French and British Ties and Occupation: The daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella married the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian of Hapsburg. The Spanish crown duly passed to the Hapsburgs, and Spain remained in their hands until the feeble-minded Carlos II died in 1700, leaving no heir. France seized the chance to install the young grandson of Louis XIV on the Spanish throne. A rival Hapsburg claimant was supported by Austria and Britain, who saw a powerful Spanish-French alliance as a major threat. In the subsequent War of the Spanish Succession (17021713) most of the old kingdom of Aragon, including the Balearics, backed the Hapsburgs. Britain seized Gibraltarin the name of the Hapsburg claimantand retained it when the war was over. In 1708 Britain captured Menorca, and the magnificent harbor of Mahon (Mao), for the Royal Navy. England clung to it even when Bourbon forces captured Mallorca at the end of the war. Menorca changed hands between Britain, France, and Spain five more times in less than a century. Britain finally ceded the island to Spain in the year 1802, under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. By 1805, Spain was once more aligned with France, and Spanish ships fought alongside the French against Nelson at Trafalgar. Napoleon came to distrust his Spanish ally and forcibly replaced the king of Spain with his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte. A French army marched in to subdue the country. The Spanish resisted and, aided by British troops commanded by the Duke of Wellington, drove the French out. What British historians call the Peninsular War (18081814) is known in Spain as the War of Independence. In the 19th century, practically all of Spain's possessions in the Americas broke away in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, and the few that remained were lost at the end of the 19th century. The Balearics, further neglected, were beset with poverty and outbreaks of disease. However, toward the 20th century, things began to improve on the islands, with Mallorca reaping the rewards of successful agricultural crops and Menorca launching an export shoe industry.
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QUESTION: Approximately how many centuries passed between the War of the Spanish Succession and when things began to improve on Mallorca and Menorca?

You know that friction also causes heat. Think about when you rub your hands together. It is friction that makes them warm. But why does this happen? Friction causes the molecules on rubbing surfaces to move faster. Faster moving particles have more heat energy. Heat from friction can be useful. Can you think of other places where you might find friction? Friction also lets you light a match. Heat from friction can also cause problems. It can cause a car to overheat. To reduce friction, oil is added to the engine. Oil coats the surfaces of moving parts. This coating of oil makes them slippery. When things are slippery there is less friction. Have you ever seen a sign that says, slippery when wet? This too has to do with friction. Water, like oil, can reduce friction. The wet surface may allow your shoes to slide more easily.
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QUESTION: What is friction?

Not until 1998 did al Qaeda undertake a major terrorist operation of its own, in large part because Bin Laden lost his base in Sudan. Ever since the Islamist regime came to power in Khartoum, the United States and other Western governments had pressed it to stop providing a haven for terrorist organizations. Other governments in the region, such as those of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and even Libya, which were targets of some of these groups, added their own pressure. At the same time, the Sudanese regime began to change. Though Turabi had been its inspirational leader, General Omar al Bashir, president since 1989, had never been entirely under his thumb. Thus as outside pressures mounted, Bashir's supporters began to displace those of Turabi. The attempted assassination in Ethiopia of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in June 1995 appears to have been a tipping point. The would-be killers, who came from the Egyptian Islamic Group, had been sheltered in Sudan and helped by Bin Laden. When the Sudanese refused to hand over three individuals identified as involved in the assassination plot, the UN Security Council passed a resolution criticizing their inaction and eventually sanctioned Khartoum in April 1996. A clear signal to Bin Laden that his days in Sudan were numbered came when the government advised him that it intended to yield to Libya's demands to stop giving sanctuary to its enemies. Bin Laden had to tell the Libyans who had been part of his Islamic army that he could no longer protect them and that they had to leave the country. Outraged, several Libyan members of al Qaeda and the Islamic Army Shura renounced all connections with him. Bin Laden also began to have serious money problems. International pressure on Sudan, together with strains in the world economy, hurt Sudan's currency. Some of Bin Laden's companies ran short of funds. As Sudanese authorities became less obliging, normal costs of doing business increased. Saudi pressures on the Bin Laden family also probably took some toll. In any case, Bin Laden found it necessary both to cut back his spending and to control his outlays more closely.
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QUESTION: What was the assassination of President Hosni Mubarak a tipping point for?

What if you could drain all of Earths oceans? What would it look like? You might be really surprised. You see that the surface has two main features. It has continents and ocean basins. Continents are large land areas. These are the areas that are mostly above sea level. Ocean basins extend from the edges of continents. They include the ocean floor and Earths deep ocean trenches. You will also notice the ocean floor is not flat. It too has many Continents are much older than ocean basins. Some rocks on the continents are billions of years old. Ocean basins may only be millions of years old. Because the continents are so old, a lot has happened to them! As we view the land around us, we see landforms. Landforms are physical features on Earths surface. These features change over time, but how? There are actually two types of forces at work.
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QUESTION:
What Earth features are mostly above sea level?