conference
Patoka Lake Conference
Passage 7:
Monroe City, Indiana
Monroe City is a town in Harrison Township, Knox County, Indiana, United States  The population was 545 at the 2010 census 
Monroe City was named for one of its founders, Monroe Alton 

Geography
Monroe City is located at 38°36′57″N 87°21′19″W (38 615891, -87 355232) According to the 2010 census, Monroe City has a total area of 0 27 square miles (0 70 km2), all land 

Demographics
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 545 people, 217 households, and 153 families living in the town  The population density was 2,018 5 inhabitants per square mile (779 3/km2)  There were 238 housing units at an average density of 881 5 per square mile (340 3/km2)  The racial makeup of the town was 98 7% White, 0 6% African American, 0 2% Native American, and 0 6% from other races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0 7% of the population 
There were 217 households, of which 37 8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53 0% were married couples living together, 14 3% had a female householder with no husband present, 3 2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 29 5% were non-families  29 0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 51 and the average family size was 3 08 
The median age in the town was 32 8 years  28 8% of residents were under the age of 18; 8 2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29% were from 25 to 44; 20 7% were from 45 to 64; and 13 2% were 65 years of age or older  The gender makeup of the town was 47 3% male and 52 7% female 

2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 548 people, 231 households, and 157 families living in the town  The population density was 2,039 4 inhabitants per square mile (787 4/km2)  There were 259 housing units at an average density of 963 9 per square mile (372 2/km2)  The racial makeup of the town was 99 27% White, 0 18% African American, and 0 55% from two or more races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0 36% of the population 
There were 231 households, out of which 32 9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53 7% were married couples living together, 11 3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32 0% were non-families  31 2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 36 and the average family size was 2 94 
In the town, the population was spread out, with 24 6% under the age of 18, 8 4% from 18 to 24, 26 8% from 25 to 44, 22 6% from 45 to 64, and 17 5% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 39 years  For every 100 females, there were 93 6 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90 3 males 
The median income for a household in the town was $32,788, and the median income for a family was $43,125  Males had a median income of $31,364 versus $18,269 for females  The per capita income for the town was $15,579  About 7 2% of families and 7 1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9 0% of those under age 18 and 2 0% of those age 65 or over 
Passage 8:
Margaret Blair Young
Margaret Blair Young (born 1955) is an American author, filmmaker, and writing instructor who taught for thirty years at Brigham Young University 

Biography
Young's published work includes the novels House Without Walls (1991), Salvador (1992), and Heresies of Nature (2002) and the short story collections Elegies and Love Songs (1992) (which won an Association of Mormon Letters award) and Love Chains (1997)  She also co-authored a trilogy of historical novels about Black Mormon pioneers titled Standing on the Promises with Darius Gray   The trilogy, published between 2000 and 2003, was republished in revised and expanded form in 2012 and 2013 Young scripted and helped direct a 2005 television documentary based on the life of Jane Elizabeth Manning James, "Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel "  The 20-minute documentary has been shown at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2005 annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), and on public television (PBS)   Documentary filmmaker Scott Freebairn produced and directed the film   More recently, Young served as the project director for the Utah chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society's film The Wisdom of our Years   In 2008, Young and Gray completed a long documentary titled Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons, which has been shown on PBS stations, in film festivals, and on the Documentary Channel   Her award-winning play, I Am Jane, also about Black Mormon pioneer Jane Manning James, has been produced throughout the country  Young has also authored encyclopedia articles on Blacks in the western United States, and has served as president of the Association for Mormon Letters  In 2014 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whitney Awards and the Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters Young’s recent efforts have been directed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she and her team are working to launch the film industry, which disappeared amidst the chaos of war and corruption in the 1990s   She has teamed up with Tshoper Kabambi, Deborah Basa, and Ephraim Faith on film initiatives   They work with Bimpa Production in Kinshasa, which is producing a film that Young has scripted and that Tshoper Kabambi is directing   Young is also working on literacy and educational projects, and is teaching students at various schools throughout the DR-Congo how to create their own books, given the relative lack of books in the Congo   In Lodja, DR-Congo, she works with Professor Abbé On'okundji Okavu Ekanga, author of Les Entrailles du Porc-épic: Une nouvelle éthique pour l’Afrique   Mr  Okundji returned to his home village in the Congo to help it recover from the Congo war of 1998-2004 
Young is married to English professor Bruce Wilson Young (1950- )  Bruce is a BYU, Columbia and Harvard graduate who has written multiple essays and the book Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare   They are the parents of four children, including vocal performer and music instructor Kaila Lifferth and writer Robbie Blair 

See also
LDS fiction
Passage 9:
Butler Township, Knox County, Ohio
Butler Township is one of the twenty-two townships of Knox County, Ohio, United States   The 2010 census found 1,171 people in the township 

Geography
Located in the eastern part of the county, it borders the following townships:

Union Township - north
Tiverton Township, Coshocton County - northeast corner
Newcastle Township, Coshocton County - east
Perry Township, Coshocton County - southeast corner
Jackson Township - south
Clay Township - southwest corner
Harrison Township - west
Howard Township - northwest cornerNo municipalities are located in Butler Township 

Name and history
Butler Township was organized in 1825 It is one of six Butler Townships statewide 

Government
The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1  Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it  There is also an elected township fiscal officer, who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election  Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees 
Passage 10:
The Education of Shelby Knox
The Education of Shelby Knox is 2005 documentary film that tells the coming-of-age story of public speaker and feminist Shelby Knox, a teenager who joins a campaign for comprehensive sex education in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas  TEOSK was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and aired on PBS’ P O V  series that same year  It was directed and produced by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt 

Overview
Lubbock has some of the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the nation, the "solution" to which is a strict abstinence-only sex education curriculum in the public schools and a conservative preacher who urges kids to pledge abstinence until marriage 
Shelby Knox is a deeply religious Southern Baptist teenager who joins the Lubbock Youth Commission, a group of high school students representing a youth voice in city government  When the teens confront Lubbock's sexual health crisis and campaign for comprehensive sex education, Knox throws herself into the battle with missionary fervor, struggling to reconcile her newfound political beliefs with her conservative religious views  When the campaign broadens to include a fight for a gay-straight alliance, Knox must confront her family and pastor in this coming-of-age story 

Awards
The Education of Shelby Knox has received a number of awards:

2005 Sundance Film Festival (Excellence in Cinematography, Documentary Category)
2005 SXSW Film Festival (Audience Award)
2005 Sonoma Valley Film Festival (Jury Prize)
2005 Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (Jury Prize, Best Documentary)
2005 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Emerging Pictures Audience Award)
Council on Foundations (2005 Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media)
2005 Fresno Reel Pride Film Festival (Audience Award, Best Feature)
2006 The Index on Censorship's Freedom of Expression Film Award (Nominee)

Shelby Knox in the News
The Dixie Chicks' 2006 album Taking the Long Way features a track titled "Lubbock or Leave It", which is based on The Education of Shelby Knox  When the song came out, the group's member Emily Robison told the press: "We'd seen a documentary called The Education of Shelby Knox, which was about a girl     trying to get Lubbock to teach sex education in the schools  Lubbock has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the U S , so it really showed what happens when you keep that information away from people " Lead singer Natalie Maines, who is from Lubbock, subsequently spoke (during a 2006 episode of VH1 Storytellers) about watching the film and drawing from her own experiences of living there to write the song 
In the 2013 documentary How to Lose Your Virginity, scenes from The Education of Shelby Knox are featured alongside interviews with Shelby Knox As of June 2011, Shelby Knox is living in New York City and serving as the Director of Organizing, Women's Rights for Change org 
Passage 11:
Warren, Kentucky
Warren is an unincorporated community and coal town in Knox County, Kentucky, United States  It was also known as Cumberland Station 
Passage 12:
Enoch Arden law
The Enoch Arden law is a legal precedent in the United States that grants a divorce or a legal exemption so that a person can remarry, if his or her spouse has been absent without explanation for a certain number of years, typically seven 
After seven years the missing spouse can be declared legally dead 
The "Enoch Arden doctrine" is named after Tennyson's 1864 melodrama Enoch Arden 
Passage 13:
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church  Presbyterian churches derive their name from the presbyterian form of church government by representative assemblies of elders  Many Reformed churches are organised this way, but the word Presbyterian, when capitalized, is often applied to churches that trace their roots to the Church of Scotland or to English Dissenter groups that formed during the English Civil War Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures, and the necessity of grace through faith in Christ  Presbyterian church government was ensured in Scotland by the Acts of Union in 1707, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain  In fact, most Presbyterians found in England can trace a Scottish connection, and the Presbyterian denomination was also taken to North America, mostly by Scots and Scotch-Irish immigrants  The Presbyterian denominations in Scotland hold to the Reformed theology of John Calvin and his immediate successors, although there is a range of theological views within contemporary Presbyterianism  Local congregations of churches which use Presbyterian polity are governed by sessions made up of representatives of the congregation (elders), a conciliar approach as with other levels of decision-making (presbytery, synod, and general assembly)  There are roughly 75 million Presbyterians in the world The roots of Presbyterianism lie in the Reformation of the 16th century, the example of John Calvin's Republic of Geneva being particularly influential  Most Reformed churches that trace their history back to Scotland are either presbyterian or congregationalist in government  In the twentieth century, some Presbyterians played an important role in the ecumenical movement, including the World Council of Churches  Many Presbyterian denominations have found ways of working together with other Reformed denominations and Christians of other traditions, especially in the World Communion of Reformed Churches  Some Presbyterian churches have entered into unions with other churches, such as Congregationalists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists  Presbyterians in the United States came largely from Scottish immigrants, Scots-Irish immigrants, and also from New England communities that had originally been Congregational but changed because of an agreed-upon Plan of Union of 1801 for frontier areas 

Presbyterian identity
Early history
Presbyterian tradition, particularly that of the Church of Scotland, traces its early roots to the Christian Church founded by Saint Columba, through the 6th-century Hiberno-Scottish mission  Tracing their apostolic origin to Saint John, the Culdees practised Christian monasticism, a key feature of Celtic Christianity in the region, with a presbyter exercising "authority within the institution, while the different monastic institutions were independent of one another " The Church in Scotland kept the Christian feast of Easter at a date different from the See of Rome and its monks used a unique style of tonsure  The Synod of Whitby in 664, however, ended these distinctions as it ruled "that Easter would be celebrated according to the Roman date, not the Celtic date " Although Roman influence came to dominate the Church in Scotland, certain Celtic influences remained in the Scottish Church, such as "the singing of metrical psalms, many of them set to old Celtic Christianity Scottish traditional and folk tunes", which later became a "distinctive part of Scottish Presbyterian worship" 

Development
Presbyterian history is part of the history of Christianity, but the beginning of Presbyterianism as a distinct movement occurred during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation  As the Catholic Church resisted the Reformers, several different theological movements splintered from the Church and bore different denominations  
Presbyterianism was especially influenced by the French theologian John Calvin, who is credited with the development of Reformed theology, and the work of John Knox, a Scottish Catholic Priest who studied with Calvin in Geneva and brought back Reformed teachings to Scotland  An important influence on the formation of presbyterianism in Britain also came from John a Lasco - a Polish reformer, the founder of a Stranger's Church in London, based on the Geneva models The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back primarily to Scotland  In August 1560, the Parliament of Scotland adopted the Scots Confession as the creed of the Scottish Kingdom  In December 1560, the First Book of Discipline was published, outlining important doctrinal issues but also establishing regulations for church government, including the creation of ten ecclesiastical districts with appointed superintendents which later became known as presbyteries In time, the Scots Confession would be supplanted by the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the larger and shorter catechisms, which were formulated by the Westminster Assembly between 1643 and 1649 

Characteristics
Presbyterians distinguish themselves from other denominations by doctrine, institutional organisation (or "church order") and worship; often using a "Book of Order" to regulate common practice and order  The origins of the Presbyterian churches are in Calvinism  Many branches of Presbyterianism are remnants of previous splits from larger groups  Some of the splits have been due to doctrinal controversy, while some have been caused by disagreement concerning the degree to which those ordained to church office should be required to agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith, which historically serves as an important confessional document – second only to the Bible, yet directing particularities in the standardisation and translation of the Bible – in Presbyterian churches 
Presbyterians place great importance upon education and lifelong learning, tempered with the belief that no human action can affect salvation 
Continuous study of the scriptures, theological writings, and understanding and interpretation of church doctrine are embodied in several statements of faith and catechisms formally adopted by various branches of the church, often referred to as "subordinate standards" 
When the women with Eliza Thompson gathered to pray at a Presbyterian church in Hillsboro, Ohio, this became the birthplace of the highly influential Woman's Temperance Crusade  Presbyterian evangelist Billy Sunday also persuaded many thousands who drank to turn to Christ instead – wanting Christ now and no more alcohol 

Government
Presbyterian government is by councils (still known as courts in some countries, as boards in others) of elders  Teaching and ruling elders are ordained and convene in the lowest council known as a session or consistory responsible for the discipline, nurture, and mission of the local congregation  Teaching elders (pastors or ministers) have responsibility for teaching, worship, and performing sacraments  Pastors or ministers are called by individual congregations  A congregation issues a call for the pastor or minister's service, but this call must be ratified by the local presbytery  The pastor or minister is a teaching elder, and Moderator of the Session, but is not usually a member of the congregation; instead, this person is a member of the Presbytery of which the given church is a member 
Ruling elders are elected by the congregation and ordained to serve with the teaching elders, assuming responsibility for the nurture and leadership of the congregation  Often, especially in larger congregations, the elders delegate the practicalities of buildings, finance, and temporal ministry to the needy in the congregation to a distinct group of officers (sometimes called deacons, which are ordained in some denominations)  This group may variously be known as a "Deacon Board", "Board of Deacons" "Diaconate", or "Deacons' Court"  These are sometimes known as "presbyters" to the full congregation  Since the 20th century, most denominations allow women to be teaching or ruling elders 
Above the sessions exist presbyteries, which have area responsibilities  These are composed of teaching elders and ruling elders from each of the constituent congregations  The presbytery sends representatives to a broader regional or national assembly, generally known as the General Assembly, although an intermediate level of a synod sometimes exists  This congregation / presbytery / synod / general assembly schema is based on the historical structure of the larger Presbyterian churches, such as the Church of Scotland or the Presbyterian Church (U S A ); some bodies, such as the Presbyterian Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, skip one of the steps between congregation and General Assembly, and usually the step skipped is the Synod  The Church of Scotland abolished the Synod in 1993 Presbyterian governance is practiced by Presbyterian denominations and also by many other Reformed churches 

Doctrine
Presbyterianism is historically a confessional tradition  This has two implications  The obvious one is that confessional churches express their faith in the form of "confessions of faith," which have some level of authoritative status  However this is based on a more subtle point: In confessional churches, theology is not solely an individual matter  While individuals are encouraged to understand Scripture, and may challenge the current institutional understanding, theology is carried out by the community as a whole  It is this community understanding of theology that is expressed in confessions However, there has arisen a spectrum of approaches to confessionalism  The manner of subscription, or the degree to which the official standards establish the actual doctrine of the church, is a practical matter  That is, the decisions rendered in ordination and in the courts of the church largely determine what the church means, representing the whole, by its adherence to the doctrinal standard 
Some Presbyterian traditions adopt only the Westminster Confession of Faith as the doctrinal standard to which teaching elders are required to subscribe, in contrast to the Larger and Shorter catechisms, which are approved for use in instruction  Many Presbyterian denominations, especially in North America, have adopted all of the Westminster Standards as their standard of doctrine which is subordinate to the Bible  These documents are Calvinistic in their doctrinal orientation  The Presbyterian Church in Canada retains the Westminster Confession of Faith in its original form, while admitting the historical period in which it was written should be understood when it is read 
The Westminster Confession is "The principal subordinate standard of the Church of Scotland" but "with due regard to liberty of opinion in points which do not enter into the substance of the Faith" (V)  This formulation represents many years of struggle over the extent to which the confession reflects the Word of God and the struggle of conscience of those who came to believe it did not fully do so (e g  William Robertson Smith)  Some Presbyterian Churches, such as the Free Church of Scotland, have no such "conscience clause" 
The Presbyterian Church (U S A ) has adopted the Book of Confessions, which reflects the inclusion of other Reformed confessions in addition to the Westminster Standards  These other documents include ancient creedal statements (the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed), 16th-century Reformed confessions (the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Second Helvetic Confession), and 20th century documents (The Theological Declaration of Barmen, Confession of 1967 and A Brief Statement of Faith) 
The Presbyterian Church in Canada developed the confessional document Living Faith (1984) and retains it as a subordinate standard of the denomination  It is confessional in format, yet like the Westminster Confession, draws attention back to original Bible text 
Presbyterians in Ireland who rejected Calvinism and the Westminster Confessions formed the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland 
John Gresham Machen, the prominent Presbyterian theologian and Professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1906 and 1929, led a revolt against modernist doctrine in his Christianity and Liberalism (1923) that critiqued theological modernism  He argued that modernism and liberal theology was a false religion, a pretender that cloaks itself in Christian language – "Liberalism"  This religion is a marriage of naturalism, humanism, secularism, and sentimentalism all rolled into one 

Worship and sacraments
Worship
Presbyterian denominations that trace their heritage to the British Isles usually organise their church services inspired by the principles in the Directory of Public Worship, developed by the Westminster Assembly in the 1640s  This directory documented Reformed worship practices and theology adopted and developed over the preceding century by British Puritans, initially guided by John Calvin and John Knox  It was enacted as law by the Scottish Parliament, and became one of the foundational documents of Presbyterian church legislation elsewhere 

Historically, the driving principle in the development of the standards of Presbyterian worship is the Regulative principle of worship, which specifies that (in worship), what is not commanded is forbidden Over subsequent centuries, many Presbyterian churches modified these prescriptions by introducing hymnody, instrumental accompaniment, and ceremonial vestments into worship  However, there is not one fixed "Presbyterian" worship style  Although there are set services for the Lord's Day in keeping with first-day Sabbatarianism, one can find a service to be evangelical and even revivalist in tone (especially in some conservative denominations), or strongly liturgical, approximating the practices of Lutheranism or more of Anglicanism (especially where Scottish tradition is esteemed), or semi-formal, allowing for a balance of hymns, preaching, and congregational participation (favored by many American Presbyterians)  Most Presbyterian churches follow the traditional liturgical year and observe the traditional holidays, holy seasons, such as Advent, Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, etc  They also make use of the appropriate seasonal liturgical colors, etc  Many incorporate ancient liturgical prayers and responses into the communion services and follow a daily, seasonal, and festival lectionary  Other Presbyterians, however, such as the Reformed Presbyterians, would practice a cappella exclusive psalmody, as well as eschew the celebration of holy days 

Among the paleo-orthodox and emerging church movements in Protestant and evangelical churches, in which some Presbyterians are involved, clergy are moving away from the traditional black Geneva gown to such vestments as the alb and chasuble, but also cassock and surplice (typically a full-length Old English style surplice which resembles the Celtic alb, an ungirdled liturgical tunic of the old Gallican Rite), which some, particularly those identifying with the Liturgical Renewal Movement, hold to be more ancient and representative of a more ecumenical past 

Sacraments
Presbyterians traditionally have held the Worship position that there are only two sacraments:

Baptism, in which they baptize infants, as well as unbaptized adults by the Aspersion (sprinkling) or Affusion (pouring) method in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, rather than the Immersion method 
The Lord's Supper (also known as Communion), in which Presbyterians believe in the Real Presence of Christ (pneumatic presence) in the spiritual sense, in the bread and wine through the Holy Spirit, as opposed to being locally present as in transubstantiation or consubstantiation 

Architecture
Some early Presbyterians, which were influenced by the puritan movement, were careful to distinguish between the "church," which referred to the members, and the "meeting house," which was the building in which the church met  Until the late 19th century, very few Presbyterians ever referred to their buildings as "churches " Presbyterians believed that meeting-houses (now called churches) are buildings to support the worship of God  The decor in some instances was austere so as not to detract from worship  Early Presbyterian meeting-houses were extremely plain  No stained glass, no elaborate furnishings, and no images were to be found in the meeting-house  The pulpit, often raised so as only to be accessible by a staircase, was the centerpiece of the building  But these were not the standard characteristics of the mainline Presbyterians  These were more of the wave of Presbyterians that were influenced by the Puritans 
In the late 19th century a gradual shift began to occur  Prosperous congregations built imposing churches, such as Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, St Stephen Presbyterian in Fort Worth, Texas, and many others 
Usually a Presbyterian church will not have statues of saints, nor the ornate altar more typical of a Roman Catholic church  Instead, there is a "communion table," usually on the same level as the congregation, and sometimes elevated similar to an altar, however surrounded by the chancel  There may be a rail between the communion table and the chancel behind it, which may contain a more decorative altar-type table, choir loft, or choir stalls, lectern and clergy area  The altar is called the communion table, and the altar area is called the chancel by Presbyterians  In Presbyterian, and in Reformed churches, there may be an altar cross, either on the communion table or on a table in the chancel  By using the "empty" cross, or cross of the Westminster/Celtic cross, Presbyterians emphasize the resurrection and that Christ is not continually dying, but died once and is alive for all eternity  Quite a few Presbyterian church buildings are decorated with a cross, that has a circle around the center, or Celtic cross  This not only emphasizes the resurrection, but also acknowledges historical aspects of Presbyterianism  A baptismal font will be located either at the entrance or near the chancel area  Presbyterian architecture generally makes significant use of symbolism  One may also find decorative and ornate stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Bible  Some Presbyterian churches will also have ornate statues of Christ or graven scenes from the Last Supper located behind the chancel  St  Giles' Cathedral in Scotland has a crucifix next to an ornate elevated communion table that hangs alongside  The image of Christ is more of a faint image, with a more modern design 

By region
Europe
Scotland
John Knox (1505–1572), a Scot who had spent time studying under Calvin in Geneva, returned to Scotland and urged his countrymen to reform the Church in line with Calvinist doctrines  After a period of religious convulsion and political conflict culminating in a victory for the Protestant party at the Siege of Leith the authority of the Catholic Church was abolished in favour of Reformation by the legislation of the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560  The Church was eventually organised by Andrew Melville along Presbyterian lines to become the national Church of Scotland  King James VI and I moved the Church of Scotland towards an episcopal form of government, and in 1637, James' successor, Charles I and William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to force the Church of Scotland to use the Book of Common Prayer  What resulted was an armed insurrection, with many Scots signing the Solemn League and Covenant  The Covenanters would serve as the government of Scotland for nearly a decade, and would also send military support to the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War  Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II, despite the initial support that he received from the Covenanters, reinstated an episcopal form of government on the church 

However, with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the Church of Scotland was unequivocally recognised as a Presbyterian institution by the monarch due to Scottish Presbyterian support for the aforementioned revolution and the Acts of Union 1707 between Scotland and England guaranteed the Church of Scotland's form of government  However, legislation by the United Kingdom parliament allowing patronage led to splits in the Church  In 1733, a group of ministers seceded from the Church of Scotland to form the Associate Presbytery, another group seceded in 1761 to form the Relief Church and the Disruption of 1843 led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland  Further splits took place, especially over theological issues, but most Presbyterians in Scotland were reunited by 1929 union of the established Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland 
There are now eight Presbyterian denominations in Scotland today  These are, in order of size: the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the United Free Church of Scotland, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), the Associated Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the International Presbyterian Church  Combined, they have over 1500 congregations in Scotland 
Within Scotland the term 'kirk' is usually used to refer to a local Presbyterian church  Informally, the term 'The Kirk' refers to the Church of Scotland  Some of the values and ideals espoused in Scottish Presbyterian denominations can be reflected in this reference in a book from Norman Drummond, chaplain to the Queen in Scotland Chart of splits and mergers of the Scottish Presbyterian churches

England
In England, Presbyterianism was established in secret in 1592  Thomas Cartwright is thought to be the first Presbyterian in England  Cartwright's controversial lectures at Cambridge University condemning the episcopal hierarchy of the Elizabethan Church led to his deprivation of his post by Archbishop John Whitgift and his emigration abroad  Between 1645 and 1648, a series of ordinances of the Long Parliament established Presbyterianism as the polity of the Church of England  Presbyterian government was established in London and Lancashire and in a few other places in England, although Presbyterian hostility to the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the republican Commonwealth of England meant that Parliament never enforced the Presbyterian system in England  The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought the return of Episcopal church government in England (and in Scotland for a short time); but the Presbyterian church in England continued in Non-Conformity, outside of the established church  In 1719 a major split, the Salter's Hall controversy, occurred; with the majority siding with nontrinitarian views  Thomas Bradbury published several sermons bearing on the controversy, and in 1719, "An answer to the reproaches cast on the dissenting ministers who subscribed their belief of the Eternal Trinity " By the 18th century many English Presbyterian congregations had become Unitarian in doctrine 
A number of new Presbyterian Churches were founded by Scottish immigrants to England in the 19th century and later  Following the 'Disruption' in 1843 many of those linked to the Church of Scotland eventually joined what became the Presbyterian Church of England in 1876  Some, such as Crown Court (Covent Garden, London), St Andrew's (Stepney, London) and Swallow Street (London), did not join the English denomination, which is why there are Church of Scotland congregations in England such as those at Crown Court, and St Columba's, Pont Street (Knightsbridge) in London  There is also a congregation in the heart of London's financial district called London City Presbyterian Church that is affiliated with the Free Church of Scotland 
In 1972, the Presbyterian Church of England (PCofE) united with the Congregational Church in England and Wales to form the United Reformed Church (URC)  Among the congregations the PCofE brought to the URC were Tunley (Lancashire), Aston Tirrold (Oxfordshire) and John Knox Presbyterian Church, Stepney, London (now part of Stepney Meeting House URC) – these are among the sole survivors today of the English Presbyterian churches of the 17th century  The URC also has a presence in Scotland, mostly of former Congregationalist Churches  Two former Presbyterian congregations, St Columba's, Cambridge (founded in 1879), and St Columba's, Oxford (founded as a chaplaincy by the PCofE and the Church of Scotland in 1908 and as a congregation of the PCofE in 1929), continue as congregations of the URC and university chaplaincies of the Church of Scotland 
In recent years a number of smaller denominations adopting Presbyterian forms of church government have organised in England, including the International Presbyterian Church planted by evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer of the L'Abri Fellowship in the 1970s, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales founded in the North of England in the late 1980s 

Wales
In Wales, Presbyterianism is represented by the Presbyterian Church of Wales, which was originally composed largely of Calvinistic Methodists who accepted Calvinist theology rather than the Arminianism of the Wesleyan Methodists  They broke off from the Church of England in 1811, ordaining their own ministers  They were originally known as the Calvinist Methodist connexion and in the 1920s it became alternatively known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales 

Ireland
Presbyterianism (Irish: Preispitéireachas, Ulster Scots: Prisbytairinism) is the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland (after the Anglican Church of Ireland), and was brought by Scottish plantation settlers to Ulster who had been strongly encouraged to emigrate by James VI of Scotland, also James I of Ireland and England  An estimated 100,000 Scottish Presbyterians moved to the northern counties of Ireland between 1607 and the Battle of the Boyne in 1690  The Presbytery of Ulster was formed in 1642 separately from the established Anglican Church  Presbyterians, along with Roman Catholics in Ulster and the rest of Ireland, suffered under the discriminatory Penal Laws until they were revoked in the early 19th century  Presbyterianism is represented in Ireland by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church 

France
There is a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) in central Paris: The Scots Kirk, which is English-speaking, and is attended by many nationalities  It maintains close links with the Church of Scotland in Scotland itself, as well as with the Reformed Church of France 

Italy
The Waldensian Evangelical Church (Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, CEV) is an Italian Protestant denomination 
The church was founded in the 12th century, and centuries later, after the Protestant Reformation, it adhered to Calvinist theology and became the Italian branch of the Presbyterian churches  As such, the church is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches 

North America
Even before Presbyterianism spread with immigrants abroad from Scotland, there were divisions in the larger Presbyterian family  Some later rejoined only to separate again  In what some interpret as rueful self-reproach, some Presbyterians refer to the divided Presbyterian churches as the "Split Ps" 

United States
Presbyterianism first officially arrived in Colonial America in 1644 with the establishment of Christ's First Presbyterian Church in Hempstead, New York  The Church was organized by the Rev  Richard Denton 
In 1703 the first Presbytery in Philadelphia was established  In time, the presbytery would be joined by two more to form a synod (1717) and would eventually evolve into the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1789  The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U S A ) – PC (USA) – can trace its heritage back to the original PCUSA, as can the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Bible Presbyterian Church (BPC), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), and the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO) 
Other Presbyterian bodies in the United States include the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP), the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (RPCUS), the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly, the Reformed Presbyterian Church – Hanover Presbytery, the Covenant Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Reformed Church, the Westminster Presbyterian Church in the United States, the Korean American Presbyterian Church, and the Free Presbyterian Church of North America 
The territory within about a 50-mile (80 km) radius of Charlotte, North Carolina, is historically the greatest concentration of Presbyterianism in the Southern United States, while an almost identical geographic area around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, contains probably the largest number of Presbyterians in the entire nation 
The PC (USA), beginning with its predecessor bodies, has, in common with other so-called "mainline" Protestant denominations, experienced a significant decline in members in recent years  Some estimates have placed that loss at nearly half in the last forty years Presbyterian influence, especially through Princeton theology, can be traced in modern Evangelicalism  Balmer says that:

Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is a quintessentially North American phenomenon, deriving as it did from the confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and the vestiges of Puritanism  Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain – warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans – even as the North American context itself has profoundly shaped the various manifestations of evangelicalism: fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism, the holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and various forms of African-American and Hispanic evangelicalism 
In the late 1800s, Presbyterian missionaries established a presence in what is now northern New Mexico  This provided an alternative to the Catholicism, which was brought to the area by the Spanish Conquistadors and had remained unchanged  The area experienced a "mini" reformation, in that many converts were made to Presbyterianism, prompting persecution  In some cases, the converts left towns and villages to establish their own neighboring villages  The arrival of the United States to the area prompted the Catholic church to modernize and make efforts at winning the converts back, many of which did return  However, there are still stalwart Presbyterians and Presbyterian churches in the area 
Historically, along with Lutherans and Episcopalians, Presbyterians tend to be considerably wealthier and are better educated (having more graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in United States; a group known as White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), they are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business, law, and politics 

Canada
In Canada, the largest Presbyterian denomination – and indeed the largest Protestant denomination – was the Presbyterian Church in Canada, formed in 1875 with the merger of four regional groups  In 1925, the United Church of Canada was formed by the majority of Presbyterians combining with the Methodist Church, Canada, and the Congregational Union of Canada  A sizable minority of Canadian Presbyterians, primarily in southern Ontario but also throughout the entire nation, withdrew, and reconstituted themselves as a non-concurring continuing Presbyterian body  They regained use of the original name in 1939 

Latin America
Presbyterianism arrived in Latin America in the 19th century 

Mexico
The biggest Presbyterian church is the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico (Iglesia Nacional Presbiteriana de México), which has around 2,500,000 members and associates and 3000 congregations, but there are other small denominations like the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mexico which was founded in 1875 by the Associate Reformed Church in North America  The Independent Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Mexico, and the National Conservative Presbyterian Church in Mexico are existing churches in the Reformed tradition 

Brazil
In Brazil, the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil) totals approximately 1,011,300 members; other Presbyterian churches (Independents, United, Conservatives, Renovated, etc ) in this nation have around 350,000 members  The Renewed Presbyterian Church in Brazil was influenced by the charismatic movement and has about 131 000 members as of 2011  The Conservative Presbyterian Church in Brazil was founded in 1940 and has eight presbyteries  The Fundamentalist Presbyterian church in Brazil was influenced by Carl McIntire and the US Bible Presbyterian Church and has around 1 800 members  The Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil was founded in 1903 by Rev  Eduardo Carlos Pereira, has 500 congregations and 75 000 members  The United Presbyterian Church of Brazil has around 4 000 members  There are also ethnic Korean Presbyterian churches in the country  The Evangelical Reformed Churches in Brazil has Dutch origin  The Reformed Churches in Brazil were recently founded by the Canadian Reformed Churches with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) 
Congregational churches present in the country are also part of the Calvinistic tradition in Latin America 

Other Latin American states
There are probably more than four million members of Presbyterian churches in all of Latin America  Presbyterian churches are also present in Peru, Bolivia, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras and others, but with few members  The Presbyterian Church in Belize has 17 churches and church plants and there is a Reformed Seminary founded in 2004  Some Latin Americans in North America are active in the Presbyterian Cursillo Movement 

Africa
Presbyterianism arrived in Africa in the 19th century through the work of Scottish missionaries and founded churches such as St Michael and All Angels Church, Blantyre, Malawi  The church has grown extensively and now has a presence in at least 23 countries in the region African Presbyterian churches often incorporate diaconal ministries, including social services, emergency relief, and the operation of mission hospitals  A number of partnerships exist between presbyteries in Africa and the PC(USA), including specific connections with Lesotho, Cameroon, Malawi, South Africa, Ghana and Zambia  For example, the Lackawanna Presbytery, located in Northeastern Pennsylvania, has a partnership with a presbytery in Ghana  Also the Southminster Presbyterian Church, located near Pittsburgh, has partnerships with churches in Malawi and Kenya  The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, western Africa is also healthy and strong in mostly the southern states of this nation, strong density in the south-eastern states of this country  Beginning from Cross River state, the nearby coastal states, Rivers state, Lagos state to Ebonyi and Abia States  Hope Waddel's missionary expedition in the mid 19th century, and later Mary Slessor's stay in this coastal regions of the then British colony has brought about the beginning and the flourishing of this church in these areas 

Kenya
The Presbyterian Church of East Africa, based in Kenya, is particularly strong, with 500 clergy and 4 million members 

Malawi
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Malawi has 150 congregations and 17 000–20 000 members  It was a mission of the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland  The Restored Reformed Church works with RPCM  Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Malawi is an existing small church  Part of the Presbyterian Church in Malawi and Zambia is known as CCAP, Church of Central Africa-Presbyterian  Often the churches there have one main congregation and a number of prayer houses develop  Education, health ministries, and worship and spiritual development are important 

Southern Africa
Southern Africa is a major base of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches 

Northern Africa
The Presbyterian Church of South Sudan and Sudan, founded in 1902 by American missionaries in Malakal, was deprived of foreign pastors since 1962 by decision of the Sudanese government but it continued to grow  It is now the 3rd largest Christian church in Sudan with 1,000,000 members, now shared between Sudan and South Sudan 
The Presbyterian Evangelical Church of Sudan was founded in the north of the country and in Khartoum by the same American missionaries in the late 19th century but left under the guidance of Egyptian evangelical pastors of Coptic origin In addition, there are a number of Presbyterian Churches in north Africa, the most known is the Nile Synod in Egypt and a recently founded synod for Sudan 

Asia
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China (CCC) is a uniting church formed by Presbyterians and Congregationalists, which inherited the Reformed tradition  HKCCCC is also the only mainline Reformed church in Hong Kong 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church Yao Dao Secondary School is a Presbyterian school in Yuen Long, New Territories  The Cumberland Presbyterian Church also have a church on the island of Cheung Chau  There are also Korean Christians resident in Hong Kong who are Presbyterians 

South Korea
Presbyterian Churches are the biggest and by far the most influential Protestant denominations in South Korea, with close to 20,000 churches affiliated with the two largest Presbyterian denominations in the country  In South Korea there are 9 million Presbyterians, forming the majority of the 15 million Korean Protestants  In South Korea there are 100 different Presbyterian denominations Most of the Korean Presbyterian denominations share the same name in Korean, 대한예수교장로회 (literally means the Presbyterian Church of Korea or PCK), tracing its roots to the United Presbyterian Assembly before its long history of disputes and schisms  The Presbyterian schism began with the controversy in relation to the Japanese shrine worship enforced during the Japanese colonial period and the establishment of a minor division (Koryu-pa, 고려파, later The Koshin Presbyterian Church in Korea, Koshin 고신) in 1952  And in 1953 the second schism happened when the theological orientation of the Chosun Seminary (later Hanshin University) founded in 1947 could not be tolerated in the PCK and another minor group (The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, Kijang, 기장) was separated  The last major schism had to do with the issue of whether the PCK should join the WCC  The controversy divided the PCK into two denominations, The Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap, 통합) and The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong, 합동) in 1959  All major seminaries associated with each denomination claim heritage from the Pyung Yang Theological Seminary, therefore, not only Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary and Chongsin University which are related to PCK but also Hanshin University of PROK all celebrated the 100th class in 2007, 100 years from the first graduates of Pyung Yang Theological Seminary Korean Presbyterian denominations are active in evangelism and many of its missionaries are being sent overseas, being the second biggest missionary sender in the world after the United States  GMS, the missionary body of the "Hapdong" General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches of Korea, is the single largest Presbyterian missionary organization in Korea 
In addition there are many Korean-American Presbyterians in the United States, either with their own church sites or sharing space in pre-existing churches as is the case in Australia, New Zealand and even Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia with Korean immigration 
The Korean Presbyterian Church started through the mission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Australian Presbyterian theological tradition is central to the United States  But after independence, the 'Presbyterian Church in Korea (KoRyuPa)' advocated a Dutch Reformed position  In the 21st century, a new General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Korea (Founder  Ha Seung-moo) in 2012 declared itself an authentic historical succession of Scottish Presbyterian John Knox 

Taiwan
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) is by far the largest Protestant denomination in Taiwan, with some 238,372 members as of 2009 (including a majority of the island's aborigines)  English Presbyterian Missionary James Laidlaw Maxwell established the first Presbyterian church in Tainan in 1865  His colleague George Leslie Mackay, of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission, was active in Tamsui and north Taiwan from 1872 to 1901; he founded the island's first university and hospital, and created a written script for Taiwanese Minnan  The English and Canadian missions joined as the PCT in 1912  One of the few churches permitted to operate in Taiwan through the era of Japanese rule (1895–1945), the PCT experienced rapid growth during the era of Kuomintang-imposed martial law (1949–1987), in part due to its support for democracy, human rights, and Taiwan independence  Former ROC president Lee Teng-hui (in office 1988–2000) was a Presbyterian 

India
In the mainly Christian Indian state of Mizoram, Presbyterianism is the largest of all Christian denominations  It was brought there by missionaries from Wales in 1897  Prior to Mizoram, Welsh Presbyterians started venturing into the northeast India through the Khasi Hills (now in the state of Meghalaya in India) and established Presbyterian churches all over the Khasi Hills from the 1840s onwards  Hence, there is a strong presence of Presbyterians in Shillong (the present capital of Meghalaya) and the areas adjoining it  The Welsh missionaries built their first church in Sohra (aka Cherrapunji) in 1846  The Presbyterian church in India was integrated in 1970 into the United Church of Northern India (originally formed in 1924)  It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in India 

Oceania
Australia
In Australia, Presbyterianism is the fourth largest denomination of Christianity, with nearly 600,000 Australians claiming to be Presbyterian in the 2006 Commonwealth Census  Presbyterian churches were founded in each colony, some with links to the Church of Scotland and others to the Free Church  There were also congregations originating from United Presbyterian Church of Scotland as well as a number founded by John Dunmore Lang  Most of these bodies merged between 1859 and 1870, and in 1901 formed a federal union called the Presbyterian Church of Australia but retaining their state assemblies  The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia representing the Free Church of Scotland tradition, and congregations in Victoria of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, originally from Ireland, are the other existing denominations dating from colonial times 
In 1977, two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, along with most of the Congregational Union of Australia and all the Methodist Church of Australasia, combined to form the Uniting Church in Australia  The third who did not unite had various reasons for so acting, often cultural attachment but often conservative theological or social views  The permission for the ordination of women given in 1974 was rescinded in 1991 without affecting the two or three existing woman ministers  The approval of women elders given in the 1960s has been rescinded in all states except New South Wales, which has the largest membership  The theology of the church is now generally conservative and Reformed  A number of small Presbyterian denominations have arisen since the 1950s through migration or schism 

New Zealand
In New Zealand, Presbyterian is the dominant denomination in Otago and Southland due largely to the rich Scottish and to a lesser extent Ulster-Scots heritage in the region  The area around Christchurch, Canterbury, is dominated philosophically by the Anglican denomination 
Originally there were two branches of Presbyterianism in New Zealand, the northern Presbyterian church which existed in the North Island and the parts of the South Island north of the Waitaki River, and the Synod of Otago and Southland, founded by Free Church settlers in southern South Island  The two churches merged in 1901, forming what is now the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand 
In addition to the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, there is also a more conservative Presbyterian church called Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand  Many of its members left the largely liberal PCANZ because they were seeking a more conservative church  It has 17 churches throughout New Zealand 

Vanuatu
The Presbyterian Church in Vanuatu is the largest denomination in the country, with approximately one-third of the population of Vanuatu members of the church  The PCV was taken to Vanuatu by missionaries from Scotland  The PCV (Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu) is headed by a moderator with offices in Port Vila  The PCV is particularly strong in the provinces of Tafea, Shefa, and Malampa  The Province of Sanma is mainly Presbyterian with a strong Roman Catholic minority in the Francophone areas of the province  There are some Presbyterian people, but no organised Presbyterian churches in Penama and Torba, both of which are traditionally Anglican  Vanuatu is the only country in the South Pacific with a significant Presbyterian heritage and membership  The PCV is a founding member of the Vanuatu Christian Council (VCC)  The PCV runs many primary schools and Onesua secondary school  The church is strong in the rural villages 

See also
Celtic cross
English Presbyterianism
Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy
Ghost Ranch
Puritan's Pit
Presbyterian confessions of faith
Religion in Scotland
Category:Presbyterian universities and colleges
Category:Presbyterians

Churches
List of Christian denominations#Presbyterianism
List of Presbyterian churches
St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh (Church of Scotland) – famous among Presbyterians worldwide for John Knox's success in preaching there
Passage 14:
Knox United Church (Saskatoon)
Knox United Church is a designated municipal heritage building at 838 Spadina Crescent East, in the Central Business District, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada The congregation was established as part of the Saskatoon Presbyterian Field Mission in 1885 after the North-West Rebellion  Meetings were held in homes, the Old Stone Schoolhouse, the Methodist Church and even the railway roundhouse until a wood church holding 160 was constructed near the river Architects Brown and Vallance of Montreal designed the present-day church in the Collegiate Gothic style  Construction started in 1912 and was completed in 1914  The two-storey building is made of dark red brick walls, features stained-glass windows, and has seating 1,200  The acoustic qualities of the church have made it a regular venue for various social and cultural events, including chamber music performances 
The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at Knox United Church
Context 2: Passage 1:
Bhilangna River
Bhilangna River is a Himalayan river in Uttarakhand, India, which is the major tributary of the Bhagirathi river, the source stream of the Ganges River of India  Bhilangana is a combination of Bhil and Ganga The mainstem, Bhilangna, rises at the foot of the Khatling Glacier (elevation 3,717 m (12,195 ft)) approximately 50 km (31 mi) south of the ice cave at Gaumukh, traditionally considered the source of both the Bhagirathi and the Ganges and flows into the Bhagirathi at Old Tehri, the site of the Tehri dam   It meets its major tributary the Bal Ganga at Ghansali (elevation 976 m (3,202 ft)) 
The Bal Ganga, whose headwaters are formed at the foot of Mount Kukhli Dhar (elevation 4,600 m (15,100 ft)), itself has a minor tributary, the Dharam Ganga, which meets it at Thati Kathur (also Budha Kedar) at elevation 1,524 m (5,000 ft)
The Khatling trek route passes alongside the Bhilangna, starting from the last point accessible by road, Ghuttu, until the glacier, which stands at 3700 metres  If one were to go further on the trail past the glacier, one could reach Kedarnath 

See also
Bhagirathi River
Ganges
Alaknanda River
Passage 2:
Orange River
The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: Oranjerivier) is a river in Southern Africa  It is the longest river in South Africa  With a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi), the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north  It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean  The river forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Lesotho and between South Africa and Namibia, as well as several provincial borders within South Africa  Except for Upington, it does not pass through any major cities  The Orange River plays an important role in the South African economy by providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric power  The river was named the Orange River in honour of the Dutch ruling family, the House of Orange, by the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon  Other names include simply the word for river, in Khoekhoegowab orthography written as !Garib, which is rendered in Afrikaans as Gariep River with the intrusion of a velar fricative in place of the alveolar click, Groote River (derived from Kai !Garib) or Senqu River (used in Lesotho), derived from ǂNū "Black"  It is known in isiZulu as isAngqu 

Course
The Orange rises in the Drakensberg mountains along the border between South Africa and Lesotho, about 193 km (120 mi) west of the Indian Ocean and at an altitude of over 3,000 m (9,800 ft)  The extremity of the Orange River inside Lesotho is known as the Senqu  Parts of the Senqu River freeze in winter because of the high altitude  This creates droughts downstream, which mainly affect goat and cattle production 

The Orange River then runs westward through South Africa, forming the south-western boundary of the Free State province  In this section, the river flows first into the Gariep Dam and later into the Vanderkloof Dam  From the border of Lesotho to below the Vanderkloof Dam, the river bed is deeply incised  Further downstream, the land is flatter, and the river is used extensively for irrigation 
At the western point of the Free State, southwest of Kimberley, the Orange meets with its main tributary, the Vaal River, which forms much of the northern border of the province  From here, the river flows further westward through the arid wilderness of the southern Kalahari region and Namaqualand in the Northern Cape province to meet with Namibia at 20°E longitude  From here, it flows westward for 550 km (340 mi), forming the international border between the province and Namibia's ǁKaras Region  On the border, the river passes the town of Vioolsdrif, the main border post between South Africa and Namibia 

In the last 800 km (500 mi) of its course, the Orange receives many intermittent streams, and several large wadis lead into it  In this section, the Namib Desert terminates on the north bank of the river, so under normal circumstances, the volume of water added by these tributaries is negligible  Here, the bed of the river is once again deeply incised  The Augrabies Falls are located on this section of the Orange, where the river descends 122 m (400 ft) in a course of 26 km (16 mi) 
The Orange empties into the Atlantic Ocean between the small towns of Oranjemund (meaning "Orange mouth") in Namibia and Alexander Bay in South Africa, about equidistant between Walvis Bay and Cape Town  Some 33 km (21 mi) from its mouth, it is obstructed by rapids and sand bars and is generally not navigable for long stretches 
The river has a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi) 

Catchment and rainfall
In the dry season, the volume of the water in the river is considerably reduced because of the rapid run-off and evaporation  At the source of the Orange, the rainfall is about 2,000 mm (79 in) per annum, but precipitation decreases as the river flows westward; at its mouth, the rainfall is less than 50 mm (2 0 in) per year  The factors that support evaporation, though, tend to increase in a westerly direction  In the wet season (summer), the Orange river becomes a brown colored torrent  The huge mass of sediment carried constitutes a long-term threat to engineering projects on the river The total catchment of the Orange River (including the Vaal) extends over 973,000 km2 (376,000 sq mi), i e  equivalent to about 77% of the land area of South Africa (1,221,037 km2 (471,445 sq mi))  Around 366,000 km2 (141,000 sq mi) (38%), however, are situated outside the country in Lesotho, Botswana, and Namibia 

Tributaries
Vaal River - 1,458 km (906 mi)
Caledon River - 642 km (399 mi)
Khubelu River - 144 km (89 mi)

Dams
Armenia Dam
Egmont Dam
Gariep Dam
Newberry Dam
Vanderkloof Dam
Welbedacht Dam

History
Etymology
Some of the earliest precolonial inhabitants called the river ǂNūǃarib, referring to its black colour, or sometimes just Kai !Arib ("Great River"), from which is derived the Afrikaans version Gariep, and translation "Groote Rivier"  The early Dutch name for the river was just that translation, Groote Rivier, meaning "Great River"  The river was named the Orange River by Colonel Robert Gordon, commander of the United East India Company (VOC) garrison at Cape Town, on a trip to the interior in 1779  Gordon named the river in honor of William V of Orange  A popular but incorrect belief is that the river was named after the supposedly orange color of its water, as opposed to the color of its tributary, the Vaal River, which name is derived from the name ǀHaiǃarib "pale river" (vaal being Afrikaans for pale or grey)  Since the end of apartheid, the name "Gariep" has had greater favour in official correspondence in South Africa, although the name "Orange" has greater international recognition  In Lesotho, where the river rises, it is known as the Senqu River, derived from the original Khoemana name 

The Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee has advertised its intention to consider a name change from the colonial name, for that portion of the river that forms the border between the Eastern Cape and the Free State, with suggestions being IGqili or Senqu  The advertisement placed in the Aliwal Weekblad newspaper states that the "present name is perceived to have a strong association with the history of colonial subjugation and has therefore no place under the current democratic dispensation "

The Grootslang
In South African folklore, the Orange River is often associated with the Grootslang, a mythical being resembling a giant serpent, which is often connected to the river's alluvial diamonds  The Grootslang is described as living in a gem-filled cave connected to the Orange River by a natural pipe through which the diamonds gradually enter the river  Other sites said to be lairs of the creature include the pool beneath the King George Cataract at Aughrabies Falls, which is also said to be a source of diamonds, and a large rock in the middle of the river itself  In this version of the legend, the Grootslang is also said to prey on cattle from the river's banks 

Economy
As the collection point for the majority of South Africa's water, the Orange River plays a major role in supporting agriculture, industry, and mining  To assist in this, two large water schemes have been created, the Orange River Project and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project  Historically, the river played an important role in the South African diamond rush, with the first diamonds in the country being discovered in alluvial deposits on the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate along the final stretch of the Orange River and around its mouth 
Because of the lack of dangerous animals and high water levels during summer, the river is used for recreational canoeing and rafting  Orange River rafting has become very popular with many companies using their camps along the river from which to operate  The most popular trips are four-day and six-day river trips that take place either along the gorge below the Augrabies Falls or along the Richtersveld area 

Orange River Project
The Orange River Project (ORP) was one of the largest and most imaginative projects of its kind in South Africa  It was constructed by Hendrik Verwoerd's government at the height of the apartheid era  The ORP was built to exploit the waters of the Orange River—which, without the Vaal River, represents some 14 1% of the total runoff in South Africa—and in the process, to satisfy an increasing demand for water  The main objectives of the project were:

to stabilise river flow,
the generation and transmission of hydroelectric power,
to provide a reliable water supply for users in the Orange River basin, and
to give a new lease on life to water-deficient areas in the Eastern Cape, such as the Great Fish and Sundays River valleys The Gariep Dam near Colesberg is the main storage structure within the Orange River  From here, the water is supplied in two directions, westward along the Orange River (via hydroelectric power generators) to the Vanderkloof Dam and southward through the Orange-Fish Tunnel to the Eastern Cape 

Hydroelectricity
Eskom operates hydroelectric power stations at both the Gariep Dam and the Vanderkloof Dam  The hydroelectric power station at the Vanderkloof Dam was the first power-generation station in South Africa situated entirely underground  The towns Oviston and Oranjekrag were established to facilitate the construction and operation of the new infrastructure 

Irrigation
Irrigation in the vast area downstream of the Vanderkloof Dam, which has turned thousands of hectares of arid veld into highly productive agricultural land, was made possible by the construction of the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams  Old established irrigation schemes such as those at Buchuberg, Upington, Kakamas, and Vioolsdrif have also benefitted because regulation of the flow is now possible  On the Namibian side of the river, Aussenkehr produces grapes with the help of water from the Orange 
In recent years, the wine-producing areas along the Orange River have grown in importance  Irrigation in the Eastern Cape has also received a tremendous boost, not only from the additional water being made available, but also owing to improvement in water quality  Without this improvement, the citrus farmers along the Lower Sundays River would almost certainly have continued to suffer losses of productivity 

Lesotho Highlands Water Project
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was conceived to supplement the water supply in the Vaal River System  Water is delivered to South Africa by means of the delivery tunnel which passes under the Lesotho South Africa border at the Caledon River, and then under the Little Caledon River south of Clarens in the Free State, and discharges into the Ash River about 30 kilometres (19 mi) further to the north  The scheme became viable when water demands in Gauteng reached levels that could no longer be supported economically by alternative schemes such as the Tugela River-Vaal River pumped storage scheme, which used the Sterkfontein Dam, located near Harrismith in the Free State 

Alluvial diamonds
In 1867, the first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was found near Hopetown on the Orange River  Two years later, a much larger diamond known as the Star of South Africa was found in the same area, causing a diamond rush  This was soon eclipsed by the diamond rush to mine diamonds directly from kimberlite at Kimberley in 1871, although alluvial diamonds continued to be found in the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate on the last stretch of the river, as well as the beaches around its mouth  Diamond mines also operate on the middle stretch of the river 

Rafting and canoeing
During the temperate months of March and April, given good rains and the sluices of the dams being open, a canoeist (or rafter) can easily travel 30 kilometres (19 mi) per day  The lower reaches of the river are most popular, because of the spectacular topography  Commercial tours are available, and these expeditions depart from the border town of Vioolsdrif 

Wildlife
The Orange River has no large animals  It lies outside the range of the Nile crocodile, and although hippopotami were once abundant, they were hunted to extermination in the 19th century  The Orange River has a relative paucity of species diversity  A 2011 survey of 13,762 fish found only 16 species of fish present   Three of these, the common carp, the Mozambique tilapia, and the western mosquitofish are not indigenous   Another exotic species, rainbow trout, is found in the river headwaters in Lesotho 
Seven species are endemic to the Vaal-Orange River system:
Rock-catfish (Austroglanis sclateri)
Maluti redfin or Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae)
Namaquab barb (Barbus hospes)
River sardine (Mesobola brevianalis)
Smallmouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus aeneus)
Largemouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus kimberlyensis)
Orange River Mudfish (Labeo capensis)

See also
List of rivers in South Africa
List of international border rivers
List of crossings of the Orange River
Passage 3:
Khan River
The river Khan is an ephemeral river crossing the Erongo region of central Namibia  It is the main tributary of the Swakop River and only occasionally carries surface water during the rain seasons in November and February/March  Khan's catchment area including its tributaries Slang and Etiro is 8,400 square kilometres (3,200 sq mi) The Khan has its origin near the settlement of Otjisemba, north-west of Okahandja  From there the river course passes westwards to the town of Usakos, and further in a south-western direction through the Namib desert  It  has its confluence with the Swakop River 40 km east of Swakopmund It is a popular tourist attraction due to the proliferation of mammals such as the klipspringer antelope, ostriches and jackals 
Passage 4:
Namibia
Namibia ( (listen), ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa  Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean  It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east  Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries  Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence  Its capital and largest city is Windhoek  Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations 
The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and Nama people  Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion  Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority  Today Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world 
It has a population of 2 55 million people and is a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy  Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small 
In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa  Between 1904 and 1908, it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people  German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces  In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa  As mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules  From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa  In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but the country of South Africa maintained de facto rule  In 1973, the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people  Following continued guerrilla warfare, Namibia obtained independence in 1990  However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994 

History
Etymology
The name of the country is derived from the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world  The name Namib itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place"  That word for the country was chosen by Mburumba Kerina, who originally proposed the name the "Republic of Namib"  Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika), then as South West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and South Africans 

Pre-colonial period
The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the San, Damara, and Nama  Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu people began to arrive during the Bantu expansion from central Africa From the late 18th century onward, Oorlam people from Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia  Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful  They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment  On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the OvaHerero at Windhoek, Gobabis, and Okahandja, who resisted their encroachment  The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the German Empire deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910 
The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area  Like most of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century  At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden  In 1870, Finnish missionaries came to the northern part of Namibia to spread the Lutheran religion among the Ovambo and Kavango people  In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed the area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola  Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey 

German rule
Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under Otto von Bismarck to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as German South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika)  The Palgrave Commission by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa 
In 1897, a rinderpest epidemic caused massive cattle die-offs of an estimated 95% of cattle in southern & central Namibia  In response the German colonizers set up a veterinary cordon fence known as the Red Line  In 1907 this fence then broadly defined the boundaries for the first Police Zone From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against brutal German colonialism  In a calculated punitive action by the German occupiers, government officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide  In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population)  The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948 

Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" (Bantustans)  Some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model for the Nazis in the Holocaust  The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany  The German minister for aid development apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004, however, the German government distanced itself from this apology 

South African mandate
During World War I, South African troops under General Louis Botha occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration  The end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a League of Nations mandate, until 1990  The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves  It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination  South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy 
As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the United Nations (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system  Article 77 of the United Nations Charter stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply   to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms"  The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its Trusteeship Council in anticipation of their independence  South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism  When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory  The UN Generally Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966 

South Africa began imposing apartheid, its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s  Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws, curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement  Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "Police Zone", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located  Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands 
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated decolonisation of Africa and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa  Movements such as the South West African National Union (SWANU) and the South West African People's Organisation advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory  In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the South African Border War In 1971 Namibian contract workers led a general strike against the contract system and in support of independence  Some of the striking workers would later join SWAPO's PLAN as part of the South African Border War 

Independence
As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline  The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate  On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed Namibia  United Nations Security Council Resolution 269, adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal  In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency  The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training  As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition  SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975  This practical alliance reinforced the external perception of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War rhetoric in South Africa and the United States  For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally 

Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States  South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN  PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees  The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989  A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes  Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise  The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a free and fair election  SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote  This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990  It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly)  The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990  Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia at a ceremony attended by Nelson Mandela of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state  In 1994, shortly before the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia 

After independence
Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy  Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly  Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence  The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation  It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war  The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country  In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent 
In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip  The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo  It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society 
In December 2014, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the presidential elections, taking 87% of the vote  His predecessor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution  In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56 3% of the vote 

Geography
At 825,615 km2 (318,772 sq mi), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela)  It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E 
Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert 
The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east  The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation 2,606 metres (8,550 ft) The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline  It varies between 100 and 200 kilometres (60 and 120 mi) in width  Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over 2,000 metres (7,000 ft)  Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish  Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert  As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip  The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around 400 mm (16 in) per year  The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features  The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas  The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo  The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world  Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world  Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast  Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated  Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored 

The Caprivi Strip extends east from the northeastern corner of the country 

Climate
Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt  Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above 500 mm (20 in)] through Semi-Arid [between 300 and 500 mm (12 and 20 in)] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from 150 to 300 mm (6 to 12 in)] (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than 100 mm (4 in)]  Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above 40 °C (104 °F) recorded Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year  It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half  The winter (June – August) is generally dry  Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April  Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than 600 mm (24 in) in the Caprivi Strip  Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common  In the summer of 2006/07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average  In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought, and extended it by additional 6 months in October 2019 Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm (2 in) per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country  In Winter, occasionally a condition known as Bergwind (German for "mountain wind") or Oosweer (Afrikaans for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast  As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C (54F) Efundja, the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life  The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai-Etosha Basin, and fill the oshanas (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there  The worst floods so far occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people 

Water sources
Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater  With an average rainfall of about 350 mm (14 in) per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi Strip in the northeast (about 600 mm (24 in) per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as 50 mm (2 in) and less per annum at the coast  The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi Strip  In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls  Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off  Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater  Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century  One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry  An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012  It has been estimated to be capable of supplying a population of 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption  Experts estimate that Namibia has 7,720 km3 (1,850 cu mi) of underground water According to African Folder, a sewage-to-water treatment project in Namibia not only provides citizens with safe drinking water but also boosts productivity by 6% per year  All pollutants and impurities are removed using cutting-edge "multi-barrier" technology, which includes residual chlorination, ozone treatment, and ultra membrane filtration  Strict bio-monitoring methods are also used throughout the process to ensure high-quality, safe drinking water 

Communal Wildlife Conservancies
Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution  Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future "In 1993, Namibia's newly formed government received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project  The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with financial support from organisations such as USAID, Endangered Wildlife Trust, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador's Fund, together form a Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure  The project's main goal is to promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism 

Government and politics
Namibia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic  The President of Namibia is elected to a five-year term and is both the head of state and the head of government  All members of the government are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature The Constitution of Namibia outlines the following as the organs of the country's government:
Executive: executive power is exercised by the President and the Government 
Legislature: Namibia has a bicameral Parliament with the National Assembly as lower house, and the National Council as the upper house 
Judiciary: Namibia has a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the name of the state While the constitution envisaged a multi-party system for Namibia's government, the SWAPO party has been dominant since independence in 1990 

Foreign relations
Namibia has a largely independent foreign policy, with persisting affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Cuba  With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region  A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration  It became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990  On its independence it became the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations 

Military
In early 2020, The Global Firepower Index (GFP) reported that Namibia's military is ranked as one of the weakest in the world, at 126th out of 137 countries  Among 34 African countries, Namibia is also poorly ranked at the 28th position  Despite this, government spending for the Ministry of Defence stood at N$5,885 million (a 1 2% decrease from the previous financial year)  With close to 6 billion Namibian dollars (US$411 million in 2021) the Ministry of Defence receives the fourth highest amount of money from Government per ministry 
Namibia does not have any enemies in the region, though it has been involved in various disputes regarding borders and construction plans The Namibian constitution defines the role of the military as "defending the territory and national interests " Namibia formed the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF)  The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions 
The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilise the north  According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500 
The chief of the Namibian Defence Force is Air Vice Marshal Martin Kambulu Pinehas (with effect from 1 April 2020) 
In 2017, Namibia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 

Administrative divisions
Namibia is divided into 14 regions which are subdivided into 121 constituencies  The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by Delimitation Commissions and accepted or declined by the National Assembly  Since state foundation four Delimitation Commissions have delivered their work, the last one in 2013 under the chairmanship of Judge Alfred Siboleka Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies Local authorities in Namibia can be in the form of municipalities (either Part 1 or Part 2 municipalities), town councils or villages 

Human rights
Namibia is one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa, with a government that maintains and protects basic human rights and freedoms  However, significant issues include government corruption and prison overcrowding  Also, refugees are not permitted free movement The law is not enforced, but homosexual acts are illegal in Namibia  Discrimination, as well as intolerance, against LGBT people is widespread  Some Namibian government officials and high-profile figures, such as Namibia's Ombudsman John Walters and First Lady Monica Geingos, have called for sodomy and homosexuality to be decriminalised and are in favour of LGBT rights In November 2018, it was reported that 32% of women aged 15–49 experienced violence and domestic abuse from their spouses/partners and 29 5% of men believe that physical abuse towards their wife/partner is acceptable  The Namibian constitution guarantees the rights, freedoms and equal treatment of women in Namibia and SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, has adopted a "zebra system", which ensures a fair balance of both genders in government and equal representation of women in the Namibian government 

Economy
Namibia's economy is tied closely to South Africa's due to their shared history  The largest economic sectors are mining (10 4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5 0%), manufacturing (13 5%), and tourism (14 5%) Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructures, such as online banking and cellphone banking  The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible for performing all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank  There are five BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank  Namibia's economy is characterised by a divide between the formal and the informal economies, which is in part aggravated by the legacy of apartheid spatial planning According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report 2012, conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency, the country's unemployment rate is 27 4%  "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20 2% in 2000, 21 9% in 2004 and spiralled to 29 4% in 2008  Under a broader definition (including people who have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose to 36 7% in 2004  This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed  Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status  In early 2010 the Government tender board announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia" In 2013, global business and financial news provider, Bloomberg, named Namibia the top emerging market economy in Africa and the 13th best in the world  Only four African countries made the Top 20 Emerging Markets list in the March 2013 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, and Namibia was rated ahead of Morocco (19th), South Africa (15th), and Zambia (14th)  Worldwide, Namibia also fared better than Hungary, Brazil, and Mexico  Bloomberg Markets magazine ranked the top 20 based on more than a dozen criteria  The data came from Bloomberg's own financial-market statistics, IMF forecasts and the World Bank  The countries were also rated on areas of particular interest to foreign investors: the ease of doing business, the perceived level of corruption and economic freedom  To attract foreign investment, the government has made improvement in reducing red tape resulted from excessive government regulations, making Namibia one of the least bureaucratic places to do business in the region  Facilitation payments are occasionally demanded by customs due to cumbersome and costly customs procedures  Namibia is also classified as an Upper Middle Income country by the World Bank, and ranks 87th out of 185 economies in terms of ease of doing business The cost of living in Namibia is relatively high because most goods, including cereals, need to be imported  Its capital city, Windhoek, is the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live Taxation in Namibia includes personal income tax, which is applicable to the total taxable income of an individual  All individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets  The value-added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services 

Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and railways (narrow-gauge)  It seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbours  The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia's imports 

Agriculture
About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food  Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life  Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy  The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival  Although arable land accounts for <1% of Namibia, (about  97%), nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture About 4,000 commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land   The United Kingdom offered about $180,000 in 2004 to help finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians  Germany has offered €1 1bn in 2021 over 30 years in reparations for the genocides in the early 20th century but the money will go towards infrastructure, healthcare and training programmes not land reform An agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income  One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies  These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population 

Mining and electricity
Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy  Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and was the world's fourth largest producer of uranium  There have been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia planned to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015  However, as of 2019 Namibia continued to produce 750 tons of uranium annually making it a smaller than average exporter in the competitive world market   Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds  While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as lead, tungsten, gold, tin, fluorspar, manganese, marble, copper and zinc  There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future  According to "The Diamond Investigation", a book about the global diamond market, from 1978, De Beers, the largest diamond company, bought most of the Namibian diamonds, and would continue to do so, because "whatever government eventually comes to power they will need this revenue to survive" Domestic supply voltage is 220 V AC  Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants  Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role  Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits, in 2010 the Namibian government planned to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018  Uranium enrichment was also envisaged to take place locally 

Diamonds
Although much of the world's diamond supply comes from what have been called African blood diamonds, Namibia has managed to develop a diamond mining industry largely free of the kinds of conflict, extortion, and murder that have plagued many other African nations with diamond mines  This has been attributed to political dynamics, economic institutions, grievances, political geography, and the effects of neighbourhoods, and is the result of a joint agreement between the government and De Beers that has led to a taxable base, strengthening state institutions 

Oil and natural gas
Estimates updated in 2022 suggest that two exploration wells in the offshore Orange Basin could hold 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil, respectively  The expected revenue could transform Namibia's domestic economy and facilitate sustainable development goals 

Tourism
Tourism is a major contributor (14 5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18 2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year  The country is a prime destination in Africa and is known for ecotourism, which features Namibia's extensive wildlife There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate ecotourists  Sport and trophy hunting is also a large and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or 19 6 million U S  dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding, skydiving and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours  The most visited places include the capital city of Windhoek, Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz Windhoek plays a very important role in Namibia's tourism due to its central location and close proximity to Hosea Kutako International Airport  According to The Namibia Tourism Exit Survey, which was produced by the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the Namibian Directorate of Tourism, 56% of all tourists visiting Namibia in 2012–13 visited Windhoek  Many of Namibia's tourism related parastatals and governing bodies such as Namibia Wildlife Resorts and the Namibia Tourism Board as well as Namibia's tourism-related trade associations such as the Hospitality Association of Namibia are headquartered in Windhoek  There are also a number of notable hotels in Windhoek, such as Windhoek Country Club Resort, and some international hotel chains, such as Hilton Hotels and Resorts 
Namibia's primary tourism related governing body, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), was established by an Act of Parliament: the Namibia Tourism Board Act, 2000 (Act 21 of 2000)  Its primary objectives are to regulate the tourism industry and to market Namibia as a tourist destination  There are also a number of trade associations that represent the tourism sector in Namibia, such as the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations (the umbrella body for all tourism associations in Namibia), the Hospitality Association of Namibia, the Association of Namibian Travel Agents, Car Rental Association of Namibia and the Tour and Safari Association of Namibia 

Water supply and sanitation
The only bulk water supplier in Namibia is NamWater, which sells it to the respective municipalities which in turn deliver it through their reticulation networks  In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of drinking water supply The UN evaluated in 2011 that Namibia has improved its water access network significantly since independence in 1990  A large part of the population can not, however, make use of these resources due to the prohibitively high consumption cost and the long distance between residences and water points in rural areas  As a result, many Namibians prefer the traditional wells over the available water points far away Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation  This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities  Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhoea alone  The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas  Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in townships due to their water consumption and installation cost  As a result, access to improved sanitation has not increased much since independence: in Namibia's rural areas 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990  Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate into, which after use are flung into the bush  The use of open areas close to residential land for urination and defecation is very common and has been identified as a major health hazard 

Demographics
Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia  In 2017 there were on average 3 08 people per km2  The total fertility rate in 2015 was 3 47 children per woman according to the UN 

Ethnic groups
The majority of the Namibian population is of Bantu-speaking origin—mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia  Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak the related Herero language, and the Damara, who, like the Nama, speak Khoekhoe 
In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa  The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola  There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8 0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one)  There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006 

Whites (being mainly of Afrikaner, German, British and Portuguese origin) make up between 4 0 and 7 0% of the population  Although their proportion of the population decreased after independence due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa)  The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of mixed race speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa  A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the German settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the South African invasion during the First World War, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions  Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola  The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%) 

Censuses
Namibia conducts a census every ten years  After independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991; further rounds followed in 2001, 2011, and 2023 (delayed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and financial constraints)  The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia on the census reference night, wherever they happen to be  This is called the de facto method  For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 enumeration areas  These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries to get reliable data for election purposes as well The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants  Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1 4%, down from 2 6% in the previous ten-year period 

Urban settlements
Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils  The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia 

Religion
The Christian community makes up 80%–90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 75% being Protestant, of which at least 50% are Lutheran  Lutherans are the largest religious group, a legacy of the German and Finnish missionary work during the country's colonial times  10%–20% of the population hold indigenous beliefs Missionary activities during the second half of the 19th century resulted in many Namibians converting to Christianity  Today most Christians are Lutheran, but there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses 
Islam in Namibia is subscribed to by about 9,000 people, many of them Nama  Namibia is home to a small Jewish community of about 100 people 

Languages
Up to 1990, English, German, and Afrikaans were official languages  Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO was of the opinion that the country should become officially monolingual, choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour South Africa (which granted all 11 of its major languages official status), which it saw as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation " Consequently, SWAPO instituted English as Namibia's sole official language, though only about 3% of the population speaks it as a home language  Its implementation is focused on the civil service, education and the broadcasting system, especially the state broadcaster NBC  Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools  Private schools are expected to follow the same policy as state schools, and "English language" is a compulsory subject  Some critics argue that, as in other postcolonial African societies, the push for monolingual instruction and policy has resulted in a high rate of school drop-outs and of individuals whose academic competence in any language is low According to the 2011 census, the most common languages are Oshiwambo (the most spoken language for 49% of households), Khoekhoegowab  (11 3%), Afrikaans (10 4%), RuKwangali (9%), and Otjiherero (9%)  The most widely understood national language is Afrikaans, the country's lingua franca  Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication  A complete list of languages according to the 2011 census is 48 9% Oshiwambo, 11 3% Khoekhoegowab, 10 4% Afrikaans, 8 6% Otjiherero, 8 5% RuKwangali, 4 8% siLozi, 3 4% English, 1 2% Other African languages, 0 9% German, 0 8% San, 0 7% Other European languages, 0 3% Setswana, and 0 1% Asian languages Most of the white population speaks either Afrikaans or German  More than a century after the end of the German colonial era, German continues to play a role as a commercial language  Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German by 32%, English by 7% and Portuguese by 4–5%  Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking Angola explains the relatively high number of Portuguese speakers; in 2011 these were estimated to number 100,000 

Health
Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 64 years in 2017 – among the lowest in the world Namibia launched a National Health Extension Programme in 2012 deployment 1,800 (2015) of a total ceiling of 4,800 health extension workers trained for six months in community health activities including first aid, health promotion for disease prevention, nutritional assessment and counseling, water sanitation and hygiene practices, HIV testing and community-based antiretroviral treatment Namibia faces a non-communicable disease burden  The Demographic and Health Survey (2013) summarises findings on elevated blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity:

Among eligible respondents age 35–64, more than 4 in 10 women (44 percent) and men (45 percent) have elevated blood pressure or are currently taking medicine to lower their blood pressure 
Forty-nine percent of women and 61 percent of men are not aware that they have elevated blood pressure 
Forty-three percent of women and 34 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication for their condition 
Only 29 percent of women and 20 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication and have their blood pressure under control 
Six percent of women and 7 percent of men are diabetic; that is, they have elevated fasting plasma glucose values or report that they are taking diabetes medication  An additional 7 percent of women and 6 percent of men are prediabetic 
Sixty-seven percent of women and 74 percent of men with diabetes are taking medication to lower their blood glucose 
Women and men with a higher-than-normal body mass index (25 0 or higher) are more likely to have elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting blood glucose 
The HIV epidemic remains a public health issue in Namibia despite significant achievements made by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to expand HIV treatment services  In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000  According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, the epidemic in Namibia "appears to be leveling off " As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced the working-aged population, the number of orphans has increased  It falls to the government to provide education, food, shelter and clothing for these orphans  A Demographic and Health Survey with an HIV biomarker was completed in 2013 and served as the fourth comprehensive, national-level population and health survey conducted in Namibia as part of the global Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) programme  The DHS observed important characteristics associated to the HIV epidemic:

Overall, 26 percent of men age 15–49 and 32 percent of those age 50–64 have been circumcised  HIV prevalence for men age 15–49 is lower among circumcised (8 0 percent) than among uncircumcised men (11 9 percent)  The pattern of lower HIV prevalence among circumcised than uncircumcised men is observed across most background characteristics  For each age group, circumcised men have lower HIV prevalence than those who are not circumcised; the difference is especially pronounced for men age 35–39 and 45–49 (11 7 percentage points each)  The difference in HIV prevalence between uncircumcised and circumcised men is larger among urban than rural men (5 2 percentage points versus 2 1 percentage points) 
HIV prevalence among respondents age 15–49 is 16 9 percent for women and 10 9 percent for men  HIV prevalence rates among women and men age 50–64 are similar (16 7 percent and 16 0 percent, respectively) 
HIV prevalence peaks in the 35–39 age group for both women and men (30 9 percent and 22 6 percent, respectively)  It is lowest among respondents age 15–24 (2 5–6 4 percent for women and 2 0–3 4 percent for men) 
Among respondents age 15–49, HIV prevalence is highest for women and men in Zambezi (30 9 percent and 15 9 percent, respectively) and lowest for women in Omaheke (6 9 percent) and men in Ohangwena (6 6 percent) 
In 76 4 percent of the 1,007 cohabiting couples who were tested for HIV in the 2013 NDHS, both partners were HIV negative; in 10 1 percent of the couples, both partners were HIV positive; and 13 5 percent of the couples were discordant (that is, one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not) As of 2015, the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNAIDS produced a Progress Report in which UNAIDS projected HIV prevalence among 15–49-year-olds at 13 3% [12 2–14 5%] and an estimated 210,000 [200,000–230,000] living with HIV The malaria problem seems to be compounded by the AIDS epidemic  Research has shown that in Namibia the risk of contracting malaria is 14 5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV  The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection  The country had only 598 physicians in 2002 

Culture
Sport
The most popular sport in Namibia is association football  The Namibia national football team qualified for the 1998, 2008 and 2019 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, but has yet to qualify for the World Cup 
The most successful national team is the Namibian rugby team, having competed in six separate World Cups  Namibia were participants in the 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups  Cricket is also popular, with the national side having qualified for 2003 Cricket World Cup, 2021 ICC T20 World Cup and 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup  In December 2017, Namibia Cricket reached the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial One Day Challenge for the first time  In February 2018 Namibia hosted the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 with Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Canada and Oman to compete for the final two ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier positions in Zimbabwe  Namibia also qualified the qualifiers of ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and entered the super 12 club The most famous athlete from Namibia is Frankie Fredericks, sprinter in the 100 and 200 m events  He won four Olympic silver medals (1992, 1996) and also has medals from several World Athletics Championships  Golfer Trevor Dodds won the Greater Greensboro Open in 1998, one of 15 tournaments in his career  He achieved a career-high world ranking of 78th in 1998  Professional cyclist and Namibian Road Race champion Dan Craven represented Namibia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in both the road race and individual time trial  Boxer Julius Indongo is the unified WBA, IBF, and IBO world champion in the Light welterweight division  Another famous athlete from Namibia is ex-professional rugby player Jacques Burger  Burger played for Saracens and Aurillac in Europe, as well as gaining 41 caps for the national team 

Media
Although Namibia's population is fairly small, the country has a diverse choice of media; two TV stations, 19 radio stations (without counting community stations), 5 daily newspapers, several weeklies and special publications compete for the attention of the audience  Additionally, a mentionable amount of foreign media, especially South African, is available  Online media are mostly based on print publication contents  Namibia has a state-owned Press Agency, called NAMPA  Overall c  300 journalists work in the country The first newspaper in Namibia was the German-language Windhoeker Anzeiger, founded 1898  During German rule, the newspapers mainly reflected the living reality and the view of the white German-speaking minority  The black majority was ignored or depicted as a threat  During South African rule, the white bias continued, with mentionable influence of the Pretoria government on the South West African media system  Independent newspapers were seen as a menace to the existing order, and critical journalists were often threatened Current daily newspapers are the private publications The Namibian (English and other languages), Die Republikein (Afrikaans), Allgemeine Zeitung (German) and Namibian Sun (English) as well as the state-owned New Era (predominantly English)  Except for the largest newspaper, The Namibian, which is owned by a trust, the other mentioned private newspapers are part of Democratic Media Holdings  Other mentionable newspapers are the tabloid Informanté owned by TrustCo, the weekly Windhoek Observer, the weekly Namibia Economist, as well as the regional Namib Times  Current affairs magazines include Insight Namibia, Vision2030 Focus magazine and Prime FOCUS  The Sister Namibia magazine stands out as the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia, while Namibia Sport is the only national sport magazine  Furthermore, the print market is complemented with party publications, student newspapers and PR publications Radio was introduced in 1969, TV in 1981  The broadcasting sector today is dominated by the state-run Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)  The public broadcaster offers a TV station as well as a "National Radio" in English and nine language services in locally spoken languages  The nine private radio stations in the country are mainly English-language channels, except for Radio Omulunga (Oshiwambo) and Kosmos 94 1 (Afrikaans) 
Privately held One Africa TV has competed with NBC since the 2000s Compared to neighbouring countries, Namibia has a large degree of media freedom  Over the past years, the country usually ranked in the upper quarter of the Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders, reaching position 21 in 2010, being on par with Canada and the best-positioned African country  The African Media Barometer shows similarly positive results  However, as in other countries, there is still mentionable influence of representatives of state and economy on media in Namibia  In 2009, Namibia dropped to position 36 on the Press Freedom Index  In 2013, it was 19th, 22nd in 2014 and 23rd in 2019, meaning that it is currently the highest ranked African country in terms of press freedom 
Media and journalists in Namibia are represented by the Namibian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Editors' Forum of Namibia  An independent media ombudsman was appointed in 2009 to prevent a state-controlled media council 

Education
Namibia has free education for both primary and secondary education levels  Grades 1–7 are primary level, grades 8–12 are secondary  In 1998, there were 400,325 Namibian students in primary school and 115,237 students in secondary schools  The pupil-teacher ratio in 1999 was estimated at 32:1, with about 8% of the GDP being spent on education  Curriculum development, educational research, and professional development of teachers is centrally organised by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja  Among sub-Saharan African countries, Namibia has one of the highest literacy rates  According to CIA World Factbook, as of 2018 91 5% of the population age 15 and over can read and write Most schools in Namibia are state-run, but there are some private schools, which are also part of the country's education system  There are four teacher training universities, three colleges of agriculture, a police training college, and three universities: University of Namibia (UNAM), International University of Management (IUM) and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)  Namibia was ranked 100th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021 

See also
Index of Namibia-related articles
Outline of Namibia



ground_truth: 1572

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

Question: What is the source of the river Orlam clans crossed to migrate to Namibia?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: Passage 1:
British nationality law
The primary law governing nationality in the United Kingdom is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983  Regulations apply to the British Islands, which include the UK itself and the Crown dependencies, and the 14 British Overseas Territories 
The six classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the UK's historical status as a colonial empire  The principal class of British nationality is British citizenship, which is associated with the British Islands  British nationals associated with an overseas territory are British Overseas Territories citizens (BOTCs)  Almost all BOTCs (except for those from Akrotiri and Dhekelia) have also been British citizens since 2002  Individuals connected with former British colonies may hold residual forms of British nationality, which do not confer an automatic right of abode in the United Kingdom and generally may no longer be acquired  These residual nationalities are the statuses of British Overseas citizen, British subject, British National (Overseas), and British protected person 
All persons born in the British Islands before 1 January 1983 were automatically granted citizenship by birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents  Individuals born in those territories since that date only receive citizenship at birth if at least the mother is a British citizen or holds settled status  Foreign nationals may naturalise as British citizens after meeting a minimum residence requirement (usually five years) and acquiring settled status 
The United Kingdom was previously a member state of the European Union (EU) and British citizens held full EU citizenship  They had held automatic and permanent permission to live and work in any EU or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country and were able to vote in elections to the European Parliament  Despite the UK's withdrawal from the union in 2020, British citizens continue to hold permanent permission to work and reside in the Republic of Ireland as part of the Common Travel Area 

Terminology
The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country  Generally, nationality refers to a person's legal belonging to a sovereign state and is the common term used in international treaties when addressing members of a country, while citizenship usually means the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation  This distinction is clearly defined in many non-English speaking countries but not in the Anglosphere  Historically, an individual associated with Britain was neither a national nor a citizen, but a British subject  British citizenship was not created until passage of the British Nationality Act 1981  This Act defined six types of nationality with varying degrees of civil and political rights, dependent on a person's connections with the United Kingdom, overseas territories, or former colonies  British citizens hold their status because of a close connection with the British Islands, usually through their own (or parents' or grandparents') birth, adoption, naturalisation, or registration as citizens of the UK 

Types of British nationality
There are six types of British nationality: any person who is a British citizen, British Overseas Territories citizen (BOTC), British Overseas citizen (BOC), British National (Overseas) (BN(O)), British subject, or British protected person is a British national  Of these statuses, only British citizenship grants automatic right of abode in the United Kingdom  British Overseas Territories are areas outside of the British Islands where the UK holds sovereignty  Since 2002, nearly all BOTCs also hold British citizenship, except for those associated with Akrotiri and Dhekelia The other four categories are residual nationality classes that generally cannot be acquired  BOCs are people connected with former British colonies who have no close ties to the UK or overseas territories  BN(O)s are Hong Kong residents who voluntarily registered for this status before the territory's transfer to China in 1997  British subjects hold their status through a connection either to former  British India or to what is now the Republic of Ireland as they existed before 1949  British protected persons come from areas controlled by the British Empire but were never formally incorporated as Crown territory; this includes protectorates, protected states, mandated territories, and Indian princely states 

History
Development from feudal allegiance
Before the concept of nationality was codified in legislation, inhabitants of English communities owed allegiance to their feudal lords, who were themselves vassals of the monarch  This system of loyalty, indirectly owed to the monarch personally, developed into a general establishment of subjecthood to the Crown  Calvin's Case in 1608 established the principle of jus soli, that all those who were born within Crown dominions were natural-born subjects  After passage of the Acts of Union 1707, English and Scottish subjects became British subjects  Similarly, the Kingdom of Ireland was merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801  Natural-born subjects were considered to owe perpetual allegiance to the Crown and could not voluntarily renounce British subject status until this was first permitted in 1870 Prior to 1708, foreigners could only be naturalised through Acts of Parliament  Protestants fleeing religious persecution in mainland Europe were allowed to naturalise as subjects in 1708, but this was quickly repealed in 1711 in response to the number of migrants exercising that ability  A standard administrative process was not introduced until 1844, when applicants were first able to acquire naturalisation grants from the Home Office  Despite the creation of this pathway, personalised naturalising legislation continued to be enacted until 1975 The monarch could personally make any individual a subject by royal prerogative  By this method, a foreigner became a denizen – although they were no longer considered an alien, they could not pass subject status to their children by descent and were barred from Crown service and public office  This mechanism was no longer used after 1873 Until the mid-19th century, it was unclear whether nationality regulations in the United Kingdom were applicable elsewhere in the British Empire  Individual colonies had each developed their own procedures and requirements for naturalisation, granting subject status at the discretion of the local governments  In 1847, Parliament formalised a clear distinction between subjects who were naturalised in the UK and those who became British subjects in other territories  Individuals who naturalised in the UK were deemed to have received the status by imperial naturalisation, which was valid throughout the Empire  Those naturalising in colonies were said to have gone through local naturalisation and were given subject status valid only within the relevant territory; a subject who locally naturalised in Canada was a British subject there, but not in England or New Zealand  When travelling outside of the Empire, British subjects who were locally naturalised in a colony were still entitled to imperial protection Certain territories that came under British jurisdiction were not formally incorporated as Crown territory proper  These included protectorates, protected states, mandated territories, and Indian princely states  Because domestic law treated these areas as foreign territory, birth in one of these areas did not automatically confer British subject status  Instead, most people associated with these territories were designated as British protected persons  British protected persons were treated as aliens in the United Kingdom, but both British subjects and protected persons could be issued British passports  Protected persons could not travel to the UK without first requesting permission, but were afforded the same consular protection as British subjects when travelling outside of the Empire 

Imperial common code
Parliament brought regulations for British subject status into codified statute law for the first time with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914  British subject status was standardised as a common nationality across the Empire  Dominions that adopted Part II of this Act as part of local legislation were authorised to grant subject status to aliens by imperial naturalisation The 1914 regulations codified the doctrine of coverture into imperial nationality law, where a woman's consent to marry a foreigner was also assumed to be intent to denaturalise; British women who married foreign men automatically lost their British nationality  There were two exceptions to this: a wife married to a husband who lost his British subject status was able to retain British nationality by declaration, and a British-born widow or divorcée who had lost her British nationality through marriage could reacquire that status without meeting residence requirements after the dissolution or termination of her marriage By the end of the First World War, the Dominions had exercised increasing levels of autonomy in managing their own affairs and each by then had developed a distinct national identity  Britain formally recognised this at the 1926 Imperial Conference, jointly issuing the Balfour Declaration with all the Dominion heads of government, which stated that the United Kingdom and Dominions were autonomous and equal to each other within the British Commonwealth of Nations  Full legislative independence was granted to the Dominions with passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931 Women's rights groups throughout the Empire pressured the imperial government during this time to amend nationality regulations that tied a married woman's status to that of her husband  Because the government could no longer enforce legislative supremacy over the Dominions after 1931 and wanted to maintain a strong constitutional link to them through the common nationality code, it was unwilling to make major changes without unanimous agreement among the Dominions on this issue, which it did not have  Imperial legal uniformity was nevertheless eroded during the 1930s; New Zealand and Australia amended their laws in 1935 and 1936 to allow women denaturalised by marriage to retain their rights as British subjects, and Ireland changed its regulations in 1935 to cause no change to a woman's nationality after her marriage 

Irish independence
Irish resistance to the Union and desire for local self-governance led to the Irish War of Independence  Following the war, the island of Ireland was partitioned into two parts  Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922, while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom  Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was included in the Irish Free State on independence, but had the right to opt out of the new state within one month of its establishment  This option was exercised on 7 December 1922  The 24-hour period in which Northern Ireland was officially part of the Irish Free State meant that every person ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland on 6 December who fulfilled the citizenship provisions in the Constitution of the Irish Free State had automatically become an Irish citizen on that date At its inception, the Irish Free State gained independence as a Dominion within the British Empire  Imperial legislation at the time dictated that although individual Dominions could define a citizenship for their own citizens, that citizenship would only be effective within the local Dominion's borders  A Canadian, New Zealand, or Irish citizen who traveled outside of their own country would have been regarded as a British subject  This was reinforced by Article 3 of the 1922 Free State Constitution, which stated that Irish citizenship could be exercised "within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State" When Free State authorities were first preparing to issue Irish passports in 1923, the British government insisted on the inclusion of some type of wording that described the holders of these passports as "British subjects"  The two sides could not reach agreement on this issue and when the Irish government began issuing passports in 1924, British authorities refused to accept these documents  British consular staff were instructed to confiscate any Irish passports that did not include the term "British subject" and replace them with British passports  This situation continued until 1930, when Irish passports were amended to describe its holders as "one of His Majesty's subjects of the Irish Free State"  Despite these disagreements, the two governments agreed not to establish border controls between their jurisdictions and all Irish citizens and British subjects continued to have the ability to move freely within the Common Travel Area  Although Irish citizens have not been considered British subjects under Irish law since 1935, the British government continued to treat virtually all Irish citizens as British subjects, except for those who had acquired Irish citizenship by naturalisation since the Free State had not incorporated Part II of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 into its legislation 

Changing relationship with the Empire and Commonwealth
Diverging developments in Dominion legislation, as well as growing assertions of local national identity separate from that of Britain and the Empire, culminated with the creation of a substantive Canadian citizenship in 1946, breaking the system of a common imperial nationality  Combined with the approaching independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, comprehensive reform to nationality law was necessary at this point to address ideas that were incompatible with the previous system The British Nationality Act 1948 redefined British subject as any citizen of the United Kingdom, its colonies, or other Commonwealth countries  Commonwealth citizen was first defined in this Act to have the same meaning  This alternative term was necessary to retain a number of newly independent countries in the Commonwealth that wished to become republics rather than preserve the monarch as head of state  The change in naming also indicated a shift in the base theory to this aspect of British nationality; allegiance to the Crown was no longer a requirement to possess British subject status and the common status would be maintained by voluntary agreement among the various members of the Commonwealth British subject/Commonwealth citizen status co-existed with the citizenships of each Commonwealth country  A person born in Australia would be both an Australian citizen and a British subject  British subjects under the previous meaning who held that status on 1 January 1949 because of a connection with the United Kingdom or a remaining colony became Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC)  CUKC status was the principal form of British nationality during this period of time There was also a category of people called British subjects without citizenship  Irish citizens who fulfilled certain requirements could file formal claims with the Home Secretary to remain British subjects under this definition  Additionally, those who did not qualify for CUKC status or citizenship in other Commonwealth countries, or were connected with a country that had not yet defined citizenship laws, would transitionally remain British subjects in this group 

Irish departure from the Commonwealth
Despite the accommodations for republics, Ireland ended its Commonwealth membership in 1948 when it formally declared itself a republic and removed the British monarch's remaining official functions in the Irish state  This was recognised by Britain after passage of the Ireland Act 1949  Although Irish citizens have no longer been defined as British subjects in British law since 1949, they continue to be treated as non-foreign in the United Kingdom and retain the same rights and privileges exercised by Commonwealth citizens; Irish citizens remain eligible to vote and stand for parliament in the UK The British Nationality Act 1948 unintentionally excluded certain British subjects associated with Ireland from acquiring CUKC status  The wording of that law did not take into account the 24-hour period during which Northern Ireland was part of the Irish Free State in 1922  Individuals born before 1922 in the area that became the Republic of Ireland to fathers also born in that area but were domiciled in Northern Ireland on Irish independence had nevertheless automatically acquired Irish citizenship  The Ireland Act 1949 specifically addresses this by deeming any person in such circumstances who had never registered for Irish citizenship and had not permanently resided in the Republic between 10 April 1935 and 1 January 1949 as a CUKC and having never ceased to be a British subject 

Restricting Commonwealth free movement
All British subjects under the reformed system initially continued to hold free movement rights in both the UK and Ireland  Non-white immigration into the UK was systemically discouraged, but strong economic conditions in Britain following the Second World War attracted an unprecedented wave of colonial migration  This entitlement was part of a wider initiative to preserve close relationships with certain Dominions and colonies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia) and to moderate nationalist attitudes within the Commonwealth  In response, Parliament imposed immigration controls on any subjects originating from outside the British Islands with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962  This restriction was somewhat relaxed by the Immigration Act 1971 for patrials, subjects whose parents or grandparents were born in the United Kingdom, which gave effective preferential treatment to white Commonwealth citizens  Ireland mirrored this restriction and limited free movement only to people born on the islands of Great Britain or Ireland  However, individuals born in the UK since 1983 are only British citizens if at least one parent is already a British citizen  The Irish regulation created a legal anomaly where persons born in Britain without British citizenship nevertheless held an unrestricted right to settle in Ireland; this inconsistency was removed in 1999 In other parts of the Commonwealth, British subjects already did not have an automatic right to settle  Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa had immigration restrictions in place for British subjects from outside their jurisdictions targeted at non-white migrants since the late 19th century  After 1949, non-local British subjects under the new definition who were resident in these independent Commonwealth countries continued to retain certain privileges  This included eligibility to vote in elections, for preferred paths to citizenship, and for welfare benefits  British subjects were eligible to vote in New Zealand until 1975 and Australia until 1984 (though subjects on the electoral roll in that year are still eligible)  In Canada, voting eligibility was revoked at the federal level in 1975, but not fully phased out in provinces until 2006  All Commonwealth citizens remain eligible to vote and stand for public office in the UK 

Post-imperial redefinition of nationality classes
By the 1970s and 1980s, most colonies of the British Empire had become independent and remaining ties to the United Kingdom had been significantly weakened  The UK updated its nationality law to reflect the more modest boundaries of its remaining territory and possessions with the British Nationality Act 1981  CUKCs were reclassified in 1983 into different nationality groups based on their ancestry, birthplace, and immigration status: CUKCs who had right of abode in the United Kingdom became British citizens while those connected with a remaining colony became British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTCs)  Remaining CUKCs who were no longer associated with a British territory became British Overseas citizens  The definition of "British subject" became limited to include only the category of people previously called British subjects without citizenship who held that status through a connection with former British India or Ireland before 1949 

Former membership in the European Union
In 1973, the United Kingdom joined the European Communities (EC), a set of organisations that later developed into the European Union (EU)  British citizens were able to work in other EC/EU countries under the freedom of movement for workers established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome and participated in their first European Parliament elections in 1979  With the creation of European Union citizenship by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, free movement rights were extended to all nationals of EU member states regardless of their employment status  The scope of these rights was further expanded with the establishment of the European Economic Area in 1994 to include any national of an EFTA member state except for Switzerland, which concluded a separate free movement agreement with the EU that came into force in 2002 Not all British nationals were EU citizens  Only British citizens, British Overseas Territories citizens connected with Gibraltar, and British subjects under the 1981 Act who held UK right of abode were defined as UK nationals for the purposes of EU law  Although the Crown dependencies were part of the European Union Customs Union, free movement of persons was never implemented in those territories  Following the UK's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020, British nationals have no longer been EU citizens  Despite this, British citizens continue to have free movement in Ireland as part of the preexisting arrangement for the Common Travel Area While the UK was a member state of the EU, Cypriot and Maltese citizens held a particularly favoured status there  While non-EU Commonwealth citizens continued to need a residence visa to live in the UK, Cypriot and Maltese citizens were able to settle there and immediately hold full rights to political participation due to their status as both Commonwealth and EU citizens  This group of EU citizens (along with Irish citizens) domiciled in the UK were able to vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum while all other non-British EU citizens could not 

Acquisition and loss of nationality
British citizenship
Prior to 1983, all Individuals born within the British Islands (the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies) received British citizenship at birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents  Individuals born afterwards only receive citizenship at birth if at least one parent is a British citizen or considered to have settled status in the UK  Children born overseas are British citizens by descent if either parent is a citizen otherwise than by descent, subject to regulations  Adopted children are treated as if they were naturally born to the adopting parents at the time of adoption  Children born abroad to members of the British Armed Forces or British citizens on Crown service are treated as if they were born in the UK Children born in the UK to a resident Irish citizen at any time are always British citizens at birth  Since 1983, the status of a child born in the UK is dependent on whether their parents held British citizenship or settled status at the time of their birth  Irish citizens residing in the UK are deemed to hold settled status upon arrival  Regulations concerning settled status for other European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), and Swiss citizens have changed greatly over time, affecting the status of their children born during the different regulatory periods  EU/EEA citizens living in the UK before 2 October 2000 were automatically considered to be settled  Between that date and 29 April 2006, EU/EEA citizens were required to apply for permanent residency  Swiss citizens became subject to the same regulations on 1 June 2002  From 30 April 2006 until 30 June 2021, EU/EEA and Swiss citizens living in the UK for at least five years automatically received permanent resident status  Permanent resident status for these citizens expired on 1 July 2021, after which they have been required to hold settled status through the European Union Settlement Scheme or another path Foreign nationals may naturalise as British citizens after residing in the UK for more than five years and possessing indefinite leave to remain (ILR) for at least one year  The residency requirement is reduced to three years if an applicant is married to a British citizen and they immediately become eligible for naturalisation after receiving ILR or equivalent  Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in the English, Welsh, or Scottish Gaelic languages and pass the Life in the United Kingdom test 

British Overseas Territories citizenship
Individuals born in a territory automatically receive BOTC status if at least one parent is a BOTC or has belonger status  Children born in an overseas territory to British citizen parents who are not settled in a territory are British citizens at birth, but not BOTCs  Parents do not necessarily need to be connected with the same overseas territory to pass on BOTC status  Alternatively, a child born in an overseas territory may be registered as a BOTC if either parent becomes a BOTC or settles in any overseas territory subsequent to birth  A child who lives in the same territory until age 10 and is not absent for more than 90 days in each year is also entitled to registration as a BOTC  Furthermore, an adopted child automatically become a BOTC on the effective day of adoption if either parent is a BOTC or has belonger status  In all cases that an individual is a British Overseas Territories citizen at birth or adoption within the territories, that person is a BOTC otherwise than by descent Individuals born outside of the territories are BOTCs by descent if either parent is a BOTC otherwise than by descent  Unmarried fathers cannot automatically pass on BOTC status, and it would be necessary for them to register children as BOTCs  If a parent is a BOTC by descent, additional requirements apply to register children as BOTCs  Parents in Crown service who have children abroad are exempted from these circumstances, and their children would be BOTCs otherwise than by descent, as if they had been born on their home territory Foreigners and non-BOTC British nationals may naturalise as British Overseas Territories citizens after residing in a territory for more than five years and possessing belonger status or permanent residency for more than one year  The residency requirement is reduced to three years if an applicant is married to a BOTC  All applicants for naturalisation and registration are normally considered by the governor of the relevant territory, but the Home Secretary retains discretionary authority to grant BOTC status  Since 2004, BOTC applicants aged 18 or older are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Sovereign and loyalty pledge to the relevant territory during their citizenship ceremonies All British Overseas Territories citizens other than those solely connected with Akrotiri and Dhekelia became British citizens on 21 May 2002, and children born on qualified overseas territories to dual BOTC-British citizens since that date are both BOTCs and British citizens otherwise than by descent  Prior to 2002, only BOTCs from Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands were given unrestricted access to citizenship  BOTCs naturalised after that date may also become British citizens by registration at the discretion of the Home Secretary  Becoming a British citizen has no effect on BOTC status; BOTCs may also simultaneously be British citizens 

Other nationality classes
It is generally not possible to acquire other forms of British nationality  British Overseas citizenship, British subjecthood, and British protected person status are only transferred by descent if an individual born to a parent holding one of these statuses would otherwise be stateless  British Overseas citizens retain their status by association with most former British colonies, British subjects are connected specifically with Ireland or British India before 1949, and British protected persons are associated with territories that were under British control but not formally incorporated as part of the British Empire  British National (Overseas) status was exclusively granted by voluntary registration to Hong Kong residents who had been British Dependent Territories citizens prior to the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997 and cannot be newly acquired in any case  Noncitizen British nationals may become British citizens by registration, rather than naturalisation, after residing in the United Kingdom for more than five years and possessing ILR for more than one year 

Renunciation and restoration
Any type of British nationality can be renounced by making a declaration to the Home Secretary, provided that the declarant possesses or intends to acquire another nationality  Former British citizens or BOTCs may subsequently apply for nationality restoration  Applicants who had originally renounced their British nationality in order to retain or acquire another nationality are entitled to register as British citizens or BOTCs once  Any subsequent renunciation and application for restoration, or someone applying for restoration who originally renounced their British nationality for a reason unrelated to acquiring or retaining an alternate nationality, would be subject to the discretionary approval of the Home Secretary 

Automatic loss of British nationality
British subjects (other than British subjects by virtue of a connection with the Republic of Ireland) and British protected persons lose British nationality upon acquiring any other form of nationality 

These provisions do not apply to British citizens 
British Overseas Territories citizens (BOTCs) who acquire another nationality do not lose their BOTC status but they may be liable to lose belonger status in their home territory under its immigration laws  Such persons are advised to contact the governor of that territory for information 
British Overseas citizens (BOCs) do not lose their BOC status upon acquisition of another citizenship, but any entitlement to registration as a British citizen on the grounds of having no other nationality no longer applies after acquiring another citizenship 

Deprivation of British nationality
The British government does not publish the number of people it strips of citizenship, but independent research by a lawyer-run website, in 2022, found at least 464 people's citizenship was revoked in the last 15 years  After the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 came into force British nationals could be deprived of their citizenship if and only if the Secretary of State was satisfied they were responsible for acts seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom or an Overseas Territory This was extended under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006: people with dual nationality who are British nationals can be deprived of their British citizenship if the Secretary of State is satisfied that "deprivation is conducive to the public good", or if nationality was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact  Between 2006 and the end of 2021 at least 464 people have had their citizenship removed by the government since the law was introduced  There is a right of appeal  This provision has been in force since 16 June 2006 when the Immigration, Nationality and Asylum Act 2006 (Commencement No 1) Order 2006 brought it into force  Loss of British nationality in this way applies also to dual nationals who are British by birth  The Secretary of State may not deprive a person of British nationality, unless obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact, if they are satisfied that the order would make a person stateless This provision was again modified by the Immigration Act 2014 so as not to require that a third country would actually grant nationality to a person; British nationality can be revoked if "the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, to become a national of such a country or territory "The powers to strip citizenship were initially very rarely used  Between 2010 and 2015, 33 dual nationals had been deprived of their British citizenship  In the two years to 2013 six people were deprived of citizenship; then in 2013, 18 people were deprived, increasing to 23 in 2014  In 2017, over 40 people had been deprived as of July (at this time increased numbers of British citizens went to join "Islamic State" and then tried to return) The Home Office does not issue information on these cases and is resistant to answering questions, for example under the Freedom of Information Act 2000  It appears that the government usually waits until the person has left Britain, then sends a warning notice to their British home and signs a deprivation order a day or two later  Appeals are heard at the highly secretive Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), where the government can submit evidence that cannot be seen or challenged by the appellant Home Secretary Sajid Javid said in 2018 that until then deprivation of nationality had been restricted to "terrorists who are a threat to the country", but that he intended to extend it to "those who are convicted of the most grave criminal offences"  The acting director of Liberty responded "The home secretary is taking us down a very dangerous road      making our criminals someone else’s problem is     the government washing its hands of its responsibilities     Banishment belongs in the dark ages "A Nationality and Borders Bill was introduced to the British House of Commons in July 2021, sponsored by the Home Office under Home Secretary Priti Patel  In November 2021, an amendment to the Bill was introduced which, if passed, would allow people to be deprived of British citizenship without being given notice  At the time the Home Office reiterated its position on citizenship: "British citizenship is a privilege, not a right" 

British citizenship ceremonies
From 1 January 2004, all new applicants for British citizenship by naturalisation or registration aged 18 or over if their application is successful must attend a citizenship ceremony and either make an affirmation or take an oath of allegiance to the monarch, and make a pledge to the UK 
Citizenship ceremonies are normally organised by:

local councils in England, Scotland, and Wales
the Northern Ireland Office
the governments of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey
the Governors of British Overseas Territories
British consular offices outside the United Kingdom and territories Persons from what is now the Republic of Ireland born before 1949 reclaiming British subject status under section 31 of the 1981 Act do not need to attend a citizenship ceremony  If such a person subsequently applies for British citizenship by registration or naturalisation, attendance at a ceremony is required 
For those who applied for British citizenship before 2004:

the oath of allegiance was administered privately through signing a witnessed form in front of a solicitor or other accredited person
those who already held British nationality (other than British protected persons) were exempt, as were those citizens of countries with the King as Head of State (such as Australia and Canada) 

See also
Visa policy of the United Kingdom
Visa requirements for British citizens
Visa requirements for British Nationals (Overseas)
Visa requirements for British Overseas citizens
Visa requirements for British Overseas Territories citizens

Notes
Passage 2:
Webex
Webex by Cisco is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing  and contact center as a service applications  It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007  Its headquarters are in San Jose, California Its software products include Webex App, Webex Suite, Webex Meetings, Webex Messaging, Webex Calling, Webex Contact Center, and Webex Devices  All Webex products are part of the Cisco Systems collaboration portfolio 

History
WebEx was founded in 1995 by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu  It had its initial public offering in July 2000  WebEx was listed on the NASDAQ National Market, and then the NASDAQ Global Select Market, when that was introduced in 2006 

Services
At the time of the acquisition, all Webex applications were built on the MediaTone platform and supported by the Webex MediaTone Network (originally called the Webex interactive network), a global network intended for use with on-demand programs  The network was designed by Shaun Bryant, Webex's Chief Network Architect, and Zaid Ali Sr, Network Architect, to be one of the first SaaS platforms on the Internet In July 2006, AOL and Webex launched a business version of AOL's instant messaging software, AIM Pro, with additional features to help workers collaborate using conferencing tools offered by Webex On September 26, 2006, the company announced plans to offer a web collaboration "mashup" platform called "Webex Connect" On November 17, 2014, Cisco announced an evolution of Webex called Project Squared  On March 17, 2015 this effort was re-branded as Cisco Spark On April 18, 2018, Cisco announced that Cisco Spark would be combined into the Cisco Webex platform  On this same date, Cisco rebranded all of the rest of their Spark products to Webex, including the Spark Room Kit—now Webex Room Kit—and Spark Board—now Webex Board 

On May 15, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer reported in the month of April 2020, they had 500 million meeting attendees, and that equated to 25 billion meeting minutes, using its video-conferencing application Webex In September 2020, Cisco launched a new platform Webex Classrooms for virtual homeroom encounters On October 26, 2021, Cisco launched an update aimed to enhance virtual and hybrid in-person meetings and events, using AI-powered technology for their Webex portfolio 

Acquisition
The company acquired Intranets com in 2005, providing entrance into the small- and mid-size business market through the company's customer base of businesses with fewer than 100 employees  It acquired the ability to offer online collaboration tools such as discussion forums, document sharing and calendaring while Intranets com provided access to the Webex communications environment for its customers On March 15, 2007, Cisco Systems announced it would acquire WebEx for $3 2 billion  Cisco has said that its long-term plan is to absorb WebEx at both a technology and a sales level In October 2020, Cisco acquired BabbleLabs In February 2021, Cisco acquired imimobile, a provider of communications platform as a service (CPaaS) solutions for its Webex  collaboration portfolio imimobile 

Legal proceedings and inquiries
Goldman Sachs securities fraud investigation
As a result of a securities fraud investigation initiated by the SEC and by various state Attorney General offices, Goldman Sachs faced charges of issuing unfair research, including coverage of WebEx, and IPO violations for the period 1999 to 2001  Webex management allegedly dictated to Goldman Sachs analysts what the research should and should not include  Webex maintains the management's information was accurate  Another charge accuses Goldman Sachs of violating securities law in its allocation of shares in WebEx's initial public offering 

Raindance lawsuit for patent infringement
On September 27, 2005, Webex sued Raindance Communications, Inc , a competitor, for patent infringement  On October 14, 2005, Raindance filed a countersuit against Webex for patent infringement  Both parties sought both damages and an injunction enjoining further acts they claim to be infringing on patents  On March 31, 2006, the parties agreed to the dismissal of both actions, releases of claims for past infringement, payments associated with those releases, and cross-licenses to each other's patents  The agreement resulted in Webex receiving 1 million dollars from Raindance 

See also
Collaborative software
Comparison of web conferencing software
Comparison of remote desktop software
Zoom (software)
Passage 3:
Central Library (Kansas City, Missouri)
The Central Library is the main library of the Kansas City Public Library system, which is located in the Library District of Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, United States  It is situated at 14 West 10th Street, at the corner of West 10th Street and Baltimore Avenue, across Baltimore Avenue from the Kansas City Club and up from the New York Life Building  It contains the administration of Kansas City's library system Within the Central Library, the Missouri Valley Room contains a wide collection of items related to Kansas City local history, including original and published materials, news articles, postcards, photographs, maps, and directories dating from the city's earliest history   The Library's Ramos Collection includes books, pamphlets, journal articles, and other materials relating to African-American history and culture 
Passage 4:
Salamá
Salamá is a city in Guatemala  It is the capital of the department of Baja Verapaz and it is situated at 940 m above sea level  The municipality of Salamá, for which the city of Salamá serves as the administrative centre, covers a total surface area of 764 km² and contains 65,275 people 

Etymology
Salamá comes from Kʼicheʼ Tz'alam Ha meaning table on water 

History
Salamá was settled as a doctrine by the Order of Preachers in the 1550s, as part of the Tezulutlán Capitulations that friar Bartolome de las Casas lobbied from the Crown  The friars had thousands of acres with hills, forest, a section of the plain and abundant water supply  Both location and weather were ideal for vines; the characteristic soil and dried grass from the rest of the plain was replaced by vines thanks to a superb irrigation system the friars built inspired by the Romans After independence in 1821, the Central Ameran liberal criollos tried to remove the Catholic Church from power, along with the Guatemalan aristocrats of the Aycinena family  By 1829, the liberal forces of general Francisco Morazán expelled both the aristocrats and the regular orders from Central America, including the Order of Preachers, one of the richest  In Salamá, they had to leave behind their monastery, church and vines, which were confiscated by the Guatemalan State government, but remained abandoned due to the political turmoil of the times 

Battle of Salamá of 1839
In early 1838, Morazán's liberal forces were back in Guatemala after a peasant revolt ousted Guatemalan governor Mariano Galvez  Morazán and his Guatemalan ally José Francisco Barrundia invaded Guatemalan soil and when they arrived in San Sur, they summarily executed Chúa Álvarez, general Rafael Carrera's father-in-law, because Carrera was the leader of the revolt  Morazán's soldiers placed Álvarez' head on top of a spike as a warning to Carrera's followers  Upon learning the news, both Carrera and his wife, Petrona Álvarez – who had left Guatemala City to face Morazán and were in Mataquescuintla – promised to avenge Chúa even after Morazán's death  The liberals sent several envoys to try to meet with Carrera, but he did not want to talk to them –especially not to Barrundia, who was told that he should not try to come in to talk to Carrera if he wanted to remain alive  After this, Morazán began a strong offensive, destroying every single town in his path, stealing the few belongings and forcing Carrera militants to hide in the mountains Thinking that Carrera was completely defeated, Morazán and Barrundia went on to Guatemala City, where governor Valenzuela and the conservative criollos of the Aycinena family celebrated finally having a leader like Morazán, who had defeated Carrera and his peasant revolt once and for all  The Guatemalans offered to sponsor any campaign that Morazán wanted at that point  Morazán helped Los Altos and appointed Mariano Rivera Paz, who was close to the Aycinena family; however he did not return to the former aristocrats any of their confiscated possessions  In return, Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol, leader of the family, voted in favor of dissolving the Central American Federation, thus forcing Morazán to return to El Salvador to try to save what was left of his presidential powers  On his way to El Salvador, he increased repression, on anybody suspect of helping Carrera in the past Knowing that Morazán was on his way to El Salvador, Carrera tried to take Salamá with the little forces that he still had left, but was defeated and even lost his brother Laureano in the battle   With only a handful of men he was able to escape, badly wounded, to Sanarate  After a halfway recovery, Carrera had a few more battles where he won, but suffered considerable casualties Finally, the liberal forces captured Carrera, but could not shoot him, because the Central American Federation was in turmoil and they needed the caudillo to keep the peasants in check  Morazán was forced to appoint him as commander in Mita  Morazán would come to regret that decision, as Carrera would eventually defeat him in 1840, finishing the Honduran general run as the main political figure of Central America As of 1850, the population was estimated to be 4,500 

Miguel Enríquez and president Barillas in 1892
In 1892, president general Manuel Barillas called an election  It was the first time a Guatemalan president had become tired of the office and it was also the first election in Guatemala that allowed the candidates to run propaganda in the local newspapers  Among the candidates who ran for office were:

Lorenzo Montúfar y Rivera: a well known a respected liberal intellectual  He was the only one of all candidates who made an engraving of his portrait to publish it in the newspapers and was accused of wasting resources for doing this 
General José María Reyna Barrios: nephew of former president Justo Rufino Barrios and eventual winner 
Miguel Enríquez: a Salamá landowner  Enríquez had been a liberal, but became a conservative after the persecution that he suffered from the Barillas administration Barillas was unique among all liberal presidents of Guatemala between 1871 and 1944: he handed over power to his successor peacefully  When election time approached, he sent for the three Liberal candidates to ask them what their government plan would be  Satisfied with the response of Reyna Barrios, Barillas made sure a huge column of Quetzaltenango and Totonicapán Indigenous people came down from the mountains to vote for the general  The official agents did their job: Reyna was elected president and, so as not to offend the losing candidates, Barillas gave them checks to cover the costs of their presidential campaigns  Reyna Barrios of course received nothing, but he went on to become President on March 15, 1892 Only Enríquez was not compensated; on the contrary, after the elections he had to run away from his farmland in Salamá after being accused of sedition; he was captured and executed near Zacapa 

Miguel Ángel Asturias in Salamá
In 1904, the father of future Literature Nobel Prize awardee Miguel Ángel Asturias, who was a judge, freed several students that had been detained after rioting  In consequence president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and removed him from his post  In 1905, the family was forced to move to Salamá, where Miguel Ángel Asturias lived on his grandparents' farm and came in contact with Guatemalan natives for the first time  His nanny, Lola Reyes, was a native girl who told him stories, myths and legends from her culture which eventually would impact heavily in his work  In 1908, when Asturias was nine years old, his family returned to Guatemala City 

Anticommunist rebellion in 1953
During the revolutionary government of colonel Jacobo Árbenz, the opposition – mainly formed by Guatemalan landlords and United Fruit Company executives – was completely against any reform that the government of Juan José Arévalo had established: social security, creation of commercial and public labor unions, democracy and freedom of press, among others  At the election of Árbenz in 1950, the Guatemalan elite was desperate, but most of its members hoped that the new president would back out of the policies of his predecessor, whom they accused of communism  Árbenz' image convinced them of that: the Guatemalan colonel was married to María Cristina Vilanova, a lady from the Salvadorian elite  He was an Army officer, lived in a mansion in zone 10 in Guatemala City and had the proper aristocratic presence  But their hopes were shattered when Árbenz supported the formation of the Guatemalan Communist Party and then pushed for aggressive agrarian reform  Confronted with the situation, the opposition had only one clear goal: to defend the privileges that they had enjoyed in Guatemala for generations and so they embraced anticommunism to justify their fight against the government  On the other hand, the middle class enjoyed benefits that allowed them to prosper and they were loyal to Árbenz  The peasants were for the first time since the Rafael Carrera government treated with respect and dignity This was the political and economic situation of the country when on 29 March 1953 the anticommunist opposition assaulted Salamá at dawn: approximately 100 rebels invaded Salamá and neighboring San Jerónimo  The invasion was not properly organized and by 6:00 a m  was completedly defeated by army forces that arrived from Cobán  This event however began government prosecution of anticommunist elements, which gradually escalated until it became pure repression in May 1954, when CIA Operation PBSuccess and the Carlos Castillo Armas invasion were well in progress and the Arbenz regime was practically doomed 

Festivals
The annual festival takes place from September 17 to September 22 

Climate
Salamá has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw) 

Geography and location
Settlements
Salamá has 146 settlements, being the main ones:

San Rafael Chilasco is the largest settlement and is a tourist attraction given that it has one of the tallest waterfalls in Central America 

Geographic location
Salamá is surrounded by Baja Verapaz municipalities, except by South, where it borders Chuarrancho, a Guatemala Department municipality 

See also
Guatemala portal
 Geography portal
Baja Verapaz
History of Guatemala
Order of Preachers
List of places in Guatemala

Notes and references
Passage 5:
Zhu Yunlai
Levin Zhu Yunlai (born 29 July 1958) is a Chinese businessman  He is the eldest son of Zhu Rongji, a former Premier of the People's Republic of China  In 1994, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, studying atmospheric science 
In 1998, Zhu was invited by Wang Qishan to join China International Capital Corporation, which was then fledgling investment bank based in China, with Morgan Stanley as a shareholder  Zhu served as CEO of the firm between 2004 and 2014 Zhu and his father, Zhu Rongji, by family tradition, are descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, through the line of Zhu Pian, Zhu Yuanzhang's 18th son 
Passage 6:
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 7:
Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta
Pesanggrahan is a district of South Jakarta one of the administrative cities which forms the capital territory of Jakarta, Indonesia  The Pesanggrahan River flows along the eastern edge of Pesanggrahan District  To the west of Pesanggrahan District is Tangerang and South Tangerang, Banten Province 
Pesanggrahan District was originally part of the Kebayoran Lama District, which was later made into a separate district 
A southwestern portion of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road and the Serpong-Jakarta railway passed through Pesanggrahan District 

Toponym
The name Pesanggrahan is derived from the name of the river Pesanggrahan along the eastern edge of the district 

Kelurahan (Administrative villages)
The district of Pesanggrahan is divided into five administrative villages (kelurahan):

Ulujami - area code 12250
Petukangan Utara - area code 12260
Petukangan Selatan - area code 12270
Pesanggrahan - area code 12320
Bintaro - area code 12330

List of important places

Budi Luhur University
Darunnajah Islamic Boarding School
Metro Mall Cipulir
Taman Swadharma
Passage 8:
Sanjiang Church
Sanjiang Church (三江基督教堂) was a Christian church located in Yongjia County, near Wenzhou, in Zhejiang Province, China  The church was completed in December 2013   The city of Wenzhou is a port city believed to have China's largest Christian community   Local Christians claim as many as 15 percent of the residents Christians with the majority being Protestant   British missionaries George and Grace Stott had set up churches in this area towards the end of the 19th century 
The Sanjiang Church was completed in 2013 after almost six years and after local Christians pooled together between 3 2 and 4 9 million US dollars (20-30 million yuan) for the construction costs   The building was large enough to hold up to 2,000 people with the church complex occupying more than 100,000 square feet of land  The church had been registered with the government authorities  The demolition was preceded by a petition by local believers of the Chinese folk faith accusing the church to disrupt the area's feng shui (cosmic harmony), highlighting the tensions between indigenous religious groups and Christianity 

2014 Protests
In April 2014, thousands of Chinese Christians camped around a church to prevent it from being demolished after several crosses had been torn down   In February 2014, local officials began an antireligious campaign to demolish any church buildings that violated local regulations   Local Christians claim that Communist Party officials object to the bright, prominent crosses that some churches use to advertise their presence and want these crosses to be replaced with smaller crosses inside   Government officials claim that the building is structurally unsound 

Demolition
As of April 28, 2014, the entire church had been toppled over 
Passage 9:
Biłgoraj County
Biłgoraj County (Polish: powiat biłgorajski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland  It was established on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998  Its administrative seat and largest town is Biłgoraj, which lies 79 kilometres (49 mi) south of the regional capital Lublin  The county contains three other towns: Tarnogród, lying 21 km (13 mi) south of Biłgoraj, Józefów, lying 24 km (15 mi) east of Biłgoraj, and Frampol, 16 km (10 mi) north of Biłgoraj 
The county covers an area of 1,677 79 square kilometres (647 8 sq mi)  As of 2008, its total population is 103,661, which includes 26,306 in Biłgoraj, 3,333 in Tarnogród, 2,486 in Józefów, 1,428 in Frampol, and a rural population of 
67,596 

Neighbouring counties
Biłgoraj County is bordered by Lublin County and Krasnystaw County to the north, Zamość County and Tomaszów Lubelski County to the east, Lubaczów County and Przeworsk County to the south, Leżajsk County to the south-west, Nisko County to the west, and Janów Lubelski County to the north-west 

Administrative division
The county is subdivided into 14 gminas (one urban, three urban-rural and 10 rural)  These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population 
Passage 10:
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 11:
Gmina Tarnów
Gmina Tarnów is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland  Its seat is the city of Tarnów, although the city is not part of the territory of the gmina 
The gmina covers an area of 82 81 square kilometres (32 0 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 23,060 

Villages
Gmina Tarnów contains the villages and settlements of Biała, Błonie, Jodłówka-Wałki, Koszyce Małe, Koszyce Wielkie, Łękawka, Nowodworze, Poręba Radlna, Radlna, Tarnowiec, Wola Rzędzińska, Zawada, Zbylitowska Góra and Zgłobice 

Neighbouring gminas
Gmina Tarnów is bordered by the city of Tarnów and by the gminas of Czarna, Lisia Góra, Pleśna, Skrzyszów, Tuchów, Wierzchosławice, Wojnicz and Żabno 
Passage 12:
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 13:
Zhu Qinan
Zhu Qinan (simplified Chinese: 朱启南; traditional Chinese: 朱啟南; pinyin: Zhū Qǐnán; born November 15, 1984, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang) is a male Chinese sport shooter  He won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle event and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle event  Zhu currently is studying at Zhejiang University Zhu began shooting training at Wenzhou Sports School in 1999  From there, in February 2002, he joined the Zhejiang province shooting team  Zhu joined the national shooting team on December 14, 2003  At the time of his Olympic victory, he was still a junior, and his qualification round score of 599 was an equalled junior world record  He repeated this achievement at the 2004 ISSF World Cup Final in Bangkok, which he also won  He has since then won several ISSF World Cup competitions in 10 m Air Rifle 
On September 22, 2011, Zhu shot a perfect 600 in the qualification round  He scored 103 8 in the final round making a total score of 703 8 to gain the 10 m Air Rifle final world record 
His best result in 50 m Rifle is a bronze medal from the 2004 Asian Championships  Zhu is 5'11" tall and weighs 148 pounds  At the 51st ISSF World Championship held in Granada, Spain, Zhu got gold medal in 50m Rifle 3 Positions 

World record



ground_truth: Thaba Putsoa

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

Question: In which county was Zhu Qinan born?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: The Book of Mormon itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon and his son Moroni  Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates  Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian", a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists  Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief, and there is no archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America  Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates  The Community of Christ, however, accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture but no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates  Some adherents accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture but do not believe that it is a literal translation of a physical historical record, even in the more theologically conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) Non-Mormons and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates  For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Smith or one of his associates, that Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions or hypnosis, or that witnesses were having ecstatic visions 

Story
The story of the golden plates consists of how, according to Joseph Smith and his contemporaries, the plates were found, received from the angel Moroni, translated, and returned to the angel before the publication of the Book of Mormon  Smith is the only source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred while he was the only human witness  Nevertheless, Smith told the story to his family, friends, and acquaintances, and many of them provided second-hand accounts  Other parts of the story are derived from the statements of those who knew Smith, including several witnesses who said that they saw the golden plates 
The best-known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement denominations  The LDS Church has canonized part of this 1838 account as part of its scripture, the Pearl of Great Price 

Background
During the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York  At the time, churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York later became known as the "burned-over district" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often  Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting"  Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure  Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone According to Richard Bushman, Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or "glass-looker", a practice he is said to have called "nonsense", despite his use of seer stones  Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gifts  Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves,  denied their presumed power to find treasure, or ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised  He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer"  Smith's first stone, apparently the same one that he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of a chicken egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors  The LDS Church released photographs of the stone on August 4, 2015 

Finding the plates
According to Smith, he found the plates after he was directed to them by a heavenly messenger whom he later identified as the angel Moroni  According to the story, the angel first visited Smith's bedroom late at night, on September 22 in 1822 or 1823  Moroni told Smith that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home, later called Cumorah, a name found in the Book of Mormon  Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information 
However, the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain "commandments"  Smith recorded some of these commandments but made it clear the main thrust of Moroni's message was that he had to keep God's commandments in general  Some contemporaries who later claimed he told them the story said there were others, some of which are relevant to the modern debate about whether or how closely events of early Mormonism were related to the practice of contemporary folk magic  Smith's writings say that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person  Smith's contemporaries who claimed to have heard the story, both sympathetic and unsympathetic, generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments: (4) that Smith take the plates and leave the site in which they had been buried without looking back, and (5) that the plates never directly touch the ground until they were safe at home in a locked chest  Some unsympathetic listeners who allegedly heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him (6) to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried, (7) to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", (8) to call for the plates by a certain name, and (9) to "give thanks to God "

In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him  Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night, and while unconscious, the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell the visions to his father  When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands  Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place that the plates were buried but that he "knew the place the instant that [he] arrived there "Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron)  Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts 

Unsuccessful retrieval attempts
According to Smith's followers, Smith said he took the plates from the box, put them on the ground, and covered the box with the stone to protect the other treasures that it contained  Nevertheless, the accounts say that when Smith looked back at the ground after closing the box, the plates had once again disappeared into it  When Smith once again raised the stone and attempted to retrieve the plates, he said that he was stricken by a supernatural force that hurled him to the ground as many as three times Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" [sic]  Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed to ask why he had been barred from taking the plates In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God" [sic]  According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands," and according to a nonbeliever, Smith said, "I had forgotten to give thanks to God," as required by the angel Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin  Alvin had died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do  Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person" but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be  However, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife  For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T  Lawrence Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827, when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife  In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord," which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826 

Receiving the plates
The next annual visit on September 22, 1827, would be, Smith told associates, his last chance to receive the plates  According to Brigham Young, as the scheduled final date to obtain the plates approached, several Palmyra residents expressed concern "that they were going to lose that treasure" and sent for a skilled necromancer from 60 miles (96 km) away, encouraging him to make three separate trips to Palmyra to find the plates  During one of the trips, the unnamed necromancer is said to have discovered the location but was unable to determine the value of the plates  A few days prior to the September 22, 1827, visit to the hill, Smith's loyal treasure-hunting friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight Sr  traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T  Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned that he might cause trouble  Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark  If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Smith was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill  Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah with Emma  While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer, Smith walked to the site of the buried plates  Some time in the early morning hours, he said that he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah  At the same time, Smith said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the Urim and Thummim or "Interpreters," with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates  By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith had said that he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting  Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith Sr , determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination  When Emma heard of that, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim that the plates were safe  He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma Once home in Manchester, he said he walked to Cumorah, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm  On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun     Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates  After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun  In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb " He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries  Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester  He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts that he said he had in his possession, but some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth  A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates  After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest, where Smith said the plates were kept  After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders  Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby that was then being used as a cooper shop  Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax  Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone 

Translating the plates
Smith said that the plates were engraved in an unknown language, and he told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them  The translation took place mainly in Harmony, Pennsylvania (now Oakland Township), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris  The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost  The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe  In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York, completing the translation early the following month 

Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating the words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation  Smith's translation process evolved from his previous use of seer stones in treasure-seeking  During the earliest phase of translation, Smith said he used what he called Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a frame like a set of large spectacles  Witnesses said Smith placed the Urim and Thummim in his hat while he was translating After the loss of the first 116 manuscript pages, Smith translated with a single seer stone, which some sources say he had previously used in treasure-seeking  Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation  A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked  Sometimes, Smith dictated to Harris from upstairs or from a different room Smith's translation did not require the use of the plates themselves  Though Smith himself said very little about the translation process, his friends and family said that as he looked into the stone, the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English  There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation  In the 19th century, the most common explanation among anti-Mormons was that he copied the work from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding  That theory is repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers  The most prominent modern theory among many ex-Mormons is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time, perhaps while in a magical trance-like state  As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone or an intuitive translation by Smith, assisted by a mystical connection with God, through the stone  Some Latter Day Saint apologists argue that because of the length of the Book of Mormon (roughly 270,000 words) and the timeframe in which the Book was dictated, it is unlikely that he wrote it or memorized the words from elsewhere  It is also argued that Smith was unfamiliar with the text, often pausing to attempt to pronounce names of people and places that were unfamiliar to him, and therefore it is unlikely that he had read the text before or written it previously Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery  In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 unduplicated manuscript pages to Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply retranslate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again " According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first  This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation "

Location of the plates during translation
When Smith and Emma moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, they transported a wooden box, which Smith said contained the plates, hidden in a barrel of beans  For a time, the couple stayed in the home of Emma's father, Isaac Hale, but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, Hale banished the concealed objects from his house  Afterward, Smith told several of his associates that the plates were hidden in the nearby woods  Emma said that she remembered the plates being on a table in the house, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores  According to Smith's mother, the plates were also stored in a trunk on Emma's bureau  However, Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates to translate them In April 1828, Martin Harris's wife, Lucy, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates  When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods  According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large, black snake and so was prevented from digging up the plates  As a result of Martin Harris's loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man " According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the anniversary of the day that he first received them In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates  Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself " Harris followed the directions but could not find the plates In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer and his parents in Fayette, New York  Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house, where Smith could recover them  The translation was completed at the Whitmer home 

Returning the plates
After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, but he did not elaborate about this experience  According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders, including Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and possibly others accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah  There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall  According to Brigham Young's understanding, which he said that he had gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates and inscribed with the words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ "Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed " The "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof " Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time, when the sealed part will be translated and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate)  Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which, he said, "testify that they are there "

Descriptions of the plates
Smith said the angel Moroni had commanded him not to show the plates to any unauthorized person  However, Smith eventually obtained the written statement of several witnesses who saw the plates  It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they had seen the plates with their physical eyes or had seen them in a vision  For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience "According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; but this child was stillborn in 1828  In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found  The next day, Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are" By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith  During the second half of June 1829, Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (known collectively as the Three Witnesses) into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves  The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard  A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight Witnesses to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra where they said Smith showed them the golden plates  Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Smith, were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon  According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, he viewed the plates in a vision and not with his "natural eyes "In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates  For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith said she had "seen and handled" the plates  Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William and younger sister Katharine also said they had examined and lifted the plates while they were wrapped in fabric  Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates 

Described format, binding, and dimensions
The plates were said to be bound at one edge by a set of rings  In 1828, Martin Harris, is reported to have said that the plates were "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires"  In 1859 Harris said that the plates "were seven inches [18 cm] wide by eight inches [20 cm] in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches [10 cm] thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book"  David Whitmer, another of the Three Witnesses, was quoted by an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as having said the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings     passing through each leaf in succession"  Anomalously, Smith's father is quoted as saying that the plates were only half an inch (1 27 centimeter) thick  Smith's mother, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches [20 cm] long, and six [15 cm] wide     all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate" Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer, also witnesses in 1829, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book"  Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric  Emma said she "felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape  They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book"  William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches [15 cm] wide and eight inches [20 cm] long, and not quite so thick as common tin  They were     bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole  The volume was something near six inches [15 cm] in thickness" 

Described composition and weight
The plates were first described as "gold", and beginning about 1827, the plates were widely called the "gold bible"  When the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, the Eight Witnesses described the plates as having "the appearance of gold"  The Book of Mormon describes the plates as being made of "ore"  In a June 1830 court hearing, Josiah Stowell testified that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of a corner of the plates (making him "the only witness to see the plates 'by accident,'") and said it "resembled a stone of a greenish caste " In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, as having said that the plates were a "whitish yellow color", with "three small rings of the same metal" Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold", and Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold " Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold"  Joseph's brother William, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper     much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood" Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently  According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter  Smith's father Joseph Smith Sr , who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg)  Smith's brother William, who had lifted the plates, thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [27 kg] according to the best of my judgment"  Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds [27 kg]  Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]"  Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work" From descriptions of the plates' dimensions, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg)  Based on the plates' lighter weight and Stowell's description of its corner's "greenish cast", one scholar has hypothesized Smith made the plates from copper, which weighs less than gold and rusts green  LDS writers have speculated the plates could also exhibit those qualities if it were made of a copper-gold alloy like Mesoamerican tumbaga 

"Sealed" portion
According to Smith and others, the golden plates contained a "sealed" portion containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof " Smith never described the nature of the seal, and the language of the Book of Mormon may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or a combination of these elements 
The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time  For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times  One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10), an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed " Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith "Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni  David Whitmer said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them," that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood," and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them " In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose " The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion  In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed  Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up" 

Engravings
The golden plates were said to contain engravings that the Book of Mormon describes as reformed Egyptian  Smith described the writing as "Egyptian characters     small, and beautifully engraved," exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving "John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses, said the plates had "fine engravings on both sides," and Orson Pratt, who did not see the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read "

Significance in the Latter Day Saint tradition
The golden plates are significant within the Latter Day Saint movement because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon, which Smith called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion " However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement  The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination (see List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement)) 
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance  For most adherents of the Latter Day Saint faith, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith  For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins Hugh Nibley, a Latter-day Saint scholar popular among church members, said in 1957 that he believed even proof of the actual existence of the golden plates would not settle disputes about the Book of Mormon and the story of its origin 

Other plates
A few other sets of plates have arisen to prominence in various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement 

Kinderhook plates hoax
In 1843, after reading a missionary tract written by Orson Pratt, three men in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois—Robert Wiley, Wilburn Fugate, and Bridge Whitton—decided to collaborate to counterfeit a set of metal plates and "startle the natives," as one of Fugate's sons recalled  The trio forged plates from copper, etched them with acid, and buried them in a mound, digging them up on April 23, 1843, in a pretended discovery  The Quincy Whig published a story on the discovery, and the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor, a publication of the church and of the city respectively, reprinted the story  The Mormon community soon expressed much interest in the plates 
By May 1, the plates had been brought to Nauvoo and Smith, apparently believing they were authentic, attempted to translate them  Smith's private secretary William Clayton recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon", suggesting that rather than translate the plates by direct revelation, Smith attempted to translate the plates by more conventional means  That day, Clayton wrote in his journal:
I have seen 6 brass plates     covered with ancient characters of language containing from 30 to 40 on each side of the plates  Prest J  [Joseph Smith] has translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth 
Scholars examining the Kinderhook plates in retrospect have found that one character coincidentally resembles a character in Smith's Egyptian Alphabet Book, the alleged meaning of which matches Smith's attempted translation of the Kinderhook plates, further suggesting Smith tried to translate the plates as an amateur linguist Apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, editors of the Nauvoo Neighbor, anticipated Smith would translate the plates in their entirety and promised in a June 1843 article that "The contents of the plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed " However, the plates were returned untranslated to Wiley and Fugate in Kinderhook  Smith did not express reservations about the plates to any of his compatriots, but whether or not he recognized the Kinderhook plates as fraudulent, "he did not swing into a full-fledged translation" as he had with his earlier encounter with Egyptian scrolls In 1886, a signed letter from Fugate was published in the book Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends: A Study Based on Facts and Documents, and in the letter Fugate revealed the hoax and the fabrication of the plates  Nevertheless, many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a denomination of Mormons who followed Brigham Young after Smith's death) refused to accept Fugate's confession and defended the Kinderhook plates as authentic and Smith's translation as legitimate until 1980, when Northwestern University materials science professor D  Lynn Johnson examined a plate still held by the Chicago Historical Society and conclusively proved it was a nineteenth-century creation 

Strangite plates
Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord, were translated by James Strang—one of three major contenders to succeed Smith—who went on to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)  The Voree plates were alleged to have been written by an ancient inhabitant of what is now Burlington, Wisconsin, while the Book of the Law of the Lord was alleged by Strang to be a translation of the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon  Neither of these alleged discoveries by Strang is accepted as authentic outside of the Strangite community 

Notes
Passage 12:
Jan van de Velde the Elder
Jan van de Velde the Elder (1568, Antwerp – 1623, Haarlem), was a Dutch calligrapher, writing teacher, and engraver  He was the father of the engraver Jan van de Velde 

Biography
According to the RKD he was possibly the pupil of Felix van Sambix  He married Mayken van Bracht from Turnhout, sister-in-law of the publisher Jan van Waesberghe, in 1592 in Rotterdam and opened a French school there  Their son, Jan van de Velde, became a painter  He published his calligraphy in the Spieghel der Schrijfkonste in 1605  In 1620 moved to Haarlem, where he was possibly the teacher of the Haarlem calligraphers Jean de la Chambre or Nicolaes Bodding van Laer 
Passage 13:
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother is a biography of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, according to his mother, Lucy Mack Smith   It was originally titled Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations and was published by Orson Pratt in Liverpool in 1853 

Background
Shortly following the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, and into 1845, Lucy Mack Smith dictated her recollections and family story to Nauvoo schoolteacher Martha Jane Coray  Coray worked with her husband to compile these books of notes and other sources into a manuscript, which was then copied 
One copy was given to apostle Brigham Young, and the other stayed with Lucy Smith in Nauvoo  Eventually, apostle Orson Pratt obtained Lucy's copy and published it in 1853, to great controversy 

Brigham Young's opposition
After its publication, Brigham Young declared the book to be a "tissue of lies" and wanted corrections made  In the Millennial Star in 1855, he said,

There are many mistakes in the work     I have had a written copy of those sketches in my possession for several years, and it contains much of the history of the Prophet Joseph  Should it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be done until after they are carefully corrected 
In 1865, Young ordered the church members to have their copies destroyed  There was no "corrected" version until the church published a 1901 serialization and 1902 book, which were done under the direction of Joseph F  Smith, Lucy's grandson Later historians theorized that Young opposed the book because of his own conflicts with its publisher, Orson Pratt, as well as the book's favorable references to William Smith, Young's opponent and Lucy's son  Lucy Mack Smith portrayed the Smith family as the legitimate leaders of the church, which Young may also have seen as a challenge to his leadership 

Importance
LDS historian Leonard Arrington saw the book as "informative, basically accurate, and extremely revealing of Joseph Smith's early life and family background," and felt it "perhaps tells more about Mormon origins than any other single source   Richard L  Anderson called it one of "the essential sources for Mormon origins "  Non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps identifies this history as being "of central importance in the Mormon historical corpus "

Editions
The book has been republished several times, under various publishers, editors and titles   The following is a list of editions with significant changes to the text or title 

Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations, by Lucy Smith, Mother of the Prophet  Liverpool: S W  Richards for Orson Pratt  1853 
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations  Plano, Illinois: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  1880 
Smith, George A ; Smith, Elias, eds  (1902)  History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother, Lucy Smith, as Revised by George A  Smith and Elias Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Improvement Era  
Nibley, Preston, ed  (1945)  History of Joseph Smith, By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Stevens & Wallis 
Nibley, Preston, ed  (1956)  History of Joseph Smith, By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft 
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet  New York: Arno Press  1969 
Tanner, Jerald and Sandra (1978)  Joseph Smith's History By His Mother: The Book Brigham Young Tried to Destroy  Salt Lake City, Utah: Modern Microfilm Co 
Proctor, Scot Facer; Proctor, Maurine Jensen, eds  (1996)  The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother  Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft  ISBN 1-57008-267-7  
Anderson, Lavina Fielding, ed  (2001)  Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir  Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books  ISBN 1-56085-137-6 
Ingleton, R  Vernon, ed  (2005)  History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith; the Unabridged Original Version  Provo, Utah: Stratford Books  ISBN 0-929753-05-4 

Notes



ground_truth: Yongjia County