ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Africa is the second largest continent in the world. It makes up about a fifth of the world's total land. It is surrounded by large areas of water. There are 54 fully recognised and independent countries in Africa, and 14.7% (1.216 billion) of the world's population lives there. It is thought to be the continent where the first humans evolved. History. The history of Africa begins with the first modern human beings and continues to its present difficult state as a politically developing continent. Africa's ancient historic period includes the rise of Egyptian civilization. It also includes the development of other societies outside the Nile River Valley, and the interaction between these societies and civilizations outside of Africa. In the late 7th century, North and East Africa were heavily influenced by the spread of Islam. That led to the appearance of new cultures, like the Swahili people and the Mali Empire, whose king, Musa Keita I, became one of the richest and most influential people of the early 14th century. This also led to an increase in the slave trade, which had a very bad influence on Africa’s development until the 19th century. Slavery. Slavery has long been practiced in Africa, just like the rest of the world. But two new slave trades would create a much bigger and more violent version of slavery. Between the 7th and 20th centuries, the Arab slave trade took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan routes and the Indian Ocean. Between the 15th and 20th centuries (a period of 500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the Americas. While some Africans collaborated with European and Arab slave traders, many were strongly opposed to slavery and avoided, protested, or fought it violently.  Africans who had been captured and sent to the French colony of Saint Domingue on slave ships played an important role in ending the Atlantic slave trade. They began the Haitian Revolution, which created Haiti, the first country to permanently ban slavery. After this revolution, European empires began to reduce slave trading and abolitionism became more popular. Between 1808 and 1860, the British Navy captured approximately
Butter is a dairy food. It is made by moving the milk from whole cream for a long time. The fat in the cream separates from the liquid. The fat is butter. Butter is often put on bread, as a main ingredient in biscuits, as a shortening agent in some baking and cooking recipes, and for frying foods. Often, butter is made from cows' milk, butter can also be made from the milk of other mammals, like sheep, goats, bison, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Many people use butter in their foods instead of oil. It has a melting point of about . There are 717 calories in of butter. Types. Cultured butter is a butter made from fermented cream. Sweet cream butter is butter made from pasteurized fresh cream. Raw cream butter is butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream.
The Cold War (1947-1991) was the fighting between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union (also called the USSR) and its allies between the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union. It is called the "Cold" War because the Americans and the Soviet Union never actually fought each other directly. Instead, they attacked each other in conflicts known as proxy wars in which powerful countries fight a foreign war but do not send their own troops. Both sides built large militaries with many new weapons and advanced technology. They spied on and threatened each other. Conflicting countries. Most of the countries on one side were allied by NATO, whose most powerful country was the United States. Most of the countries on the other side were allied by the Warsaw Pact, whose most powerful country was the Soviet Union. The Western Bloc was the name of the capitalist countries led by the United States. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance created in 1949 and included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Greece, and Turkey. Other countries allied with the Western Bloc include Israel, Brazil, South Korea, Kenya (1960-1991), Bangladesh (1964-1968), Pakistan, North Yemen, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The Eastern Bloc was the group of communist countries led by the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact was an alliance created in 1955 and included the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Other countries allied with the Eastern Bloc included Angola (1975–1991), Cuba, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cambodia (1977–1979), South Yemen, Tunisia, Nepal, Libya (1974–1991), Mongolia, Jamaica, North Korea, Vietnam, China, and Laos (1975–1991). Background. In February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire was overthrown because people were unhappy with their living conditions (like being a serf), especially during World War I.
Mainland China, also called the Chinese Mainland, is the part of China not including the Republic of China controlling Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores. The term also excludes Hong Kong and Macau.  In the Qing Dynasty (Manchu Dynasty), all of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, the Pescadores, and Mongolia were part of the Manchu Empire. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were colonized by foreigners for some years (Taiwan to the Japanese, Hong Kong to the British, and Macau to the Portuguese). By the end the Qing Empire, China became Nationalist China (the Republic of China) and it got Taiwan back in 1945. After the Communists (the People's Republic of China) took over most of China, the Nationalists kept only Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores. Mongolia became an independent state later. Since then, Communist China only includes the part on the continent (mainland) and some small islands that are very near (the largest communist island is Hainan). This region is Mainland China. Later Hong Kong and Macau were returned to the government of China, but because the government calls them "special administrative regions" under a "one country, two systems" idea, they are still not thought of as part of Mainland China.
A capital city, or capital town or capital, is a city or town, specified by law or constitution, by the government of a country, or part of a country, such as a state, province, or county. It usually serves as the location of the government's central meeting place and offices. Most of the country's leaders, embassy and officials work in the capital city. This does not have to be the case though: Monaco, Nauru, Switzerland and Vatican City are examples of countries that do not have a capital city.  Size. Capitals are usually among the largest cities in their regions and often are the biggest. For example, Montevideo is Uruguay's capital and its biggest city. The capital may also be the most important center of commerce, as in London or Bangkok. However, a capital is not always the largest city in a country. For example, the capital of India is New Delhi, which is smaller than Mumbai.  In countries with subdivisions like the United States, the capitals of the federated states are often not the biggest cities. For example, New York City is the biggest city in the United States and in New York State, but is not the capital of either. The capital of the country is Washington, DC, and the capital of the state is Albany. There is an unusual case in Canada since the federal capital, Ottawa, is not the largest city in its province, Ontario; Toronto is the largest city in Ontario. Toronto is the capital of Ontario, so Toronto is a provincial capital but not a federal one. Number. Some countries have more than one capital for different purposes. For example, Bolivia has two (Sucre and La Paz) and South Africa has three (Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein). In a city-state like Singapore, Monaco, and the Vatican City, the capital is the country. Not all countries have capitals. Nauru is a country that does not officially have a capital, but the district of Yaren, which is where the government is, can be called the "de facto" capital. Also, although many people consider the city of Bern in Switzerland to be the capital of the country, it is by law
Climate means the usual condition of the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, and other meteorological patterns in an area of the Earth's surface for a long time. In simple terms, climate is the average condition for about thirty years. Climate and weather are different: weather is the day to day conditions in the atmosphere. The types of climates are: Tropical, Desert/dry, Temperate, Polar, Mediterranean.  The latitude, ground, and height can change the climate of a location. It is also important to note if oceans or other large bodies of water are nearby. Climates are most commonly classified by temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification was the Köppen climate classification, first made by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system, which was used from 1948, not only uses temperature and precipitation information, but evapotranspiration too. This makes it useful for studying how many different kinds of animal species there are, and about the things that could happen when climates change. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus more on where the air masses which help make climates come from. Climates can change after a long time. Nowadays people are making the world warmer in many places, but not in all: 12/2023 "Beijing shivers through coldest December on record" (BBC). North Korea and Japan are also unusually cold, Decenber 2023.
Rock often deforms in such a way that it bends instead of breaking. This is called a fold. The term fold is used in geology when one or a stack of originally flat, level surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of pressure and high temperature. The basic cause is likely to be some aspect of plate tectonics.  When two forces act towards each other from opposite sides, rock layers are bent into "folds". How folds are formed due to compression is known as folding. Folding is one of the endogenetic processes; it takes place within the Earth's crust.  Folds in rocks vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds. They occur singly as isolated folds and in extensive fold trains of different sizes, on a variety of scales. A set of folds distributed on a regional scale constitutes a "fold belt", a common feature of orogenic zones.  There are large-scale and small-scale folds. Large-scale folds are found mainly along a collision boundary between two tectonic plates. Structure of a fold. The upfold is called an anticline. The downfold is called a syncline. The imaginary line joining the highest points along the upfold is called the crest line.  The flanks of a fold are known as the limbs. The central line from which the rock strata dip away in opposing directions is called the axis of fold. According to the degree of folding of the layers, folds can be classified into five main types. Formation of a fold mountain. Large depressions called geosynclines form between plates. Seas filled the geosynclines and rivers flowing into them carried sediments (sand and silt) which build up on the sea bed. Over millions of years the sediments were compressed, by their own weight, into sedimentary rocks, e.g. sandstone, limestone etc. Landforms formed by folding. Large-scale folding will develop parallel ranges of round-top mountains along destructive plate boundaries. These mountains are known as fold mountains.  Examples of fold mountain ranges:
Volcanism (or vulcan activity) is the eruption of magma onto the surface of the Earth.  Magma under the crust is under very great pressure. When folding and faulting occur, cracks or fractures appear. These are lines of weakness.  When these lines of weakness develop downward in the crust and reach the magma, they will release the pressure in the magma. This allows magma to rise up along the lines of weakness and intrude into the crust. Some magma may even reach the Earth's surface as lava. Volcanoes. Volcanoes are the places where magma reaches the earth's surface. The type of volcano depends on the location of the eruption and the consistency of the magma. Intrusions. Intrusive volcanism is when magma is forced into the rocks that make up the Earth's crust. When it cools and become solid while still underground, different features called plutons are formed. The rock formed is intrusive igneous rock. These plutons will be exposed at the surface of land when the overlying rocks are removed after a long time of denudation (laid bare by erosion). Major features formed by intrusive volcanicity include: batholith, laccolith, dyke, pipe and sill. Extrusions. The molten magma under great pressure forces its way through the fissure of underground rocks and reaches the Earth's surface to form "igneous extrusion".  Major extruded materials include gas, liquid and solid. Features formed are:
The Pacific Ocean is the body of water between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It is the largest named ocean and it covers one-third of the surface of the entire world. It joins the Atlantic Ocean at a line drawn south from Cape Horn, Chile/Argentina to Antarctica, and joins the Indian Ocean at a line drawn south from Tasmania, Australia to Antarctica. As the Atlantic slowly gets wider, the Pacific is slowly shrinking. It does this by folding the sea floor in towards the centre of the Earth - this is called subduction. This bumping and grinding is hard so there are many earthquakes and volcanoes when the pressure builds up and is quickly released as large explosions of hot rocks and dust. When an earthquake happens under the sea, the quick jerk causes a tsunami. This is why tsunamis are more common around the edge of the Pacific than anywhere else. Many of the Earth's volcanoes are either islands in the Pacific, or are on continents within a few hundred kilometers of the ocean's edge. Plate tectonics are another reason which makes Pacific Ocean smaller.
Antarctica is the Earth's southernmost and the continent with the least people. It is on the South Pole. It is almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle. Around Antarctica is the Southern Ocean. It is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. About 99% of Antarctica is covered by ice. This ice averages at least 1.6 kilometers (1.0 miles) thick. Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent. It is also, on average, the highest of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert. It is the largest and coldest desert in the world. It has yearly precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) near the sea and far less inland. No humans live in Antarctica permanently. However, about 1,000 to 5,000 people live through the year at the science stations in Antarctica. Only plants and animals that can live in cold live there. The animals include penguins, seals, nematodes, tardigrades and mites. Plant life includes some grass and shrubs, algae, lichen, fungi, and bacteria. The first known polar sighting of the continent was in 1820. Antarctica was mostly forgotten for the rest of the 19th century. This was because of its incredibly hostile environment, few resources, and isolation. The first official use of the name "Antarctica" as a continental name in the 1890s is said to have been used by Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 21 countries. More countries have signed the treaty since then. So far, 46 countries have signed the treaty. The treaty declares that military activities and mineral mining are against the law. However, it supports scientific research. It also helps the continent's ozone. More than 4,000 scientists from different nations and different interests experiment together. Geography and geology. Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet about four kilometers thick. Under the ice it is mostly land, although the ice shelves are glossing over the ocean. The Trans Antarctic Mountains divide the land between East
The South Pole is the most southern point on the Earth. It is in Antarctica and is the center of the Southern Hemisphere. From the South pole, everywhere is North. Unlike the North Pole, which is covered by sea and flat sea-ice, the South Pole is on a mountainous continent called Antarctica. Antarctica has not always been at the South Pole. Continental drift has occurred. The geographic North and South poles are the poles the Earth spins around. These poles stay in the same place, and are usually the ones we mean if we just say North or South Pole. People can tell that they are at these poles by looking at the stars (at the poles, a star just circles around at the same height, never dipping to the horizon). The Sun rises once a year and gives the South Pole half a year of summer but it is always cold. When the Sun sets half a year later it makes half a year of winter which is even colder. The South Pole is always cold because the Sun never rises high in the sky. The south magnetic pole is something different. It is defined by the Earth's magnetic field, as roughly where a magnetic compass needle points. People can tell they are near these poles by looking at a compass. Exploration. The South Pole is hard to reach. Unlike the North pole, which is covered by the sea and flat sea-ice, the South Pole is on a mountainous continent. This continent is called Antarctica. It is covered by thick ice (more than a mile thick in the centre). The south Pole is very high up, and is very windy. It is far from places where people live, and ships going there often have to find their way through thick sea ice. Once ashore, land-travelling explorers have to travel more than a thousand miles to get to the pole. They must cross a floating ice shelf, then up onto the ice-covered land, up steep mountain glaciers covered in broken, twisted ice slowly sliding to the sea, and across a high level land ("plateau") covered in ice and swept by strong freezing winds. Two expeditions early in the 20th century, led by Robert Falcon Scott (1901–1904) and then Ernest Shack
The Indian Ocean is the ocean surrounded by Asia to the north, Australia and the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and Africa and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is named for the river Indus and Ancient India on its north shore. The Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea are all parts of this ocean. The deepest point in the Indian Ocean is in the Java Trench near the Sunda Islands in the east, deep. The average depth is . The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean, in size. The majority is in the southern hemisphere.
The Arctic Ocean is the ocean around the North Pole. The most northern parts of Eurasia and North America are around the Arctic Ocean. Thick pack ice and snow cover almost all of this ocean in winter, and most of it in summer. An icebreaker or a nuclear-powered submarine can use the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean to go between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The ocean's area is about 14.056 million km2, which is the smallest of the world's five oceans, and it has of coastline. The central surface covered by ice about thick. The biology there is quite special. Endangered species there include walruses, whales and polar bears. Year by year the Arctic Ocean is becoming less icy, as a result of global warming. The average depth of the Arctic Ocean is . The deepest point is in the Eurasian Basin, at . Geography. The Arctic Ocean covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2. The coastline is 45,390 km (28,200 mi) long It is surrounded by Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is generally taken to include Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, White Sea and other bodies of water. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea. Countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are: Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. Climate. The Arctic Ocean is in a polar climate. Winters are characterized by the polar night, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies. The temperature of the surface of the Arctic Ocean is fairly constant, near the freezing point of seawater. Arctic Ocean consists of saltwater but its salinity is less than other oceans. The temperature must reach −1.8 °C (28.8 °F) before freezing occurs. Ice covers most of the Arctic Ocean. It covers almost the whole ocean in late winter and the majority of the ocean in late summer. Much of
The Inuit are one of many groups of indigenous people in the Americas and live in very cold places in the Arctic: northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. The word Inuit means "the people" in Inuktitut, their language. The people are sometimes called "Eskimos", a word that likely comes from the Algonquin language and may mean "eater of raw meat," which many believe to be misinformation. The term "Eskimo" means "netter of snowshoes." Most Inuit prefer to be called by their own name, either the more general Inuit," particularly in Canada, or their actual tribal name. Inuit is a tribal name, but not all indigenous Arctic peoples in North America are Inuit. Particularly in Alaska, the word "Eskimo" is accepted as a more general term, but they probably prefer to be called by their tribal name. Etymology. Inuit in Canada and Greenland prefer the name "Inuit" because it is their own name for themselves. "Inuit" means "more than one man," and "one man" is an ""Inuk"." The term "Eskimo" is more frequently used in the United States, where such concerns get less attention. Their language is Inuktitut, and it is one of the official languages of Nunavut and of the Northwest Territories, both in Canada. Greenland's official language is a variety of Inuktitut. "Eskimo" is a term that is more frequently used in the United States, where such concerns get less attention. Inuit in Alaska have various concerns, such as protecting the caribou from American oil pipelines. Campaigns against seal hunting campaigns work to eliminate that aspect of northern culture, which most Inuit regard as vital to their lives. Traditional culture. Food. Inuit ate both raw and cooked meat and fish, as well as the fetuses of pregnant animals. Whale blubber was burned as fuel for cooking and lamps. Inuit were also nomadic, but they did not domesticate any animals except for dogs, which they used to pull their sleds and help with the hunt. Inuit were hunter-gatherers, who
A basket is a container. It is usually light in weight. Basket makers use a wide variety of materials to create a basket, such as bark, willow rods, leaves, wire, plastic, paper, and rope. There are three basic kinds of baskets—coiled, twined, or woven. A woven basket is made of spokes and weavers: the spokes run up and down and the weavers go over and under the spokes. A coiled basket is made by sewing rings of a fibrous material to the previous ring. Twined baskets have flexible weavers that are twined around the spokes in a variety of patterns.  Basketmaking is a very old practice; it features in myths from various cultures. Baskets were often used to carry fruits, berries, and other things to be gathered. Nowadays, baskets are less practical but still common. Ancient baskets can be found in many cultures. Basket weaving is one of these activities, either for practical use or fun. In Native American culture, basket weaving is a common activity.  In basketball, the basket is an open net fixed to a metal ring in which players try to throw the ball.