adityasasidhar/Wikipedia_Cleaned huggingface dataset:
Vladimir Lenin arrived in Petrograd in April 1917. He was a communist, and the Provisional Government was socialist. He had been exiled to Switzerland by the Tsar, but the Provisional Government had allowed him to come back. He began to lead a communist group called the Bolsheviks.
In July, the Bolsheviks spent four days demonstrating against the government. The military attacked them. Lenin was forced to escape to Finland until August, when the Bolsheviks were asked to help defend the government against a takeover by the army. The result was that their reputation improved, and the government gave them weapons.
The Provisional Government's reputation kept getting worse. The Bolsheviks' reputation got better because they refused to work with the Provisional Government until both sides compromised.
On October 10, the Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted to start a revolution. One began in Estonia on October 23. Another started in Petrograd two days later. This time, the revolution was mostly peaceful. The Bolsheviks' Red Army took over many government buildings without a fight, and only two people were killed. It ended with the takeover of the old Tsar's Winter Palace on the morning of October 26, when the Provisional Government was arrested.
The Soviets took power and formed a Congress, a new government, which began on October 25. Some members who were not Bolsheviks walked out during its first few meetings, but that made little difference to its decisions. The people who left were taunted by Leon Trotsky on their way out. He told them to go "where you belong... the dustbin of history!" All parties that opposed the Bolsheviks were eventually broken up, and their leaders were arrested.
The Congress began to get rid of private property. That meant that all land and money was to be owned by the people, and control of factories was given to their workers.
Several countries that had been in the Russian Empire before the Revolution, such as Estonia and Ukraine, had been asking for independence since February. As the new government formed they declared and were allowed independence.
In Russia, enemies of the Bolsheviks organized a White Army and began the Russian Civil War. In July 1918, countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France, sent more than 15 armies to help the White Armies. The ex-Tsar and his family were shot to stop them from being freed. To win the war, Lenin diverted food and supplies to the Red Army. The plan worked since the Bolsheviks won the war, but between 3 and 10 million people died of hunger.
The Third Russian Revolution was an anarchist revolution against the Bolsheviks and the White Army that lasted from 1918 to 1922.
Some European countries recognized the Soviet Union as a proper country in the early 1920s, but the United States refused to do so until 1933.
Baguettes are long thin of bread popular in France, but now common in many other countries. Usually, they are made of white bread. Baguettes usually have a hard crust on the outside but soft bread on the inside.
Later, in 1920, a law was passed that did not let bakers work before 4am. This made it impossible to make a larger loaf in time for their customers' breakfasts. The longer, thinner baguette helped solve this problem because it could be prepared and baked much faster. However, since the French had been making long thin loaves for a long time, what exactly was invented in 1920? It seems to be just the use of the word "baguette" for those thin loaves. but it failed and got rich
A barometer is an instrument used to measure air pressure. The "barometer" measures air pressure in various kinds of units including hectopascals (hPa) and millibars.
They are used for measuring altitude, or height above the ground, such as the height of a mountain, and they were often used to measure altitude aboard a hot air balloon. Barometers are also used in modern aviation as altimeters. Miners sometimes use them to determine the depth of a mine. The most used purpose of the barometer is measuring air pressure. This helps meteorologists in predicting weather.
Medio is a American company engaged in predictive analysis services and software development. Founded in 2004, It has been owned by Nokia since 2014.
Researchers take part in field or laboratory experiments, reading relevant books, journals or websites, taking notes and making conclusions. Teaching and lecturing is only part of the job of a professor or researcher. When they are not directly teaching classes they are often working on academic research. Historians for example may study historical documents to determine why an event happened as it did.
Learning institutions can vary widely in what they expect from members of their faculty. Most expect faculty members to set up their own laboratories. They hire their own lab employees and obtain their own funding, often from more than one source. Academic researchers often compete for grants to fund research at their own university. The more money researchers can attract, the higher the prestige of that university.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (Exposition) or E3, first held in 1995, is one of the biggest conferences for video games. Every year in late May or early June, game developers and other professional people gather to show new video games, computer hardware, and features. It is only open to people who have been invited and people visiting must be over eighteen years old. In 2019, personal information of more than 6000 people were leaked. As a result, people were harassed.
Prince Edward Island is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The current monarch is King Charles III, the King of Canada. Charles III is represented in Prince Edward Island by the Lieutenant Governor.
An antigen is a molecule on the outside of a pathogen (a "germ"). It causes the production of antibodies which stick to the invading virus or bacterium. This is an immune response.
Antigens are usually a protein on the outside of a bacterium or virus. It gets recognized by the adaptive immune system as foreign, and this stimulates the production of antibodies. The antibodies combine with the antigens and make the invading virus or bacterium ineffective. Antigens "stimulate" the production of antibodies: they do not produce them directly. Vaccines for the seasonal flu virus is a common example.
The body system is normally tolerant of its own molecules, which don't trigger an attack. Autoimmune diseases are caused when this safeguard fails.
Chaos is when something unpredictable or random happens. It may refer to several different things:
The Spice Girls were a British girl group. The group formed in 1994. The group had five members. They were famous in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Each member uses a nickname initially given to them:
They were signed to Virgin Records. The Spice Girls released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996. It hit number-one in more than 30 countries. The song helped make the group as a global phenomenon. The group is credited for starting the trend of commercial success of teen pop in the late 1990s. Their debut album, "Spice", sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. It is the best-selling album by a female group in music history. They have sold over 75 million records worldwide. This makes them the best-selling female group of all time. It also makes them the most successful British band since the Beatles.
On top of traffic redirection, Traffic cones are often used in sports as markers to test and train for skills like agaility and precision.
Traffic cones are often used due to their resilient rubber construction, and a new one can easily handle being run over multiple times and be reformed by stacking it between other cones. However, a disadvantage to this rubber construction is that older traffic cones tend to become brittle, and easily shattered.
Due to their rubber construction, they can easily be dropped off of specialized road striping trucks to mark paint.
Traffic cones are easily movable and about 60 cm (24 inches) tall. Traffic cones come in many different colors, with orange, yellow and red being the most common colors. Many types of traffic cones have reflective strips or stripes of reflective paint, so that the cones are easier to see at night.
Motion (disambiguation)
Motion refers to any physical movement or change in position or place.
In 1972, Kwame Nkrumah died in Bucharest, Romania. According to some sources the reason for his death was cancer. However, his close relatives believed there was a chance he was being poisoned by Western agents. His health began rapidly failing after the mysterious death of his chef while in exile in Guinea.
Most of royal portraits are now in the Prado Museum, in Madrid.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef. It is near the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is made up of nearly 2900 coral reefs and over 600 islands. It is 327,800 km big and 2600 km long. It has been listed an important World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest structure made by living things. It can be seen from outer space. The Reefs are threatened.
It is difficult to work out the age of the Great Barrier Reef. This is because of the way a reef can grow and shrink as the sea level changes. A coral reef can grow in diameter, that is how wide they are, from 1 to 2 cm per year. They can also grow upwards from 1 to 15 cm per year. Coral can not grow if the water is too deep (150 metres or more) because it needs light from the sun. They cannot grow out of the water (above sea level).
More than 1,500 species of fish live on the reef. These include the clownfish, red bass, red-throat emperor, and several types of snapper and coral trout. There are at least 330 species of sea squirts (ascidians) on the reef. These vary in size from 1 mm-10 cm in diameter. Between 300 and 500 species of bryozoans live on the reef system. These are small water animals that look like moss, or
Other definition given by Peter. F. Drucker, "every job should be designed as an integrated set of operations which are varied enough to reduce boredom. A manager must create a climate which brings in and maintain satisfaction and discipline among the people. "
Dachshunds are in intelligent and courageous dogs.
Karachi (), () is the largest city in Pakistan and the capital of the province of Sindh. Until 1958, it was also the capital of Pakistan. It is also called the City of Lights. It is also one of the world's biggest megacities. In 2017, there are about 17.63 million people who live in Karachi. It is the largest city in the Muslim world.
Karachi has many names including "Mai Kolachi Jo Goth" and "Karatishi". A native of Karachi is called a Karachiite. Quaid-e-Azam (Muhammad Ali Jinnah), who was the founder of Pakistan, was born and buried in Karachi. Karachi has two important regional seaports. Karachi also makes the largest share of Pakistan's GDP and national revenue.
Karachi has five districts: District South, District East, District West, District Central, and District Malir. The city is the financial and commercial center of Pakistan.
Karachi has 26 universities including the University of Karachi. It is home to the National Stadium, which hosts many cricket games, and several other sports complexes. The city has several long sandy beaches including Clifton/Kemari beach and Sandspit beach. Clifton beach suffered from an oil spillage but the beach was cleaned. Karachi has Pakistan's first nuclear site, KANUP in 1952 from Canada. Karachi hosted the first ever night hockey match between India and Pakistan in 1986 at Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium.The city has a modern international airport (Jinnah International Airport) and two large shipping ports, the Port of Karachi and Port Qasim. Karachi is linked by railway to the rest of Pakistan.
Taoism first showed up in writing in China in 142 C.E. People do not always write about their religions at first, so this religion may be much older. Some important people of the history of Taoism are:
Taoists believe that the main principle behind the universe is an esoteric force known as the Tao. The Tao can best be described as the chaotic power of reality that causes change to happen and things to come in and out of the world without direction or intention. The essence of the Tao is seen in nature, in which all action occurs without any sort of meaning or greater purpose, but is rather the flow of change and energy. Some Taoists describe the Tao as God. Many scholars have labeled Taoism as pantheistic.
Taoists use the word qi to describe energy moving through and altering things in the universe as a result of the Tao.
Taoists believe the best way to live life is through the principle of "wu-wei", which translates to "inaction" or "inexertion". The doctrine of wu-wei advocates to not push back or resist what ever comes your way in life, and to let it be and accept its presence. It also advocates for being happy with what you have and not pursuing unrealistic dreams.
The yin and yang symbol, the famous icon of Taoism, encapsulates the idea that one must be in a harmony between two opposing forces in one's life and remain neutral to either side.
Traditionalist polytheistic Taoists believe in traditional concepts of Heaven and the Underworld, but many modern Taoists today disregard old conceptions of the afterlife and instead believe that people can live on in the Tao after their physical death through metaphysical union.
There are several different types of Taoism, some that combine the principles of Laozi with traditional Chinese deity worship, and some that adhere more strictly to the original tenets and believe only in the concepts of the Tao, qi, and wu-wei.
In the developed world this does not apply. There, many people are seen as the "working poor". They have a job, but do not earn enough money for basic things such as food and a home. In most developed countries, people without jobs receive money from the government, but this is often less than what they need for a comfortable life.
The British Empire was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. The British Empire included the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories.
The Empire started with England's overseas possessions in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It grew into the largest empire the world has ever known during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The British Empire was the first of the European powers to ban slavery, and used the Royal Navy to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by the West Africa Squadron.
By 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the colonies and territory of the British Empire. This was more than one fifth of the world's population at that time. The Empire was larger than 33,700,000 km (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. The British Empire's large influence left a mark on many aspects of the modern world: constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacies. Called "the Empire on which the Sun never sets"' it stood as a sign of British strength and dominance across the globe.
The Age of Discovery saw Portugal and Spain carving vast empires. This sparked England to create its own colonies and trade networks. England, France, and the Netherlands sought to harvest wealth and resources in the Americas and Asia, with Britain eventually emerging as the dominate colonial power in North America and the Indian subcontinent.
In the 19th century, Britain's naval and imperial might surged to new heights, starting a period of prosperity and peace known as Pax Britannica. The combination of trade from factories (the industrial revolution) and shipping guarded by a navy, was the basis of wealth.
Controlling a significant portion of world trade, Britain wielded economic influence over regions such as Asia and Latin America. Some colonies earned greater autonomy, becoming Dominions.
While challenges emerged as the 20th century dawned, Britain's spirit endured. Even in the face of increased competition from Germany and the United States in the early 20th century, the Empire's legacy endured, shaping the course of world history.
World War I weakened the Empire, and World War II accelerated this decline. Also, the ideas of mechanization and manufacture were becoming well known. Other countries could do this, too. Labour costs in (for example) China were much lower than they were in Britain. It is possible that without WWII Britain would still have been in control of manufacturing in large parts of the world. But WWII did happen, and one consequence was the dominance of the United States and China.
Decolonization movements emerged in the post-war era, leading to the granting of independence to many territories, including India. Yet, the British Empire's influence endures, connecting former colonies and dominions in the Commonwealth of Nations, with many sharing the bond of a common monarch, now King Charles III.
When the Thirteen Colonies became independent in the American War of Independence, the British Empire lost some of its oldest and most important colonies. But it kept colonies in what are now Canada and Florida, as well as the Caribbean. It still had colonies and businesses in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific too. After defeating Napoleonic France in 1815, Britain became the world's only superpower for more than a century. The Empire became even larger.
The Empire continued to expand during the 19th century. The Empire would force the Chinese to give them the island of Hong Kong after the Opium Wars during the middle of the 19th century. During the Scramble for Africa, Britain gained much of Africa, especially in the south.
The First World War weakened Europe. Though the British Empire had been the most powerful economy before the war, it was quickly surpassed by the United States as the greatest industrial power after the war. In the Second World War, Japan took the colonies of Britain and other European countries in South-East Asia. The allies eventually defeated Japan and took back their colonies, but Britain's prestige in Asia was damaged. This caused the Empire to decline more quickly.
The British Raj included the whole of the Indian subcontinent. The independence of the two states of India and Pakistan in 1947 was the first and most important step in decolonisation. In the following decade, Britain also gave independence to most of the territories of the British Empire. While doing this, the colonial government hid and destroyed many documents about the empire that they thought might get them in trouble. After the UK transferred Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the British Empire was essentially over. However, Britain still controls some overseas territories. After they were given independence, many countries which used to be British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations. Fifteen Commonwealth countries have the same head of state, King Charles III, and are Commonwealth realms.
It is mass-produced food. It is often western pattern and pre-prepared and delivered to the shop ready for frying or boiling. There is a strong priority on "speed of service".
The restaurants that sell fast food are called "fast food shops" or "fast-food restaurants". Some of the more common fast food restaurants are McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Culver's, Taco Bell, and KFC. All these chains have a limited short menu and serve the same kind of food in all their outlets. The shops are subcontracted by the supplying company and tied absolutely by contract to that single supplier. However, the same kind of criticism could be (and is) directed at some other kinds of restaurants. The problem is seen by many critics as being one of over-eating, rather than one of the specific food types.
Ford (Ford Motor Company) can mean more than one thing:
Joplin was African-American and born in the U.S. state of Texas sometime between June 1867 and January 1868 and grew up in Texarkana, Texas. His relatives were railroad workers. His father wanted him to find work that would pay. His mother said he should learn music. Even though he was from Texas, most of his pieces were written when he was in Missouri and New York City.
Joplin is most well known for writing piano pieces called rags. His music became popular again in the 1970s, with the album "Scott Joplin: Piano Rags", performed by Joshua Rifkin, from Nonesuch Records. He may be most commonly known now by the Marvin Hamlisch adaptation of his composition "The Entertainer" (1902) which was used in the 1973 movie "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. His best-known rag while he was alive was "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899). Other rags he wrote were "The Ragtime Dance" (1906) and "Magnetic Rag" (1914). Scott Joplin wrote more than 40 piano rags, but he also wrote two operas; "A Guest of Honor" and "Treemonisha". "A Guest of Honor" was performed in Joplin's lifetime, but since then the music has been lost. "Treemonisha" was never performed while Joplin was alive, but it has been performed since then. Joplin also wrote a symphony, but the music has been lost.
Nationalism is the idea of promoting the interests of a particular nation. Mostly it includes interests in the sovereignty of their own country or homeland. Nationalists think that the best way to make this happen and avoid control or oppression by others is for each group to have their own nation. Some nationalists think this is the best way to save small and weak groups threatened by the mixing of ethnic groups, such as in countries like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.. The other definition of nationalism is the 'identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.
Many early socialists were also nationalists. The earliest forms of nationalism had lots of socialist features. Political thinkers who thought that ethnic groups should not be oppressed by other ethnic groups thought also that 'normal folk', the backbone of society, like workers and peasants, should not be oppressed by higher social classes like rich people. They also thought that it is wrong for somebody to live in great welfare that is made of the hard work of others, or the oppression of others. The ideology is that the social classes should work together and have a common goal that aims for the good of everyone. These goals can be called "national interest".
Nationalists started to support normal people, especially peasants, who they saw as uncorrupted, gallant, and fair, unlike high classes. For example, normal folks often had more original and local ethnic culture than the high classes, whose culture was seen as more rootless.
Socialism and nationalism grew together. But they have also been in opposition. The most known opposition between these ideologies was with the Soviet Union. Soviet propaganda made nationalism an insult word that was linked with opposed ideologies like capitalism, liberalism, imperialism or fascism. Even in the Soviet Union and other communist or socialist countries, there was nationalism in great measure (even if it was not called with that name).
The most capitalist countries like the United States were patriotic rather than nationalist. The Nordic countries, which were among the most pure nation-states (countries that follow nationalist principle), were not very capitalist or rightist; they were built on the social democratic idea, which is left. Only after Nordic countries became more multicultural did their politics become more rightist.
Today nationalism does not have a common stand on those fields of politics that are outside of its basic goals, like left-right politics. However nationalism can be a part of a bigger political ideology or agenda that can be leftist or rightist or something outside that classification.
Nationalism is usually connected to goals that resist strong hierarchy between social classes in society. Nationalist people are usually more or less against the strongest forms of capitalism, which they think gives too much power to rich people and big companies.
Nationalism had an important role in ending colonial rule. Nationalism spread to colonies and made their people desire independence. Nationalism also made the people in metropolitan states (countries that colonized others) accept more the desire of other people to rule themselves. However nationalists think that the end of colonization of Africa was not done well. They think that there would not be so many conflicts in Africa if African nations had built in a nationalist way (so that every ethnic group is its own nation).
People who cannot hear and understand words well are 'hard of hearing'. And people who cannot hear and speak are called "deaf-mute".
The Liver birds are two large and famous bronze metal birds on top of a building - the Liver Building - in the city of Liverpool, England. The building has the offices of an insurance organization. The birds are symbol of the city, although no birds really look like this. There are some other similar birds on buildings in Liverpool.
Chartism thus relied on constitutional methods to secure its aims, though some became involved in insurrectionary activities, notably in South Wales and in Yorkshire.
A movie theater or movie theatre, is a place where movies are shown on a big screen. People or "patrons" (the audience) watch movies, usually in chairs inside an auditorium, where the movie is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. A movie theatre is sometimes called a cinema. A theatre with multiple screens commonly is called a "multi-plex" or "mega-plex" (if more than 10 screens). Movie theatres have comfortable chairs. There are different types of formats of a movie theatre.
1654 was a common year.
The KLF adopted the philosophy based on the series of the esoteric novels "The Illuminatus! Trilogy".
A monounsaturated fat is a kind of fat found in foods such as nuts, olives, and avocados. They are the main fat in olive oil. The group contrasts with, on the one hand, unsaturated fats. and on the other hand, polyunsaturated fats.
When Hikaru was little, she did not want to become a singer. She saw how busy her parents' lives were, and did not want that for herself. When she was 10 years-old, her parents asked her if she wanted to write songs. She did not want to, but tried doing it. She wrote a song called "I'll Be Stronger". During this time, Hikaru went to school in New York. Her classmates were not able to say her name right (Hee-ka-roo) so she shortened it to 'Hikki'. 'Hikki' became Hikaru's nickname. Her fans in Japan call her that. The name is not promoted very much in the United States because it sounds too much like 'hickey'.
Hikaru has started to make new Japanese music again, but continued on making all the music herself. Usually, a singer/songwriter will only write the music and the lyrics, but Hikaru decided she wanted to arrange her songs all by herself as well. She released her new album, "Ultra Blue", in mid-2006. Soon after, she went on a tour all across Japan. This is the second time she had ever done this (despite having sung for eight years).
The Scramble for Africa, also called the Race for Africa was a time in history when colonial expansion in Africa became rapid. It lasted from the 1880s until the beginning of World War I. Many European countries started colonies in Africa during this time. This was a new Imperialism. The last half of the 19th century saw a change in the way countries controlled their colonies. In the old imperialism, Europeans only had direct control over small coastal areas. Now they changed from economic control by settlement, to political and military control of the colony's resources. This was seen in the fight for areas that were controlled by European nations.
Many people became famous for helping European countries find more land in Africa. They included the explorers David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza as well as the French politician Jules Ferry.
The Berlin Conference (1884 - 1885) tried to end disputes between Great Britain, the French Third Republic, the German Empire, and other European countries. They agreed that "effective occupation" would be the rule for colonial claims. Laws were made for using direct rule on a colony, backed up by military power.
The 1160s was a decade that began on 1 January 1160 and ended on 31 December 1169.
Seaweed is a term used for several kinds of algae that is endemic to the ocean. Red algae, green algae and brown algae are commonly considered to be seaweed.
Seaweed gets its energy from photosynthesis, just as plants do.
A fairy tale is an English language expression for a kind of short story. It has the same meaning as the French expression ' or ', the German word ', the Italian ', the Polish ', the Russian ' or the Swedish "". These stories are not all directly about fairies, but they are different from legends and traditions (which usually say that the stories are true) and directly moral stories.
Fairy tales are usually set during the Middle Ages (but some are more modern) and typically include royalty, knights and fantasy elements such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants or gnomes and usually magic.
Renee Kristen "Kristy" Swanson (born December 19, 1969) is an American actress. She is best known for playing the main character in the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". She has also starred in the movie "Flowers in the Attic" as well as many movies and television programs.
Octopods have no internal or external skeleton, allowing them to squeeze through tight places and hide. Many stay in cracks between rocks or corals when they are not hunting. They are intelligent predators with a taste for crabs.
Octopods, like other advanced cephalopods, can edit their genome. They can adapt the nucleic acid sequence of the primary transcript of RNA molecules, more so than any other organisms. More than 60% of RNA transcripts for coleoid brains are recoded by editing, compared to less than 1% for a human or fruit fly. This has come at the cost of slower genome evolution.
To reproduce, males use a specialized arm to put packets of sperm into the female's mantle cavity. Males die in a few months after mating. In some species, the female octopus can keep the sperm alive inside her for weeks until her eggs mature.
After they have been fertilized, the female lays about 200,000 eggs (this figure varies dramatically between species). The female cares for the eggs, guarding them against predators, and gently blows currents of water over them so they get enough oxygen. The female does not hunt during the one-month period spent taking care of the unhatched eggs, and may ingest some of her own arms for sustenance.
At around the time the eggs hatch, the mother leaves the lair and is too weak to defend herself from predators like cod, often succumbing to their attacks. The young larval octopuses spend time drifting in clouds of plankton, where they feed until they are ready to descend to the ocean bottom, where the cycle repeats.
"Reproduction is a cause of death": males can only live for a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. They neglect to eat during the (roughly) one-month period spent taking care of their unhatched eggs, but apparently they do not die of starvation. A biological explanation of these short lifespans (or rapid ageing) is not agreed at present. One idea is that the lifespan is limited by the number of safe niches in their environment. If adults lived longer, they would use up all the safe niches. In that case, the baby octopus would scarcely survive. It is known that the same niches are used by generations of octopods. They are usually in the calcium carbonate reefs which were formed in tropical waters.
Off the coast of California, marine biologists have watched the same female octopus guarding her eggs for over four years. Their development took a long time because the water 1.4 kilometres down was very cold. They knew it was the same octopod because it had a characteristic scar. The research was done using a remote diving vehicle with cameras, lights and robotic arms.
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces that survived into the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The capital of the empire was Constantinople. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world. Its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire and to themselves as Romans, a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Modern historians distinguish the Byzantine Empire from the earlier Roman Empire due to the imperial seat moving from Rome to Byzantium, the Empire's integration of Christianity , and the predominance of Greek instead of Latin.
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Refugees fleeing the city after its capture would settle in Italy and other parts of Europe, helping to ignite the Renaissance. The Empire of Trebizond was conquered eight years later when its eponymous capital surrendered to Ottoman forces after it was besieged in 1461. The fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans is sometimes used to mark the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the early modern period.
The Byzantine Empire did not get that name until a century after its fall. The empire was known at the time as the following:
In 324, Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the Greek city of "Byzantium", which he renamed Constantinople. By the 5th century, the Roman Empire had lost its territories in the west, and the Western Roman Empire had been taken over by Germanic peoples during the Migration period. The surviving parts of the Roman Empire became known as the Eastern Roman Empire and is now called the Byzantine Empire.
The Eastern Roman Empire tried to take back Rome and the rest of Italian Peninsula from the Germanic peoples. Between 530 and 555 AD, the Byzantine Greeks won many battles and took back Rome.
The Byzantines controlled Rome for a long time. Eventually, more Germanic peoples came, and Italy was lost again. Later, Avars and Slavs took parts of Southeast Europe from the Byzantines. After the 560s, invaders slowly conquered the Balkans except for parts of modern Greece and Albania. Bulgars from the steppes formed the First Bulgarian Empire north of the Byzantine Empire. At first, both the Avars and the Bulgars were Turkic peoples. They ruled over the Slavic people, who were called "Sklavinai", and slowly absorbed the Slavic language and culture.
After Rome had been captured by the Germanic peoples, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to control what is now Egypt, Greece, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. However, another empire, known as the Persian or the Sassanid Empire, tried to take the lands for itself. Between 224 and 628, the Greco-Romans and the Persians fought many battles, and many men were killed in the fighting. Eventually, the Persians were defeated in 627 by Emperor Heraclius in what is now Iraq, near the ancient city of Nineveh, which allowed the Byzantines to keep those lands.
The centuries-long struggle between the Byzantines and the Persians shaped the political and religious landscape of the Middle East, leaving behind a complex legacy that continues to influence the region today.
Then, another enemy appeared, the Arabs. The Byzantines did not have much money to spend on war because of their battles with the Persians and so they could not withstand the Arabs. Palestine, Syria and Egypt were lost between 635 and 645 by Heraclius. However, the Byzantines defended Asia Minor (now in Turkey), and the Arab advance stopped there. Heraclius ordered the use of Greek as the only language of the empire, erased forever the name "Eastern Roman Empire" and cut the last links with Rome.
In 718, the Arabs were defeated but left the Byzantines very weak. In the west, the Byzantines fought the Bulgarians many times. Some battles were successful, but others were not. Many emperors died fighting. Over time, the Byzantine Empire weakened as it lost land to outside invaders.
Between 1007 and 1014, Emperor Basil II ambitiously attacked Bulgaria many times and eventually won a great victory. Later, he fully recaptured Greece and recovered it for the empire. He then went on to take over Bulgaria, which was fully conquered in 1018.
In the east, the Arabs once again became a threat to the Byzantines. However, Basil II kept attacking and won many more victories. Much of Syria was restored to the empire, and Turkey and Armenia were secured. After 1025, the Arabs were no longer a threat to the Byzantines.
After Basil II died, many unskilled emperors came to the throne, wasted the empire's money and reduced its army. This meant that it could not defend itself well against enemies if they attacked. Later, the Byzantines relied on mercenaries, soldiers who fought for money, not for their country. That made them less loyal and reliable and more expensive. The mercenaries allowed military generals to come to power and to grab it from the elaborate bureaucracy, a system of administration in which tasks are divided by departments.
A large number of people, known as the Turks, rode on horseback from Central Asia and attacked the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Empire took most of Anatolia from the Byzantines by 1091. However, they received help from people in Western Europe in what is known as the First Crusade. Many knights and soldiers left to help the Byzantines and to secure Jerusalem for the Christians. The city wad then controlled by the Muslims.
The Byzantine Empire survived and, with the help of the European empires, took back half of Anatolia from the Turks, who managed to hold the other half of the region. The Byzantines survived due to three primarily good emperors in a row, that allowed the empire to recover from their recent conflicts.
The next few emperors ruled poorly and spent much of the existing treasury on many mercenary soldiers.
In the west, the Western Europeans betrayed the Byzantines and attacked their capital, Constantinople in in 1204. The Byzantines did not take it back until 1261. They were then divided into many smaller Greek states, which fought one another for control.
After the Byzantines had taken back Constantinople, they were too busy fighting the Europeans who had betrayed them and so they could not find enough soldiers or money to fight the Turks' new Ottoman Empire. All of Asia Minor had been lost by 1331, and in 1369, the Turks crossed over from Turkey and into Greece. They took over much of Greece between 1354 and 1450.
The Byzantines lost so much land, money and soldiers that they became very weak and begged for help from the Western Europeans. Italy and the Pope sent soldiers and ships to help the Byzantines when the Turks attacked Constantinople in April 1453. The Byzantines were badly outnumbered, however, and the walls of Constantinople were very damaged by cannons used by the Turks. In late May 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople by entering through one of the gates along the walls, and the empire came to an end.
The city was plundered for three days. In the end, the people who had not been able to escape was deported to Edirne, Bursa and other Ottoman cities. There was nobody in the city except for the Jews of Balat and the Genoese of Pera. Constantinople was later renamed Istanbul and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. After the empire fell in the 1900s, the Turkish capital was moved to Ankara, a city in Asia Minor.
The Byzantines had many achievements:
The literally "ancient stringed-instrument" is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by educated people as an instrument of great beauty and refinement.
Traditionally the instrument was called simply qin, but by the 20th century the term had come to be used on many other musical instruments as well (for example, the "yangqin" hammered dulcimer, the "huqin" family of bowed string instruments, and the Western piano), so the prefix "gu-" (meaning "ancient") was added for clarification. It can also be called qixianqin ("seven-stringed instrument"). The guqin is not to be confused with the "guzheng", another Chinese long zither also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string. Because Robert Hans van Gulik's famous book about the qin is called "The Lore of the Chinese Lute", the qin is sometimes inaccurately called a lute. Other incorrect classifications (mainly from music CDs) include "harp" or "table-harp". Other Western nicknames for the guqin include "Chinese guitar" and "Chinaman's harp".
The qin is a very quiet instrument, with a range of about four octaves, and its open strings are tuned in the bass register (its lowest pitch is about two octaves below middle C, or the lowest note on the cello). Sounds are produced by plucking open strings, stopped strings, and harmonics. Stopped sounds are special for the variety of slides and ornaments used, and the use of glissando (sliding tones) gives it a sound similar to a pizzicato cello or fretless bass guitar. Extended sections in music scores consisting entirely of harmonics are common. This is made possible because the 91 indicated harmonic positions allow great flexibility; early tablature shows that even more harmonic positions were used in the past. By tradition the qin originally had five strings, but ancient qin-like instruments with 10 or more strings have been found. The modern form has been standardized for about two thousand years.
Legend has it that the qin has a history of about 5,000 years and that the legendary people of China's pre-history; Fuxi, Shennong and Huang Di (the Yellow Emperor), were involved in its creation. It is mentioned in Chinese writings dating back nearly 3,000 years, and related instruments have been found in tombs from about 2,500 years ago. Chinese tradition says the qin originally had five strings, but then two were added about 1,000 BCE, making seven.
Because of the difference in geography in China, many qin schools known as "qin pai" developed over the centuries. Such schools generally formed around areas where qin activity was greatest.
Most qin schools and groups are in China. During the 20th century some societies began in other countries. Qin study was confined to China in ancient times. Today countries like Japan also have their own qin small traditions. The Tokyo Qin Society was recently founded. Japan has published a "qinpu" (qin tablature collection) in the past, known as "Toukou Kinpu" or "Donggao Qinpu" .
The beauty of qin melodies comes not only from the melodies themselves, but from the variation a player can apply to the individual tones and their combinations. The rich tones of the qin can be categorised as three distinctively different "sounds." The first is "san yin", which means "scattered sounds." This meant simply pluck the required string to sound an open note. The second is "fan yin" , or "floating sounds." These are harmonics, and the player simply lightly touches the string with one or more fingers of the left hand at a position indicated by the white "hui" dots, pluck and then lift, creating a crisp and clear sound ringing sound. The third is "an yin" , or "stopped sounds." This forms the majority of most qin pieces and requires the player to press on a string with a finger or thumb of the left hand until it touches with the surface board, then pluck. Afterwards, the hand can slide up and down, thereby changing the pitch.
When plucking the strings, it is not required to attach fake-nails on one's fingers. Players will often leave their fingernails long, and cut them into an rounded shape. The length is subjective and will depend on the player's preference, but it is usually around 3-4mm from the finger tip. If it is too short, then the finger tip will deaden the sound as it touches the string after the nail has plucked it. If it is too long then the fingers can make playing difficult. Generally, the nails of the right hand are kept long, whilst the nails of the left are cut short, so as to be able to press on the strings without difficulty.
Left hand techniques start from the simple pressing down on the string (mostly with the thumb between the flesh and nail, and the ring finger), sliding up or down to the next note ("shang" and "xia" ), to vibrati by swaying the hand ("yin" and "nao" , there are as many as 15 plus different forms of vibrato), plucking the string with the thumb whilst the ring finger stops the string at the lower position ("qiaqi" ), hammering on a string using the thumb ("yan" ), to more difficult techniques such as pressing on several strings at the same time.
Techniques executed by both hands together are more difficult to achieve, for example, "qia cuo san sheng" (a combination of hammering on and off then plucking two strings, then repeating), to more exciting forms, like pressing of all seven strings with the left, then strumming all the strings with the right, then the left hand quickly moves up the qin, creating a rolling sound like a bucket of water being thrown in a deep pool of water (this technique is used in the Shu style of "Liu Shui" to copy the sound of water).
Written qin music did not directly tell what notes were played like many other musical instruments; instead, it was written in a tablature detailing tuning, finger positions, and plucking technique, thus made up of a step by step method and description of how to play a piece. Some tablatures do indicate notes using the "gongche" notation system, or indicate rhythm using dots.
The earliest example of the modern shorthand tablature survives from around the 12th century CE. An earlier form of music notation from the Tang era survives in just one manuscript, dated to the 7th century CE, called "Jieshi Diao: You Lan" (Solitary Orchid, in Stone Tablet Mode). It is written in a longhand form called "wenzi pu" (literally "written notation"), which gives all the details using ordinary written Chinese characters. Later in the Tang dynasty, Cao Rou and others simplified the notation, using only the important elements of the characters (like string number, plucking technique, "hui" number and which finger to stop the string) and combined them into one character notation. This meant that instead of having two lines of written text to describe a few notes, a single character could represent one note, or sometimes as many as nine. This notation form was called "jianzi pu" (literally "reduced notation") and it was a great step forward for recording qin scores. It was so successful that from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) onwards, a lot of qinpu (qin tablature collections) appeared, the most famous and useful being "Shenqi Mipu" (The Mysterious and Marvellous Tablature) compiled by Zhu Quan, the 17th son of the founder of the Ming dynasty. In the 1960s, Zha Fuxi discovered more than 130 qinpu that contain well over 3360 pieces of written music.
Existing qinpu generally come from private collections or in public libraries throughout China. Those that are available for public purchase are photographic copies printed and bound in the traditional Chinese bookbinding process. More modern qinpu tend to be bound in the normal Western way on modern paper. The format uses qin notation with staff notation and/or "jianpu" notation.