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de16f3c225c7bb993875c6cdf6085739 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/autocephalous-church | Autocephalous church | Autocephalous church
Autocephalous church, in the modern usage of Eastern Orthodox canon law, church that enjoys total canonical and administrative independence and elects its own primates and bishops. The term autocephalous was used in medieval Byzantine law in its literal sense of “self-headed” (Greek: autokephalos), or independent, and was applied in church law to individual dioceses that did not depend upon the authority of a provincial metropolitan. Today the Orthodox archbishopric of Mount Sinai, with the historic monastery of St. Catherine, still enjoys this privilege.
Most modern Orthodox autocephalies are national churches, but some are limited only geographically and include the territories of several states. The autocephalous churches maintain canonical relations with each other and enjoy communion in faith and sacraments. There is between them a traditional order of precedence, with the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) enjoying the first place. Throughout history, their borders have varied greatly, following political and social changes, while their numbers have been subject to increase or reduction by Byzantine emperors and individual patriarchs. The question of how and by whom new autocephalous churches are to be established is still a matter of debate in modern Eastern Orthodoxy.
The heads of individual autocephalous churches bear different titles: patriarch (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria), archbishop (Athens, Cyprus), or metropolitan (Poland, America).
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26bb57c5d8fbd051de40fbcc14bc25de | https://www.britannica.com/topic/automated-clearinghouse | Automated clearinghouse | Automated clearinghouse
The automated clearinghouse (ACH) is the third alternative means of making deposits and paying bills. ACH networks transfer existing deposit balances, avoid the use of checks, and speed payments and settlement. In addition, many large payments (such as those to settle securities or foreign exchange transactions…
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ca274ac25d57f9899afe5e0d9871a14a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Avalon-1990-film | Avalon | Avalon
He next helmed Avalon (1990), a family saga about immigrants for which his screenplay earned him an Oscar nomination, and the best-picture nominee Bugsy (1991), in which Warren Beatty starred as mobster Bugsy Siegel. Levinson’s later films included the revenge thriller Sleepers (1996), the political satire Wag the…
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b064285b69db253623d1cb0458891fa7 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Avalovara | Avalovara | Avalovara
Avalovara), is an allegory on the art of the novel in which fiction and life become mutually regenerative experiences. Despite other significant novelists such as Fernando Sabino and Érico Lopes Veríssimo, the second half of the 20th century, especially after 1964, the year of the…
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e0fbe29f006ad76f325e44f5aebec4b3 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Avanzada-group | Avanzada group | Avanzada group
…Chilean revolution, artists of the Avanzada group created performances that pointed out the abuses of the new regime. For example, in 1980 Carlos Leppe had himself videotaped as he was imprisoned in a plaster cast. By this he suggested his abuse and confinement by society. Similarly, Diamela Eltit inflicted cuts…
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f8336f64e2ff8a4c973facd82cdc6c33 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ave-Verum-Corpus-K-618 | Ave Verum Corpus, K 618 | Ave Verum Corpus, K 618
Ave Verum Corpus, K 618, (Latin: “Hail, True Body”) motet (vocal musical setting of a sacred text) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart based on a Roman Catholic eucharistic text. The piece was composed in the summer of 1791, half a year before the composer’s death and eight years after Mozart had last completed a piece of sacred music. The gentle and serene Ave Verum Corpus was written for Anton Stoll, choirmaster in the town of Baden, where Mozart’s wife, Constanze, often visited the spa. Unlike the dramatic and famously unfinished Requiem in D Minor, K 626, on which Mozart was working at the same time, Ave Verum Corpus is of humble mien and perfectly suited to the small-town choir for which it was intended.
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8c446d1103276f81022788d2d7e98705 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Avengers-Age-of-Ultron | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Avengers: Age of Ultron
…cast reunited for the sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which was the screen debut of one of the group’s most-implacable foes. Joe and Anthony Russo, who had helmed the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), took over in the director’s…
… (2012) and its sequels (2015, 2018, and 2019), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). In 2020 Downey starred in the family comedy Dolittle, which was based on the character created by Hugh Lofting.
…2: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The versatile actor earned critical acclaim for his moving portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) and for his harrowing turn as the Commandant, a brutal warlord leading…
…America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
…role in The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
… (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
…Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
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dd0d1aaebfda29f6a0ad48a7e2243612 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/avera | ʿavera | ʿavera
ʿavera, also spelled Averah (Hebrew: “a crossing over”), plural ʿaverot, or Averoth, in Judaism, a moral transgression (or sin) against God or man. It may vary from grievous to slight and is the opposite of mitzwa (commandment), understood in the broad sense of any good deed. Whereas Jews are taught to prefer death to the willful commission of any of the three major ʿaverot (idolatry, the shedding of innocent blood, and adultery and incest), they may commit lesser ʿaverot (e.g., violate the sabbath) to preserve human life. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, one atones only for those ʿaverot against God, while those against a fellow man must be remedied in person as soon as possible.
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3bd655b094d7d796878650f99d038f69 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/awujale | Awujale | Awujale
As the seat of the awujale, the Ijebu political and spiritual ruler, it served as the capital of the Ijebu kingdom, which for several centuries dominated the trade between the ports of the Lagos Lagoon (including Lagos, 44 miles [70 km] west-southwest) and the Yoruba hinterland (especially Ibadan, 38 miles…
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4a8021c70b3ce5ab4b69b538191072f5 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/axis-of-evil | Axis of evil | Axis of evil
Axis of evil, expression used to describe the bellicose tendencies of Iran, North Korea, and Iraq in the early 21st century. The phrase was coined by Canadian-born U.S. presidential speechwriter David Frum and presidential aide Michael Gerson for use by U.S. President George W. Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address, when he asserted that
The expression drew widespread international and domestic criticism. Critics asserted that the three countries mentioned were not sufficiently linked to warrant the formation of an “axis,” a term that recalls the Axis powers of World War II—Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan.
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dbfcfe1de63d64a68bd5d427cd4214dc | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ayesha | Ayesha | Ayesha
Ayesha, fictional character, the supernatural white queen of a vanished African city in the romantic novel She (1887) by H. Rider Haggard. Ayesha ("She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed") is a beautiful and majestic woman with supernatural powers who spends centuries waiting for the reincarnation of a lover from past ages.
John Mortimer, in his Rumpole of the Bailey series of books, has Horace Rumpole refer habitually to his wife as “She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.”
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35a750a9840c6d1fa8ed7bbe5e9a9760 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aymara | Aymara | Aymara
Aymara, large South American Indian group living on the Altiplano—a vast windy plateau of the central Andes in Peru and Bolivia—with smaller numbers in Argentina and Chile. Their language is also called Aymara. In colonial times the Aymara tribes were the Canchi, Colla, Lupaca, Collagua, Ubina, Pacasa, Caranga, Charca, Quillaca, Omasuyo, and Collahuaya. The Aymara numbered about three million in the early 21st century.
Basically agriculturalists and herders, the Aymara live in an area of poor soil and harsh climate. Coarse grass gives pasturage for llama and alpaca herds. Staple crops include potatoes, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), ullucu (Ullucus tuberosus), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), corn (maize), beans, barley, and wheat. Fishing is done from rowboats and totora-reed rafts.
Before they were conquered by the Incas, the Aymara had a number of independent states, the most important being those of the Colla and the Lupaca. About 1430 the Inca emperor Viracocha began conquests southward from his capital at Cuzco. Aymara territories ultimately formed a major part of the Inca empire, against which the Aymara continually revolted.
The Spanish conquest, beginning in 1535, brought seekers of gold and Indian labour, followed by Dominican and Jesuit friars in search of converts. The colonial agrarian economy was based on the systematic exploitation of the Aymara in agriculture, in the mines, as household servants, and on the coca plantations in the jungles. A period of rebellion began in 1780, during which the Indians killed large numbers of Spaniards, and continued until Peruvian independence from the Spanish crown was proclaimed in 1821.
The Aymara have passed through several stages of acculturation, first under the Incas, then under the Spaniards, and subsequently in the course of modernization. The Inca strengthened local Aymara dynasties as part of their imperial system and introduced new religious cults and myths, a greater variety of foods, and new art styles. The Spaniards introduced new domesticated animals and plants, plow agriculture, and iron tools. They suppressed native religious institutions but effected only a superficial conversion to Christianity. Today the Aymara maintain their beliefs in a multispirit world, have many categories of magicians, diviners, medicine men, and witches, but are Christian in their beliefs about the afterworld. Independence and economic development brought changes in social organization and a decline in traditional arts and crafts.
Aymara clothing copies in crude homespun earlier Spanish colonial models. Men wear conical, ear-flapped, knit wool gorros; women wear round, native-made wool derbies, with wool wimples in cold weather. The single-room, rectangular, gabled Aymara house, about 8 by 10 feet (2.5 by 3 metres) in size, is made of turf, thatched with wild grass over pole rafters; it contains a family sleeping platform of mud at one end and a clay stove near the door.
The basic social unit is the extended family, consisting of a man and his brothers, their wives, sons, and unmarried daughters, living in a cluster of houses within a compound. This structure is changing as many Aymara seek wages in urban settings. The political unit is the ayllu, or comunidad, composed of several extended families. It has little resemblance to the aboriginal ayllu.
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6289f030cbc2ba51b672411c8780faaa | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Azazel | Azazel | Azazel
Azazel, in Jewish legends, a demon or evil spirit to whom, in the ancient rite of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), a scapegoat was sent bearing the sins of the Jewish people. Two male goats were chosen for the ritual, one designated by lots “for the Lord,” the other “for Azazel” (Leviticus 16:8). The ritual was carried out by the high priest in the Second Temple and is described in the Mishna. After the high priest symbolically transferred all the sins of the Jewish people to the scapegoat, the goat destined “for Azazel” was driven into the wilderness and cast over a precipice to its death. Azazel was the personification of uncleanness and in later rabbinic writings was sometimes described as a fallen angel.
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5fd5d885322ce36245365fdc1f6a45ac | https://www.britannica.com/topic/baba-ghanoush | Baba ghanoush | Baba ghanoush
…and the Middle Eastern relish baba ghanoush. It is also frequently served as a baked, grilled, fried, or boiled vegetable and is used as a garnish and in stews. The plant is closely related to the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and the potato (S. tuberosum) as well as to several poisonous…
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aa22cf0b4ecef3a981593513c0c90d28 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Babbitt-novel-by-Lewis | Babbitt | Babbitt
Babbitt, novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1922. The novel’s scathing indictment of middle-class American values made Babbittry a synonym for adherence to a conformist, materialistic, anti-intellectual way of life.
After the enormous success of his novel Main Street, Sinclair Lewis turned to another icon of American life, this time the archetypal middle-class businessman, immortalized in the figure of George F. Babbitt, a prosperous real-estate broker in the Midwestern town of Zenith. He is a pillar of his community, a civic booster, and a believer in achieving success for its own sake, and his story is that of suburban life in a city that is filled with "neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and beautifully office-buildings." Lewis’s novel satirically but lovingly details Babbitt’s routines and rituals as he goes to and from work, socializes, plays golf, goes to the club, and becomes involved in local politics. In the midst of his contented and prosperous life, however, an event occurs that turns Babbitt’s world upside down and forces him to examine his comfortable existence. When his best friend is arrested for shooting his own wife, Babbitt begins to question and rebel against some of the values that he has always upheld. He starts to associate with a group of bohemians, has an affair, and befriends and publicly champions a liberal politician whom he had earlier worked to defeat in a local election. Babbitt’s lurch from one uncertainty to another allows the reader to see beyond the shining office towers of Zenith to a grittier, more sobering but ultimately more human kind of American life. His rebellion, however, is brief because he lacks the necessary inner strength.
Lewis’s triumph here lies in taking a character that no one could possibly like—the self-important, conformist, and aggressively bigoted American businessman—and evoking not only barbed humor but vivid human feeling. Babbitt works as a political critique, piercing the smug veil worn by interwar American capitalism, but transcends mere amusing satire. Life in Zenith has a surprising depth; as such, it reminds us of the redemptive power of looking past ideology to the human relations beneath.
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dc37de27870716110272abd29fadc0ea | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Babes-in-Toyland | Babes in Toyland | Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland, also called March of the Wooden Soldiers, American fantasy film, released in 1934, that starred the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy in an enduring holiday classic.
The film—which was based on a 1903 operetta by composer Victor Herbert and librettist Glen MacDonough—is set in Toyland, where Mother Goose, Little Bo Peep, and other well-known fairy-tale characters reside. In order to save Little Bo-Peep from an unwanted marriage, Stannie Dum (played by Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) trick her unwanted suitor, the evil Silas Barnaby (Henry Kleinbach), into marrying Dum. Barnaby and his henchmen retaliate by setting bogeymen on the land, and an army of full-sized wooden soldiers comes to the rescue. Ample screen time is given to a romance between Tom-Tom Piper and Little Bo Peep, portrayed by Felix Knight and Charlotte Henry, respectively.
Babes in Toyland was a nontraditional Laurel and Hardy vehicle in that it featured the duo as supporting players rather than leads. It was rereleased in 1952 under the title March of the Wooden Soldiers. Considered to be among Laurel and Hardy’s best films, it became a holiday staple with frequent television airings.
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4f25f91353ff4d0436b21f9e9443c038 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baby-Face-Nelson-film-by-Siegel-1957 | Baby Face Nelson | Baby Face Nelson
Siegel’s next project was Baby Face Nelson (1957), a violent look at the infamous gangster (played by Mickey Rooney).
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f8bbd20bee0fb70cbca0083547a12ffc | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bacchanalia | Bacchanalia | Bacchanalia
Bacchanalia, also called Dionysia, in Greco-Roman religion, any of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god. They probably originated as rites of fertility gods. The most famous of the Greek Dionysia were in Attica and included the Little, or Rustic, Dionysia, characterized by simple, old-fashioned rites; the Lenaea, which included a festal procession and dramatic performances; the Anthesteria, essentially a drinking feast; the City, or Great, Dionysia, accompanied by dramatic performances in the theatre of Dionysus, which was the most famous of all; and the Oschophoria (“Carrying of the Grape Clusters”).
Introduced into Rome from lower Italy, the Bacchanalia were at first held in secret, attended by women only, on three days of the year. Later, admission was extended to men, and celebrations took place as often as five times a month. The reputation of these festivals as orgies led in 186 bc to a decree of the Roman Senate that prohibited the Bacchanalia throughout Italy, except in certain special cases. (Surprisingly, a copy of the decree survives, as does an account by the Roman historian Livy.) Nevertheless, Bacchanalia long continued in the south of Italy.
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7557450d7f7d061fb5f7a274758bc470 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bach-Gesellschaft | Bach-Gesellschaft | Bach-Gesellschaft
…Robert Schumann, Hauptmann founded the Bach-Gesellschaft (“Bach Society”); for the remainder of his life he served as the society’s president and edited the first three volumes of the Bach-Gesellschaft (BG) edition of Bach’s complete works. His most important publication in the area of theory was Die Natur der Harmonik und…
Encouraged by Robert Schumann, the Bach-Gesellschaft (BG) was founded in the centenary year 1850, with the purpose of publishing the complete works. By 1900 all the known works had been printed, and the BG was succeeded by the Neue Bach-Gesellschaft (NBG), which exists still, organizing festivals and publishing popular editions.…
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cfc0079077dfce1bf82c8a0eff13d467 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bachpan-Bachao-Andolan | Bachpan Bachao Andolan | Bachpan Bachao Andolan
…in 1980 founded the nonprofit Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA; “Save the Childhood Movement”). Agnivesh, with whom Satyarthi retained an alternatingly close and antagonistic relationship, founded the more legislatively focused Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM; “Bonded Labour Liberation Front”) in 1981.
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05d90384bc68680305a646765d3939e0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Back-in-Black | Back in Black | Back in Black
The band’s next album, Back in Black (1980), sold more than 10 million copies in the United States alone, and For Those About to Rock (1981) was also a million-seller. The early to mid-1980s was the band’s peak period as a live group; a number of personnel changes occurred…
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591e0b906967acbfab0ba8e1a2cd45b7 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bad-Boys-film | Bad Boys | Bad Boys
The action comedy-thriller Bad Boys (1995), however, proved to be the turning point in his film career. While the movie was not a critical success, it made more than \$100 million worldwide, proving Smith’s star power. In 1996 he starred in that year’s top-grossing movie, Independence Day. He…
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033f476bf53c054d03ba57ae4736fe6d | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bad-Company-2002-film | Bad Company | Bad Company
…Anthony Hopkins in the thriller Bad Company (2002). In 2003 Rock made his directorial debut with Head of State, which centred on a presidential election. After the popular HBO comedy special Never Scared (2004), he cocreated a television series based on his childhood, Everybody Hates Chris (2005–09). The show was…
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f0ff09356ab34789c25bb5e0b10b1048 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bad-Day-at-Black-Rock | Bad Day at Black Rock | Bad Day at Black Rock
Bad Day at Black Rock, American mystery film, released in 1955, that fused elements of the western with those of film noir. It was based on Howard Breslin’s short story “Bad Time at Honda” (1947).
Spencer Tracy starred as John Macreedy, a one-armed World War II veteran whose life was saved during the war by a Japanese American soldier. He becomes a de facto detective when in 1945 he arrives in a sparsely populated Arizona desert town in search of the soldier’s father, Komoko, in order to present him with a medal posthumously awarded to his son. The town has not had a visitor for four years, and the residents treat Macreedy with suspicion and disdain. Although he is told by the town boss, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), that Komoko was shipped to a relocation camp for Japanese Americans at the start of the war, he decides to visit the plot of land where Komoko had lived. While there Macreedy discovers wildflowers growing in the ground, which he suspects indicates a burial site. Upon his return, some of the townspeople’s behaviour becomes increasingly intimidating, and he soon realizes that his life is in danger. Fortunately, he finds allies in Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), the town’s resident physician, and the young Pete Wirth (John Ericson), who confesses that he, Smith, and three others had murdered Komoko in retaliation for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. A plan is arranged for Pete’s sister, Liz (Anne Francis), to secretly transport Macreedy away from town at night, but during the drive she stops in the desert, where Smith is waiting with a rifle. After Smith unexpectedly shoots Liz, Macreedy manages to maim him with a Molotov cocktail. Back in town, Komoko’s killers are put in jail, and before departing via train, Macreedy hands over the medal to Doc, who believes it will help restore the town’s spirits.
Although Tracy had been reluctant to accept the role, he proved successful as a determined tough guy who cracks heads and witticisms with equal aptitude. (Macreedy’s fight in a café with a local thug, played by Ernest Borgnine, is a particularly memorable scene.) The wide-screen colour cinematography contributes to the sense of desolation in the town, while André Previn’s musical score complements and accentuates the film’s drama and pathos. Additionally, the film explores myriad themes popular in Hollywood cinema of the 1950s, including individual integrity, civic responsibility, and group paranoia and conformity. Bad Day at Black Rock was one of the earliest attempts in film to deal with the Japanese American experience during World War II and anti-Japanese prejudice in the postwar years.
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da6145d4a8f89bbd406e801f538a02f9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bad-Education-2019-film | Bad Education | Bad Education
…Missing Link and starred in Bad Education, a dramedy based on the true story of a school district superintendent involved in an embezzlement scheme. That year he also staged a world tour (titled The Man. The Music. The Show.), which featured singing, dancing, and storytelling.
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680a15318be21573e8a5b93c67ae9862 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bad-Times-at-the-El-Royale | Bad Times at the El Royale | Bad Times at the El Royale
…has a storied past in Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). In 2019 Bridges received the Cecil B. DeMille Award (a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement).
…with a storied history in Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). His movies from 2019 included Lucy in the Sky, a drama centring on an astronaut who struggles to adjust to life back on Earth; The Report, a true story about an investigation into the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation strategies;…
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90503cb8878f6829128f1038d1879b05 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Badlands-film-by-Malick | Badlands | Badlands
His own directorial debut, Badlands (1973), which he also scripted, starred Martin Sheen as a small-town hoodlum who persuades a naive teenage girl (played by Sissy Spacek) to run away with him as he embarks on a string of dispassionate murders. The film (one of several to be inspired…
…Terrence Malick’s first feature film, Badlands (1973); her narration and her performance as a bored teenage girl joining her boyfriend in a murder spree won critical praise. In 1974 Spacek appeared in the TV movie The Migrants (written by Lanford Wilson from a Tennessee Williams short story) and played the…
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8c3533519d2a479578a000cfe29595c6 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/BAE-Systems | BAE Systems | BAE Systems
BAE Systems, major British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, and other aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace PLC (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems, formerly part of General Electric Company PLC. BAe, in turn, dates to the merger in 1977 of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and two other firms. Headquarters are in London.
BAE Systems develops and builds fighter aircraft in joint ventures with several European and American aerospace companies, and versions of its vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) Harrier jet fighter are manufactured in partnership with Boeing Company. Its Hawk jet trainers have been supplied to the British Royal Air Force and widely exported. Activities of BAE Systems nonaerospace business units include the development and construction of surface warships and submarines for the British Royal Navy and the manufacture of a variety of weapons systems and munitions. In 2000 the company employed some 100,000 people directly and in joint ventures and was the largest exporter in the United Kingdom.
Through its antecedent company BAe, BAE Systems carries the heritage of some 20 British aerospace firms. In early 1960 British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was created through the amalgamation of Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. with English Electric Company and Bristol Aeroplane Company; shortly afterward BAC acquired a controlling interest in Hunting Aircraft Ltd. The origin of Vickers-Armstrongs lies with Vickers (Aviation) Ltd., founded in 1928, and Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd., founded in 1913. English Electric was created in 1918 through the amalgamation of five companies, of which three had experience building aircraft as early as 1911. Bristol Aeroplane was founded in 1910 as the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company.
In the 1950s and early ’60s a second group of British aircraft companies underwent a series of mergers that resulted in the Hawker Siddeley Group. As with BAC, the forerunners of Hawker Siddeley were manufacturers with long histories—among them Armstrong Whitworth (dating to 1921), A.V. Roe and Company, or Avro (1910), Folland Aircraft Ltd. (1935, as British Marine Aircraft Ltd.), Gloster Aircraft Company (1915, as Aircraft Manufacturing Co.), Hawker Aircraft (1920), and Blackburn Aircraft (1914). During that consolidation period, Hawker Siddeley also acquired a controlling interest in the holdings company that owned De Havilland Aircraft Company (formed in 1920). In 1963 Hawker Siddeley was organized into two divisions—Hawker Siddeley Aviation, in charge of aircraft production, and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, which had responsibility for missiles and rockets.
The heritage companies of BAC and Hawker Siddeley were responsible for many innovative and successful aircraft. Bristol, A.V. Roe, Gloster, and De Havilland each had hallmark airplanes in World War I; Bristol produced the F.2b fighter, which became one of the most successful British and Canadian military aircraft. In the World War II era notable products from this group included the Supermarine Spitfire fighter, Avro Lancaster bomber, and De Havilland Mosquito, the last named being a versatile, all-wood aircraft serving as a light bomber, fighter, and reconnaissance plane. Postwar innovations in military aircraft, principally by De Havilland (fighters), English Electric (bombers), and Wellington (bombers), were followed by the first jet passenger transport, the De Havilland Comet, which inaugurated regular service in 1952.
In the 1960s and early ’70s BAC and Hawker Siddeley each developed and manufactured a wide range of significant aircraft. BAC built the four-engine Vickers-Armstrongs VC10 jetliner and the twin-engine BAC One-Eleven and, in partnership with Aerospatiale of France (see EADS), produced the Concorde supersonic transport. The company was also responsible for building the English Electric P 1 Lightning jet fighter, in service in the 1960s and early ’70s. In 1969 BAC joined several other European aircraft and engine manufacturers to develop a multirole combat aircraft; the result was the Panavia Tornado, which entered service in 1980. Hawker Siddeley made the HS 125 business jet and the HS 121 Trident jetliner. Its military jet aircraft included the Vulcan bomber and the V/STOL Harrier fighter, which was licensed in the United States by McDonnell Douglas (later acquired by Boeing) for production for the Marine Corps.
Unprofitable financial situations for both BAC and Hawker Siddeley led to their nationalization in 1976. A year later BAC, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Aviation (formed in 1935) were taken into public ownership as British Aerospace. In 1979 BAe secured a 20 percent stake in the Airbus Industrie consortium, through which it participated in the manufacture of passenger jetliners. The company moved toward privatization in 1981 when the British government sold 51.57 percent of its stake to the public. Four years later it sold its remaining shares but kept a special share valued at £1 to ensure that the company would stay under British control. Foreign shareholding was originally limited to 15 percent but later raised to 29.5 percent.
In the 1990s BAe streamlined its portfolio by selling its corporate jet division to Raytheon Company and the automaker Rover Group PLC (acquired in 1988) to Germany’s BMW. With Germany’s DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Italy’s Alenia, and Spain’s CASA, it became a partner in the Eurofighter Typhoon program to develop a multirole combat aircraft. The company also joined ventures, headed by Lockheed Martin Corporation in the United States, to develop the Joint Strike Fighter and, with Saab AB in Sweden, to produce and market Saab’s Gripen multirole fighter for the international market. In 1998 BAe acquired a 35 percent interest in Saab AB.
In 1999 BAe signed an agreement with General Electric Company PLC wherein the latter would split off its defense electronics business, Marconi Electronic Systems, which would then merge with BAe. The resulting company became BAE Systems. In 2001 BAE Systems, EADS, and Italy’s Finmeccanica group agreed to combine the missiles and missile-systems activities of their subsidiaries Matra BAe Dynamics, EADS Aerospatiale Matra Missiles, and Alenia Marconi Systems into a single pan-European corporate entity with the name MBDA. That same year Airbus was restructured as a joint-stock company, owned by EADS (80 percent) and BAE Systems (20 percent), although the former became the sole owner when the latter sold its share in 2006.
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b019b3488e285c1acad0c15e3b19ad7a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bagatelle | Bagatelle | Bagatelle
Bagatelle, game, probably of English origin, that is similar to billiards and was probably a modification of it. Bagatelle is played with billiard cues and nine balls on an oblong board or table varying in size from 6 by 1.5 ft (1.8 by 0.5 m) to 10 by 3 ft (3 by 0.9 m), with nine numbered cups at its head, eight arranged in a circle and the ninth in its centre. The cups are approximately 2.5 in (6.3 cm) in diameter. The balls are approximately 1.88 in (4.77 cm) in diameter. Sans égal, the cannon game, and Mississippi are among the many variations of bagatelle.
Of the nine balls used, one is black, four are red, and four are white. The black ball is placed upon a spot about 9 in (23 cm) in front of hole number one. A line (the balk) is drawn across the board, from behind which the players shoot. Any number may play. Each player in turn plays all eight balls up the table, no score being allowed until a ball has touched the black ball. The object of the game is to play as many balls as possible into the holes, the black ball counting double. The game is decided by the aggregate score made in an agreed number of rounds.
The popularity of bagatelle in its original form has waned, but more recent versions of the game have remained in use. These are usually played on a small inclined board and use small steel or plastic balls instead of billiard balls. A spring bolt, or plunger, is used instead of a cue stick to propel the balls. A further elaboration of this format is the pinball machine.
Sans égal is a French form of the game. Two players take part, one using the red balls and one using the white. The leader plays at the black, forfeiting a ball if he misses. His opponent then plays at the black if it has not been touched, otherwise any way he likes. They then play alternately, the object being to hole the black and the player’s own balls. If a player holes one of his opponent’s balls, it is scored for his opponent.
The cannon game, as in billiards, requires three balls—a cue ball and two object balls, one black and one white. The object of the game is to make cannons (caroms), in which the cue ball strikes both object balls. Balls played into holes at the same time count the number of the holes, but, if a ball falls into a hole during a play in which no cannon is made, the score counts for the adversary. A cannon counts two; missing the white object ball scores one to the adversary; missing the black, five to the adversary.
Mississippi is played with a bridge pierced with nine or more arches, according to the size of the table, the arches being numbered from one upward. All nine balls are usually played, though the black is sometimes omitted, each player having a round, the object being to send the balls through the arches. This may not be done directly, as the balls must strike a cushion first. A ball, lying in front of the bridge, may be sent through by the cue ball if the latter has struck a cushion. If a ball falls into a cup, the striker scores the value of the cup as well as of the arch.
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40f4df746f0384193a012703bd7aaa34 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bail-law | Bail | Bail
Bail, procedure by which a judge or magistrate sets at liberty one who has been arrested or imprisoned, upon receipt of security to ensure the released prisoner’s later appearance in court for further proceedings. Release from custody is ordinarily effected by posting a sum of money, or a bond, although originally bail included the delivery of other forms of property, such as title to real estate. The principal use of bail in modern legal systems is to secure the freedom, pending trial, of one arrested and charged with a criminal offense, although it may also be used in some cases to secure release pending an appeal of a conviction. Subject to jurisdictional variations, its use in civil cases has diminished along with the decline of imprisonment for debt.
The purposes of bail pending trial in criminal cases are to avoid inflicting punishment upon an innocent person (who may be acquitted at trial) and to encourage the unhampered preparation of his defense. The amount of bail is generally set in relation to the gravity of the offense charged and the likelihood of flight, although some magistrates take into account other factors, such as the strength of the evidence, the character of the accused, and the ability of the accused to secure bail. Failure to consider financial ability generated much controversy in the mid-20th century, for bail requirements may discriminate against poor people and certain minority groups who are thus deprived of an equal opportunity to secure their freedom pending trial. Some courts now give special consideration to indigent accused persons who, because of their community standing and past history, are considered likely to appear in court. The court may release the accused on an unsecured promise—i.e., on their own recognizance. Some jurisdictions also permit the accused to post a fraction of the bail, usually 10 percent, in cash with the clerk of the court. A few jurisdictions make it a separate criminal offense to forfeit bail instead of appearing as required. In all jurisdictions an arrest warrant may issue for the accused who has failed to appear in addition to forfeiture of bail.
In legal systems that have a bail procedure, its operation is highly discretionary. If an accused is charged with an offense committed while free on bail, if the arrested person requires police protection, or if evidence reasonably establishes that he committed murder or treason, bail may be denied. Alternatively, bail may be set unusually high. The U.S. Supreme Court held in United States v. Salerno (1987) that bail may also be denied in some limited cases where no conditions of release can reasonably assure the safety of the community or of particular individuals.
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73eab03cc292e5dc6a2b655d8629fbf1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bakery-product | Bakery product | Bakery product
Bakery products, which include bread, rolls, cookies, pies, pastries, and muffins, are usually prepared from flour or meal derived from some form of grain. Bread, already a common staple in prehistoric times, provides many nutrients in the human diet.
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9b765770805da25a266b9484c624af05 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan-pipeline | Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline | Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
One of those, an oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, opened in 2005. Another project, a trans-Caspian pipeline, would transport Turkmeni natural gas beneath the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan.
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5531df4e1fc39124048e3f891dc8cac0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/balance-of-power | Balance of power | Balance of power
Balance of power, in international relations, the posture and policy of a nation or group of nations protecting itself against another nation or group of nations by matching its power against the power of the other side. States can pursue a policy of balance of power in two ways: by increasing their own power, as when engaging in an armaments race or in the competitive acquisition of territory; or by adding to their own power that of other states, as when embarking upon a policy of alliances.
The term balance of power came into use to denote the power relationships in the European state system from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to World War I. Within the European balance of power, Great Britain played the role of the “balancer,” or “holder of the balance.” It was not permanently identified with the policies of any European nation, and it would throw its weight at one time on one side, at another time on another side, guided largely by one consideration—the maintenance of the balance itself. Naval supremacy and its virtual immunity from foreign invasion enabled Great Britain to perform this function, which made the European balance of power both flexible and stable.
The balance of power from the early 20th century onward underwent drastic changes that for all practical purposes destroyed the European power structure as it had existed since the end of the Middle Ages. Prior to the 20th century, the political world was composed of a number of separate and independent balance-of-power systems, such as the European, the American, the Chinese, and the Indian. But World War I and its attendant political alignments triggered a process that eventually culminated in the integration of most of the world’s nations into a single balance-of-power system. This integration began with the World War I alliance of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The integration continued in World War II, during which the fascist nations of Germany, Japan, and Italy were opposed by a global alliance of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and China. World War II ended with the major weights in the balance of power having shifted from the traditional players in western and central Europe to just two non-European ones: the United States and the Soviet Union. The result was a bipolar balance of power across the northern half of the globe that pitted the free-market democracies of the West against the communist one-party states of eastern Europe. More specifically, the nations of western Europe sided with the United States in the NATO military alliance, while the Soviet Union’s satellite-allies in central and eastern Europe became unified under Soviet leadership in the Warsaw Pact.
Because the balance of power was now bipolar and because of the great disparity of power between the two superpowers and all other nations, the European countries lost that freedom of movement that previously had made for a flexible system. Instead of a series of shifting and basically unpredictable alliances with and against each other, the nations of Europe now clustered around the two superpowers and tended to transform themselves into two stable blocs.
There were other decisive differences between the postwar balance of power and its predecessor. The fear of mutual destruction in a global nuclear holocaust injected into the foreign policies of the United States and the Soviet Union a marked element of restraint. A direct military confrontation between the two superpowers and their allies on European soil was an almost-certain gateway to nuclear war and was therefore to be avoided at almost any cost. So instead, direct confrontation was largely replaced by (1) a massive arms race whose lethal products were never used and (2) political meddling or limited military interventions by the superpowers in various Third World nations.
In the late 20th century, some Third World nations resisted the advances of the superpowers and maintained a nonaligned stance in international politics. The breakaway of China from Soviet influence and its cultivation of a nonaligned but covertly anti-Soviet stance lent a further complexity to the bipolar balance of power. The most important shift in the balance of power began in 1989–90, however, when the Soviet Union lost control over its eastern European satellites and allowed noncommunist governments to come to power in those countries. The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 made the concept of a European balance of power temporarily irrelevant, since the government of newly sovereign Russia initially embraced the political and economic forms favoured by the United States and western Europe. Both Russia and the United States retained their nuclear arsenals, however, so the balance of nuclear threat between them remained potentially in force.
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7ea9775d94995c61de1247c882762468 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balkonen | Balkonen | Balkonen
…Gerts have (1894; “Gert’s Garden”), Balkonen (1894; The Balcony), and Kjærlighetens tragedie (1904; The Tragedy of Love). Sharing Hamsun’s preoccupation with the irrational side of human conduct was Hans E. Kinck, a writer of considerable power and penetration. In his verse drama Driftekaren (1908; “The Drover”) and long novel
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d5cd64aa83dc4f2e4ca190014140c80e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ballet-West | Ballet West | Ballet West
…it changed its name to Ballet West. Christensen retired as director a decade later and was succeeded by Bruce Marks. As a choreographer, Christensen created works to music by J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Igor Stravinsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Darius Milhaud.
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ba36295f235639bfd0c6562ecae94ab4 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balloon-Corps | Balloon Corps | Balloon Corps
Balloon Corps , civilian aeronautical unit (1861–63) created during the American Civil War to provide aerial surveillance of Confederate troops for the Union army. Balloons supported Union campaigns from ground stations and naval vessels in the Peninsular Campaign, the capture of Island Number Ten, the Savannah Campaign, and the Battle of Chancellorsville.
The Balloon Corps was a civilian aeronautical unit created during the American Civil War to provide aerial surveillance of Confederate troops for the Union army. It was in existence from 1861 to 1863.
The Balloon Corps’s influence on the outcome of the Civil War was limited. Conservative generals were skeptical of balloons’ usefulness during war, and the corps’s intelligence reports were often imprecise. The Balloon Corps most notably warned Union forces of a Confederate attack at the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862 but had few significant achievements. It was dissolved before the end of the war.
The Balloon Corps was important to the Union army because its balloons were able to observe Confederate positions and support Union artillery fire while remaining out of range of enemy fire. It played an important role in mapmaking and was a constant source of harassment and annoyance to the Confederates.
Most balloonists before 1861 made their living as carnival performers and itinerant “professors” of chemistry. Both Thaddeus S.C. Lowe of New Hampshire and John La Mountain of New York combined entertainment with long-distance test flights. Both men also employed balloons as aerial observation platforms for the Union army.
Aeronauts used their balloons in free flights and in tethered ascents. Free flights proved difficult because wind direction varied according to altitude. Aeronauts guided their balloons upward by emptying 100-pound (45-kg) sandbags carried as ballast, and they descended by venting hydrogen from the envelope (the actual balloon portion of the lighter-than-air craft) and then riding the easterly or westerly air currents. That method of navigation proved hazardous on several occasions when balloonists drifted into Confederate-occupied territory in Virginia. On April 19–20, 1861, Lowe undertook an experimental night flight from Cincinnati, Ohio, that had no military objective and was intended to land in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. Instead, he landed in South Carolina only a week after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, causing him to make his way back to Cincinnati by wagon, train, and steamboat.
The Balloon Corps generally conducted only tethered ascents rising to 500 feet (150 metres), which afforded a 15-mile (24-km) range of vision, depending on the terrain. Tethered ascents kept the balloon generally stationary but required ground crews of up to 30 soldiers to quickly raise and lower the balloon, which was threatened by Confederate artillery and sharpshooter fire on every launch and descent. Tethered ascents improved the aeronauts’ observations but also immediately gave away the position of the ground station—usually collocated with the division or corps headquarters to expedite the transmission of observations. Thus, Confederate bombardment often fell on the headquarters as well.
Lowe began operations in Washington, D.C., where he demonstrated the balloon’s military applicability for U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, whereas La Mountain worked at Fort Monroe, Virginia, observing Confederate activity in the summer of 1861. La Mountain’s tethered balloon ascent from the steam-powered gunboat Fanny on August 3, 1861, is considered by many scholars to be the first flight from a precursor of the aircraft carrier. His final vessel-launched ascent was from the Adriatic on August 10. Lowe followed by ascending from the first boat modified for balloon operations, the George Washington Parke Custis, on November 11, 1861. The Custis supported balloon operations along the Potomac River and accompanied the army during the Peninsular Campaign.
Lowe and his assistant aeronauts flew the balloons Intrepid, Constitution, and Washington during the Peninsular Campaign with the Army of the Potomac with mixed results. Lowe’s ascents at Yorktown could not shake Union Gen. George McClellan’s mistaken conviction that Confederate forces there outnumbered his own or inspire him to attack the weakly defended Yorktown lines. The Balloon Corps’s most famous and controversial contribution was Lowe’s warning of an impending Confederate attack against the Union III Corps at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862. Lowe contracted malaria shortly after that battle.
The Balloon Corps made no significant intelligence contributions to the Seven Days’ Battles (June 25–July 1) and deployed to Harrison’s Landing, on the James River, with the remainder of the Army of the Potomac. The aeronauts operated from naval vessels along the James River in July 1862 but did not take part in the Battle of Antietam in September.
Lowe’s assistant aeronaut John Starkweather observed Confederate positions around Savannah, Georgia, after the capture of Fort Pulaski on April 15, 1862. McClellan had assigned aeronaut John Steiner and the balloon Eagle to Gen. John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi in February 1862, but Pope ignored them. In March and April 1862, however, Flag Officer Andrew Foote employed Steiner and the Eagle as an aloft artillery-spotting platform against Confederate positions on the Mississippi River’s Island Number Ten (about 55 miles [88 km] below Cairo, Illinois). The officer with whom Steiner ascended recommended firing corrections to the mortar boats in Foote’s flotilla. Aided by the corrections, the naval mortars wrecked many Confederate guns, allowing Pope’s forces to capture New Madrid, Missouri, and the island on April 7, 1862, but Foote made no mention of Steiner’s contribution in his official report after the battle.
Balloons operated in Falmouth, Virginia, supporting Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s operations before the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, but, attempting to lull into complacency the Confederates positioned across the river, Burnside ordered the balloons grounded for several days right before the battle, thus possibly depriving himself of observations of Confederate troop movements that might have proved invaluable in the conflict. Union balloons operated for the last time during the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1–5, 1863); however, fog and winds combined to minimize the balloons’ flights and usefulness as observation platforms.
Both Lowe and La Mountain used portable hydrogen generators to inflate their balloons. Whereas La Mountain built his own generator, Lowe obtained the support of the Washington Navy Yard to construct large portable hydrogen generators that fit on a standard army wagon. That portable system generated hydrogen through the careful mixing of iron shavings and sulfuric acid inside a copper-lined box and pumped it into the silk envelope through a series of tubes and coolers.
Conservative generals proved reluctant to employ the balloons. They dismissed the balloons as ridiculous carnival attractions and the aeronauts as obnoxious charlatans. Commanders remained comfortable with long-established methods of intelligence collection through scouts, spies, prisoners, and deserters. It is true that the aeronauts’ intelligence reports remained frustratingly vague throughout the war and irritated battlefield commanders. Reports drafted by officers who had traveled aloft with them tended to be more precise, but commanders rarely assigned their officers to balloon duty. Those conditions, combined with Lowe’s acrimonious relationship with his final staff supervisor, Capt. Cyrus B. Comstock, led to Lowe’s resignation from the army on May 7, 1863.
Despite aeronauts’ ability to observe Confederate positions and support Union artillery fire, absent a decisive operation upon which to hang the Balloon Corps’s reputation, indifference or hostility to the new technology of flight combined with ineffective intelligence reporting and individual personality conflicts led to the dissolution of the Balloon Corps in May 1863.
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c143125c7c4743bf5d5ea40c75e1af90 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balochi-language | Balochi language | Balochi language
Balochi language, also spelled Baluchi or Beluchi, one of the oldest living languages of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European languages. A West Iranian language, Balochi is spoken by about five million people as a first or second language in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India, and Baloch diaspora communities.
Balochi is generally divided into eastern, southern, and western dialect groups. Eastern Balochi has been influenced by Sindhi, while Western Balochi has been influenced by Persian. Pronunciation varies depending upon dialect group. For example, ph is generally pronounced /f/ in the east but is pronounced /p/ in the west.
Balochi poetry dates to at least the middle of the 15th century ce. It was later recorded by using a local adaptation of Persian nastaʿlīq script. During the mid-18th century, Jam Durrak, the chief poet of the court of Mir Muhammad Nasir Khan of Kalat, wrote songs and poems that are still sung by Balochs.
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cc0bd6e3850146fc0c56c5906bbc9ab4 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balto-Slavic-languages | Balto-Slavic languages | Balto-Slavic languages
Balto-Slavic languages, hypothetical language group comprising the languages of the Baltic and Slavic subgroups of the Indo-European language family. Those scholars who accept the Balto-Slavic hypothesis attribute the large number of close similarities in the vocabulary, grammar, and sound systems of the Baltic and Slavic languages to development from a common ancestral language after the breakup of Proto-Indo-European. Those scholars who reject the hypothesis believe that the similarities are the result of parallel development and of mutual influence during a long period of contact.
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a13551df72c2bd303f9b3228b120fff9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bamboo-Annals | Bamboo Annals | Bamboo Annals
Bamboo Annals, Chinese (Pinyin) Zhushu Jinian or (Wade-Giles romanization) Chu-shu Chi-nien, set of Chinese court records written on bamboo slips, from the state of Wei, one of the many small states into which China was divided during the Dong (Eastern) Zhou dynasty (770–256 bce). The state records were hidden in a tomb uncovered some 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the present-day city of Weihui in Henan province about 279 ce, when the use of bamboo slips had already gone out of style. The records acquired the name under which they have since been known. The Bamboo Annals contain one of the few written records of the earliest period in Chinese history, but the originals have been lost, and the later copies that survive have been proved to contain much spurious information.
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6d2af034353cc43781666a4099e66cbe | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Banco-de-Espana | Banco de España | Banco de España
The central bank is the Banco de España (Bank of Spain). Having complied with the criteria for convergence, Spain joined the economic and monetary union of the EU in 1998, and the Banco de España became part of the European System of Central Banks. In addition to being the government’s…
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6b437b563afdc3036b543ec50ee29788 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Banco-Espirito-Santo | Banco Espirito Santo | Banco Espirito Santo
…Portugal’s largest privately held bank, Banco Espírito Santo (BES), imploded in August 2014. Quick action by Portuguese officials restored calm, however; BES was nationalized, and its toxic assets were quarantined.
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d03d0a50e8d3b47cf047311af007abba | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bangers-and-mash | Bangers and mash | Bangers and mash
Bangers and mash, a common British dish consisting of sausages (“bangers”) and mashed potatoes (“mash”). It is traditionally served with onion gravy. Bangers and mash is a staple of the country’s overall cuisine and is a popular pub dish. The term bangers supposedly originated during World War I, when meat shortages resulted in sausages’ being made with a number of fillers, notably water, that caused them to explode when cooked. The sausages may be pork, beef, or lamb, but one of the most traditional meat sticks is Cumberland sausage, a coiled pork sausage from northwestern England.
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6001636ea9ab0dcb3bb6002b533aece1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bangkok-International-Banking-Facility | Bangkok International Banking Facility | Bangkok International Banking Facility
…1990s, the government established the Bangkok International Banking Facility (BIBF), an offshore banking entity that became a major conduit for international capital. Originally envisioned as a means to establish Bangkok as a major financial centre rivaling Hong Kong and Singapore and serving all of Southeast Asia, the BIBF in fact…
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f4af1ee835cb93f445dd4e38aafd912a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bangsa-Moro-Army | Bangsa Moro Army | Bangsa Moro Army
…military force, known as the Bangsa Moro Army, had 30,000 fighters at the time of its greatest strength in the 1970s. In 1975 Marcos conceded that the Moros’ economic grievances, at least, were justified, particularly against Christian landowners; but government offers of regional autonomy were rejected by the MNLF, which…
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6ef198a09cd079528b305bf8ae9a84f5 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bank-for-International-Settlements | Bank for International Settlements | Bank for International Settlements
Bank for International Settlements, international bank established at Basel, Switzerland, in 1930, as the agency to handle the payment of reparations by Germany after World War I and as an institution for cooperation among the central banks of the various countries (see Young Plan). It has since come to promote international monetary and financial stability and to serve as a centre for economic and monetary research and consultation, a technical agency for the execution of certain specific agreements, and a banker for the world’s central banks. It is the world’s oldest international financial organization.
At the time of its founding, the bank’s capital had been divided into 600,000 registered shares representing a fixed value of 1.5 billion gold francs. Subscription of the capital was originally guaranteed in equal parts by the central banks of Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy and by two banking groups, one from Japan and one from the United States. All of the U.S. stock was sold in American markets, most of it being bought by Europeans. The Japanese interest was repurchased by other central banks. In 2003 the bank changed its unit of account from the gold franc to the Special Drawing Right (SDR), which is the unit of account for many international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Liquidation of the bank was recommended at the Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) Conference of 1944, when the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (see World Bank) were founded, but such a step was avoided. In 1947 the bank was appointed agent for the execution of the first intra-European compensation agreement initiated under the Marshall Plan, and in 1950 it became the agent for the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation to serve the European Payments Union until its liquidation at the end of 1958. In 1973 the bank became the agent for the European Monetary Cooperation Fund, which had been established by the member countries of the European Economic Community (now the European Union).
Under its statutes the bank operates only in conformity with the monetary policy of the countries concerned. Its granting of credits and its purchases and sales of gold and foreign exchange have been on a short-term basis only. The bank is administered by a board of directors consisting of governors of central banks and other appointed and elected members.
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8f6f6876b9a61dd643798448bd9380c9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bank-of-Eastern-Republic-of-Uruguay | Bank of Eastern Republic of Uruguay | Bank of Eastern Republic of Uruguay
Other state banks include the Bank of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, which is the country’s largest commercial bank, and the Mortgage Bank of Uruguay.
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0316b47ddbbf901e450322e2baaf8534 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bank-of-the-United-States | Bank of the United States | Bank of the United States
Bank of the United States, central bank chartered in 1791 by the U.S. Congress at the urging of Alexander Hamilton and over the objections of Thomas Jefferson. The extended debate over its constitutionality contributed significantly to the evolution of pro- and antibank factions into the first American political parties—the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, respectively. Antagonism over the bank issue grew so heated that its charter could not be renewed in 1811. Reconstituted in 1816, the Bank of the United States continued to stir controversy and partisanship, with Henry Clay and the Whigs ardently supporting it and Andrew Jackson and the Democrats fervently opposing it. The bank ceased operation in 1841.
The First Bank of the United States was a cornerstone of Hamilton’s fiscal policy. It helped fund the public debt left from the American Revolution, facilitated the issuance of a stable national currency, and provided a convenient means of exchange for all the people of the United States. It was capitalized at $10 million and fully subscribed almost instantly, with the federal government holding the largest block of ownership, 20 percent. A substantial interest in the bank was also purchased by European investors.
The bank accomplished all that Hamilton had hoped for and also succeeded in an unforeseen role: the regulation of private banks chartered by several states. At this time the issuance of notes was a more conspicuous feature of banking than were deposits. Bank notes entered circulation as the money banks lent to their borrowers, and these notes constituted most of the total currency in circulation.
The rapid growth of the young country generated powerful demand for loans and tended to stimulate the overextension of credit. It was in the general interest to restrain such overexpansion, and the bank imposed that restraint automatically. As the depository of the government, with offices in the chief seaports and commercial centres, it constantly received from collectors of revenue the notes of private banks by which moneys due the government were paid. As fast as it received such notes, it called for their redemption in gold and silver by the banks of issue, thus automatically restricting the overextension of credit and protecting the economy from inflation. Conversely, in periods of panic or deflation, the bank could ease the pressure. It was engaged precisely in what came later to be called central banking.
Despite its successes, the bank met political opposition that gathered force with partisan changes taking place in the country. In large part this opposition was based on the very restraints the bank imposed on private, state-chartered banks; this was also seen as an affront to states’ rights, and the bank’s federal charter was called unconstitutional. In 1811, when the 20-year charter expired, renewal was politically impossible. Its officers acknowledged reality and successfully sought a state charter in New York.
Within a few years, however, economic developments, chaotic conditions among the state banks, and changes in the composition of Congress combined to enable the chartering of a new Bank of the United States with wider powers than before and with closer links to the government. There was some early mismanagement, but in 1823 Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia became the bank’s president, and it began to flourish.
Under Biddle, the central banking responsibilities were recognized and developed as consciously as those of the Bank of England at the same time—perhaps more so. But since these responsibilities usually had to be exercised as restraints, private banks resented them and complained of oppression.
The rapid development of American industry and transportation was enhancing the richness of the country’s resources, and the idea of democracy was beginning to connote to entrepreneurs the idea of free enterprise and laissez-faire politics. Hence, the very conditions that made credit restraint advisable also made it objectionable. Meanwhile, a developing agrarian populism, especially in the South and the West and among the poor everywhere, saw in democracy opposition to privilege and aristocracy and wealth. The bank became known as “the monster” and the enemy of the common people. These incongruous strains against the bank united under the leadership of Jackson, who became president in 1829. His attacks on it were sustained and colourful, and they rallied wide support. Attacks on the bank’s constitutionality continued, although a decade earlier the Supreme Court, in McCulloch v. Maryland, had found the charter constitutional under the doctrine of implied powers.
Clay, leader of the Whigs in the Senate from 1831, championed the bank against the Jacksonian Democrats and in 1832 deliberately injected the bank question into the presidential campaign by bringing about the renewal, four years early, of the bank’s charter, adopted by Congress on July 3. Jackson promptly vetoed the bank renewal act as unconstitutional, disdaining the Supreme Court decision and asserting that officeholders were bound by their oaths to uphold the constitution as they, not others, understood it. In a demagogic veto message, he depicted the bank as the “prostration of our Government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the many.”
The bank issue dominated the campaign of 1832, in which Jackson decisively defeated Clay. The veto stood, but the bank’s charter still had four years to run, so Jackson determined to scuttle it ahead of time by withdrawing government funds from it. He shuffled his cabinet twice before finding in Roger B. Taney—who as attorney general had declared the move legal—a treasury secretary willing to withdraw U.S. deposits from the Bank of the United States and place them in various state-chartered private institutions, which quickly became known as “pet banks.”
The bank carried on as best it could until the expiration of its charter in 1836, when it sought and won a state charter as the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania. The long and rancorous affair became known as the Bank War, and Jackson’s victory in it precluded for almost 80 years—until the creation in 1913 of the Federal Reserve System—any effective regulation of private banks in the United States.
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62ce76e3aeaa9904afaffd67f0ccc128 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bank/The-principles-of-central-banking | The principles of central banking | The principles of central banking
Central banks maintain accounts for, and extend credit to, commercial banks and, in most instances, their sponsoring governments, but they generally do not do business with the public at large. Because they have the right to issue fiat money, most central banks serve as their nations’ (or, in the case of the European Central Bank, several nations’) only source of paper currency. The resulting monopoly of paper currency endows central banks with significant market influence as well as a certain revenue stream, which is known as seigniorage, after the lords or seigneurs of medieval France who enjoyed the privilege of minting their own coins. (See also droit du seigneur.)
Contemporary central banks manage a broad range of public responsibilities, the first and most familiar of which is the prevention of banking crises. This responsibility involves supplying additional cash reserves to commercial banks that risk failure due to extraordinary reserve losses. Other responsibilities include managing the growth of national money stocks (and, indirectly, fostering economic stability by preventing wide fluctuations in general price levels, interest rates, and exchange rates), regulating commercial banks, and serving as the sponsoring government’s fiscal agent—e.g., by purchasing government securities.
The concept of central banking can be traced to medieval public banks. In Barcelona the Taula de Canvi (Municipal Bank of Deposit) was established in 1401 for the safekeeping of city and private deposits, but it was also expected to help fund Barcelona’s government (particularly the financing of military expenses), which it did by receiving tax payments and issuing bonds—first for Barcelona’s municipal government and later for the larger Catalan government. The Taula was not permitted to lend to any other entity. During the 1460s, however, excessive demands for lending caused the Taula to suspend the convertibility of its deposits, and this led to its liquidation and reorganization.
The success of later public banks generally depended upon the extent to which their sponsoring governments valued long-term bank safety over loan flexibility. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank was an especially successful example. The bank’s conservative lending policy allowed it to maintain reserves that fully covered its outstanding notes and thereby rendered it invulnerable even to the major panic provoked by Louis XIV’s unexpected invasion of the Netherlands in 1672. Although the Wisselbank had not been required to maintain 100 percent backing for its notes prior to 1802, its reserves shrank and its reputation suffered after it granted large-scale loans to the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch government.
The Bank of England, founded in 1694 for the purpose of advancing £1.2 million to the British government to fund its war against France, eventually became the world’s most powerful and influential financial institution. It was the first public bank to assume most of the characteristics of modern central banks, including acceptance, by the late 19th century, of an official role in preserving the integrity of England’s banking and monetary system (as opposed to merely looking after its own profits). By 1800 the Bank of England had become the country’s only limited-liability joint-stock bank, its charter having denied other banks the right to issue banknotes (then an essential source of bank funding). Its size and prestige encouraged deposits from other banks and thereby streamlined the process of interbank debt settlement and confirmed the Bank of England’s status as the “bankers’ bank.”
There were cracks, however, in the Bank of England’s near-monopoly power. Although private banknotes had ceased to circulate in London by 1780, they survived in the provinces, where the Bank of England was prohibited from establishing branches. Following the Panic of 1825, a sharp economic downturn associated with a steep decline in commodities prices, dozens of county banks risked insolvency and failure. The government responded by rescinding the prohibition on joint-stock banking, though only for banks located at least 65 miles (105 km) from the centre of London. The same reform also allowed the Bank of England to set up provincial branches, but this last measure did not prevent the establishment of almost 100 joint-stock banks of issue between 1826 and 1836. The Bank of England’s monopoly was thus partially infringed. Two further measures, however, ultimately served to enhance its power, causing other banks to rely upon it as a source of currency for their routine needs as well as during emergencies. An 1833 act made Bank of England notes legal tender for sums above £5, which strengthened the tendency for the nation’s metallic reserves to concentrate in one place; and Peel’s Act of 1844 (formally known as the Bank Charter Act) in turn awarded the Bank of England an eventual monopoly of paper currency by fixing the maximum note issues of other banks at levels outstanding just prior to the act’s passage while requiring banks to give up their note-issuing privileges upon merging with or being absorbed by other banks.
In England the passage of Peel’s Act marked a practical victory for proponents of currency monopoly over those who favoured “free banking”—that is, a system in which all banks were equally free to issue redeemable paper notes. The free bankers maintained that Peel’s Act allowed the Bank of England to exercise an unhealthy influence upon the banking system and deprived other banks of the strength and flexibility they needed to tide themselves through financial crises. Proponents of currency monopoly, on the other hand, favoured having one bank alone bear ultimate responsibility both for preserving the long-term integrity of the currency and for preventing—or at least containing—financial crises. Although he himself favoured free banking, Walter Bagehot, then editor of The Economist magazine, played a key role in shaping the modern view of central banks as essential lenders of last resort. In the book Lombard Street (1873), he outlined the critical responsibilities of monopoly banks of issue (such as the Bank of England) during episodes of financial crises, and he emphasized the need for such banks to put the interests of the economy as a whole ahead of their own interests by keeping open lines of credit to other solvent but temporarily illiquid banks. These concepts of central banking led to the establishment of similar institutions in France, Germany, and elsewhere.
In the United States, state banking laws prohibiting branch banking and Civil War-era restrictions on note issuance rendered the banking system vulnerable to periodic crises. The crises eventually gave rise to a banking reform movement, the ultimate outcome of which was the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.
After 1914 central banking spread rapidly to other parts of the world, and by the outbreak of World War II most countries had adopted it. The exceptions were the European colonies, which tended to rely on alternative currency arrangements. When they achieved independence after the war, however, most of them adopted central banking. After the 1970s several nations that had experienced recurring bouts of hyperinflation chose to abandon their central banking arrangements in favour of either modified currency-board-like systems or official “dollarization” (that is, the use of Federal Reserve dollars in lieu of their own distinct paper currency).
The worldwide spread of central banking during the 20th century coincided with the worldwide abandonment of metallic monetary systems, meaning that central banks effectively replaced gold and silver as the world’s ultimate sources of base money. Central banks are therefore responsible for supplying most of the world’s circulating paper currency, supplying commercial banks with cash reserves, and, indirectly, regulating the quantity of commercial bank deposits and loans.
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83ac244bade2566a883b74065e401922 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bankruptcy-fraud | Bankruptcy fraud | Bankruptcy fraud
Bankruptcy fraud, the act of falsifying information when filing for bankruptcy. It may also take the form of filing for bankruptcy to deceive creditors.
In the United States, about 10 percent of bankruptcy filings involve fraudulent claims. The four most commonly encountered fraud schemes are concealment of assets, petition mills, multiple-filing schemes, and bust-out schemes.
When debtors file for bankruptcy, they are required to list all their assets so that creditors will have the opportunity to claim a share of the earnings from the sale of those assets. Debtors who commit concealment of assets fraud will intentionally neglect to list all their assets, in the belief that creditors cannot obtain payment from the sale of assets that are not known. Concealment of assets is the most commonly encountered form of bankruptcy fraud, over two-thirds of all fraudulent bankruptcy cases invoking variants of this scheme.
There are several variations of concealment of assets fraud. In one variation, debtors will transfer the assets they wish to keep to the name and financial accounts of a family member who has good credit. Another variation involves hiding cash assets in accounts overseas and outside the legal jurisdiction of U.S.-based creditors.
Petition mills take advantage of poor debtors who wish to save their homes. Under this form of fraud, a tenant will be contacted by an agency offering to work with the debtor’s landlord to prevent eviction. The debtor then agrees to pay the agency for its services. Many times these agencies have no intention of contacting the landlord. Instead, the agency will take the personal information collected from the debtor and file bankruptcy without the tenant’s knowledge. The tenant continues paying the agency, while the agency will extend the eviction process out over several months. By the time tenants realize that they have been duped, their credit has been destroyed, their bank accounts have been drained, and their homes have been taken. These operations tend to take place in large metropolitan and urban neighbourhoods with substantial numbers of poor people.
Some petition mill operations also function under the guise of credit counseling services. The activities are similar, only the pretense changes. Debtors are still charged for the services of the credit counselor who is filing bankruptcy in the debtor’s name without permission, instead of working with creditors. In the end, when the scheme is discovered, the debtors will find that counselors have made their credit record worse and that they have lost the money spent on counseling.
Multiple-filing schemes work in much the same manner as concealment of assets fraud. In both instances, debtors decline to list all their assets when filing for bankruptcy. Unlike concealment of assets, these operations are repeated multiple times in separate states. Individuals who engage in this form of fraud will travel from state to state filing bankruptcy claims in each state.
Many times the debtor will use his or her own personal identifying information, including social security number, birth date, and name. However, when this information becomes unusable, the debtor will move to the use of illegally obtained information. By combining fraudulent bankruptcy skills with the skills of an identity thief, the debtor can move from state to state filing bankruptcy claims in the names of unknowing victims.
Bust-out schemes have long been a problem but have only recently been classified by many scholars as bankruptcy fraud. Historically, individuals who engaged in this type of activity were labeled as careless but not criminal; today, the same cannot be said. When an individual is engaged in a bust-out scheme, he or she will apply for as much credit as possible and then fail to pay on any of the accounts. Once the debtor has maximized the number of credit accounts that can be offered, he or she will file the bankruptcy claim with no intention of ever paying back the goods. Often, these activities involve buying luxury items that may not be reclaimed by creditors during the bankruptcy proceedings.
One of the most famous incidents of bankruptcy fraud in the United States involved the activities of Robert Brennan. Brennan was suspected of numerous financial crimes but was eventually convicted of bankruptcy fraud. During the mid-1990s, Brennan became involved in a scheme where it became apparent that he was going to owe the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approximately $75,000,000. To avoid losing everything, Brennan secured a large amount of liquid assets, including several million dollars worth of New York state bearer bonds and several hundred thousands of dollars worth of casino chips from the Mirage Casino. Eventually, investigators were able to track down Brennan’s accounts, and he was charged and convicted of bankruptcy fraud.
In response to the growing problem of bankruptcy fraud, numerous federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service, joined forces to begin actively prosecuting those who attempt to defraud creditors through bankruptcy fraud. Individuals who are found guilty of bankruptcy fraud may be sentenced to a fine of up to $250,000 and a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
Individuals are also no longer the only ones investigated by federal law enforcement. Corporations are also frequently investigated for their role in fraudulent bankruptcy-related activity. The emphasis on bankruptcy fraud has moved from a reactive nature to that of a proactive nature. Several cooperative efforts among the various law enforcement agencies have resulted in large-scale sting operations designed to deter others from committing bankruptcy fraud.
Another modification in the response to bankruptcy fraud is the focus on prosecuting accountants and other professionals in the financial industry. These are the individuals who typically are responsible for large-scale increases in fraudulent bankruptcy claims. Individuals may not be familiar with how bankruptcy operates, but accountants and financial advisers who engage in bankruptcy fraud can encourage criminal activity. There are a large number of individuals who may file bankruptcy, but the number of these “one-timers” is far outweighed by the number of fraudulent claims that can come from bankruptcy fraud professionals.
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8cb22555d0312abb08320f4ef2d9a9ff | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bannock-bread | Bannock | Bannock
Bannock, flat, sometimes unleavened bread eaten primarily in Scotland. Although most commonly made of oats, bannocks of barley, ground dried peas, and a combination of grains are sometimes encountered. Selkirk bannock is made from wheat flour and contains fruit.
The word bannock derives from the Latin panicum, denoting an edible, milletlike grain. Special bannocks were once made for holidays and religious feasts, such as Beltane bannocks on the first of May and Lammas bannocks on the first day of autumn. Stirring the batter for bannocks counterclockwise was popularly thought to bring bad luck.
A well-known tale of King Alfred indicates that bannocks were once commonly eaten in England. The king, unrecognized, sought hospitality at a cottage during his campaign against the Danes. He was set to minding the bannocks that were baking at the hearth and was scolded by the mistress of the house when through inattention he allowed the cakes to burn.
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d74046e590bc32f25b4ee975dfc84d43 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bantustan | Bantustan | Bantustan
Bantustan, also known as Bantu homeland, South Africa homeland, or Black state, any of 10 former territories that were designated by the white-dominated government of South Africa as pseudo-national homelands for the country’s Black African (classified by the government as Bantu) population during the mid- to late 20th century. The Bantustans were a major administrative device for the exclusion of Blacks from the South African political system under the policy of apartheid, or racial segregation. Bantustans were organized on the basis of ethnic and linguistic groupings defined by white ethnographers; e.g., KwaZulu was the designated homeland of the Zulu people, and Transkei and Ciskei were designated for the Xhosa people. Other arbitrarily defined groups provided with Bantustans were the North Sotho, South Sotho (see Sotho), Venda, Tsonga (or Shangaan), and Swazi. Despite the efforts of the South African government to promote the Bantustans as independent states, no foreign government ever accorded diplomatic recognition to any of the Bantustans.
Bantustans were rooted in Land Acts promulgated in 1913 and 1936, which defined a number of scattered areas as “native reserves” for Blacks. Some expansion, consolidation, and relocation of these areas occurred in the following decades. By the 1950s the combined areas of the reserves amounted to 13 percent of the total land area of South Africa, while Blacks made up at least 75 percent of the total population. The 1959 Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act relabeled the reserves as “homelands,” or Bantustans, in which only specific ethnic groups were to have residence rights. Later, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 defined Blacks living throughout South Africa as legal citizens of the homelands designated for their particular ethnic groups—thereby stripping them of their South African citizenship and their few remaining civil and political rights. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the white-dominated South African government continuously removed Black people still living in “white areas”—even those settled on property that had been in their families for generations—and forcibly relocated them to the Bantustans.
The South African government subsequently declared four of the Bantustans “independent”: Transkei in 1976, Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981. Six other Bantustans remained self-governing but nonindependent: Gazankulu, KwaZulu, Lebowa, KwaNdebele, KaNgwane, and Qwaqwa. Only two of the Bantustans (Ciskei and Qwaqwa) had a totally coterminous land area; each of the others consisted of anywhere from 2 to 30 scattered blocks of land, some of them widely dispersed. The Bantustans, run by Black elites collaborating with the South African government, were allowed to perform some functions of self-government—e.g., in the realms of education, health, and law enforcement. Bantustan executive bodies were nominally responsible to legislative assemblies that were partly elected, but internal coups brought military regimes to power in some cases.
The Bantustans were rural, impoverished, underindustrialized, and reliant on subsidies from the South African government. Only about one-third of South Africa’s total Black population lived in the six self-governing Bantustans, and about one-fourth lived in the four independent Bantustans, yet because insufficient land had been allocated, the Bantustans were densely populated. The rest of the Black population lived in “white South Africa”—sometimes legally, but often illegally—as large percentages of younger people were forced to migrate there to find work. Once workers’ contracts had expired or they became too old to work, however, they were deported back to the Bantustans. In the chillingly euphemistic language of apartheid, the Bantustans became dumping grounds for “surplus people.”
Although white farmers close to the Bantustan borders transported Black workers to and from their farms on a daily basis, meaningful economic development in and around the Bantustans never materialized. The original hope of the designers of the Bantustan system was that industries would be established along the Bantustan borders to utilize the cheap labour available nearby, but for the most part these hopes went unrealized. Other initiatives to create the illusion of viable economies for the Bantustans also broke down. To the end they were heavily dependent on financial aid supplied by the South African government. Poverty remained acute in the Bantustans, and child mortality rates were extremely high. Despite draconian control of where people were allowed to farm and the number of cattle they were permitted to have, Bantustan lands were oversettled, overgrazed, and hence afflicted with serious soil erosion.
The accelerating collapse of the apartheid system during the 1980s led to the white-dominated government’s abandonment of its intention to make the remaining Bantustans independent. South Africa subsequently adopted a constitution that abolished apartheid, and in 1994 all 10 Bantustans were reincorporated into South Africa, with full citizenship rights granted to their residents. The former Bantustan and province organizational structure was dissolved, and nine new South African provinces were created in their place. Although the Bantustans were eliminated, their troubling legacy remained; such problems as environmental degradation and the contentious issue of redistributing land to those forcibly relocated during the apartheid era presented daunting challenges to post-1994 governments.
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b850c2a8eb1dc90fd226b55cc0ceccec | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Banu-Yamina | Banu Yamina | Banu Yamina
…so also remarkably are the Banu Yamina (“Benjaminites”). It is not that the latter are identical with the family of Benjamin, a son of Jacob, but rather that a name with such a biblical ring appears in these extrabiblical sources in the 18th century bce. What seems beyond doubt is…
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d6066d7db65539c66b6a8972386064d1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baozhang-Daifang-Lu | Baozhang Daifang Lu | Baozhang Daifang Lu
…but still existing are the Baozhang Daifang Lu (“Critical Description of Calligraphics in Mi Fu’s Collection”) and Hua Shi (“Account of Painting”), which contain records of his own and others’ collections of paintings, essays on aesthetic history, and criticism of paintings. There also exist some posthumous collections of his writings,…
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543425600bbc955d6515784dd0a89d42 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/baptism-by-proxy | Baptism by proxy | Baptism by proxy
…order to identify candidates for baptism by proxy. In 2010, after complaints from some Jewish groups, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed its procedure for collecting genealogical information, in order to prevent the names of Jews who had died during the Holocaust from being proposed for baptism…
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65166091dc7db47b146bcaa1a693edb0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baptism-Eucharist-and-Ministry | Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry | Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry
…publication of the important document Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (1982), which identified areas of agreement between the churches on several core teachings; the church responded positively, though with qualification, to the text. Steps to improve relations with non-Christian religions were made at Vatican II and by the popes of the…
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df264e15f344d42deb17c24779196534 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baptist | Baptist | Baptist
Baptist, member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational structure, most adhere to a congregational form of church government. Some Baptists lay stress upon having no human founder, no human authority, and no human creed.
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4c22f3509c3f5a85862d89d9c0e4eef9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baptist-Bible-Fellowship | Baptist Bible Fellowship | Baptist Bible Fellowship
The Baptist Bible Fellowship, formed in 1950, became one of the largest fundamentalist denominations; Jerry Falwell, subsequently a prominent televangelist, emerged as the movement’s leading spokesperson in the 1970s. Liberty University, founded by Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1971; Bob Jones University, founded as Bob Jones…
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abfe99cdf614b746b6a289d32f96d4b0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/bar-tracery | Bar tracery | Bar tracery
…France a developed type of bar tracery with cusped circles (having pointed bars of stone projecting in toward the centre of the circle) was executed in the apse chapels of Reims Cathedral (prior to 1230). From about 1240 on, bar tracery became common, and it quickly exhibited increased lightness and…
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4c387f20343035b0703773cf4a0470bb | https://www.britannica.com/topic/barbooth | Barbooth | Barbooth
Barbooth, also called barbotte, or barbudi, dice game of Middle Eastern origin, used for gambling; in the United States it is played chiefly by persons of Greek or Jewish ancestry. The shooter casts two dice (traditionally miniature dice). If he throws 3–3, 5–5, 6–6, or 6–5, he wins; if he throws 1–1, 2–2, 4–4, or 1–2, he loses. Other combinations are meaningless. A second player (the fader) sets stakes in betting against the shooter and alternates with him in casting the dice. Other players may make side bets on whether the shooter or the fader will win. The game is even, shooter and fader having exactly equal chances of winning. When banked by a house (in place of the fader), the official responsible (the cutter) charges a percentage on each bet, usually 5 percent, in order to make a profit.
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09e32c305762abe1d7411fa3c7e2fb64 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bardo-Thodol | Bardo Thödol | Bardo Thödol
Bardo Thödol, (Tibetan: “Liberation in the Intermediate State Through Hearing”) also called Tibetan Book of the Dead, in Tibetan Buddhism, a funerary text that is recited to ease the consciousness of a recently deceased person through death and assist it into a favourable rebirth.
A central tenet of all schools of Buddhism is that attachment to and craving for worldly things spurs suffering and unease (dukkha), which influence actions whose accumulated effects, or karma, bind individuals to the process of death and rebirth (samsara). Those who have attained enlightenment (bodhi) are thereby released from this process, attaining liberation (moksha). Those who remain unenlightened are drawn by karma, whether good or bad, into a new life in one of six modes of existence: as a sufferer in hell (enduring horrible torture), as a wandering ghost (driven by insatiable craving), as an animal (ruled by instinct), as a demigod (lustful for power), as a human being (balanced in instinct and reason), or as a god (deluded by their long lives into believing they are immortal).
The Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism that emerged in Central Asia and particularly in Tibet developed the concept of the bardos, the intermediate or transitional states that mark an individual’s life from birth to death and rebirth. The period between death and rebirth lasts 49 days and involves three bardos. The first is the moment of death itself. The consciousness of the newly deceased becomes aware of and accepts the fact that it has recently died, and it reflects upon its past life. In the second bardo, it encounters frightening apparitions. Without an understanding that these apparitions are unreal, the consciousness becomes confused and, depending upon its karma, may be drawn into a rebirth that impedes its liberation. The third bardo is the transition into a new body.
While in the bardo between life and death, the consciousness of the deceased can still apprehend words and prayers spoken on its behalf, which can help it to navigate through its confusion and be reborn into a new existence that offers a greater chance of attaining enlightenment. Reciting of the Bardo Thödol, usually performed by a lama (religious teacher), begins shortly before death (if possible) and continues throughout the 49-day period leading to rebirth.
Although tradition attributes the Bardo Thödol to Padmasambhava, the Indian Tantric guru (spiritual guide) who is credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet in the 7th century, the book was likely composed in the 14th century. Since the early 20th century it has been translated into English and other Western languages many times. The first English-language translation was made by Walter Evans-Wentz (1927), who titled the work “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” because of certain similarities he claimed to detect between it and the Egyptian Book of the Dead—for example, the existence of stages through which the deceased must travel before rebirth.
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aa3ad316f7f8f492aeceb27d1dd072b6 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barefoot-Boy-with-Cheek | Barefoot Boy with Cheek | Barefoot Boy with Cheek
His first novel, Barefoot Boy with Cheek (1943), was a best seller and was regarded as a classic of campus humour. While serving in the army during World War II, he wrote The Feather Merchants (1944) and The Zebra Derby (1946); the latter poked fun at anxious civilians…
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276e6dd6501307c19cd42666fe0c13ce | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barelwi-school | Barelwi school | Barelwi school
…in northern India—the Deoband and Barelwi schools—are likewise widespread in Pakistan. Differences between the two movements over a variety of theological issues are significant to the point that violence often has erupted between them. Another group, Tablīghī Jamāʿat (founded 1926), headquartered in Raiwind, near Lahore, is a lay ministry group…
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ba281e8cc91c64f00489c36fcec42134 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bargello-Museum | Bargello Museum | Bargello Museum
Bargello Museum, formally National Museum of the Bargello, Italian Museo Nazionale del Bargello, art museum housed in the Palazzo del Bargello (or del Podestà), Florence, which dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. The museum was established in 1865 and is especially famous for its collection of Renaissance sculpture, including works by Donatello, Michelangelo, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Jacopo Sansovino, and Andrea del Verrocchio.
There is also a collection of some decorative arts, with displays of ivories, bronzes, majolica, medals, textiles, arms, and armour. The collection includes works by Luca Della Robbia and Benvenuto Cellini.
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884a158966f1a7c99c91b6dd81d7adce | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barn-by-Demand | Barn | Barn
Barn (1997), one of a number of works evoking artists’ workshops, was inspired by a photo of the studio of American painter Jackson Pollock. The most prominent of Demand’s works are those based on media photographs representing politically charged or otherwise sensational events. Corridor (1995)…
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8ede08170a8c784b78d9ff0909800001 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barneys-Version-film-by-Lewis | Barney’s Version | Barney’s Version
…character in the dark comedy Barney’s Version (2010), based on Mordecai Richler’s novel.
…father in the dark comedy Barney’s Version (2010). In addition, Hoffman lent his voice to the computer-animated films The Tale of Despereaux (2008), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), and Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016).
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3623e091dc7b088771e63886d7fd19de | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baron-de-Charlus | Baron de Charlus | Baron de Charlus
Baron de Charlus, in full Baron Palamède de Charlus, fictional character, a licentious gay man in the seven-volume novel Remembrance of Things Past (1913–27; also translated as In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust. The baron, the nephew of Mme de Villeparisis and a member of the influential Guermantes family, is first introduced in the second novel, Within a Budding Grove (1919).
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73fe2c7c9885202071a3add4e46d00c9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baron-Munchausen | Baron Munchausen | Baron Munchausen
Baron Munchausen, fictional character created by R.E. Raspe, based on the real-life German storyteller Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron (Freiherr) von Münchhausen.
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fff1417c4722f643a6657badcdc1e650 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/barriers-to-entry | Barriers to entry | Barriers to entry
Barriers to entry, in economics, obstacles that make it difficult for a firm to enter a given market. They may arise naturally because of the characteristics of the market, or they may be artificially imposed by firms already operating in the market or by the government.
Natural barriers to entry usually occur in monopolistic markets where the cost of entry to the market may be too high for new firms for various reasons, including because costs for established firms are lower than they would be for new entrants, because buyers prefer the products of established firms to those of potential entrants, or because the industry is such that new entrants would have to command a substantial share of the market before they could operate profitably. Because they are effectively shielded from competition, established firms in monopolistic markets are able to charge higher prices. That fact is one of the main reasons why governments regulate monopolistic industries such as utilities, airlines, and insurance, among others.
Artificial barriers to entry may arise when firms in a certain market engage in practices that make it more difficult for other firms to enter. For example, established firms may participate in predatory pricing by deliberately lowering their prices to prevent new entrants from making a profit. Artificial barriers also arise when a certain industry is protected by government regulations, licenses, or patents.
All forms of barriers to entry result in a decrease in competition.
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5fc77e4d071a601ccd2d788b1d416726 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barry-Lyndon-fictional-character | Barry Lyndon | Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon, fictional character, the roguish Irish protagonist and narrator of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon (1844; revised version 1856).
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b578043861553083ca501d7d1196f3cc | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Basel-Committee-on-Banking-Supervision | Basel Committee on Banking Supervision | Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, committee of the Bank for International Settlements, an institution that promotes financial and monetary cooperation among the world’s central banks. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision was created in 1974 as an ongoing forum to discuss banking supervisory matters. Member countries of the committee include Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The committee’s secretariat, consisting of supervisors from central banks and other authorities of member countries, is located in Basel, Switz.
The Basel Committee is guided by two overarching principles: no banking system should operate unsupervised, and supervision of banks must be adequate. The work of the Basel Committee is executed primarily through four subcommittees: the Accord Implementation Group, the Policy Development Group, the Accounting Task Force, and the International Liaison Group. The committee is best known for developing guidelines and standards in the areas of capital adequacy, for overseeing cross-border banking activities, and for developing the core principles of effective banking supervision.
The Basel Committee meets four times per year and reports to a joint committee consisting of central-bank governors and banking supervisory officials from the organization’s member countries. Although the Basel Committee regularly distributes guidance and information on best practices to its members, these are advisory in nature because the committee has no legal supervisory authority over any country’s banking system. Member countries are free to adopt these standards by formal statute or regulation as they deem appropriate.
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dda914427ebc763ffd93983c60e752b8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/BASF-Aktiengesellschaft | BASF Aktiengesellschaft | BASF Aktiengesellschaft
BASF Aktiengesellschaft, (German: BASF Limited-liability Company), German chemical and plastics manufacturing company originally founded in 1865 and today operating in some 30 countries. The BASF Group produces oil and natural gas, chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, synthetic fibres, dyes and pigments, potash and salt, inks and printing accessories, electronic recording accessories, cosmetic bases, pharmaceuticals, and other related equipment and products. Headquarters are in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Ger.
The company was founded in 1865 in Mannheim, as Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (Baden Aniline & Soda Factory), one of the first dyestuff manufacturers producing a full range of chemicals from basic materials to finished products. The principal founder was Friedrich Engelhorn (1821–1902), a former goldsmith and manufacturer of coal-tar dyes. In 1919 head offices moved across the Rhine to Ludwigshafen. From 1925 to 1945 the company was part of IG Farben (q.v.), the world’s largest chemical concern; the latter was dissolved by the Allies in 1945, and Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik, refounded in 1952, became one of the three successor firms. The shortened name, BASF Aktiengesellschaft, was adopted in 1973.
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3c3719525bc8f4b9807c2f7da17ce4e2 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Basic-Instinct | Basic Instinct | Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct (1992), a film as controversial as it was successful, was in the same genre as Fatal Attraction and served to pigeonhole Douglas as an actor specializing in violent or sexual fare. Such films as Black Rain (1989), Falling Down (1993), and Disclosure (1994)…
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441e33d60f3ffef585a441ae4a75d0e9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Basic-Law-for-Environmental-Pollution-Control | Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control | Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control
…first such overarching law, the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control. Not until the end of the 20th century was Minamata declared mercury-free.
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46b0f64b18812e8de3f06f7d76dfe23d | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baskets | Baskets | Baskets
…and wrote the television show Baskets, which premiered in 2016 and featured Zach Galifianakis as a rodeo clown; created, wrote, directed, and costarred in the Web series Horace and Pete (2016), about the goings-on at a bar; and cocreated and produced the television show Better Things, which began airing in…
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e18d2da1efb75cded9ffb09222234dd9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bassanio | Bassanio | Bassanio
Bassanio, a noble but penniless Venetian, asks his wealthy merchant friend Antonio for a loan so that Bassanio can undertake a journey to woo the heiress Portia. Antonio, whose money is invested in foreign ventures, borrows the sum from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, on the…
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9b9e84b495853cb15a58eb75f56864a8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastet | Bastet | Bastet
Bastet, also called Bast, ancient Egyptian goddess worshiped in the form of a lioness and later a cat. The daughter of Re, the sun god, Bastet was an ancient deity whose ferocious nature was ameliorated after the domestication of the cat around 1500 bce. She was native to Bubastis in the Nile River delta but also had an important cult at Memphis. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods large cemeteries of mummified cats were created at both sites, and thousands of bronze statuettes of the goddess were deposited as votive offerings. Small figures of cats were also worn as amulets; this too was probably related to the cult of Bastet.
Represented as a woman with a cat’s head, Bastet carries an ancient percussion instrument, the sistrum, in her right hand; a so-called aegis, or breastplate (in Bastet’s case, surmounted with the head of a lioness), in her left hand; and a small bag over her left arm. She wears an elaborately ornamented dress. Her cult was carried to Italy by the Romans, and traces have been found in Rome, Ostia, Nemi, and Pompeii.
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d7b324cbebfde5c8e0ead1b4ca119c44 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastetani | Bastetani | Bastetani
…mentioned by classical authors, the Bastetani were territorially the most important and occupied the Almería region and mountainous Granada region. The tribes to the west of the Bastetani are usually grouped together as “Tartessian,” after the name Tartessos given to the region by the Greeks. The Turdetani of the Guadalquivir…
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413d62d686527054f4432b659036adea | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastille-Day?utm_medium=mendel-homepage&utm_source=4up&utm_campaign=4up-1&utm_term=20200714 | Bastille Day | Bastille Day
Bastille Day, in France and its overseas départements and territories, holiday marking the anniversary of the fall on July 14, 1789, of the Bastille, in Paris. Originally built as a medieval fortress, the Bastille eventually came to be used as a state prison. Political prisoners were often held there, as were citizens detained by the authorities for trial. Some prisoners were held on the direct order of the king, from which there was no appeal. Although by the late 18th century it was little used and was scheduled to be demolished, the Bastille had come to symbolize the harsh rule of the Bourbon monarchy. During the unrest of 1789, on July 14 a mob approached the Bastille to demand the arms and ammunition stored there, and, when the forces guarding the structure resisted, the attackers captured the prison and released the seven prisoners held there. The taking of the Bastille signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, and it thus became a symbol of the end of the ancien régime. Bastille Day is celebrated on Wednesday, July 14, 2021.
July 14, often called la fête nationale in France, became an official holiday in 1880. From the beginning, speeches, military parades, and fireworks, along with public revelry, were part of the celebration. The slogan “Vive le 14 juillet!” (“Long live the 14th of July!”) has continued to be associated with the day. The holiday came to be celebrated in the former French colonies and is observed in those places maintaining links to France. French Polynesia especially came to be known for its adaptation of the holiday to its own culture, with singing, dancing, and drumming performances and competitions held throughout the month of July. In addition, Francophiles worldwide have taken up the observance of Bastille Day, celebrating with dinners of French cuisine, for example, or with concerts of French music.
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8d556bc553eb076fa5dc37f286d64e08 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bath-of-the-Nymphs | Bath of the Nymphs | Bath of the Nymphs
…are the relief of the Bath of the Nymphs (1668–70), perhaps inspired by Jean Goujon’s Fontaine des Innocents, and The Rape of Persephone (1677–79; pedestal completed 1699), in which he challenges comparison with Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines. The effect of this group is marred by its present situation in…
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38f41d2839baea9cf5c8dede306e3f22 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bathers-on-a-Summer-Evening | Bathers on a Summer Evening | Bathers on a Summer Evening
…he completed in that period, Bathers on a Summer Evening (1892–93) attracted the most attention. That large-scale composition of women of various ages and in various stages of undress was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in spring 1893, and it shocked the crowds with its eroticism.
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731679d2a136cee6341f9baab8b34ff3 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Batiniyah | Bāṭinīyah | Bāṭinīyah
Bāṭinīyah, Muslim sects—the Ismailis (Arabic: Ismāʿīlīyah), in particular—that interpreted religious texts exclusively on the basis of their hidden, or inner, meanings (Arabic: bāṭin) rather than their literal meanings (ẓāhir). This type of interpretation gained currency about the 8th century among certain esoteric Shīʿite sects, especially the Ismailis, a religiously and politically schismatic group. The Ismailis believed that beneath every obvious or literal meaning of a sacred text lay a secret, hidden meaning, which could be arrived at through taʾwīl (allegorical interpretations); thus, every statement, person, or object could be scrutinized in this manner to reveal its true intent. They further stated that Muḥammad was only the transmitter of the literal word of God, the Qurʾān, but it was the imam (leader) who was empowered to interpret, through taʾwīl, its true, hidden meaning.
Speculative philosophy and theology eventually influenced the Bāṭinīyah, though they remained at all times on the side of esoteric knowledge; some Ṣūfīs (Muslim mystics) were also placed among the Bāṭinīyah for their insistence that there was an esoteric body of doctrine known only to the initiate. Although the Ismailis had always acknowledged the validity of both bāṭin and ẓāhir, about the 12th century this balance was upset by the Nusairis (Nuṣayrīyah) and the Druze, who accepted only the hidden meanings and exalted the imam to extraordinary heights.
Sunnite (traditionalist) Muslim scholars condemned the Bāṭinīyah for all interpretations that rejected the literal meaning and accused them of producing confusion and controversy through a multiplicity of readings; this, the Sunnites alleged, allowed ignorant or mischievous persons to claim possession of religious truths and thus deceive those who lacked the knowledge to expose them. The Bāṭinīyah were further labeled by the Sunnites as enemies of Islām, bent upon destroying the Sunnites’ conception of the faith. See also tafsīr.
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c0168cfef64e9e696fe3ba78b2de1194 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Batman-v-Superman-Dawn-of-Justice | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
…Affleck donned the cowl in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), a joyless portrayal of DC’s two most-recognizable heroes. In spite of harsh reviews from both critics and many fans, the film earned more than \$800 million globally. The LEGO Batman Movie (2017), a spirited comedic romp told with…
The sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), earned more than \$800 million globally, but the film’s grim depiction of two of pop culture’s most recognizable heroes drew ire from critics and comic fans alike. Despite the character’s apparent death at the end of that film,…
She reprised the character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). Her other roles from 2013 included a con artist in director David O. Russell’s American Hustle and the neighbour of a man who falls in love with a sentient computer operating system in director…
…this time as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017). In 2016 Affleck also portrayed a math savant who works as a bookkeeper for gangsters and drug cartels in the thriller The Accountant. Movies from 2019 included Triple Frontier, a thriller in which a…
He reprised the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Fishburne’s other films from 2016 included Passengers, a sci-fi romance about hibernating space travelers heading to another planet. The following year he was cast as a crime lord in the action thriller John Wick: Chapter 2; he reprised…
…appeared in the superhero movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and won praise for her performance in Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick (2017). Hunter then returned to television for the HBO series Here and Now (2018), a drama about a multiracial family, and in 2019 she had a…
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ccf23ec7e02006fee83393a8e6e1a107 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/battalion | Battalion | Battalion
Battalion, a tactical military organization composed basically of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar organizations and usually commanded by a field-grade officer. The term has been used in nearly every Western army for centuries and has had a variety of meanings. In the 16th and 17th centuries it denoted a unit of infantry forming part of a line of battle and was loosely applied to any large body of men. During the Napoleonic Wars the French developed an army organization in which the regiment was a unit of administration for its battalions serving as fighting units in the field. In this connection, the terms regiment and battalion often were used interchangeably, but in most modern armies the regiment is a higher unit than the battalion.
In the armies of the Commonwealth nations, infantry battalions, usually commanded by lieutenant colonels, are tactical units formed within regiments, the latter being not tactical but administrative parent organizations. The equivalent tactical artillery and armoured units, however, are called regiments. In most military forces the cavalry equivalent and aviation equivalent of the battalion is the squadron.
In the U.S. Army of the early years of the 20th century, a battalion usually numbered from 500 to 1,000 men and was normally commanded by a lieutenant colonel. After World War I the “square” infantry battalion of four companies was superseded by the “triangular” battalion of World War II and the Korean War, usually composed of three rifle companies, a heavy-weapons company, and a headquarters company. In the early 21st century the typical U.S. Army battalion was a unit of between 500 and 600 officers and enlisted personnel divided into a headquarters company and three rifle companies. Armoured battalions were organized along similar lines. From two to five battalions formed the combat elements of a tactical brigade, and about 10 battalions formed a division.
In the Soviet army the battalion was smaller than its U.S. counterpart. A typical rifle battalion of a rifle division consisted of 370 officers and men organized into three 78-man rifle companies and machine-gun, artillery, mortar, and service units. That persisted through the collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of organizational restructuring plans implemented in the early 21st century. The Soviet command hierarchy, which focused on operations at the division level, was replaced with a brigade-based structure that emphasized flexibility and rapid reaction. The battalions that made up those brigades continued to be smaller than their NATO counterparts.
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4d14d9141574880162ec46d18375f762 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Auray | Battle of Auray | Battle of Auray
At the Battle of Auray (Sept. 29, 1364), Charles was killed and his army defeated.
…suffered a severe loss at Auray in September 1364, being taken prisoner after Charles, duc de Blois, whom he was supporting in the War of the Breton Succession, was killed. He was ransomed for 40,000 gold francs. In 1366 and in 1369 du Guesclin led the compagnies (bands of mercenaries)…
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c120365f275b5e0227be48a2c46d9904 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Benevento | Battle of Benevento | Battle of Benevento
Battle of Benevento, (26 February 1266). This battle was the result of the long-running power struggle in Italy, between the Guelfs (supporters of the papacy) and the Ghibellines (supporters of the Holy Roman Empire). The defeat of Manfred of Sicily marked a triumph for the papacy and all but destroyed the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
Having usurped the throne of Sicily (which ruled much of southern Italy) from his infant nephew, Manfred—son of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen—quickly and ruthlessly established his authority over his realm, allying himself with Muslim Saracens at Lucera in southern Italy. However, he faced the undying hostility of a series of short-lived popes, who sought a challenger whom they could recognize and support. Eventually Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis I of France, was invited to Rome, crowned by the pope as the true king of Sicily, and—with the help of Genoese and Florentine bankers—raised an army of Italian Guelfs and French mercenaries.
Manfred took up a strong position on the plain of Grandella, near Benevento. As the French infantry advanced, he unleashed his Saracen archers and light cavalry, and the French were scattered. But the Saracens left themselves exposed to the French heavy cavalry and were, in turn, overwhelmed. To regain the advantage, Manfred ordered his own heavy cavalry, mostly German mercenaries, into the attack. Initially they seemed to be succeeding, but they were seriously outnumbered and began to take heavy losses.
The role played by Manfred’s Italian cavalry is disputed: either they attempted a flanking attack and were quickly beaten, or they were so appalled at the butchery of the Germans that they fled the field without a fight. Either way, it was clear to Manfred that all was lost, and he rode into the thick of the fighting to meet his death.
Losses: Unknown.
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06e4f66735db56966e6c5b45aaa95ed6 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Carchemish | Battle of Carchemish | Battle of Carchemish
Near the time of the Battle of Carchemish, in 605, when the Babylonians decisively defeated the Egyptians and the remnant of the Assyrians, Jeremiah delivered an oracle against Egypt. Realizing that this battle made a great difference in the world situation, Jeremiah soon dictated to his scribe, Baruch, a scroll…
…shattered the Egyptian army at Carchemish and Hamath, thereby securing control of all Syria. After his father’s death on August 16, 605, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon and ascended the throne within three weeks. This rapid consolidation of his accession and the fact that he could return to Syria shortly afterward…
…just crushed the Egyptians near Carchemish in a cruel, bloody battle and pursued them into the south. On receiving the news of his father’s death, Nebuchadrezzar returned immediately to Babylon. In his numerous building inscriptions he tells but rarely of his many wars; most of them end with prayers. The…
…Neo-Babylonians, but at the great Battle of Carchemish (a Syrian city on the middle Euphrates River) in 605 the Neo-Babylonian crown prince, Nebuchadrezzar, soundly defeated Necho’s troops and forced their withdrawal from Syria and Palestine. Egypt itself was threatened in 601, but Necho repelled the enemy and continued to promote…
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fa161c1d5bf33698ca451905274e4055 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Dannoura | Battle of Dannoura | Battle of Dannoura
…death in the famous naval Battle of Dannoura (1185) on the Inland Sea in western Japan resulted in the loss of the great sword that was one of the Three Imperial Regalia, the symbols of Imperial authority, supposedly brought to earth when the first Japanese emperor descended from heaven.
…1185 in the great sea battle of Dannoura, which occurred off the eastern end of the strait that separates Kyushu from Honshu. In this battle the emperor Antoku drowned, taking with him the great sword that was one of the Imperial Treasures of Japan, the symbols of divine authority that…
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a635684d31b23e9abefc26e6fe9003a8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Dayr-al-Jamajim | Battle of Dayr al-Jamājim | Battle of Dayr al-Jamājim
…superior army of 200,000 at Dayr al-Jamājim, outside Kūfah. Negotiations were initiated by the caliph’s agents, who offered the rebels the dismissal of al-Ḥajjāj, equal pay with their Syrian counterparts, and a governorship for Ibn al-Ashʿath. The Iraqis, however, rejected the proposals and were defeated in battle in September 701.…
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11531ab8a7b8a701a2f4afee7cf8626f | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Doffingen | Battle of Döffingen | Battle of Döffingen
…of the Swabian League at Döffingen, near Stuttgart. The stipendiaries of the Rhenish League were put to flight by the count palatine Rupert II near Worms on November 6.
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f973205290c5ecd77178d660b240b579 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Durocatalaunum | Battle of Durocatalaunum | Battle of Durocatalaunum
At Durocatalaunum (modern Châlons-sur-Marne, France), in the third engagement, Jovinus inflicted heavy casualties on the Alemanni, securing Gaul for years to come. Meanwhile, in 367, the emperor moved to Ambiani (modern Amiens, France) to be in closer communication with his general Theodosius (father of the later…
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e50736346523ca7e0913df08ad068d84 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Edington | Battle of Edington | Battle of Edington
Battle of Edington, (6–12 May 878). The arrival of a Danish "great army" in East Anglia in 865 marked the start of a new phase of Viking attacks on Britain. Previously, the Vikings had come to raid and settle around the coast; this force came to conquer. Only the victory of Alfred the Great at Edington saved Anglo-Saxon independence.
After the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria had been conquered by the Danish army, Wessex in southern England held out against the invaders. Alfred came to the throne after his brother, King Aethelred I, was killed fighting the Danes in 871. The new king benefited from a lull in the onslaught until 876, when Danish attacks resumed in earnest. Reinvading Wessex, they captured Wareham and, in 877, occupied Exeter. Alfred succeeded in forcing the Danes to withdraw to Mercia, but the reprieve was brief.
In January 878, under their leader Guthrum, the Danes struck back with a surprise attack against Alfred at his winter fortress at Chippenham. The king was lucky to escape, taking refuge with a handful of followers in the depths of the Somerset marshes at Athelney. There he built a fort that he used as a base for guerrilla warfare, while building up his forces. In May 878 he rode out to challenge the Danes at Edington (Ethandun) outside the now Danish-held fortress of Chippenham. Alfred’s warriors, fighting on foot, confronted the Danes with a dense shield wall. The battle raged until, in the words of his biographer, Asser, Alfred "overthrew the pagans with great slaughter, and smiting the fugitives, he pursued them as far as the fortress.” His victory was decisive, forcing Guthrum to withdraw from Wessex and agree to the division of England. Alfred’s Wessex controlled the south and west, Viking Danelaw the north and east.
Losses: Unknown.
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2f9660591c991d761519a069d6faa15e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Five-Forks | Battle of Five Forks | Battle of Five Forks
Battle of Five Forks, (1 April 1865), one of the final major engagements of the American Civil War (1861–65). The lengthy Union siege of Confederate-held Petersburg in Virginia was brought to a close in what has been called the "Waterloo of the Confederacy." Union troops overwhelmed their opponents, forcing the Army of Northern Virginia to abandon Petersburg and head toward final defeat a week later (9 April) at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.
After his successful campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, Union General Philip H. Sheridan pursued the Confederate army of George E. Pickett to Five Forks, an important road just southwest of Petersburg that led to the South Side Railroad, a critical supply and retreat line for the South. Pickett and his men built a defensive line of logs and earth almost 1.75 miles (2.8 km) long, its flanks guarded by cavalry. In response, Sheridan planned to push evenly along the whole line with his cavalry while V Corps under General Gouverneur K. Warren attacked the Confederate left flank.
The approach to the Confederate line was slowed by muddy roads and tangled undergrowth, and Warren was unable to attack until 4:00 PM. Faulty intelligence, however, had led Sheridan to imagine the left flank much further to the east than it actually was. As a result, one of Warren’s three divisions missed the line altogether while another was fired at from the side as it brushed past the flank. The two Union divisions floundered for a time while they sorted out their positions until Sheridan led a charge by one of the divisions and broke through the Confederate flank. As the Confederates tried to organize a new defensive line, Warren’s third, reserve division attacked while Sheridan’s cavalry swept around the other Confederate flank to attack from the rear. The Union victory was decisive. Faced with this major defeat, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg, handing it over to the Union the next day.
Losses: Union, 830 of 17,000; Confederate, 2,950 of 9,200.
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b212d19a6e4d812a813ec777da284e02 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Hormizdagan | Battle of Hormizdagān | Battle of Hormizdagān
…battle on the plain of Hormizdagān (224), Artabanus was killed.
…met the Parthian army at Hormizdagān (site unknown) in ad 224 and won a decisive victory, slaying Artabanus. Soon after, Ardashīr entered the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon, in Mesopotamia, in triumph and was crowned “king of kings of Iran.”
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bbc4a382e6fd285b10ff69e5de1b7887 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Iwo-Jima | Battle of Iwo Jima | Battle of Iwo Jima
Battle of Iwo Jima, (February 19–March 16, 1945), World War II conflict between the United States and the Empire of Japan. The United States mounted an amphibious invasion of the island of Iwo Jima as part of its Pacific campaign against Japan. A costly victory for the United States, the battle was one of the bloodiest in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps and was cited as proof of the Japanese military’s willingness to fight to the last man.
Shortly after its attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japan gained control over much of Southeast Asia and the central Pacific. The Japanese sphere of control extended west to Burma (Myanmar), south to the Dutch East Indies (now Malaysia) and New Guinea, and east to Wake Island. However, the United States assumed command of Allied forces in the Pacific theatre and mounted a counteroffensive that incorporated a strategic combination of land, air, and naval assaults.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCOS)—Adm. Ernest King, Adm. William Leahy, Gen. George Marshall, and Gen. Henry (“Hap”) Arnold—was created in 1942 to provide a body of high command to direct U.S. operations during the war. Each member was a four-star officer from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Army Air Forces (AAF). The Marine Corps was not represented in this body during World War II. Convention dictated that a single officer should command all armed forces in the Pacific, but the JCOS could not agree on any one person to do so. At King’s urging, the body chose to bifurcate the theatre and gave Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz command over one half each. Even then, however, there was contention over how to make progress toward the Japanese homeland. MacArthur wanted to retake the Philippines en route to Tokyo, while Nimitz wanted an “island-hopping” approach that focused on small strategic gains throughout the Central Pacific. In 1944 the JCOS agreed on a two-pronged plan that combined both strategies. By October of that year, MacArthur had landed on Filipino soil, and Nimitz had seized the Mariana Islands, severely crippling Japanese naval and air power along the way.
Arnold was of the opinion that the Bonin Islands could be useful for conducting B-29 Superfortress air raids on Tokyo. He was convinced that Iwo Jima (now Iō-tō) in particular, being halfway between the Mariana Islands and the Japanese capital, would place his fighters in range of the city so that they could support bombing operations in the region. Arnold had to rely on the Navy to take these islands for him, however. At the JCOS’s direction, Nimitz initially intended to take Formosa (Taiwan) rather than Iwo Jima, but recommendations from his subordinate admirals prompted him to propose that he seize Iwo Jima and Okinawa instead. The JCOS approved the plan, and in October 1944 Nimitz began preparations for an Iwo Jima invasion, later known as Operation Detachment.
Iwo Jima is located about 760 miles (1,220 km) from Tokyo. It is a small island covering an area of about 8 square miles (20 square km) and spanning about 5 miles (8 km) in length. A volcanic island, Iwo Jima is dotted with hundreds of caves and is covered with volcanic sand and ash. At the southwest tip of the island is Mount Suribachi, a largely dormant volcano that provides a sweeping view of most of the island. Two beaches flank the northwest and southeast parts of the western sector. At the time of the U.S. invasion, there were two airfields in the middle of the island, Motoyama 1 and 2. A third airfield to the north was unfinished.
In May 1944 Japanese Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki had sent seasoned Lieut. Gen. Kuribayashi Tadamichi to organize the defense of Iwo Jima. Despite the apparent futility of resistance, Kuribayashi resolved to make the United States bleed for its victory. He began by ordering the construction of a tunnel network beneath the island to provide both protection and a means to circumvent enemy lines. He then had his troops erect hundreds of pillboxes, blockhouses, and gun sites for aboveground coverage, many of which were so well constructed that only a direct hit from a battleship could cause serious damage. However, rather than heavily defending the coastline, he planned to keep his soldiers in caves and tunnels until the Americans advanced far enough inland to be decimated by coordinated infantry and artillery fire. Finally, in a break from traditional Japanese defensive strategy, Kuribayashi gave his men strict orders to abandon the often-suicidal banzai charges and instead kill 10 Americans each from their hideouts. By the time U.S. forces initiated their assault, Kuribayashi’s Iwo Jima garrison had grown to an estimated 21,000 soldiers.
Nimitz created a U.S. Joint Expeditionary Force of Navy and Marines to carry out Operation Detachment. At its disposal was an armada of 11 warships that were intended to soften up Japanese defenses with sustained bombardment. Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt took charge of Marine operations. He fielded the largely veteran 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine divisions, totaling some 70,000 troops. U.S. intelligence had reported only 13,000 Japanese defenders and excellent beach terrain for landing, so planners chose to have the Marines land on the southeastern beach in seven sections (listed southwest to northeast): Green, Red 1, Red 2, Yellow 1, Yellow 2, Blue 1, and Blue 2. The 28th Regiment at Green would plow across the 0.5-mile (0.8-km) stretch to the other side of the island to cut off and eventually take Mount Suribachi. The 27th Regiment at Red 1 and 2 would head northward past Motoyama 1, which would be taken by the 23rd Regiment at Yellow 1 and 2. The 25th Regiment at Blue 1 and 2 would head east to secure the right flank. Schmidt was prepared for Japanese banzai attacks and expected the swarm of bodies to expedite the invasion process, anticipating total control of the island in no more than four days.
Before landing his Marines on the beaches, Schmidt had requested that the Navy bombard the island for 10 consecutive days. His request was denied, however, and he was granted a mere three days on account of Nimitz’s tight schedule ahead of the Okinawa invasion. The brief period of shelling was blighted by poor weather, and, when compounded with the island’s well-protected defenses, the bombardment did little to soften up the Japanese. About 9:00 am on February 19, 1945, Marines began to land on the beach in intervals. They were surprised to encounter embankments of volcanic ash towering some 15 feet (4.6 meters) high. What was supposed to be an easy and methodical landing process quickly became congested, and Kuribayashi maximized the confusion by directing his troops and artillery to fire on the U.S. soldiers.
Schmidt sent in U.S. Naval Construction Battalion units (Seabees) with bulldozers to clear some of the ash, and by the end of that day the 28th Regiment had successfully isolated Suribachi from the rest of the island. On February 21 Kuribayashi executed a kamikaze attack on U.S. Navy vessels, badly damaging several ships. U.S. Marines continued to press forward on land, though, and on February 23 they secured Suribachi. Marines twice raised the American flag on Suribachi’s summit. The second flag raising was photographed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, and his photograph became one of the most famous combat images of World War II.
The 23rd, 25th, and 27th regiments began to measure their advances in yards. The 23rd Regiment managed to take Motoyama 1 by February 24 and Motoyama 2 by February 27, but progressing past that point proved exceedingly difficult. The first main Japanese line of defense lay beyond a sulfur field filled with man-made and natural defenses. Japanese soldiers battered the Marines with artillery by day, and at night they would slip behind the U.S. rear and plant mines along roads to disrupt enemy movements. On February 27 the central regiments, reinforced by the 21st Regiment from the 3rd Marine Division, mounted a massive coordinated assault that broke through the centre of the Japanese line and overran the heights adjacent to the unfinished Motoyama 3 airfield the following day. However, intense fighting continued on the right flank at the Amphitheater, Turkey Knob, and Hill 382, a rise that would be dubbed “the Meat Grinder.” From their defensive positions, the Japanese fired on the Marines relentlessly, and U.S. soldiers resorted to using flamethrowers to snuff out every possible defender, but the area remained at a stalemate even after Marines took the Meat Grinder on March 2.
On the northern end of the island, the 28th Regiment fought alongside troops from the 5th Division for control of Hills 362A and 362B, seizing them both with considerable difficulty by March 3. Similarly, the 21st Regiment managed to take Hill 362C near the island’s northeast shore, leaving only a small but resilient group of Japanese soldiers in that sector holding out at a site known as Cushman’s Pocket. On March 8 Japanese Navy Capt. Samaji Inouye led a nighttime banzai attack against Kuribayashi’s orders in hopes of driving the Americans off of their hill. His attack proved futile, however, and the casualties inflicted provided an opening for the Marines. By March 10 U.S. troops had finally cleared the Amphitheater and Turkey Knob of its defenders.
Despite areas of intense resistance at Cushman’s Pocket, the northwest coast, and a small area on the east coast, the U.S. declared Iwo Jima secure on March 16. In actuality the island would not be secure until March 26, when a few hundred Japanese troops moved behind enemy lines toward Motoyama 1 and killed about 100 Americans in their sleep before being gunned down themselves. With the other pockets of defenders killed or captured, that night attack marked the last major engagement at Iwo Jima.
Operation Detachment was one of the deadliest conflicts in U.S. Marine Corps history. The Japanese death toll approached 18,500 soldiers, and some 6,800 U.S. Marines were killed and 19,200 were wounded. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded at the conclusion of the battle. The fact that Marines were forced to kill the Japanese virtually to the last man is a testament to the iron grip that Japan’s military indoctrination had on its servicemen. Even Kuribayashi refused to surrender in the end, by some accounts preferring to commit seppuku rather than fall into American hands alive. Those few Japanese soldiers who survived were often ostracized at home because of their failure to defend the homeland with their lives.
For the United States, the Pyrrhic victory at Iwo Jima provided the AAF with important airfields that would be used throughout the rest of the Pacific War, but the impetus for the battle has drawn criticism from both high-ranking generals and prominent historians. Military historian and Marine Capt. Robert Burrell found that the provision of fighter escorts on bombing raids—the principal reason for Operation Detachment—was minimal overall, as only 10 escort missions ever occurred. B-29 bomber raids did originate from the island and were especially impactful, but these raids were not cited as a justification for the assault prior to the conclusion of the war. The primary postwar justification was Iwo Jima’s capacity to provide emergency landings, but, while 2,251 B-29s landed on the island throughout the rest of the war, the majority of them were not strictly emergencies. Most concerning, though, was the fact that the JCOS did not consider either the opinion of the Marines or the doubts of their planners ahead of ordering the invasion. Had they done so, thousands of lives might have been saved.
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4191a65dbb3768d34d38825cca240277 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Jarnac | Battle of Jarnac | Battle of Jarnac
…were surprised and defeated near Jarnac on March 13, 1569, by the Duke d’Anjou, the future Henry III, and Condé was killed. Jeanne d’Albret took Henry to the new leader of the Protestant forces, Gaspard de Coligny, who gave the young prince his military education. Henry distinguished himself at the…
…former was killed at the Battle of Jarnac (1569), and the Huguenots were again defeated in that year at Moncontour. But the Catholic side failed to consolidate its successes, and yet another compromise was arranged at the Peace of Saint-Germain in August 1570.
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0e8502c6d636f6e0fc7f7150704ed2e1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Lake-Peipsi | Battle of Lake Peipsi | Battle of Lake Peipsi
…“Battle on the Ice” (Ledovoye Poboishche). His victory (April 5) forced the grand master of the Knights to relinquish all claims to the Russian lands that he had conquered and substantially reduced the Teutonic threat to northwestern Russia.
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88fe0bf263fc2ba7a0e5379548acb44d | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Lissa | Battle of Lissa | Battle of Lissa
When the Austrians won the Battle of Lissa from the Italians in 1866 by ramming, its value for the future seemed confirmed. Hence for years most large ships carried rams, which proved to be more dangerous to friend than foe when ships were sunk in peacetime collisions.
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9d34263caa11226a37d8add377cc21a7 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Ludford-Bridge | Battle of Ludford Bridge | Battle of Ludford Bridge
…scattered after a skirmish at Ludford Bridge (October 12). York fled to Ireland, and the Lancastrians, in a packed parliament at Coventry (November 1459), obtained a judicial condemnation of their opponents and executed those on whom they could lay hands.
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26e457215958c718ebdb9d0d09c6d550 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Orsza | Battle of Orsza | Battle of Orsza
…only a major victory at Orsza in 1514 averted a catastrophe. The victory allowed Sigismund I to detach the Habsburgs from Moscow through the Vienna accords of 1515. Providing for dynastic marriages, the accords opened the way for Habsburg succession in Bohemia and Hungary should the Jagiellonians die out. Eleven…
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5d0fb75b4a86185fe265f86bda6c4560 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Preston-1648 | Battle of Preston | Battle of Preston
Battle of Preston, (17–19 August 1648). In war, victors often fall out among themselves. Two years after the end of the English civil war, the victorious Parliamentary army took on its former allies, the Scots, at Preston. The battle was to become yet another famous victory for Parliamentary commander Oliver Cromwell.
After the Battle of Naseby in June 1645 and subsequent Parliamentary victories, Charles I surrendered to the Scots on 5 May 1646. He hoped to negotiate with them alone, splitting them from their Parliamentary allies. His plans did not work out, however, and in January 1647 the Scots handed over the king to Parliament in return for £400,000. Oliver Cromwell and the army offered the king a peace deal but he refused it, escaping to the Isle of Wight in November. There he concluded a deal with the Scots that would put him back on his throne.
The following July a Scottish army invaded England in the king’s support. Led by the Duke of Hamilton, it moved south through Lancashire, prompting Cromwell to head north from Wales to meet it. The two sides were ill-matched, the Scots having 18,000 men to Cromwell’s 8,600, but neither side could field artillery—Cromwell had marched too fast for his guns to keep up with his army. Crucially, the Scots were poorly equipped, commandeering horses on route to carry their ammunition, and their units straggled over more than 50 miles (80 km). On 17 August Cromwell pounced on the Scottish advance guard on the road into Preston and seized the town. The next day he attacked the rest of the Scottish army in hand-to-hand fighting, both sides relying on the skills of their pikemen. Totally outmaneuvered, the Scots fled, surrendering to Cromwell at Warrington on 19 August. The second civil war was now over.
Losses: Parliamentary, 100 of 8,600; Scottish, 2,000 dead, 9,000 captured of 18,000.
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