recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Royal Marines

The **Royal Marines** is the British Royal Navy's amphibious light infantry force, founded in 1664 as the "Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot" and in 1755 in its current form. The marines notably attacked Bellisle in 1761 during the Seven Years' War, fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 during the American Revolutionary War, participated in every notable naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars, took part in the Crimean War and the wars with China, fought in World War I, invaded Russia during the Russian Revolution, took part in several World War II operations, and fought in the Falklands War. Recently, the Marines have been sent overseas as expeditionary forces, being deployed to Kuwait, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In 2017, there were 7,760 active marines and 750 reservists.

## Gallery

Royal Marines "redcoats" during the 18th centuryRanks of Royal Marines.Royal Marines during ww2Royal marines in present day
St. Louis

**St. Louis** is a major port city in the United States state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River on the Illinois border. The city was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau, and it was named for King Louis IX of France, who had been canonized. The city was known as "San Luis" under Spanish rule from 1764 to 1800, and it was briefly under French control from 1800 to 1803, when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from the First French Empire. By 1870, the expanding city of St. Louis had become the fourth-largest city in the United States, and it became a major business hub during the 20th and 21st centuries. The 630-foot Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis is the city's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction. In 2015, the St. Louis metro area had a population of 2,916,447 people. In 2015, 46.9% of the population was African-American, 44% was white, 3.9% was Hispanic, and 3.3% was Asian.
Thurgood Marshall

**Thurgood Marshall** (July 2, 1908-January 24, 1993) was an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from August 30, 1967 to 1 October 1991, succeeding Tom Clark and preceding Clarence Thomas.

## Biography

Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908, the great-grandson of a slave. He was a brilliant student, having graduated second in his class at Howard University (following his rejection from the University of Maryland on racial grounds). Later, he was to bring a lawsuit to integrate that body. He argued in the case of the NAACP in *Brown vs. Board of Education* by virtue of his leadership of that organization's legal defense fund. He was Solicitor-General from 1965 to 1967 under Lyndon B. Johnson, and was subsequently elevated to the US Supreme Court. A noted liberal, he was the first African-American Supreme Court justice. He retired in 1991, and he died in 1993.
Roger Williams

**Roger Williams** (December 21, 1603 – March 15, 1683) was President of the Colony of Rhode Island from 1654 to 1657, succeeding Nicholas Easton and preceding Benedict Arnold.

## Biography

Roger Williams was born in London, England in 1603, and he sacrificed his aspirations for a career with the Church of England to become a Puritan in college. He regarded the Church as corrupt and false, and he became a Separatist before moving to the Plymouth Colony in North America in 1631. He advocated for separatism, liberty of conscience, and separation of church and state while working as a minister, and his views regarding the "unjust usurpation" of Native American lands and religious freedom led to his sedition and heresy conviction in 1635. He fled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and took shelter among the Wampanoags, buying land from their chief Massasoit in Rumford, Rhode Island. Williams and twelve friends founded the settlement of "Providence", and he kept the peace between his new colony and the local Indians for 40 years, befriending the Narragansetts. In 1643, Williams returned to England to secure a charter for his colony, and, in 1652, he launched a failed attempt to outlaw slavery in Rhode Island. Williams and Dr. John Clarke went on to found the Baptist faith in America, and, as an old man, he served as a militia commander during King Philip's War; the war saw Providence (including his home) be burned down by the natives. He died in 1683.
Suleiman the Magnificent

**Suleiman the Magnificent** (6 November 1494-7 September 1566) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1521 to 1566, succeeding Selim I and preceding Selim II. Also called "Kanuni", meaning "Lawgiver", he led the Ottomans to a golden age in which he took over much of the Balkans and Asia. Suleiman had to fight against his uncle Shehzade Ahmet, who attempted to assassinate him, in 1511 and secured Constantinople for his father during the 1511 Interregnum crisis. Suleiman was a sultan tolerant of people's religions, but became insane later in life and died in 1566 in the siege of Szigethvar.

## Biography

The greatest of the Ottoman sultans, Suleiman I inherited from his father, Selim, rule of the Muslim Middle East, which included the recently conquered countries of Syria and Egypt. The new sultan focused on war with the Christian West. He took the Balkan city of Belgrade - the gateway to central Europe - in his first campaign in 1521. The next year, he mounted a siege of Rhodes, the island fortress of the Knights of St. John, that had defied his great-grandfather, Mehmed the Conqueror. Suleiman's willpower and resources accomplished the task, although Rhodes did not fall until midwinter. The surrender of the knights was accepted by the sultan in chivalrous fashion.

### Gradual Decline

Having secured the eastern Mediterranean, Suleiman concentrated on further land campaigns in Europe. In 1526, the crushing defeat of a Hungarian army at Mohacs brought him to the border of Austria, the heart of the Christian Holy Roman Empire. Three years later he put the empire's capital, Vienna, under siege, but the city's defenses held. Facing critical supply problems as the weather worsened into fall, Suleiman was forced to withdraw to Constantinople.

In the 1530s, the struggle with the Christian world continued at sea as Suleiman's admiral Kheir ed-Din carried the war to Italy and the western Mediterranean. Suleiman was distracted by the challenge of Safavid Iran, leading his army on campaigns to the east and capturing Baghdad in 1534. With the passage of time his health deteriorated.

He became reclusive and had two of his sons executed for allegedly plotting against him. Suleiman had long ceased campaigning in person when his forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the siege of Malta in 1565. In response to the catastrophe, the aged sultan, for a last time, accompanied his army into the field. He died in his tent during the siege of Szigethvar in Hungary in 1566.
Yamagata Aritomo

**Yamagata Aritomo** (June 14, 1838 – February 1, 1922) was Prime Minister of Japan from December 24, 1889 to May 6, 1891, succeeding Sanjo Sanetomi and preceding Matsukasa Masayoshi and from November 8, 1898 to October 19, 1900, succeeding Okuma Shigenobu and preceding Ito Hirobumi. He served as Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army on many occasions, and he was responsible for the modernization of the Japanese military in the style of Prussia; he is also called "the father of Japanese militarism".

## Biography

Yamagata Aritomo was born on June 14, 1838 in the Choshu Domain, and he was a staff officer of the newly-formed Imperial Japanese Army during the Boshin War. In 1873, Aritomo was appointed Minister of War, and he advocated a form of Japanese nationalism and militarism based on Prussia. Aritomo was influenced by Prussia's belief in having a strong government at home and a strong army to fight for expansion, and he introduced the practice of conscription to the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1877, Aritomo led the modernized Imperial Japanese Army in the quelling of the Satsuma Rebellion, and the head of his former comrade-turned-rebel leader Saigo Takamori was brought to him. He served as Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1878 to 1882, 1884-1885, and 1904-1905, and in 1898 he was promoted to Field Marshal; he fought in the First Sino-Japanese War as a commanding general and led the Japanese 1st Army during the Russo-Japanese War while he was Chief of the General Staff. Aritomo was seen as the father of Japanese militarism, and he died in 1922 at the age of 83.
SS

The **Schutzstaffel** (**ᛋᛋ**) was the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, formed on April 4, 1925 as security guards at NSDAP rallies in Germany. Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler from 1929 to 1945, the SS grew into the foremost surveillance and state terror agency under Nazi Germany, with the Gestapo being a wing of the SS. During World War II, the SS was responsible for providing 900 thousand troops to the front (the Waffen-SS, or "armed SS"), serving as security guards for concentration/extermination camps, and enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany. The SS' leaders were tried for several war crimes after the war, as they were responsible for the Holocaust and massacres of Allied Powers prisoners. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking SS officer to be captured, was hanged after the 1946 Nuremberg Trials.

## Gallery

An SS propaganda mural (Wallendar, Germany, 1945).webpSS soldiers marching a parade.
Somalis

The **Somalis** are an East African ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa. The Somalis originated in Puntland, with Samaale being their legendary progenitor; alternatively, the name *Somali* is said to come from the Somali word for "cow milk" in a reference to the Somali people's pastoral history, the Hebrew word *s'mali* (meaning "on the left-hand side", evolving into the Egyptian *Automoli*), or the Arabic word *zawamal* (meaning "wealthy"). The Somalis formed mercantile city-states following the downfall of Macrobia, and they were among the earliest non-Arabs converted to Islam, doing so peacefully and under the influence of Sunni scholars. Muslim city-states such as Mogadishu, Barawa, and Marka formed, and the Middle Ages saw the rise of the Somali Ajuran Sultanate and Adal Sultanate. The Ottoman province of Yemen nominally controlled the Somali coast until Sharmarke Ali Saleh ousted the Turks from Berbera in 1845. In the late 1880s, the British Empire incorporated Somaliland as a protectorate, and, starting in 1889, Italy also established a protectorate in Somalia. The Somalis revolted against the Europeans in the Somaliland campaign of 1900-1920, but the Dervish movement was defeated and the Europeans were victorious. The Somalis of Djibouti were ruled over by the French; in the aftermath of World War II, Somalia and Djibouti each gained their independence, although many Somalis resided in non-Muslim countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya, resulting in border conflicts with both nations, especially during the Ogaden War with Ethiopia in 1977. By the 21st century, around 8.8 million Somalis lived in Somalia, in addition to 4.6 million in Ethiopia, 3.5 million in Somaliland, 2.8 million in Kenya, and 534,000 in Djibouti; almost all Somalis were Muslim, specifically 77% Sunni, 8% non-denominational, 2% Shia, 2% Ibadi or Quranist, and 13% unknown.
Russian SFSR

The **Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic** (**RSFSR**) was the largest of the Soviet republics, existing from 9 November 1917 to 25 December 1991. The RSFSR was established following the Russian Revolution, and it became the dominant Soviet republic, with the Soviet capital of Moscow being located in the RSFSR. Under Joseph Stalin, the republic was rapidly industrialized, and it became the world's third-largest petroleum producer by 1961. The late 1970s saw the economy stagnate, but Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms led to economic change, which was not always beneficial; many enterprises fell, and the USSR was unstable by 1990. On 8 December 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed a treaty which dissolved the USSR, and the RSFSR's name was changed to the "Russian Federation" on 25 December 1991 by the Russian head of state Boris Yeltsin. On 12 December 1993, Russia drafted a new constitution.
Tiflis Governorate

*Tiflis Governorate'* was a government of the Russian Empire that existed from 1846 to 1917. Its capital was Tiflis (Tbilisi) in the modern-day Republic of Georgia, and it was established upon the creation of the Caucasus Viceroyalty from territories conquered from the North Caucasian peoples. In 1917, the governorate became a part of the newly-independent Democratic Republic of Georgia during the Russian Civil War.
Mikhail Kalashnikov

Kalashnikov in 1946

**Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov** (November 10, 1919- December 23, 2013) was a Lieutenant-General of the Soviet Army and a small arms designer who was the inventor of the AK-47, AK-74u, PK, and RPK. Kalashnikov's weapons rank among the most-used weapons in the world, especially among former allies of the Soviet Union and guerrillas.

## Biography

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919 in Kurya, Altai Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union to an Orthodox Christian family of Russians. Despite being a sickly child, Kalashnikov took up an interest in hunting, and he served in World War II with the Red Army. Kalashnikov was wounded at the Battle of Bryansk, and he was hospitalized until 1942; he was dissatisfied with the poor state of the Red Army's weapons, and he began designing a machine gun after thinking of creating such a gun while he was in a hospital bed. In 1947, his AK-47 assault rifle was released, and in 1949 it became standard-issue for all Soviet troops. Even his opponents Vasily Degtyaryov and Georgy Shpagin were forced to realize his genius, and he became a member of sixteen academies. He developed the PK in 1961, the AKM in 1963, and the AK-74u in 1974. Kalashnikov was upset that half of the 10 million AK-47s were counterfeit and that they were used in several wars, saying that they were meant to be weapons of defense, and he wrote a letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow that questioned his own faith due to his weapon taking the lives of many. Kirill responded by saying that he had defended the country and that he supported the Russian Army, and Kalashnikov died six months later on 23 December 2013.
Welsh

The **Welsh** are a Celtic ethnic group native to Wales in the British Isles. The word "Welsh" comes from the Germanic word *walhaz*, meaning "foreigner"; the word therefore comes from the same origin as Wallonia, Wallachia, and the Canton of Valais; the Welsh are descended from the Romano-British tribes who evaded conquest by the Saxons during the 6th century AD. The Welsh people were divided into numerous principalities until their conquest by England in 1282, when their leader llywelyn ap Gruffudd was slain at Orewin Bridge. In 1415, the last Welshman to hold the title "Prince of Wales", the rebel leader Owain Glyndwr, was slain by the English. The Welsh people mostly spoke only Welsh and had no knowledge of English until the 20th century; since then, English is the predominant language in most parts of the country, while Welsh is the predominant language in the north and west of the country and is usually the second language for bilingual people. In 2011, there were 3 million Welsh people in Wales, 1,810,000 in the United States, 609,711 in England, 458,705 in Canada, 125,597 in Australia, 50 thousand in Argentina, 16,623 in Scotland, and 9,966 in New Zealand; the majority are Protestant.
US 1st Cavalry Division

The **1st Cavalry Division** is a combined arms division of the United States Army that was formed in 1921. Based at Fort Hood, Texas, the 1st Cavalry Division served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War. During World War II, the 1st Cavalry Division served in the Pacific theater, taking part in the Admiralty Islands and Philippines campaigns in 1944. The unit is unique in that it has served as a horse division, an infantry division, an air assault division, and an armored division throughout its existence.
Wales

**Wales** is a country that is a part of the United Kingdom, with Cardiff being its capital. Wales is located along the Irish Sea between the island of Great Britain and Ireland, having a distinctively Celtic culture inherited from Bretons that fled the Roman Empire's collapse in the 5th century CE (both Welsh and English are spoken, and the country is bilungual). In 1282, King Edward I of England conquered Wales, and Owain Glyndwyr briefly regained Welsh independence in the early 1410s before the Kingdom of England crushed the rebellion. In 1542, Wales was formally annexed to England, and Wales became an industrial nation while being ruled by the United Kingdom in the 1800s. Today, it is a country within a country, having its own distinctive culture and its own sports teams.
US V Corps

The V Corps, formerly the Fifth Corps, is a regular corps of the United States Army that is stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The was previously active during the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the Kosovo War, and the War on Terrorism. They work with organizations like NATO and assist the Armored and Infantry divisions like the US 2nd Armored division or the US 4th Infantry Division.
US Constitution

The **United States Constitution** is the supreme law of the United States, ratified on 21 June 1788 nine months after the Constitutional Convention convened to discuss the creation of the new country. The constitution divided the federal government into the executive branch (President), legislative branch (The US Congress), and judicial branch (US Supreme Court), and the Constitution established a united federal government. In 1789, it was passed, and it has been amended twenty-seven times, including the Bill of Rights, passed to add more rights to the US citizen.
Royal Navy

The **Royal Navy** is the navy of the United Kingdom, founded in the early 14th century during the Hundred Years' War, then again in the 16th century by King Henry VIII of England, and formally founded in 1660 by King Charles II of England. The Royal Navy is one of the more famous navies of the world (known as just the "Royal Navy" without any prefix), and it used to be the strongest after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and before the rise of the United States Navy during World War II. In 2016, the Royal Navy had 43,880 personnel, 77 ships, and 174 aircraft, with the navy currently being sent on expeditionary operations around the world.

## Gallery

Royal Navy ships in the Caribbean in 1722Royal Navy ranksRoyal Navy during ww1The Royal Navy sailors firing Thompsons during ww2
Scots

**Scots** are an ethnic group residing in Scotland, being a mixture of Picts and Gaels. 4,446,000 Scots live in Scotland, 11,400,509 (over 6 million Scots and over 5 million Scots-Irish) in the United States, 4,719,850 in Canada, 1,792,600 in Australia, 795 thousands in England, 760,620 in Northern Ireland, 100,000 in Argentina, 80,000 in Chile, 45,000 in Brazil, 45 thousands in France, 15,000 in Poland, 12,792 in New Zealand, 11,160 in South Africa, 2,403 on the Isle of Man, and 1,459 in Hong Kong. Most Scots adhere to Presbyterianism (including the Church of Scotland), Catholicism, and Episcopalianism.
Visigoth

The **Visigoths** (literally "Eastern Goths") were a Germanic people associated with the nomadic Gothic tribes. In 376 AD, chased west by the Huns, the Visigoths invaded the Byzantine Empire and defeated the Romans at the 378 Battle of Adrianople. Relations between the Roman Empire and the Visigoths alternated between warfare and alliances; the Visigoths helped the Byzantines in defeating the rebel Arbogast at the Battle of the Frigidus on 5-6 September 394, but King Alaric I sacked Rome in 410 after besieging the city three times. In 418, the Visigoths settled in southern Gaul as *foederati* tribal allies of Rome, but they fell out with the Romans and conquered Toulouse, establishing a kingdom in southern France. The Visigoths also conquered northern Hispania from the Romans, and the 507 defeat of the Visigoths at Vouille by King Clovis I of Francia and the Franks limited the Visigoths to the lands south of the Pyrenees. The Visigoths converted to Catholicism in 589, abandoning Arian Christianity, and the Visigoths built several new cities and churches. They ruled the mighty Kingdom of Asturias in northern Spain until the Moorish conquest in 711, and the Visigoths woud later become the Spanish people.
Hawaii

**Hawaii** is a non-contiguous United States state, composed of hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean, with its capital of Honolulu being located on the main island of Oahu. Hawaii was previously a kingdom before being annexed by the United States in 1898, having been a US puppet republic from 1893 to 1898 after the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani. Hawaii became a center of US sugar production, the location of the important naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the hearth of the American surf culture, and it is currently known to be a tropical paradise for tourists. In 2015, Hawaii had a population of 1,431,603 people.
Sons of Liberty

The **Sons of Liberty** was a secret society in the Thirteen Colonies formed in 1765 in response to the Stamp Act, and the society opposed Great Britain's levying of taxes on the colonists without being represented. The motto "no taxation without representation" became a rallying cry for the society, and the society made anonymous summons at a Liberty Tree or Liberty Pole, having meetings to discuss actions against the British authorities. The Sons of Liberty set up Committees of Correspondence, protested against the British (with the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Liberty Pole Riot of 1773 at King's College in New York City leading to violence), and made a demonstration against the British by dumping loads of tea into Boston Harbor in the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773. After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, most of the Sons of Liberty became leaders of the Second Continental Congress, and the society ceased to be secret as its leaders became "Founding Fathers".
US 1st Marine Division

The US **1st Marine Division** is a division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at the US Military Base at Camp Pendleton, California. This division is a ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. The 1st Marines is the oldest and largest active duty division in the Marine Corps, representing a combat-ready force of 19,000 personnel. It's also one of three active duty divisions in the US Marine Corps today and is a multi-role, expeditionary ground combat force. It is nicknamed "The Old Breed".
SBD Dauntless

The **SBD Dauntless** was an American naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglass Aircraft from 1940 through 1944 during World War II. The plane was flown from United States Marine Corps land bases and United States Navy aircraft carriers, and the planes delivered the fatal blows to the Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway in 1942. The plane garnered an excellent reputation, and 5,936 were built during the war.
Turkish Land Forces

The **Turkish Land Forces** is the main branch of the military of Turkey, said to have been founded in 209 BC by Modu Chanyu, the Turkic khan of the Rouran. The TLF's modern form was created in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the secular republic, and the army fought in the 1950-1953 Korean War and the 1974 invasion of Cyprus. In 2014, the army had a strength of 315 Thousand troops, and the Turkish military had an increase in personnel due to the Iraqi Civil War and Syrian Civil War on Turkey's borders and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgency after 2015.
United States Navy

The **United States Navy** is the naval warfare branch of the US Military, founded on 13 October 1775 as the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. The US Navy had 328,194 personnel, 430 ships, and 3,700+ aircraft in naval aviation, and the USN became the most powerful navy in the world after its complete destruction of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The Navy SEALs and naval aviation are two other branches of the US Navy apart from ships, and the US Navy encompasses ships, planes, and ground forces.

## Gallery

History of United States Navy.United States Navy Enlisted ranks.United States Navy Officers ranks.
Republic of Georgia

The **Republic of Georgia** is a country located in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe and western Asia. Georgia was home to the kingdoms of Colchis, Iberia, and the Kingdom of Georgia in ancient history, and it was incorporated into the Russian Empire on 22 December 1800 at the alleged request of Giorgi XII of Georgia. In 1917, Georgia became the Democratic Republic of Georgia after the Russian Revolution, but it would be reconquered by the Russian SFSR, remaining a part of Russia until April 1991. In 1991, the dissolution of the USSR made Georgia an independent country, and its "Rose Revolution" of November 2003 led to Georgia becoming a pro-West country. Georgia had to fight against separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia during the 1990s and 2000s, and Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 to support the separatists. In 2016, Georgia's capital was at Tbilisi, and the nation had a population of 3,720,400 people.
Tories

The **Tories** were a conservative political party that existed sequentially in England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The party was founded in 1678 in response to the Exclusion Bill, which would disqualify James, Duke of York from assuming the English throne due to being a practicing Catholic; the liberal Whigs supported the bill and opposed papist influences in English politics. The party supported the Jacobites in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, claiming that the House of Stuart was the legitimate ruling family of England. The Jacobites repeatedly attempted to rebel against the English/British crown and reinstate the Catholic Stuarts, but the defeat of the final Jacobite uprising at Culloden in 1746 led to the Tories being censured. Following the Glorious Revolution, the Tories defined themselves as traditionalists who affirmed landownership as the proper basis of wealth, power, and privilege, opposing the new "moneyed interest" represented by the Whigs. In 1724, Henry St. John returned to England and led a Tory opposition to the "ministerial tyranny" of the Whig government, hailing the Whig rhetoric of earlier decades and appealing to both landed gentry and urban merchants. By this time, the Whigs sought to secure a centralized fiscal and military state machine and a web of financial interdependence controlled by the wealthiest aristocrats. By the early 1760s, the Tories ceased to exist as an organized political entity, and the term "Tory" was instead used by conservative and monarchist politicians as a self-descriptive term. A new Tory party would rise to power under King George III, supporting a strong monarchy in the face of radicalism in the United States and France and republicanism at home. From 1783 to 1830, the Tories established a hold on the government, with William Pitt the Younger and Lord Liverpool being two major Tory leaders. Under the Duke of Wellington's ministry, the Catholics were emancipated, and the older and more reactionary generation of Tories began to lose its influence as a younger and more moderate-reformist generation (led by men such as Robert Peel) came to power. The repeal of the Corn Laws led to the party splitting up into multiple factions, with the largest being the modern Conservative Party.
Scandinavia

**Scandinavia** is a region of Northern Europe traditionally consisting of the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and sometimes including Finland (due to its association with Sweden), Iceland, and the Faroe Islands (both of them because of the Scandinavian descent of the settlers). The region has a population of 25,262,748 people, most of whom are Germanic peoples (Swedish, Norwegians, and Danes), and most of whom are Protestant.
Rockefeller Center

**Rockefeller Center** is a large complex of 19 commercial buildings located on 22 acres of land between 48th and 51st Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was built from 1930 to 1939 under John D. Rockefeller Jr., who originally envisioned the site as the grounds for a new Metropolitan Opera building; after the Met could not afford to move to the new building, it was converted into commercial space. It includes the Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, and several other buildings, and the magnificent Great Depression-era building project became a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Since December 1933, the center has been home to an annually-lit Christmas tree.
Serbia

**Serbia** is a country in the Balkans region of southern Europe, with Belgrade serving as its capital. In the early 7th century, migrating Slavs formed a principality in Serbia, and it was a kingdom from 1217 to 1346 and an empire from 1346 to 1371, when the empire disintegrated. By the mid-16th century, Serbia was completely overrun by the Ottoman Turks, and the Habsburg Austrians began to expand into central Serbia during the late 17th century. In 1815, the Principality of Serbia was established after Karadorde's revolution against the Ottomans, and its independence was recognized in 1878. Following the disaster of World War I, Serbia spearheaded the creation of Yugoslavia, a state for all South Slavs in the Balkans. Yugoslavia would exist in various forms until the 1990s, when it broke up into smaller countries. Serbia and Montenegro remained united as part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Serbia gained independence in 2006 upon the dissolution of the union. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, further decreasing Serbia's size. In 2017, Serbia had a population of 7,058,322 people.
Zeus

**Zeus**, known to the Romans as **Jupiter**, was the Hellenic sky and thunder god and the king of the gods of Mount Olympus. He was the son of Kronos and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born; he married his sister Hera and fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus; he later fathered Aphrodite with Dione. Zeus later became known for his erotic escapades, fathering Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses.
Winnebago

The **Winnebago**, also known as the **Ho-Chunk**, are a Native American people native to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. In 1634, the Winnebago first made contact with French fur traders, and they later moved from their homelands around Green Bay to the south in reaction to the influx of the Ojibwe people. In 1827, the United States government defeated the tribe in the Winnebago War, and some Winnebago continued resistance in the Black Hawk War of 1832, which led to the Winnebago being relocated to the American West.
Swabia

**Swabia**, called **Schwaben** in German, is a region of southern Germany. It used to be the Duchy of Swabia, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was home to the Swabians, a people of Germany who spoke their own Swabian language. Stuttgart is located in Swabia, which is now divided between Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria.
Saigo Taka

**Saigo Taka** (1849-?) was the younger sister of Saigo Takamori and the lover of Nathan Algren. Born in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain, she was married to a samurai who served under her brother during the Satsuma Rebellion, but Algren killed her husband after he tried to slay Algren in battle. Algren was captured and brought back to the village, where Taka tended to his wounds and fed him. Over time, Algren became a beloved member of the community as he stopped drinking alcohol, became immersed in the old Japanese way of life, and came to side with Takamori against his former employer, Okubo Toshimichi. When Algren decided to accompany Takamori into the Battle of Shiroyama, essentially a suicide mission, Taka - who had developed feelings for the foreigner - kissed Algren for the first time and dressed him in her husband's samurai armor. Algren's fate after the battle was not known, although the author Simon Graham theorized that he may have returned to Kagoshima to start a new, simple, and peaceful life with Taka.
Romania

**Romania** is a country located in the Balkans region of southeastern Europe, with Bucharest (Bucuresti) serving as the country's capital. The country is located along the Danube River and the Carpathians, and Romania gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877 after a war of independence and the Russian Empire's intervention in the Balkans to assist their fellow Orthodox Christians against the Muslim Turks. Romania became a kingdom ruled by the German House of Hohenzollern, and it was closely connected to the German Empire. However, Romania allied with the Entente Powers during World War I, leading to the country gaining Transylvania, Bukovina, and Bessarabia, and these territories would be lost due to Romania's membership of the Axis Powers during World War II. In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the latter two regions, and Romania defected to the Comintern alliance in 1944 after the Soviets invaded Romania in Operation Bagration. After the war's end, Romania became a communist government, and it remained so until the 1989 revolution and the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime. Romania transitioned back to a capitalist market economy after the Cold War's end, and it grew to have a population of 19,511,000 people in 2015.
Union

he **Union** is the name given to the 23 free states and 5 border states that supported the United States government against the Confederate States during the American Civil War. The Union is also called **the North** due to its location north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and it was led by Abraham Lincoln for almost all of the war (1861-1865) until Lincoln's assassination and his replacement by Andrew Johnson in April 1865. The Union was led by the US Republican Party during the war, and it supported the abolition of slavery, a strong central government, and the reunification of America. The Union was restored to its old status as the United States in 1865 after the Confederate surrender, although the USA gained Nevada and West Virginia, which had become states during the war. The Union capital was Washington DC, and New York would provide the majority of the Union troops during the war.

## Gallery

State loyalties during the American Civil War: dark blue are Union states, light blue are border statesUnion Army ranks.jpgUnion troops in battle.
Tennessee

**Tennessee** is a state in the American South, with the Appalachian Mountains forming the eastern border and the Mississippi River forming the western border. The state was originally a territory of North Carolina during the 1770s, and on 1 June 1796 it would be admitted to the union as the 16th state. The state is often known as "the Bluegrass State", and its industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, with poultry, soybeans, and cattle being the main agricultural products.
Triple Entente

The **Triple Entente** was a military alliance between the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire formed on August 31, 1907 as a counterweight to the Central Powers (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and - initially - Italy). The alliance would fight with the Central Powers during World War I, and several more countries would join the Entente alliance, including the United States, Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Montenegro, Japan, and Portugal. The alliance lost an important member after the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the alliance did not survive the end of World War I, which it had "won".
Republicanism

**Republicanism** is a political ideology that supports the establishment of a republic, a form of representative democracy in which the people elect their leaders and demonstrate their popular sovereignty. Republicanism originated in Greece and Rome, but the fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC would ensure that republicanism would not be a major ideology during the Middle Ages, apart from some Italian and German merchant states. The Renaissance saw a rebirth of republicanism in Florence, Poland, and the Netherlands, and the American Revolutionary War and the US Declaration of Independence in 1776 would lead to a wave of republican revolutions that would occur over the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Republicanism was associated with liberalism in many of Europe's nations, as conservatives in Europe tended to support the *status quo* (in this case, a monarchy), but the United States, Mexico, and other republics in the Americas had liberal, conservative, and even reactionary political factions. By the 21st century, the vast majority of the world's nations were republics, forged through revolution and the sacrifice of the people for the sake of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Shawnee

The **Shawnee**nation were a tribe of Native Americans that lived in the Ohio Valley. The Shawnee inhabited western Pennsylvania and Ohio at the time of the French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War, but they were forced into Oklahoma by the United States' expansion.

## History

At the time of the French and Indian War, the people of the Shawnee nation were mostly living in and around the Ohio Valley - the territory surrounding Fort Duquesne. Traditionally, their hunting grounds had extended into Pennsylvania and Virginia, but they were being slowly moved from their lands by the advancing lines of British colonization. Hoping to stop - or at least slow - settlement, some of the Shawnee entered the war, siding with their traditional trading partners, the French.

By 1758, some Shawnee negotiated peace with the British in the Treaty of Easton. However, the treaty wasn't respected, leading to another war - Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. By the time the American Revolution started, many of the Shawnee opted to remain neutral, although some sided with the British - again hoping for help pushing back Colonists. Unfortunately, the result was the same as many other indigenous peoples - the Shawnee were forced to leave their lands, with the majority eventually settling in Oklahoma.
Russian Far East

The **Russian Far East** is one of the eight federal districts of Russia, located in the eastermost parts of the country (between the Transbaikal region, Kamchatka, and Primorsky Krai. The region has a land border with China's Manchuria region to the south, while it shares a maritime border with Japan and the US state of Alaska. In 2010, the Far East had a population of 6,293,129 people, and the population density was .37 people per square mile, making it one of the most sparsely-populated regions of the world.
South Korea

**South Korea**, formally the **Republic of Korea** (**ROK**), is a country located on the southern half of East Asia's Korean peninsula, with its capital at Seoul. South Korea was formed on August 15, 1948, when the United States helped in setting up an administration to govern the democratic-controlled areas of Korea. From 1950 to 1953, South Korea and a US-led alliance of United Nations member states fought against the expansionist northern neighbor of South Korea, North Korea, and South Korea would negotiate a ceasefire with North Korea at Panmunjom to end the war. However, the two countries were still officially at war, and the Korean demilitarized zone became the site of several clashes between the Republic of Korean Army (ROKA) and Korean People's Army (KPA). South Korea grew into an economic power, becoming a home to the large car industry (such as Hyundai-Kia), the technology industry (such as Samsung), and the internet industry, having the highest smartphone ownership and internet speed. In 2016, South Korea had a population of 50,801,405 people, and South Korea is one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Satsuma Domain

The **Satsuma Domain** (1609-1871) was a feudal domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled by the Shimazu.

## History

The Shimazu of Satsuma were an old clan, and could claim the Minamoto shoguns of old as blood relations. They had long received tribute from the Ryukyu Kingdom and traded with China, making them independent and open to foreign ideas than many others in Japan. Satsuma had two provinces at the start of the Boshin War and in rich, with an effective and efficient administration. They also had an advantage when it came to recruiting foreign veterans as agents.
T-34/76

The **T-34/76** was a medium tank built by the Soviet Union from 1940 to the late 1960s, and since the 1950s it has been in use with several other countries. It was called the most effective and important tank built in World War II, and Ewald von Kleist called it the "finest tank in the world". By 1996, the T-34 was still in use in over 27 countries.
West Egg

**West Egg** was a wealthy village located in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Located on the Great Neck peninsula, West Egg's residents mostly belonged to the *nouveau riche* (newly-rich) upper-class, many of whom worked in finance and business in Manhattan, New York City. It was located across a small body of water from East Egg, where people from old money lived.
Valentin Gomez Farias

**Valentin Gomez Farias** (14 February 1781 – 5 July 1858) was President of Mexico from 1 April to 16 May 1833 (succeeding Manuel Gomez Pedraza and preceding Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna), from 3 to 18 June 1833 (interrupting Santa Anna's terms), from 5 July to 27 October 1833 (interrupting Santa Anna's terms), from 16 December 1833 to 24 April 1834 (interrupting Santa Anna's terms), and from 23 December 1846 to 21 March 1847 (succeeding Jose Mariano Salas and preceding Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna).

## Biography

Valentin Gomez Farias was born in Guadalajara, New Spain in 1781, and he was a trained medical doctor before going on to become one of the most prominent liberal politicians in post-independence Mexico. He initially supported Agustin de Iturbide's creation of a constitutional monarchy, but he opposed his dissolution of the Mexican Congress. Gomez emerged as a leader of the radical liberals in the Congress and supported Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, often taking over administration of the government during Santa Anna's stays at his estate in Veracruz during his presidency. Gomez Farias intermittently served as president several times from 1833 to 1834, during which time he abolished the special privileges (*fueros*) of the Catholic Church and the Mexican Army, secularized education, and undermined the Church's economic power. He also reduced the size of the military to prevent future coups and limit the political influence of the army. In 1834, conservative opponents of Gomez's radical reforms (including Santa Anna) forced him into political exile, but the turbulence of the 1840s brought him back into the political sphere. He became President after Santa Anna resigned in order to fight the United States during the Mexican-American War, but Santa Anna launched another coup to oust Gomez from power in 1847. Gomez died in 1858 at the age of 77.
Sicilian Mafia

The **Sicilian Mafia** is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, *omerta*. The basic group is known as a "family" or "clan", which claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates its rackets (typically a town, village, or city neighborhood). The Mafia evolved from the bandits that plagued Sicily after the end of feudalism in Sicily in 1812, and they were bound by traditions and codes, which included a code of silence (*omerta*), a code of etiquette, and ten commandments:

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife is about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.

The Sicilian Mafia was deeply involved with protection rackets, racketeering, drug trafficking, contract killings, extortion, intimidation, bid rigging, loansharking, smuggling, political corruption, illegal gambling, prostitution, art theft, money laundering, firearm trafficking, vote rigging, political bribery, fraud, fencing, kidnapping, and armed robbery. Following waves of emigration, the Mafia spread to other countries, including the United States and Canada, where the American Mafia became a very powerful crime syndicate.
Underground Railroad

**Underground Railroad** was a network of secret routes and safehouses established by American abolitionists to help runaway African-American slaves in escaping to the free states of the north. The movement was run by free African-Americans such as Harriet Tubman and by sympathetic white abolitionists, and it helped in freeing tens of thousands of slaves from bondage. By 1850, 100,000 slaves had used the Underground Railroad to escape slavery, and many slaves would make it to Canada to flee America. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 to fight against the Underground Railroad movement, and the law required for recaptured runaway slaves to be returned to their slaveowners, even if they were caught in the north.
US 82th Airborne Division

The **US 82nd Airborne Division** is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army that was an infantry division from 1917 to 1942 before becoming the first airborne division of the United States military. During World War I, it saw action in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and it took part in the invasion of Italy in 1943, Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the invasion of Germany during World War II. Since the end of the war, the airborne division has seen deployments in the Dominican Republic in 1965, the Vietnam War in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, Operation Golden Pheasant in Honduras in 1988, Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, the Gulf War in Kuwait and Iraq in 1990-1991, the Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2014, and the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011.
Waffen-SS

The **Waffen-SS** was the armed wing of the Nazi Party's SS paramilitary wing. Formed in 1933, the Waffen-SS was the official armed wing of the Nazi Party after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Nazi Germany, and it was intended to be a police force for occupied Europe after World War II was won. In 1940, the racial policy was relaxed due to Germany's need for soldiers, and the Waffen-SS recruited volunteers and conscripts from other countries such as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United States, across Asia and Arabia, and from England; it had 900 thousand troops at its height. The Waffen-SS was responsible for mass executions of Jews and prisoners-of-war during World War II, leading to volunteers (those that joined from 1933 to 1943) being tried as war criminals. Some former Waffen-SS officers formed HIAG to revise history and rehabilitate the Waffen-SS, which became a legendary force in the eyes of neo-Nazis.

## Gallery

A Waffen-SS soldier at the Battle of the BulgeThree Waffen-SS stormtroopersSS Stormtroopers in 1945