The Isle of Man is a Crown dependency. Foreign affairs, defence, and "good government" are handled by the British government, but in all other matters the island is independent. The Isle of Man Government is the executive and proposes laws to the legislature, Tynwald. Laws passed by Tynwald are given royal approval by the Lieutenant Governor unless the British Minister of Justice says they do not help the good government of the island.
The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea, it is northwest of the European continent. It is between the United Kingdom and Ireland. The island is 22 km wide and 52 km long, it has a total area of 572 km². The Isle of Man has a total of 160 km of coastline, it has no important bodies of water. Apart from the island itself, the Isle of Man also includes some nearby islands. The most important of these islands are called Calf of Man, St Patrick's Isle and St Michael's Isle.
The island's terrain is varied, it has mountains in the north and south. A valley is more or less in the center of the island, between the cities of Douglas and Peel. The northern part of the island is very flat. Snaefell is the Isle of Man's highest mountain, it measures 621 meters above sea level. It is said that you can see Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales from the top of mount Snaefell.
The Isle of Man has a usually mild weather. Summers are cool and winters are mild and rainy. Rainfall is similar to that of the other British Isles. Elevated parts of the Isle of Man get more rainfall, especially mount Snaefell. The northern and southern parts of the island are not as rainy as the rest.
The island's weather is normally cool. The highest temperature ever registered is 28.9 °C, in Ronaldsway. The Isle of Man is not very sunny, but it is less cloudy than other parts of the British Isles; strong winds around the island help keep clouds in constant movement.
The geology of Man is notable for the Iapetus Suture, which runs almost unseen right through the rocks of the island. The suture is the remnant of a once huge ocean, the Iapetus Ocean, which was lost about 420 million years ago as three continents came together.
The Isle of Man became separated from Ireland and the British Isles about 8500 years ago. The short period of time between the melting of glaciers and the rise of sea level allowed a small number of species to colonize the island by land. The island was heavily deforested in the Middle Ages, which weakened its environment. Some land is now protected by the government to help preserve its wildlife. Curraghs Wildlife Park, in the wetlands, is home to many species of animals and plants. Many bird species live on the island.
A lot of the Isle of Man's plant life, or flora, is composed of shrubs (bushes) and other short plants. Several species of grass and moss also live there. Mosses on the island contribute to the formation of peat. There is peat in the island's wet areas. The island has heavily deforested in the Middle Ages. Common trees on the island include ashes, elms, pines, willows, and hawthorns. There are also other trees on the island, as well as many species of flowering plants. Bogs are home to ferns and orchids.
The Isle of Man is home to many bird and insect species. Many species live in "curraghs" (wetlands in the northeast of the island). Curraghs are protected by the Government of the Isle of Man. Curraghs Wildlife Park is in these wetlands, it is both a zoo and a protected area. During the winter, curraghs are the second largest nesting ground of the Hen Herrier in Europe. The Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, European Robin, Willow Warbler, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Swan and a subspecies of Winter Wren possibly native to the island also nest in the curraghs. The Chough is also in the Isle of Man, it is more common than in other parts of Europe. Some farming methods have decreased the bird population of the island. The Northern Lapwing is now rarely found, and the Yellowhammer is now extinct on the island.
18 species of butterfly and 250 species of moth also live on the Isle of Man. Most of them live in the wetlands during different seasons.
French Revolution
The French Revolution was a revolution in France from 1789 to 1799. A result of the French Revolution was the end of the French monarchy. The revolution began with a meeting of the in Versailles, and ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799.
Before 1789, France was ruled by the nobles and the Catholic Church. The ideas of the Enlightenment were beginning to make the ordinary people want more power. They could see that the American Revolution had created a country in which the people had power, instead of a king. The government before the revolution was called the "".
Many problems in France led up to the Revolution:
Before the Revolution, France was divided into three Estates. The First Estate was the Clergy (the church). It made up 1% of the population. The Second Estate was the Nobles, which also made up 1% of the population. The other nearly 98% of the population was in the Third Estate. Representatives of the people from all three estates together made up the Estates-General.
In May 1789, the Estates-General was called by King Louis in order to deal with the money problems of the country. They met at the royal Palace of Versailles. However, the members of the Third Estate were angry. They had made lists of problems they wanted to fix called the Cahiers de Doléance
The members of the Third Estate (The commoners) were angry that they were being taxed the most when they were the poorest group of people. They, and the Director-General of Finances, Jacques Necker, thought the Church and the Nobility ought to be taxed more.
They also wanted votes in the Estates-General to be more fair. Even though the Third Estate had many more members than the other two Estates, each Estate only had one vote in the Estates-General. The Third Estate thought this could be improved by giving members of the Estates-General a vote each. However, when they talked to the other Estates, they could not agree.
Since the First and Second Estates would not listen, The Third Estate decided to break away and start their own assembly where every member would get a vote. On 10 June 1789, they started the National Assembly. The king tried to stop them by closing the Salle des États meeting room, but they met in an indoor tennis court instead. On June 20, they took the Tennis Court Oath, where they promised to work until they had created a new constitution for France.
In July 1789, after the National Assembly was formed, the nobility and the king was angry with Jacques Necker, the Director-General of Finances, and they fired him. Many Parisians thought that the King was going to shut down the National Assembly. Soon, Paris was filled with riots and looting.
On 14 July 1789, the people decided to attack the Bastille prison. The Bastille contained weapons, as well as being a symbol of the power of the nobility and the rule of the king. By the afternoon, the people had broken into the Bastille and released the seven prisoners being held there.
The Members of the Third Estate took over Paris. The president of the National Assembly at the time of the Tennis Court Oath, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, became mayor of the city. Jacques Necker was given back his job as Director-General of Finances. Soon, the King visited Paris and wore the red, white and blue (tricolor) ribbons (cockade) that the revolutionaries were wearing. By the end of July, the revolution had spread all over France.
The National Assembly began to make lots of changes. On 4 August, the National Assembly ended the special taxes the Church was collecting, and put a stop to the rights of the Nobility over their people, ending feudalism. On 26 August, the National Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was written by the nobleman Marquis de Lafayette.